Path of the Deathless (Book 2 Completed)

145 (I) Ethics

Article X: On the Sanctity of Captive Minds and Bodies

Per the covenant of honor and sapient dignity, any Pathbearer who willingly surrenders or is lawfully captured during legal combat will be granted sanctuary from physical torture and any psionic art that seeks to mutilate their sovereign mind for information.

Failure to abide by these rules will result in the marking of the transgressing parties, deeming them acceptable targets for those bearing the Path of the Paladin.

-Article X, Treaty of Leopore

145 (I)

Ethics

Adam and Shiv stared on wordlessly as the orcs tossed the last few surviving inquisitors upon the still-alive pile. Beside the still-alive pile was another mound of recovered equipment. Armor, weapons, accessories, and more were piled high and contained within a force bubble to ensure nothing fell loose during the transportation process. Those two piles occupied one side of the surface gateway.

The other side was characterized by three piles.

The first pile was unofficially titled "still usable corpses." These were the bodies that were still intact and therefore quite suitable for Necromancy. It spared the orcs the additional effort of reattaching limbs or adding new parts to make up for missing bits. Beside the still intact corpses were in fact a few hundred different limbs. This pile was set up at the special request of several Heroic-Tier orcs under the auspices of monetary trade. Shiv didn't know if the orcs were pulling his legs or not when they claimed that their main form of currency was the severed limbs of their enemies. He'd seen them trade mithril before, so he guessed that they were probably bullshitting him.

But on some twisted level, he found it funny too, mainly because it kept making Adam do those constipated facial expressions.

The third pile was the smallest pile of all. There were only ten items on that pile. If one could consider a misshapen infant born from a male's body an item. Right in front of the gate, Shiv and Adam continued glaring at the orcs. A violently ill Uva heaved behind them, still struggling with her surface sickness.

"Does something displease you, Insul?" Bonk asked with the sweetest voice he could muster. That just made Shiv clench his teeth tighter. He reached out with his hand as he brushed Uva's back, and she shuddered violently and continued spewing sour strands all over the ground. Nearby, Valor told her this was normal, that there was an acclimation process for an Abyssal leaving the depths. Can Hu stared distastefully at the writhing inquisitors as well. Something about the automaton's body language very much resembled Adam's.

"So," Shiv began, letting out a long, frustrated sigh. "I mean, what the fuck, guys?" He gestured at the horrific dead baby pile. "You told me that you got rid of Male Pregnancy!"

Some 20,000 orcs briefly eyed the dead babies. A few of them shuffled; most of them just shrugged.

"How do we know he did it?" Mortar asked. He rubbed at his chin slowly, as if there was a genuine mystery to solve here. "In fact, how do we know that these infants came from the bodies of men?"

"Because I found them inside male Inquisitors," Shiv snapped. These orcs were trying to piss him off. And it was working. "In fact, the only people who gave birth during this battle were male Inquisitors."o do it to me. But personally, it's something I'm willing to put up with if it means keeping the orcs under control and keeping their attention away from you or Uva or anyone else in the gate.”

Adam looked like he had a lot to say, but he let Shiv talk. “Now, if you want to set them free and let them play their own game on the surface or in the abyss, fine. But I'm going to tell you this: There is no getting away from what these orcs are. So long as they’re with us, they're going to be hurting our enemies. Frankly, they're going to be hurting anyone who they find interesting enough to hurt. These inquisitors are dead meat, and they're not going to be the only ones. Not by a long shot."

Adam took in Shiv's words as one would drink down a bucket of piss and shit. Misery and disgust played across his face, but ultimately, he still let out a breath. "From what I could observe of their behavior, they can be focused, especially if there's a fight to be found, even more so against proper enemies. Let's set them loose on our main targets. They're not an army that listens to me anyway, and your control over them is tenuous at best."

"Is what?" Shiv asked.

"Tenuous. Means weak."

"Maybe," Shiv said. "Maybe not. They still want to be System-favored. They still want to fight by my side. We have that, if nothing else. Look, take Uva and the others back into the gate. I'll talk to the orcs. See if I can get them to pretend to have some basic ethics."

"You think you can do that?" Adam asked, doubtful.

Shiv snorted a humorless laugh. "No, but I'm a Pathbearer, so I'm going to try anyway. If shit goes wrong, maybe they kill me, and I get some Rhetoric levels.”

Adam nodded in appreciation. "Give me Sijik. I'll take him back with me. Uva might be able to dig out some useful information from his mind."

"Oh, before I forget." Shiv looked off to the side where an unmoving time dragon lay. "Take Choki there with you."

"Choki?" Adam said, confused for a moment. Then he followed Shiv's gaze and saw that he was staring at the dragon. "Choki," Adam repeated. "You named the dragon Choki."

"Yeah, because I choked it out, you know." Shiv laughed.

Adam's jaw fell open. "And I'm going to let you try to become the moral heart of the orcs."

"Yeah," Shiv said, without any sense of irony whatsoever.

The Gate Lord inhaled a long and deep breath through his nostrils. "The things I do for Blackedge's safety.”

“Oh, before you go, that arrow earlier..."

"That arrow," Adam began, his voice tense, "is charged by killing a hundred terrible people. And Shiv, I can feel you right now. My sun feels you. And its glow on you is getting darker."

"What does that mean?" Shiv asked.

"Please don't become one of the hundred people I can kill to charge that arrow."

Shiv thought about that for a beat. “Wait, if I turn into a horrible bastard, could you charge the arrow by killing me a hundred times?”

“Shiv...”

"Alright. Relax. It's a joke. I’ll stay good, Adam. Now let me talk to the orcs before they finally give you an aneurysm."

“Thank you. Just... have them end the Inquisitors’ suffering and tell them to enjoy their time on the surface. Let them be a nightmare for the Necrotechs instead.”

The Deathless regarded Adam for a moment. “Hey, Adam. How do you know the Necrotechs have it coming? That they deserve to die ugly deaths at the hands of the orcs?”

“They were going to—” The Gate Lord froze.

“The Inquisitors were coming for Blackedge too. But I guess they’re of the Republic, huh?”

Adam flinched.

“Forget about it, Adam. I’ll deal with it. You handle the other stuff.”