New answers tagged myth-identification
1
Found it! And it is indeed from Iain M. Banks, in The Player Of Games.
A colonel (Traff) commanding a war was on the brink of defeating a capital city, who surrendered on condition that their library (Urutypaig Library) be preserved. Traff's Emperor insisted that it be destroyed.
But
...Traff knew that giving your word was a sacred thing; nobody would ever ...
2
Your question reminded me of a concept in Zoroastrian mythology. Although I have the feeling this is not what you are looking for, it does have connections with a bridge, music, the human soul, and, to some extent, shapeshifting and opening doors. It is the Daēnā (Dēn), which in his book Comparative Mythology, Jaan Puhvel describes as a
heavenly double of ...
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