"Partly because it's a bit in conflict with my scheme, they're very different degrees of antagonistic. Partly because it can help if as much as possible of the reformation plot is yours, both in terms of odds and reputation boost if it works."

"The spirits care about this?" he guesses.

"It makes for a better story. They have questionable priorities."

Snort. "Yeah. Anyway, how do you suppose the summonings book will help?"

"Primarily the bindings part. A seal is essentially a type of binding, longer term and more significant but the same kind of thing.

Summoning is, or can be, a way to access relevant Others. For practice dealing with the kind of Other that could accept a seal, and maybe even for actually doing it."

"How does summoning even work? I mean, what Other would want to be summoned by a runny-nosed practitioner, what do they get out of it?"

"Depends on the Other, and the runniness of the nose.

Sometimes you can bargain the way you would with a human. Material goods for a few, promises or actions for ones intelligent enough to have agendas. Some Others answer when called because they want the chance to be in this world instead of wherever they're summoned from. Technically demons are in that category, we think. And the summons don't always come with a choice. It's entirely possible to bind them such that they have to answer, or even have to obey when they do, and sometimes that has already happened."

"...and what's the catch, then?"

"In the last case? The catch is that it's effectively slave labor. Many summoned beings are people, if you care about that kind of thing.

Aside from moral problems, you may be dealing with hostile vassals."

"Are they typically people who routinely go around doing things I would object to which they would stop doing under my Bright And New Seal of Sadde? Or, perhaps, people who are often summoned to do those things? Would they be able to refuse a summons or an order to do those things if they had sworn not to?"

"Some of them. I'd say most, but the ones people summon are being summoned on purpose.

If someone is in that position, they shouldn't swear never to do things. The Seal of Solomon might override some bindings, but yours won't have that kind of weight for a long time. For anyone who's already sworn not to do something, their best bet is to claim it wasn't their action. It'd work if they're being coerced enough, but it's not an enviable position."

"So it's probably not actually a good idea to practise sealing summoned beings."

"Not if they're people and subject to being controlledand not outright evil enough that them being forsworn is better than them not swearing. Definitely worth thinking twice, especially with summoned Others."

"And there are others that aren't people, then? How can someone who's not a person meaningfully swear an oath?"

"It's fuzzier when practitioners are involved. Something really well established like the demesne ritual is just a feature of their environment that they can sense and react to even if they're no smarter than a rat. The same applies, less so, to practitioners' words in general. They'll understand better than it seems like they should. Getting a non-person to agree to swear might be harder than getting them to understand."

"You say 'agree to swear,' so I take it non-people Others can still speak?"

"Not usually. A few can. Most have to signal it some other way, but there's usually something.

It's getting them to weigh the choice and decide that's more often the problem."

"If they can swear and their 'word,'" he airquotes, "is binding, in what sense are they not people, exactly?"

"Imagine a dog rolling over and submitting because it lost a fight, except that the position as alpha is binding. When a practitioner is involved something similar can happen with Others even if they're less like a person than a dog is."

"Right, but I mean... Like, my word as a practitioner is binding because if I break it I lose power, yes?"

"Oh, and the same doesn't apply to them.

For Others, the ones that aren't people themselves, it's more literal that they can't. Once something gets attached to Solomon's seal, it can no more decide to undo that than water can decide to flow uphill."

"Is there a place with the exact phrasing of the Seal of Solomon?"

"Not as far as I know. It's even possible there never was. Magic in general is nebulous, and this in particular is something like a habit the universe picked up."

"Hmm... Is there immortalising magic?"

"The tradeoffs tend to be harsh. You can extend one person's lifespan at the cost of more time off someone else's, or you can steal a body from someone who looks like they'll last longer.

There is probably a more acceptable way of doing it, but I have access to a lot of different kinds of magic and don't know of one."