Ring of Freedom

"Can I touch it?"
"Absolutely not. There’s a reason enchantments encase the artifact, Donnel. Keep your hands to yourself."
"I find it hard to believe something so beautiful can be so evil, Landin."
"Have you met my wife?"
"Oh. Right. Sorry."
"You said you were doing a paper on magical items for class?"
"Yeah, for Professor Haiden."
"Ouch, sorry to hear that — you hanging in there?"
"His insistence on first person interviews wouldn’t be so bad if the people were alive. I get a bid creeped out having to summon scholars every time I have to do a paper."
"I was the same. You can only be chewed out by the dead so many times before it get’s on your nerves."
"So this is refreshing. Yay. Plus I have an interest in magical rings, so double yay. I’ve covered the Ring of Calling, the Ring of Enhancement, and last week it was the Ring of Guidance…which I got all wrong."
"Thought it was about choices and not arrows, right?"
"Right!"
"Me too. Totally confused me, but hey, if you’re going to shoot a bow, might as well hit what you’re aiming at with every shot. I mean…"
"Exactly."
"So what did you want to know about the Ring of Freedom?"
"I’m intrigued and curious about why there’s so much protection wrapped around this jeweled masterpiece. Looking in the reference books, there’s not a lot of history on it. Which makes me even more curious as to what could make this tiny work of art worth the precautions?"
"In simple terms, because t can destroy everything."
"Everything."
"Literally everything, sooner or later, in the right hands. Whoever crafted the spells, weaving it into the gems and metal, was a master of their craft. That, and angry as Mahan himself."
"Why would you say angry?"
"Donnel, the Ring of Freedom slowly strips you of your moral code, your concern for others, and repercussions for choices made. That beautiful masterpiece of art releases a growing belief that there are no consequences for your actions."
"That doesn’t sound as doom and gloom as…"
"Think this through. A ring that anyone of finer taste, such as a lord, a lady, even royalty would admire and wear upon their finger. People of power an influence. Now consider what would happen if such persons no longer felt restraint to use their power for their own desires."
"That doesn’t sound so good when you put it that way."
"The Ring of Freedom has been recorded to be on the hand of family members during the Kinslayer Wars. Passed from sibling to sibling, as all descendants of King Bashion were hunted down and murdered."
"How did it get here, to the University?"
"The ring was stollen from crypt of Princess Havilah, by a student here, generations ago."
"A student? Who!?"
"The Administration won’t say. The records are sealed. What they do tell us, is that the student had considerable talent and power. He refused the requests of the professors to hand over the artifact, due to it’s corruptive power. Instead, he decided to fight them, and combined several of the disciplines."
"No."
"Things went wrong, the ring convinced him — I’m guessing — that there wouldn’t be consequence for violating magic, and he ended up as a Fleshbender."
"That’s horrible!"
"I’m told the creature was destroyed and the ring was brought here and placed under the strongest enchantments to protect us all."
"Especially from politicians."
"Haha,….exactly."