The title came quietly, without announcement, two weeks after Thalia's revival.
He had not planned for it. He had not been trying to earn a title. He had been sitting at dinner in the Apollo cabin when Thalia sat down across from him — she had been distributing herself across the camp's tables at meals, reintegrating with a deliberate breadth — and said, 'I want to ask you something.'
'Ask.'
'When you were sitting with the tree.' She looked at him directly. 'Did you know I would come back? Not hope. Know.'
He thought about the honest answer. 'I had strong reason to believe it,' he said. 'Not certainty. But confidence above hope.' He paused. 'And I had made a promise. I said I would be there when you came out. I keep promises.'
'Who did you make the promise to?'
'You. Through the bark. Whether you could hear it or not.'
Thalia was quiet for a moment. Her expression was the expression of someone encountering a specific kind of person they have not met before — not the kind who is impressive, but the kind who means things.
'I could hear it,' she said. 'I told you I could feel someone there. That was part of what I could feel. Someone who kept showing up because they said they would.'
He did not know what to say to this. He said: 'Good. I'm glad.'
She looked at him for another moment. 'You made a promise to someone who couldn't respond. And you kept it anyway. Every night for thirty-one days under the poison and however many times before that.' She paused. 'That's a specific kind of person.'
The title settled into his record with the quiet of something that has been true for a long time and is only now being named:
[ TITLE EARNED — KEEPER OF OATHS ]
CONDITIONS MET:
— Made a promise to someone who could not respond
— Kept it across 2+ years without acknowledgment
— Kept it under physical cost (31 days, MANA drain)
— Kept it because it was the right thing, not
because anyone was watching
TITLE: Keeper of Oaths
EFFECT: Divine entities read you as reliable.
Oaths you make carry divine weight —
they are binding in the deepest sense.
When you give your word, the universe
takes note.
Note: This title will be visible to divine entities.
It will influence how they treat your word.
Use this carefully.
Do not make oaths you cannot keep.
Bonus: +3 CHA (others sense the reliability)
New CHA: 20
Thalia's assessment: 'A specific kind of person.'
She is not wrong.
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