Chenoa’s Spellbinder Notes (Day 9)

Species (according to Ursa):

2)               SoulEaters

-      Creepy name

-      They specialize in binding the souls of other creatures

o   Do so to make people do their bidding, for protection, or for love (?)

§  Is it really love if you bind their soul?

-      In their culture, traditional soul binding is only done for survival and protection

o   SoulEaters parents will bind their children’s souls

o   or one of a couple will bind a partner’s soul

-      Outside of their community

o   Have served the larger community by sealing the souls of great evils that would hurt the realm.  It is also common for

o   have been known to be hired to bind souls of creatures for slavery and then give the souls to the slave’s owners.

§  was common to hire SoulEaters to bind Spellbinders. 

o   Some SoulEaters have also been known to collect souls for they say each soul is unique

§  Note: collectors are not viewed well by the SoulEater communities

-      Not all souls can be bound

o   1. A soul cannot be bound if it is in deep love. 

§  This means that you love someone so with your soul, not your heart

·        meaning that your soul no longer belongs to you

·        you have given your soul to the one you love

§   Where the idea of true love’s kiss came from

§  Long time ago was popular way of testing love for someone. 

·        lovers would seek out a SoulEater to try and bind one of their souls.

·         If they couldn’t, then it supposedly proved you had found the ultimate love. 

o   2. a soul cannot be bound is because the soul is so large, it cannot be trapped or it cannot be trapped for long

§  it is about the age of the soul. 

§  Souls have their own ages, separate to their bodies’ ages. 

·        if a soul is very old, it could be too large to be contained.

§  Think of reincarnation.

·        ? – have I been reincarnated?

·        ? – how old is my soul?

o   3. a soul cannot be bound is because it has already been bound by someone or something else

§  cannot rebind a soul that someone else has bound

§  your soul can be bound and you know not it. 

§  can bind a soul but not have it submit

§  They can allow the person to walk around and live normally. 

§  Sometimes the bound soul doesn’t even know it’s bound until the sealer calls upon the seal

o   4. a soul cannot be bound is that the body does not have a soul

§  Not all creatures have souls (creepy…)

·        SecondDeaths (scary name and Ursa says we will discuss them later ☹)

§  Some do but not on this plane of existence. 

·        Ex: MagicTellers have souls that exist on the spiritual plane, which is one reason they are able to see that plane

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 Gabby and Chenoa woke a period later than they planned.  Both were confused about why they had been sleeping and why they had been allowed to miss a period.   The nurse also seemed off as if she was overly tired herself for some reason.  Worst of all, Gabby couldn’t remember even falling asleep.  She recalled walking into the nurse’s office and then waking up.

Chenoa and Gabby talked about the strangeness as they headed to their second to last class.  Shaking it off, they decided that worrying wouldn’t do any good. Luckily, the last leg of the day seemed to fly by.  Once home Chenoa entered her house to drop off her backpack before heading out to the fields.   Papa Bear stood in the kitchen chopping vegetables for a salad. 

“Hi, Papa Bear,” she said cheerfully, hoping he was talking to her again.

Papa Bear said nothing as his knife diced up two carrots.

“Are you speaking to me?” she persisted.

“Are you still going to go through with this Spellbinder nonsense?” he inquired flatly.

“Papa Bear, I have to.”

“No, you don’t. You have to breathe.  You have to eat.  You do not have to be a Spellbinder.”

“It is who I am.”

“Until last night you didn’t even know about it.  How can you claim it is who you are?”

“I can feel it in my heart…I know it is what I am.  It feels right and Mom would want me to be who I am.”

Slamming the knife down on the counter, Papa Bear caused Chenoa to jump.  Swiveling around, he glared at his daughter for a moment as if he wanted to say something and then thought better of it.  He left the room and threw the door of his workroom closed behind him.  Shaking for a moment, Chenoa fought back tears.  Couldn’t her father see that she was scared?  Believing that she had to be a Spellbinder made all the strange things, Tristan, Cor, and Ursa, make sense.  If it wasn’t true, then she was just crazy. 

Closing her eyes, Chenoa took a few deep breaths before leaving the house for the fields.  Ursa stood waiting next to the remains of the angel oak.  Once again, she had altered her size and stood as large as a cart-horse.  Bowing her head slightly, Ursa gave what Chenoa believed was a smile, the colors of her galaxy eyes bright and luminescent. 

“Welcome to your first day of training,” Ursa greeted Chenoa.  “We have a great deal to catch up on.  To start with, do you have any questions?”

“I have a lot of questions,” Chenoa said honestly.

The reptilian smile broadened.

“Please ask them.”

“Okay, well to start, why is being a Spellbinder such a big deal?”

“Spellbinders are a rare breed.  As mentioned before, they have been killed over thousands of years due to fear, jealousy, and greed. Sometimes they were hunted down and killed, like the witches of Salem.  Others consumed them, believing it would give the consumer the Spellbinder’s power.”

“Does that work?”

Fear trickled into Chenoa’s stomach.  She didn’t want to be eaten by some monster for her supposed power.

“No.  Spellbinder power cannot be gained through consumption.  Their power comes from their will power and once a Spellbinder is dead that will is gone back into the universe.”

“Oh…okay…”

“Some people figured this out though and captured Spellbinders, either for their own personal use or to sell as high-priced slaves.”

“If Spellbinders are so strong, how could that happen?”

“There are methods to suppress the Spellbinders’ wills.”

“How?”

Ursa shifted uncomfortably.  Her eye color flattened, and her scales tinged gray.  A rough grinding noise sounded, and Chenoa realized Ursa was clearing her throat.  Compulsively, Ursa scored the ground with her front claws.

“They aren’t pleasant, Chenoa.”

Swallowing hard, Chenoa held the dragon’s gaze. She wanted to be a Spellbinder, Chenoa reasoned, she has to be ready for the good and the bad,

“I need to know in case someone tries to use them on me.”

A blue tinge edged Ursa’s eyes as her scales flickered to fur and back.

“If you insist.”

Taking one of her large front claws, Ursa drew a large circle in the earth. She then ran her tail tip in the fresh groove before blowing frigid air onto the circle.  A crystalline surface filled the etched circle.  Sprouting out of the circle were glass figures, sexless, but detailed.  One of the figures, smaller than the others, stepped forward, glowing a soft golden color. Immediately Chenoa knew that this figure was supposed to be a Spellbinder. Nodding, Ursa began speaking again.

“The first and most primitive is pain,” Ursa said.

Two of the faceless figures grabbed the Spellbinder figure as a third began to torture it.  Despite being silent, the pain and agony on the glass Spellbinder made Chenoa’s skin prickle in fear.

“When the body is in extreme amounts of pain, the mind cannot focus on its own will.  Only desire for the pain to stop occurs,” Ursa explained.

“Desire and will aren’t the same?”

“No.  I may desire that stone to be made of gold, but I cannot will it to be.”

Rolling a stone over with one of her claws, Ursa showed how the plain gray rock was still just a plain gray rock. The glass figures froze with the Spellbinder’s form arched in pain.

“There is no limit to any creature’s desires, but wills are far more limited.  While Spellbinders do have stronger wills than most other creatures, there are still limits. Pain does not allow will, at least not strong will, to take place.”

The glass Spellbinder crumbled to shards as the other figures watched it. Clearing her throat, Chenoa suddenly felt parched.

“Sadly, that makes sense. What are the other methods?” Chenoa asked.

“Hypnosis or certain poisons or concoctions can ensnare the minds turning Spellbinders into mental slaves,” Ursa continued.

A new glass Spellbinder materialized, this time glowing a soft red.  Another glass figure appeared, standing in front of the new glass Spellbinder. It grabbed the glass Spellbinder and forced a bottle to its lips.  The glass Spellbinder shuddered, then became stone still.

“This method can be difficult because the potions eventually wear off so a Spellbinder must continue to ingest them,” Ursa explained.

The glass Spellbinder sprung back to life and pushed its poisoner away, waving its hands as if calling on a spell. A second figure approached the glass Spellbinder. It was taller and seemed to possess three eyes.

“Hypnosis can only be successfully done by few breeds.  Humans think they can but it’s not the same as true hypnosis, which strips creatures of their independent thought.”

A bright flash came from the second figure’s third eye and the glass Spellbinder’s shoulders slumped and its body swayed. The second figure walked around the crystal circle with the glass Spellbinder following in tow.

“That’s scary.”

“It is, but it’s a rare ability to find nowadays.”

“Okay, so pain, medication, and hypnosis…anything else.”

“Good old-fashioned blackmail, such as threatening families, etc.”

Another glass figure glowed a soft purple as a fourth figure approached dragging behind it a small glass child. Grimacing, Chenoa didn’t need to see more. Letting out a slow breath, Ursa melted all the glass figures but two.  One glowed a soft green and the other was tinted dark gray.

“The final way is by soul binding, which again is a rare gift that really only can be done by SoulEaters.”