Meg the Healer
Sage
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.
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.