Harry Potter, Sovereign - Chapter 6

Harry looked at himself, surprised to see 2 new tattoos on his skin.

They were situated on his front, right at the shoulder joint. As he observed them further, he realised that they were in fact 2 sets of 3 tattoos. The left set was crimson in color, and the right set was purple. Each set looked like claws linked at their base, right at the joint. One claw extended to the shoulder, one toward the collarbone, and the last toward the bottom of the pectoral muscle. Each claw was made of a unique sigil, and as he focused on them, Harry realised that they were magical, and each represented one of the 6 heroic spirits he had summoned. He guessed that they were grouped by world of origin, and decided to show it to the women so they could confirm it.

“Ladies?” he asked as he rejoined them, his c.h.e.s.t b.a.r.e. “Any ideas of what these are?”

The runeterrans women looked curious, but the others were not. Scathach is the one who answered.

“They are your command seals… At least they should be” she said as she got close and traced them with her index.

“Command seals?” he replied, visibly unsettled by the name, and resisting the urge to squirm because of her ticklish touch.

“Yes. Maybe. I should explain something first. In our world’ summoning system, heroic spirit are strong. Stronger than any human magic users. Those who summon them must have a way to insure that the servants don’t turn on them, and follow their orders. The master can use the seal to give up to 3 absolute commands to their servant. They will execute the order even against their will.”

Both Harry and the runeterran women, even Camille, looked slightly alarmed by that. However, of all 6 women noticed that Harry was more disturbed about the absolute commands rather than the possibility of betrayal. Yes, it was noticable that he dreaded betrayal, but he hated robbing someone of their free will even more.

“However, the way you summoned us isn’t the same as what goes on in our world. As for the others…” she added while turning toward the runeterran women.

“It was quite different in our world” answered Caitlyn.

“Long story short, to reduce military conflicts, an association of mages created The League. Strong people were asked to represent their regions as champions in the League. The champions were summoned and used by a mage in regulated competitions. These competitions were a way to deal with conflicts without turning into large scale wars. They were non-lethal, and took place in special arenas. When killed in those arenas, the champions didn’t die, they were just transported out.”

Harry perked up hearing that. He liked the idea of dealing with violent conflicts in that way. He put the thoughts aside for when he would have some free time, and refocused on the beautiful marksman.

“The mage that choose us, the summoner, was mentally linked to us and directed us through that mental link. Any mage who was qualified as summoner, could summon a champion to compete in the League. Outside of the League, champions resumed their own life. As for power, in the League, all champions had their power adjusted to be roughly equal. Victory and defeat was decided by how well a summoner used their champion’s abilities. There was no magical mark binding a champion to a summoner. Our contract was with the League.”

“Then I think these magic tattoos, while not being Command Seals, are the mark of a binding contract between you and us” said Scathach. “I believe that, while you can’t force us to do something, we won’t be able to betray you either. That lead me to adress another matter.”

“Wat is it?”

“Our power” she replied as she retreated slightly from him. “As I said, in our world, servants are much stronger than their masters, and their strenght was further enhanced by their legend. Despite that, their power is influenced by that of their masters. If the master was magically weak, the summoned servant would be weaker than they should be. And that was considering a magic user could only summon and sustain a single servant. I guess a peak magic used could sustain 2 servants at most.”

“I’m weak.”

Harry’s jaw dropped as his eyes got big. He had found himself surrounded by incredible women with power supposedly above the norm. And now that bomb about their current power dropped on him.

“I’m nothing like in my prime, and I’m sure the same apply to the rest of my fellow summoned spirits. I cast a quick scan on some of the witches and wizards we crossed in the pub, and got an rough idea of their magical power. If they were average, I would say that right now we are about peak human level. Among those at the top, but not above them. I would need to meet the most powerfull witches and wizards of the country to be sure.”

“I… I’m sorry” Harry started, but was interupted.

“Don’t be. In our world, the weakest servants are just above human level. You have 6 servants at the peak of human level, which is very impressive. I just wanted you to be aware of our limitations.”

“All right, thank you… While I’d love to learn more about your worlds and their magic, I should focus on telling you more about me. I’ll need your opinion about a few things as well.”

It took nearly 3 hours for Harry to relate his life until then, starting with the previous war, the events of Halloween 1981, his upbringing with the Dursley, his discovery of magic, and his 4 years at Hogwart. The ladies were quite angry with the Dursley, but noone more than VI. Harry sped up past their part because he got worried about what she might do.

He related his adventures at Hogwart with a little more details. There were things that had bothered him, but he had never taken the time to do something about it. At least, not until he returned from Hogwart at the start of summer. Then, his thinking was hindered by the memories of the graveyard. After his talk with the servants the previous night, he was able to think more clearly. Those elements that bothered him, he was able to grasp them. And the conclusion he and his servants came to didn’t please them at all. They all looked murderous, and if the objects of their ire was in the room, they would have frozen due to the amount of hostility in the air.