Binding Life Forces

[Meg the Healer]

In my current WIP, I have a charcter (a Demon, to be exact) that has the ability to bind lives to her. I have it worked out so that it requires two things really - Consent and obviously a blood exchange. Her blood being the more dominant binds the "weaker" life to her so they live for as long as she does.

It is not something she does lightly - she doesn't "save" everyone that she can, but she does offer it in rare instances. She currently has 3 lives bound to her from different times in her life (and they are sometimes friends, sometimes enemies), but she can't kill them, they can't kill her, and no one can kill either of them.

Since my Demon is Immortal (rather Immortal to the point that there is only one person in the entire world that can kill her) should I have it so that when this one person kills her that the people bound to her also die with her? Or rather that their bond to her is broken and they live out their natural lives and that the bind just stopped their life cycle at whatever age they were (which may be another 100-1000 years based off their race)?

I never clearly defined it myself, so I wonder if it's never clearly defined for the reader either - when my main Male character kills my main Female character that it's a calculated risk on whether or not it will kill off 3 other people at the same time. Would the reader feel like I "cheated" or performed a "Deus Ex Machina" to save these 3 or (obviously - if done correctly) feel like it's okay since it wasn't clearly defined it was only assumed?

What do you all think? Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Ireth]

Since the lives are bound to her, I think it makes the most sense if they also die when she does. Kinda like the sharing of the dragon's heart in Dragonheart -- in order to kill the man who has the dragon's half-heart, the dragon who shared the heart must be killed. (Which makes me wonder whether the guy could die of old age, or if he became immortal... did that ever come up in the movie?)

 

[SlimShady]

I think that they should die too. Always try to have pacts that have consequences, it makes for a better story.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Either that or make them think they're going to die also, because that's what she told them for some devious purpose (She's a demon after all). They're all shocked when she dies and they live on unharmed.

 

[shangrila]

I think they should die too. It would create more tension before the demon's death, which helps the story, and also adds a drawback to binding your life to a demon. The proverbial "deal with the devil".

 

[Mythos]

They should definitely die. They're practically a part of her.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

They die, but not right away; instead they suffer from some sort of accelerated decrepitude or decay. Or maybe some sort of demonic energy infuses them, giving them strange powers -- but they only live another few weeks and THEN they die. During this time they might go insane, use their powers for good, whatever.

 

[Svrtnsse]

They'll die, but they may not die right away...

They'll become aware their death is imminent, but they'll have a limited time to do something with their lives in the short time when their lives are once more truly their own.
Or...
They'll die, but before they'll die they'll have the chance to pass something on - life force, knowledge, power, etc - to someone else of their chosing. This thing they're passing on is what keeps them alive. It grows weaker by the ower and once it's gone they'll die. Will they pass on a great gift to someone else or will they squander it on themselves in order to squeeze the last out of their lives.

 

[mbartelsm]

If the reader is not supposed to feel empathy for them, there is no reason to let them live, however if the reader is supposed to feel empathy for them then you should try working something to save them, or at least let them live for a few seconds to kind of say goodbye

 

[Zero Angel]

If the reader is not supposed to feel empathy for them, there is no reason to let them live, however if the reader is supposed to feel empathy for them then you should try working something to save them, or at least let them live for a few seconds to kind of say goodbye

If the reader is supposed to feel empathy for them, then there is even more reason to kill them off.

 

[Forsta-Phoenix]

Perhaps you could have their life force extremely weakened, but they are still bound in some way to seek vengeance/resurrect the female daemon? Acting in a similar way to the horcruxes in the Harry Potter series, they're receptacles for the female character's soul/lifeforce/energy so as long as they aren't killed there's a way to bring back the character. Just make it an extremely harrowing and painful experience for those characters so it isn't too deus ex machinary, there are fates worse than death and if you bind your lifeforce with a demon there's got to be a down side right?

 

[Mizily]

I definitely think that they should die, or worse. If these characters are making a pact with a demon, there should be some serious consequences, and it makes sense that if they are bound to the demon, the demon is also bound to them. I love this idea, by the way- I'm sure it'll provide plenty of story, character development and plot twists if you write it right.

 

[Meg the Healer]

Sorry everyone for taking so long to get back to this - I've been in and out of surgery pretty much all year. But I'm better now.

That said - Thank you everyone for your input. So I take it - if they're bound - kill them. Got it.