Soulbound

"Soulbound" is a short story by Paul S. Kemp first published in the 2004 anthology Realms of the Dragons, and reprinted in the 2010 omnibus The Erevis Cale Trilogy.

Summary
Avnon Des, First Demarch of the Hall of Shadows, wakes from his meditation one day in the to find himself, his temple and its inhabitants moved from Elgrin Fau, the City of Silver, to the Plane of Shadows by Kesson Rel, Chosen of the Shadow God. Avnon and his fellow demarchs had marked Kesson as a heretic for drinking from the Chalice and transforming into a creature of shadow, and so Kesson had sought revenge by bringing the temple to the Shadow Plane and soul binding a shadow dragon, Furlinastis, into his service. He orders the dragon to bring one of the priests before him every day and kill them, since Kesson's oaths prevent him from killing the demarchs himself.

Avnon seeks to decipher his god's will, as there is no way for them to escape or combat the dragon, suspecting that the Shadow God wishes to determine whose faith was strongest, Avnon's demarchs or Kesson. The next time Furlinastis to collect a priest, Avnon tells him that if he wishes to free himself of Kesson, he must collect Avnon next. Furlinastis returns to Kesson and tricks him into doing as Avnon suggested. Unbeknownst to Kesson, Avnon has killed the other priests with their permission and assimilated their souls. Avnon binds the dragon to an oath of cooperation; in the future, when the First and the Second Chosen of the Shadow God pursue Kesson, he would aid them. After Furlinastis kills Avnon the souls he collected fly into the dragon and defeat Kesson's soul, freeing the dragon. Kesson, however, manages to flee.

Index
Index based on the Realms of the Dragons edition.


 * Characters


 * Creatures


 * Locations


 * Religion


 * Miscellaneous