System Change

“You know, Bones,” Derek said as he wrapped his arm around the scrawny man and walked him out of the cell. “You sure are taking being captured and imprisoned well. Why is that?”

“That…” Bones hesitated to answer as they walked. With the Time Prison being cleaned out for the dragonkin, there were no places to have a proper conversation, so Derek pulled out a table and a few chairs and led the man to sit in one. Bones didn’t put up any struggle as Derek had him sit down—instead, his eyes seemed to linger on Vanessa through the dim lighting.

“Don’t bother looking at her,” Derek said. “Like she said, she is no longer part of the Assassin’s Guild. In fact, she works for the Kingdom of Cydaria now. She’s turned over a new leaf… so to speak.”

Derek saw Vanessa roll her eyes as she also came to the table and took a seat. Avery also took up one of the seats Derek had placed. Though the archer did seem to be enjoying the show, he was still riled up after all the fighting, and anything else seemed boring to the man.

Derek, of course, gave himself his specially crafted chair and had a seat. “So, are you going to answer my question?”

Bones shot another glance over at Vanessa, and the woman shrugged. With a sigh, he began. “We are taught very young about what happens if you fail a mission or are captured. We are in your hands now.”

“In my hands? What do you mean?” Derek asked.

“He means that because of his failure and capture, there is a price on his and Ogre’s heads. It would have been the same with me, but I’m not worth the risk as long as I don’t move directly against the guild, which, from my oaths from my previous position, I cannot. It doesn’t hurt that it was the kingdom that I ended up working for, either.” Vanessa answered for him. “Those two, on the other hand, have no such protections. They are mid-level and while there may not be many, there are enough assassins ready to collect the bounty on them should it be known that they are in the kingdom.

“Actually, their best shot would be to leave Cydaria for another kingdom, or even cross the ocean to another continent,” she continued. “That or find a backer that the guild doesn’t want any problems with.” She eyed Bones to the side. The man was studying Derek and Avery intently. Finally, something seemed to click.

“Avery Swan?” Bones blurted before anyone else got a chance to say anything. Avery raised an eyebrow at the man in confirmation. Then the skinny man’s eyes moved back to Derek. “Just who are you?”

“None of that matters for now,” Derek replied, ignoring the intense gaze from the man. “What matters are the questions I have for you. First… or I guess second, now… why are you so… unaffected after being imprisoned in my Time Prison for so long?”

“Was it long?” the man asked with genuine curiosity. “I really could not tell. Stuck in darkness with no pain or hunger is not real torture—at least not after what we, as members of the Assassin’s Guild, had to go through to survive.”

“Is that so?” Derek rubbed his chin in thought. The man really didn’t seem any worse for wear. In fact, he was even a little jovial at the situation, and it seemed that though all system access was cut off, his body still healed itself while he was locked away—which seemed odd since his metabolism was kind of paused during his incarceration in the prison.

“Very much so,” the man answered. “Starving, whippings, fighting others to survive… that’s how all orphans who choose to join the Assassin’s Guild grow up… if they grow up. A little sensory deprivation without pain was more of a vacation than anything.”

“Interesting…” Derek said. He couldn’t help but think of the difference reactions of Bones, a trained assassin, and Clay Torith, a young, pampered noble, to the prison. One came out happy and for the better, while the other begged for death. There really were all kinds of different qualities of human beings.

“So, you’re now wanted by the Assassin’s Guild, not welcome in Cydaria or probably any other kingdom on this continent that knows of you, and you’re basically homeless. Is that right?” Derek asked.

“That would seem to be the case,” Bones answered.

“You also don’t seem to be afraid of me,” Derek said.

“What use would their be in being scared of you? You hold the life of myself and my brother in your hands. We will either live, die, or be imprisoned again. There is no sense in being afraid of something so far out of my control,” Bones answered earnestly.

This little meeting wasn’t going at all the way Derek had planned. Though he had brought Vanessa with him to be somewhat of an icebreaker, it seemed that he hadn’t actually needed to. Honestly, he could forgive the whole trying to assassinate him thing. That’s what oaths were for.

From what little he found out about the pair of assassins, they were quite respectable in their field, and had growth potential. He would need to get some more specifics out of Bones, as from what he recalled of Ogre, he wouldn’t get much out of him, but with Jacks falling into adventuring again and enjoying it, it wouldn’t hurt to have an extra butler and security for his shop when he got back.

“So, is Bones your entire name? Or is it just something people call you because of your high amount of dexterity?” Derek asked.

“Well… it is what I’ve been known as since as far back as I can recall. It started out as bullying from the other kids, but it ended up sticking. I didn’t mind it, so that is what I’ve been called ever since.”

Damn. I was hoping his name was Alfred or Jarvis or Jeeves or something like that. It would have been destiny if that were the case. Derek half chuckled to himself, drawing an odd look from Vanessa and Avery. He cleared his throat. “Alright Bones, what would you say to a system oath of loyalty to myself and those I designate? Not slavery or anything like that. We can work out the details after you’ve decided.”

“Hmm…” Bones hummed in thought. “It would be our only option, which may count as coercion or duress and cause the Great System to not accept the oath. But, before I agree to anything, I must wait for my brother. Will he be freed soon?”

“Yes. In less than an hour, actually,” Derek said. “Also, I thought you would jump at the opportunity to make an oath to me and my people to avoid death or imprisonment.”

“It’s just death.” Bones shrugged. “I have been prepared for death my entire life.”

“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” Derek said. “We’ll wait for Ogre to get out, then we’ll talk more about it.”

Bones nodded in agreement.

“So, if you don’t mind, would you be willing to take an oath of honesty for the next thirty minutes or so? So I can ask you a few questions. If it is a question that you are unable to answer without breaking another oath, you can just say ‘no comment.’ How does that sound?” Derek asked.

Bones thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “That is acceptable.”

After that, Bones made an oath to the system to answer any questions Derek asked that he was able to open and honestly. The rest of the hour passed with Derek asking the man questions about him and Ogre—questions that would decide whether they were worth saving or not.

After all the questioning, Derek was convinced. The two had avoided any assassinations on targets less powerful than them. They had also surprisingly avoided any missions involving people who had done actual good. That’s not to say that they didn’t assassinate good people—no, they did that and more. But the duo assassins seemed to have their own set of morals.

Derek couldn’t see himself ever killing others for money, but he had killed others just because they overly pissed him off. Of course, he had his own set of justification for all of those that he killed, both in Cydaria and back on Earth after the system came. It was all about survival, after all.

The rest of the hour passed, and it was time for Ogre to be released from his cell. Like before, Derek walked over to the cell, followed by everyone else, and waited. Soon, the timer hit zero and the door to the cell opened slightly. Again, just like with Bones, Ogre didn’t immediately charge out, which was a surprise considering his demeanor the last time they met.

Derek pulled the door open and everyone gazed inside. Instead of being met by a man meditating, this time they were met with a different sight. Derek guessed that Ogre just hadn’t heard the door open or just hadn’t been paying attention at all, because when the small amount of light hit him from outside, the giant man shot a disturbed look toward Derek and the others.

Immediately, the man jumped to his feet and charged at Derek. Derek braced himself for impact, but instead of being bulldozed, the giant man stopped in front of him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and looked down into his eyes, pleadingly.

“Put me back,” Ogre said.

“Put you back?” Derek asked. “Back in the cell? Why?”

“Uhem…” Bones coughed from the side. “I believe I know the reason.”

Everyone turned to look at Bones, including Ogre. In an instant, Ogre shoved Derek to the side and scooped up Bones while doing a little spin. “Bones!”

“Hey Oggy!” Bones patted the giant man on the back. After a few seconds, Ogre set Bones down. Then Ogre backhanded Bones, sending the skeletal man flying.

Bones hit the ground and bounced a couple of times before skidding to a stop. Standing up from his intimate moment with the ground, Bones rubbed his cheek and winced, then walked back over to Ogre. “Ouch!”

“Bones tried to leave Ogre!” the ten foot tall man shouted, his voice reverberating throughout the lobby of the prison.

“It was a strategic retreat,” Bones answered back. “I would have come back for you. Besides, it didn’t work out, now did it?”

Ogre looked around, his eyes falling on Derek once again, then on Vanessa. “Shadow Lady!” Even the dimwitted giant man seemed to know the difference in power as he bowed to the woman.

“You don’t have to do that, Oggy. The Shadow Witch isn’t part of the guild anymore, either,” Bones said, not bothering to explain any more.

Ogre seemed to take that in stride, as he quickly stood straight and ignored the former Vice Leader of the Assassin’s Guild. His eyes fell back to Derek, and he stared so hard that Derek could almost feel a hole burning in him. “Put me back in room,” he said.

“I can’t,” Derek answered. “Once someone leaves the cell, they can’t be sentenced again for two weeks. I don’t make the rule. Besides, why would you want to go back in, anyway?”

“You see…” Bones cut in to answer. “When we were locked away in your prison cells, we didn’t experience pain or hunger, like I said before. For me, it was like a vacation, but for Oggy, I imagine it was like heaven.”

“Why is that?” Derek asked.

“Well, Oggy has a condition that comes with his race and class that causes him to have a near constant hunger. It takes so much food or very costly, high-quality food to keep him full that we never had any extra coin after completing a mission. Everything went to our food bill. Though it was overlooked, we did choose some of our missions based on how much food we could… appropriate during the mission.

“So, with your prison taking away the hunger, Oggy was able to live without the gnawing hunger pains for the first time in his life. Therefore, he would want to go back in,” Bones finished with his explanation.

“Oh,” Derek said. “Well, maybe some other time. Like I said, I couldn’t lock you back in for at least two weeks, even if I wanted to. But you said that high-quality food worked as well?”

“Yes.” Bones nodded.

“You two stay here and discuss what we talked about earlier,” Derek said. “Ogre!” he shouted, getting the giant man’s attention.

“Hmm?”

“Have you ever eaten dragon?”