Excerpts from “Interview with a Demoness” by Old Magician.
Excerpt from a discussion on souls with Opal
Old Magician 26th November, 2761 ab urbe condita.
-"I can see people’s souls, and by that can also single out those who are worth collecting.
An innocent soul is a rather bleak shimmering thing; most ordinary people have souls which are bland, possibly with slight shimmers of petty misdeed or lies. Their souls are like moonstones compared to the fiery opals that I love. Those souls that I strive after and find most intriguing are coloured by greed, hatred, envy, lust and fear, a sparkling rainbow of human sins. Because any deed that you do, or is subjected to, will add their scar of colour to the once pure soul."
-"So every opal you have is the compressed soul of a sinful individual?
-"No, I am not interested in their soul! Its not the soul itself, but the extracted damage done to the soul, its somewhat like the crust of a wound, or layers of filth, covering the soul.
When a contract is finalised, it will allow me to take their soul. I will then extract it from their being, some scream and struggle, and others just look in disbelief, as if they never thought that such a thing existed...
Sometimes their body will go on empty, but never for long...
I then transfer the imperfections from their souls into a prepared slice of amorphous stone, the pitiful rest of the soul, for these creatures have little left, will shrink away, helpless and worthless. This pitiful filth I will not keep but send to the nether planes, they are the maggots of the pits of hell, with only the memory of the pain they caused. But the results of their deeds, like the grain that forms a beautiful pearl, are mine.
-"You can actually pick out only these scars from a soul then?
-"I can pick out scars from a soul, if you ask, but it is not my task to clean souls, that should be the task for angels. But such creatures would never filthy their hands by doing that.
-"But still, you could heal a scarred soul?
-"I could, but for what? It could ease the pain, but deeds done would not be undone, memories would still be there. Although it might relieve the pain, it would still only help so far, and the miscreant who owned it would only inflict more damage when freed of the burden. I wouldn't even consider such a thing before you set me with this half soul of yours; neither would I ever have known the pain and burden of it. Why should I ever give such relief to those inflicting so much pain and misfortune to others?
-"But think of the victims, wouldn't you be able to heal their scars as well? You could do so much good with that power.
-"Do I look like an angel to you?
-"No, but...
-"Enough of this...
Additional excerpts will be added later