III-55 Ethics

Article X: On the Sanctity of Captive Minds and Bodies Per the covenant of honor and sapient dignity, any Pathbearer who willingly surrender

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

III-55

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 were 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 birthed 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, 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. Valor 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 that was done by male pregnancy?" 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."

"What a terrible coincidence!" Mortar continued. He barely held back a chuckle. Another orc smacked him on the back of the head.

"Keep your face straight, asshole. We need to keep the gag going.”

Mortar turned away before he could break completely, and Shiv just scowled at the horrible gray-skinned monsters. "Listen, I know you have itches to scratch. I know that you're a bunch of felling cruel bastards. But godsdamn it, we have one standard here. Just one."

And Adam couldn't take it anymore. "We have a lot more than one standard," the Gate lord hissed. "I can't even look at this," he pointed at the dead baby mound. "I can't look at that either," he gestured at both the corpses and the severed limbs. "What in the hells is wrong with all of you?"

A few of the orcs looked at each other. Bonk picked his nostrils. "We're enthusiastic. Besides, I don't understand why you're getting so worked up. Everything turned out pretty well. You caught your master inquisitor. We have about..." Bonk looked behind himself and stared at the living pile. "...I don't know, a hundred inquisitors left. That's pretty good."

And from the living pile came a loud and piercing shriek. "I want to die. I want to die. Somebody slit my throat. Let there be an end." 

The sheer agony in the Inquisitor's voice made Uva shudder.

“Just tell the orcs to finish these poor fools off,” Uva groaned. “This is pointless torture.”

"Why? You? What?" The Gate Lord took a few moments to compose his words. "Listen to me. I... I..." He failed. He turned to Shiv and gritted his teeth. "You talk to them. They've been standing before my Righteous Dawn, losing their bloody skill levels, for the past ten minutes and I still see those damn smirks on their faces. Do you all think this is funny? Do you find this amusing?”

Shiv winced. “Adam,” he leaned over, “I don't think that's the right thing to say. Getting frustrated will just get the orcs amused.”

And it most definitely wasn't, as several of the orcs finally broke, all laughing aloud.

"No," an orc called from the back. "But we think you do. You are funny."

"We like your expressions," another orc said. 

Tequila nodded in agreement. "They're pretty funny. You look like a human who hasn't taken a shit in three months."

Adam went still and quiet, but his face grew redder and redder with every passing second. Behind him, his azure sun grew brighter as well, and more than a few of the orcs were entirely bathed in its baleful radiance, their bodies simmering as if judged by the flames of perdition. None of this was funny to Adam, not even a little, and you could see the Young Lord was approaching his last thread of patience.

He cast a telepathic message at Adam. "Hey, take Uva back through the gate. I'll see if I can get things out here settled properly."

The Gatelord glared at Shiv from the corner of his eye. "Settled properly? How? Look around you, Shiv. We stand surrounded by atrocity."

"I mean, yeah, I can't argue about that. However, they did absolutely destroy that expeditionary force with only about thirty losses, and we're going to be throwing these orcs at the Necrotech soon." 

As he finished that sentence, a woman from the still-living pile began to shriek bloody murder, howling for her mother. Adam started shaking. Shiv held his expression in place. The orcs were watching them intently.

"I want to kill them," Adam hissed mentally.

"Yeah, I know, Adam," Shiv said. "However, if we start a fight with these orcs, or if we continue feeding their amusement, this is only going to get worse." The Deathless met Adam's stare as he tried to convey his own seriousness. "You understand why I was so hesitant to summon the orcs before? Why I was so worried? Well, this is why. We have an army, Adam, but I want you to keep this in mind, and I don't want you to ever forget this: they are not our army. We are using them just like they're using us. Every time we set these monsters loose on people, someone's going to suffer. Someone's going to bleed. Someone must!”

A flood of absolute discomfort spilled over from Adam's mind. "These Inquisitors—”

“Are dead," Shiv interrupted him. "They're torture food by this point. They're probably going to be used to satisfy whatever itch the orcs have. Going by my gut, less than half of them will probably be used for whatever false flag the orcs might come up with. The others will be kept alive by the Biomancers for as long as they can keep them alive, but I suspect that we probably don't want to find out what will happen to these people."

"I think we should just kill them then," Adam said quietly. The very thought was rancid to the Gatelord, but what soured his stomach even worse was the prospect of just letting the orcs indulge in brutality and torture. "We should just give them whatever mercy we can."

"I thought about that too," Shiv said quietly, "but I also thought about another problem right after that."

"And what is it?" Adam asked, challenging Shiv with a cold gaze. 

"You've got another army in your pocket. You're gonna have to summon the new dreamt, because if we start trying to take the orcs' food away from them, they're going to scratch that itch inside of them. They're going to feed that cruel hunger some way, somehow. If not with these Inquisitors, then each other, or more likely you and me. You especially since they want me around for other shit." 

And despite Adam's Awareness, he only just then realized Shiv's true worry. He turned his eyes away from Shiv, and he noticed just how many orcs were staring at him, studying him. They weren't just watching him because they enjoyed his miserable expressions. No. This was a dominance play on their part as well. Their ability to inflict discomfort on the Gate Lord. Their ability to provoke him.

Shiv continued. "They're deliberately trying to push you because it might just start a fight. And more than a few of them want that. If we escalate, maybe they'll just turn on us. The Blood Rites only allow me to recruit more orcs from those we've killed. We've killed plenty of inquisitors today. Nothing about the Blood Rites gives me absolute control over their behavior. I am their commander just because they're amused by it, but I think they'll also be amused by fighting me or fighting you or hurting you just to provoke me. So that's the price of leading an army of monsters. They're going to do monster shit."

Adam looked down, and he regarded the still-living pile of Inquisitors one last time. "What if we ordered them to attack right now to continue raiding the Necrotechs? They don't need to go back. Maybe that can help them scratch their itch instead of doing… this.”

"That’s not going to work easy," Shiv asked. "It's not just these twenty thousand orcs. We still have over two million more orcs that we need to feed. You wanna let them out too? Because they’re going to want out. They’re going to need to indulge sooner. Not later. Soon.er”

"Then bring them out, cut them loose, let them maraud against the Necrotechs, than do whatever grotesqueness this is."

"Are you two talking about us, Insul?" Whisperer asked. His voice was a barely veiled taunt, but Shiv gave him no satisfaction.

"Yeah," the Deathless said honestly. "I'll be with you in a second." Shiv frowned as he considered Adam's suggestion. "Didn't you say that you were worried the orcs might spread across the surface, burn villages, butcher people?"

"I am still bloody worried," Adam admitted. His posture was tense with frustration. "But I don't know if I can accept this, that I can accept just the casual torture and mutilation and brutality they're going to inflict on the Inquisitors. I know they’re the enemy, but this is beyond the pale. I can’t—Can you? Can you take this?”

Shiv considered that for a moment. "Well, I mean, they're inquisitors, though."

Adam regarded him incredulously. "What do you mean, 'well, I mean they're Inquisitors'? They're people, Shiv. They might be trying to murder my father, trying to betray Blackedge, but they're still people. And we should hold ourselves to a higher standard. We should… if we do this, it will stain  us.”

“They're enemies to me," Shiv said simply. But something about Adam’s higher standards stuck to him. Somewhere along the line of being a Pathbearer, all the blood and carnage got too routine for Shiv. His morals were getting looser… "Listen, my first encounter with these bastards was them torturing the living shit out of Tran and Heather. I haven't met a single inquisitor that didn't try to kill me or wasn't a piece of shit. I suspect my feelings will probably not change when we have a little talk with Inquisitor Sijik in a while." 

Before Adam could reply, Shiv continued, "But I know, I know that you're probably more aware of this whole morality thing and ethics thing than I am. And I think you're probably right."

Adam blinked. "You do?"

"Yeah, I just... I don't... I don't know how to put this, Adam. I don't really care about the Inquisitors that much because they're my enemies, but I don't know. Torture seems like messed up behavior. I really don't want to get a taste for it. I certainly don't want someone to 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 cave. 

“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, but 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, especially against proper enemies. Let's set them loose. 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 in 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.

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 Sijic. I'll take him back inside the gate with me. Uva might be able to find 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 Black Edge's safety. Oh, before you go, that arrow earlier..."

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

"What does that mean?" Shiv said.

"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. 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.”

***

Adam, Uva, Can Hu, and Vaelor departed a few moments thereafter. They took Choki, the time dragon, with them, Uva controlling its mind so it would follow them of its own accord. A sprawling mass of Dimensionality swallowed the dragon and pulled it across the gateway. After that, there was only the breeze, Shiv, and the orcs.

"Gosh, I'm in so much pain. It hurts so bad!” 

Oh right, and there were also the still-living inquisitors. The orcs stared at Shiv. Shiv stared at the orcs. He did a brief double check to make sure Adam was gone, and then he let out a sigh. "Alright, we're going to talk about a new deal, and also ethics."

The moment he mentioned ethics, the orcs broke into an uproar. Things were pelted at him. Shiv dodged left and right, avoiding severed limbs, pulped organs, literal handfuls of shit, and a screaming baby that vanished through the gateway. "Godsdamn it," Shiv cursed, holding his hands wide as he tried to get the orc to stop. "Stop throwing literal shit at me! Or babies! Male pregnancy, I'm gonna find you. I'm gonna fucking kill you. Stop! I'm gonna let you kill more people if you just listen to me!" 

And at the moment he said, "let them kill more people," the orcs immediately stopped. Another baby arced behind the orc masses. Several orcs complained about why he didn’t start with that. Shiv, meanwhile, pointed into the crowd. "I saw that shit! Get Male Pregnancy out of there! Where is he?"

"Where is what?" Bonk said. The expression was one of feigned confusion. "What are you seeing, Insul? Perhaps you're experiencing post-battle stress."

"No, you pieces of shit! I saw that! I saw that dead baby! Stop throwing dead babies at me! I'm gonna find that goddamn disgusting orc! I'm gonna flay myself next time, and I'm gonna..." Shiv's outburst trailed off as he watched a spread of satisfied looks splash across the gathered orcs. "Oh godsdamn it, you sick pieces of shit."

The Deathless composed himself and frowned at the orcs. "Alright, look, here's the new deal. Adam doesn't want you torturing these people after that, and neither do I." Another series of protests came from the orcs. Shiv held out his fist. "However, we might be letting you attack the Necrotechs of your own accord on the surface. And also raid the vampires, if you can promise to behave. We’re loosening the leash. With certain conditions.”

Several of the orcs side-eyed each other. "Define 'behave'," Mortar said, steepling his hands and tapping his fingers together.

"I mean, no raiding random villages, flaying children, throwing dead babies at people, torturing the innocent."

"What really is innocence?" Tequila asked, staring at one of his cigarettes as if it was an instrument of great profundity.

"You know what an innocent is," Shiv snapped. "Stop playing stupid. Look, you want to scratch the itch, fine, but have some self-control. Do it by killing, godsdamn it. You're gonna have plenty of killing to do too. What kind of fun are you gonna get from these ruined people?" Shiv asked, waving the Skysplitter at the sobbing pile of inquisitors. "Most of them are on the verge of death anyway. I can practically smell their injuries."

"I can make that go away," Helix said, arching an eyebrow. "First among which, keeping them alive. For some of us are actual Biomancers."

Shiv grunted, and he pointed a specific finger at Helix. Helix's left eye twitched. He waved a finger. A brief spell pulsed into existence and faded. Suddenly, Shiv felt a horrific burn spread across his groin. The Deathless forced himself to stay upright to ignore the brutal itching. "Look," he grunted, trying not to scratch. "Felling—Helix, did you give me a venereal disease?"

"Of an extremely potent variety."

Shiv pinched the bridge of his nose and bit back a frustrated sigh. Helix waved a hand again, and the itch went away. "Alright, look. Just don't kill any children or non-martial path-bearers who aren't behaving like bastards."

Bonk raised a massive hand. Shiv sighed. "What, Bonk?"

"Well, in my objective opinion, subjectively, I think everyone who isn't an orc is a bastard. Not including you, Insul."

Shiv closed his eyes for a moment and tried to stay calm. These assholes were deliberately provoking him. It was the wisest thing he'd ever done, telling Adam to leave, because if Shiv was this annoyed, the Gate Lord would have probably already shot one of them by this point. "Thank you, Bonk. Very interesting. But, so that we can have a unified set of standards, how about we follow my definition of bastard, in which someone who hurts people who don't deserve it, who haven't fought back or hurts the weak, is the bastard.”

"I understand," Whisper said with a nod.

"Do you?" Shiv asked, his suspicion aroused.

"Yes," Whisper continued. "I think the solution to this is that we simply bring some orc Initiates with us, and then we mind control a few enemies to attack these Initiates."

Shiv ground his teeth together. Yep, this is absolutely miserable. "You know what," Shiv said, "let's just have you attack some specific people like the First Blood or Sullain’s Necrotechs. Don’t touch anyone else.”

“What about these Inquisitors?” An orc asked.

“Sure. Yeah. Great. Kill them.”

Bonk held up his hand again. "Bonk, put your hand down or I'll cut it off." Bonk lowered his arm but kept his hand held up. "Listen, I'm literally going to let you guys roam free across the surface and First Blood's territory. There won't be anyone breathing over your necks or looking over your shoulder. You'll get to do whatever you want to the vampires, whatever you want to the Necrotechs. Just don't give me or Adam or anyone any reason to try to police you. Just don’t go overboard.”

“But that's boring," Mortar moaned childishly. "We want a war. We want a fight."

"And I want you to war and fight," Shiv retorted. "I just want you to war and fight with the right people. Haven't you got enough scratching from beating the Inquisitors bloody? They barely stood up to us. I feel unsatisfied. Why not dominate better foes? Stronger foes? Don’t waste time with this.”

"It’s like a snack," another orc muttered. "Honestly, I like snacking."

"Yeah, well, how about instead of a snack, you can get another meal. You just need to make sure that meal is a Necrotech or a vampire?”

A robed orc stepped out then. Bookworm regarded Shiv with a curious expression, and then he briefly stared at the other orcs. "How about this?" Bookworm began. "If we agree to these terms, first, you no longer decide what we do to our enemies in the field. We will not capture and torture them per se, but we might take a little longer when we kill them.

Shiv considered that for a moment and decided the orcs needed something. "Yeah, sure. As long as they're our enemies."

"Agreed!" Bookworm called. All the other orcs threw their fists up. "Hurrah!" There was no enthusiasm in their unified cheer.

"Secondly, we want allowances for collateral damage,” Bookworm held up a finger.

Shiv pressed his lips together as several orcs began to grin.

"It has to be actually collateral," Shiv said through clenched teeth. “Not just you bastards missing poor shits and killing random people.”

"Hurrah!" The orcs all cheered again.

"And finally," Bookworm cleared his throat, "we torture these Inquisitors to death right now. Quickly, with great mercy. For old time’s sake.”

Shiv stared at the orcs speechless for a moment. "Did you just use 'mercy' and 'torture to death' in the same sentence?"

"Yes, sometimes life," Bookworm hesitated dramatically before he finished the sentence, "is very mysterious."

"It's not mysterious! You're literally just still trying to torture them to death, even after I negotiated this ethics bullshit with you! The entire thing is because this shit bothers Adam. Mainly because they’re probably Republic people.” He saw several orcs put up their hands. He cut them off. “Yeah. I know. Hypocritical. Who gives a shit. Did you see what he did to that dragon rider with his arrow?”

The orcs grunted and nodded.

“Nice blast right?”

More agreements.

“Well, if you keep annoying him, he might never do it again out of spite. So you mind his godsdamned feelings.”

The orcs began to complain and grumble with dissatisfaction.

"Well, what do you want us to do, huh?" Bonk said, shouldering his massive club. Blood dripped from it. Blood, skin, and hair dotted its length. "Do you just want us to beat them to death right now? Is that it?"

"Yes," Shiv said. "Just kill them, mercifully."

"We don't know how to do that mercifully," Tequila said, his hands shaking. The orc adopted an expression that vaguely resembled Adam's earlier, and Shiv almost let out a laugh at how absurd it was. "Can you please show us, Insul, show us how to mercifully murder a few hundred people?"

"You pieces of shit," Shiv said for the umpteenth time that day. The orcs chuckled as a collective. "Just throw a fireball at them or something."

"But few of them have Master-Tier Toughness," an orc chimed. "A fireball will not kill all of them. It most definitely won't kill all the automatons."

"Yeah," Mortar said. "And I think it's merciful if the automatons are properly disassembled by me so they can become part of my armor."

“What part of mercy are we missing here?” Shiv growled.

"Philosophically, what is mercy?" Bonk asked. Shiv threw a severed limb at the orc, and he caught it between his massive teeth. But before the Deathless could continue his tirade, Helix waved at another orc, and they emerged from the crowd holding what looked to be a peculiar chest piece. 

Shiv hesitated and narrowed his eyes. His body filled with paranoia, and he regarded the piece of armor suspiciously. It resembled a badly damaged set of armor that—wait, he could feel it with his Biomancy. It had a few white plates running down its chest and back, while its arms were layered in muscular tissue. The armor set was missing legs and parts of the body were cracked, but there was something about it that left Shiv on edge. Half of its helmet was still connected, and a very mantis-like face greeted Shiv.

“What the hells is this?” Shiv muttered. “What are you sneaky shits planning now? What is this? Some kind of organic armor?”

Helix took the armor from the other orc and casually walked up to Shiv.

"Yeah, take a look at this." He held the armor out before Deathless and Shiv squinted as he examined its details.

Equipment Obtained: [Husk of the Voidmantid]

Tier: Master

Condition: Severely Wounded

Composition: Voidmantid Ceramic; Bloodroach Chitin; Deepcrawler Silk; Fleshdrinker Fungi

Enchantments > Compound Ocular Network; Antennal Resonance; Pheromonic Cipher; Master Regeneration; Magnified Vibrosense; Trauma Mantle; Myomeric Amplification; Mycelial Interface; Binding

"Master-Tier," Shiv breathed, "and what the hells are the rest of these enchantments.”

“Insectiod Skills,” Helix grinned. With a snap of a finger, his Biomancy field pulsed, and that made the armor come aglow with blood-red mana. "It seems that one of the Inquisitors managed to create a good piece of armor from the body of a Voidmantid. Terrible, vicious creatures from the darkness above. It also seems that said Inquisitor added more than a few other insectoid skills to the armor somehow. There must be quite the story here. Alas, the poor fool won’t be able to tell it. Still. The best thing about this armor is that it might make you less blind and deaf.”

Shiv watched as the armor slowly knit itself back together before his eyes. Small strings of fibrous tissue bubbled out from its missing parts.

Helix pounced on Shiv’s silence and continued. “It is entirely manipulable by your Biomancy. Understand that your current armor is not truly a piece of equipment in the eyes of the system. I think that's improper. It is time for you to be properly equipped. Behold, a proper piece of biological armor that you can learn from, that you can potentially develop your own crafting skill from. Observe the exterior. Behold, its ossified ceramic plating."

Shiv glanced at Helix, who now held the demeanor of a slimy merchant rather than an orc Biomancer. But the Deathless couldn’t resist stared down at the armor again and took it in. Its outsides were ridged with pieces of pale, crystalline plating, but along the limbs were dense strands of chitinous fiber. They were midnight black, and seemed almost as pliable as cloth. "Here is a dense cross-hatched weave of external chitinous fibers. Bloodroach chitin. You know such a creature is fifty meters large and can swim in magma?”

"No," Shiv breathed.

"And underneath the chitin," Helix said as he gestured with his bio-mantic field, one of the fibers was pulled out, and Shiv found another string hiding underneath it. It glistened like silk. No, it was silk. "This is Deepcrawler silk. If you press against it, you will quickly discover that its properties are Non-Newtonian." The orc jammed a finger against the silk, and it suddenly went hard. "This allows it to remain flexible during normal movements, but at other times, and under heavy impacts, it grows increasingly strong.

“Then, there are the eyes and currently missing antennae. But that’s best experienced directly. After I show you how to mend the armor faster.” The orc Biomancer waved a hand as the armor opened up entirely. Along the insides were ridges of threaded tissue. This reminded Shiv of a mushroom's mycelia, and it glistened invitingly, seeming almost warm. "And finally, here is a mycelial network. It allows your skin and this armor to be properly interfaced together. It will glide under your epidermis and allow you to feel your armor. In fact, it becomes like an external organ for you. An exoskeleton, if you will. More of an exoskeleton than what you currently have." 

Slowly, the orc placed a large hand on Shiv's shoulder. "Insul Shiv. My dearest Deathless, we managed to find this piece of armor on a particularly hard-to-kill Inquisitor Biomancer. And though my covetous heart wanted it for myself, I said to my little greedy heart, you can starve for a while. Starve because I know someone else that might have proper use for this. In fact, I know someone else who desperately needs a piece of armor. So..." Helix leaned beside Shiv's ear. "I have a counterproposal for you."

"A counterproposal?" Shiv said, trying to fight his own itch—an itch born of material greed.

"Indeed," Helix breathed. "You let us have a little bit of time with these still-living hostages... I mean, uh, victims... I mean, uh, Inquisitors, and you will never see them again. Afterward, we will fight according to your"—the orc barely held back a laugh—"ethics. And make sure your pet Gate Lord is never bothered by our actions again. You, however, need to amuse us some more. Because we need it. The amusement. To keep ourselves controlled. And ethical.”

Shiv finally looked away from the armor, and he glared at Helix. "You think bribing me with this is going to make me softer? Gonna make me let you just torture those people to death?"

"Mercifully," Bonk added.

"Mercifully," all the orcs chimed in.

Helix, meanwhile, was utterly unashamed. "Yes," Helix said, "I think that bribing you with this armor will make you look the other way just long enough."

A long moment passed as Shiv stared in the orc's eyes, and the orc stared back. The deathless clenched his jaw together, and then he looked at the pile of writhing inquisitors, and when he looked behind himself, the dimensional gateway was stable. No one was coming in or out. Shiv’s fingers tightened around the armor. "And I can fuse my bone armor with this?”

"Why do you think I brought it to you?" Helix asked, his voice filled with vindication. “We’re going to teach you how to get a Crafting Skill through Biomancy as well! There’s more than one reason why I wanted you to have this.”

Shiv stared at the orcs. Stared at the armor. Stared at the pile of whimpering Inquisitors. And looked at the Surface Gateway again. “Huh. Well. Uh. You know. Just be merciful as soon as you can.”

The orcs cheered. And Shiv discovered another weakness about himself: He was very, very bribable. And now the orcs knew. But maybe that just meant they were going to bring him more shit in the future.

What is mercy philosophically, anyway? Shiv pretend-ruminated while actually bullshitting himself.

Deception 21 > 22