The proposal seemed considerate. It was then, though, that Mahii the Impartial, Lord of Justice, spoke: “And who guarantees you shall keep your promise to hand us the Sceptres, Belhagard, even you, who are meant by Fate's design to become a warmonger and destroyer of armies? Indeed, I do fear that, once you seize the Sceptres, you shall wish to keep them as your own, for great is your l**t for power”.
“In that case, I shall make an oath”, Belhagard replied. “And you all know a Divine Oath cannot be broken. As long as I manage to release the peak from the coils of the ancestral serpents, and I lay hand on the Eighteen Sceptres holding the Great Magic, I pledge to return you, my brothers, what belongs to you by right, and by so saying I mean all the Sceptres, except my own, which I shall ke
