“My name is George Matheson. Mercenary for hire.” George started a little shakily.

  “I was looking for work and came across Darneath who had a reputation for… let’s just say he paid well.” George looked like he’d been about to say something else but James let it go.

  “Tristan over there. He had some beef with you and needed some muscle. Me, I don’t have any beef with you. It was just a job.”

  James had heard it so many times in books and movies now that he saw what came next a mile away.

  “I could work for you instead. Free of course, while I pay off this little debt of misunderstanding we have ourselves in here.” The man seemed to be getting more confident, the more he talked.

  .

  The moment he could safely get away, or better yet, slit James’s throat, chances are that he would.

  “What did Tristan want to do with me?”

  George squirmed.

  “Well, I think he was going to torture you somehow. Use you as a dart board. Apparently that’s what he and his family did to people they didn’t like. Bragged about it, he did. That’s why I was serving him. I didn't want to be a pin cushion. It’s all his fault.” George sounded almost convivial with his words.

  James took a few steps back as, if the pattern persisted and options ran out, George was likely to do something dumb.

  “Where were you taking me?”

  “To Tristan’s family estate. There’s a path off this one, about two hours further up.”

  “Do I need to be worried about any of them coming here?”

  “No, m’lord. His family were not to be told. ‘Plausible deniability’ are the words he used.

  “Well George, it is your lucky day”

  George was hesitant in his response. “Uhh, thank you m’lord”

  James let that slip and continued.

  “Yes, unlike your dead… adventurer friend there you get to live another day, at least as far as I’m concerned.”

  James paused.

  “But then, it’s not going to be up to me.”

  “It’s not?”

  James pointed up the road from where Janine would be coming.

  A minute passed.

  Any time now, Janine.

  Another minute.

  He turned back. Well, that didn’t work out the way he’d hoped.

  “It will be up to the guild when they get here.”

  He cast Quick Heal

  James tried to summon Charlie but found he couldn’t. Must have been too far away. He’d hoped that cards could double as a means of teleportation, but it was not meant to be.

  It was another fifteen minutes before Janine appeared.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  James pointed again, “It’ll be up to her!” he said, as if finishing his earlier sentence.

  Squire actually shook her head at him.

  “So, what you are saying is essentially that I can do whatever I like with him as I’m a guild member he tried to kill?” James asked in frustration.

  “Yes!” Janine shouted for the third time.

  “But I made a cool gesture and… okay fine,” he trailed off.

  James was also entitled to all their gear, and if he wanted, to card them.

  He’d thought that Rock was just testing him as part of some machination of Anne’s, but no, it was the guild rules.

  James and Janine were discussing out of earshot while the two surviving mercenaries, now awake, were surrounded by his summons.

  “What should I do with them then? What would you do?” James threw both questions at her.

  “They are mercenaries. If they were part of Darneath’s crew I’d probably kill them.”

  She pointed to a patch they had that James hadn’t paid any attention to.

  “They are registered mercenaries. You could just let them go and they would likely never trouble you again. I’d find out how much they were paid for the job and demand double that back in compensation, then let them go.”

  James couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “But they kill for money!” he said, frustrated.

  “Yes they do” she spelt out slowly. “And if the right guild quest comes along, so would you”

  That took James back a moment. So there was a dark side to the camaraderie and adventurous spirit the Guild showed. He was treating them like a Government agency, but they were not.

  This whole world was just “wrong”.

  “What about the dead mercenary?”

  “All of his gear and gold is yours now. If he has any family, whatever he’d set aside with the mercenary guild will be provided to them.”

  That’s when Anne’s words came back to him.

  “They live, they die, and when the cycle resets, they live again, with no memory of what came before.”

  He knew he shouldn’t but that gave him a slight sense of relief. It actually helped centre him as he turned and walked back to the prisoners.

  “Are you part of Darneath’s crew, or separate mercenaries?”

  When they started to answer, Janine piped up. “I can tell if you are lying. Don’t!”

  George spoke for both of them. “No sir, ma'am."

  Janine looked angry but said nothing.

  “In that case you are mine to deal with and not the guild’s, as part of an existing quest.”

  Janine nodded in agreement.

  “Give me double what you were hired for and I’ll let you go.”

  Both men looked like they were back on solid ground again. This was what they had expected.

  “Never attack me or my team, including my bonds, again”

  Both men nodded. Apparently he’d said something that they’d expected to hear. He sounded like the villain in his own story.

  He gave the mental command and the summons backed off.

  James wasn’t ready to search through the corpses gear right now so put the corpses in his inventory. Morbidly James noticed that both counted as containers for the stuff they were wearing.

  He picked up Tristan’s sword where it had been flung across the path. It had a card embedded in it.

  Item: Steel Short Sword

  ? Effect: This sword will always be sharp. As long as all pieces of the sword remain it will eventually repair back to full strength over time. Aspects: Blade.

  James took the blade. He also searched for and found all the thrown daggers. For all he knew, they could end up being valuable.

  Squire picked up on what he was doing and lent him a paw.

  The two men walked over, the threat entirely gone. With Janine nearby that made sense, though he had the feeling that they would have acted like this anyway.

  They handed over bags of coins.

  James wasn’t worried about finding out the amounts for now. He just wanted to get back to town.

  Before Janine ran off he waved her over for one more question.

  “The Silver Room runes.. I’m guessing you have them?”

  She nodded. That was a sign of trust right there. James gave her a smile showing he appreciated it.

  “Can I take one and use it on a room?” She started walking away.

  “No, James. We’ll need a Silver ranked enchanter to set them up again.” She paused. “But I get you. They are addictive after a while.”

  The horses were long gone now, apart from the one that Tristan had killed while aiming for him.

  He thought about the tree, looked at the horse, then decided that yes, he would store it and see if he could get the system to convert it to meat.

  Waste not, want not.

  He was sure that nightmares would be plaguing his dreams for some time to come.

  He kept the summons up for the trip back to the quest marker, intending for them to stay summoned as long as they could. He was tracking how long that was exactly this time. He thought it was about five hours, but he would know for sure this time. He wasn’t sleepy at all.

  He actually tried riding the iron-hide boar, but that did not last long at all. His skin returned to normal shortly before he got to the wagon site.

  Now that he was back at the relative safety. He found he really was tired after all. Both Edward and Ken were still asleep, which explained the ignored messages. James updated the group chat.

  James:

  James found Charlie still patrolling. He cancelled the patrol command and gave her some scraps. He found his bedroll with a small splotch of blood on it. He wiped as much of it away as he could then lay down.

  Janine and her crew were patrolling again.

  He doubted he would be abducted again.

  Charlie curled up next to him. Squire nested in his hair.

  He slept.