The Morality System

Abigail destroyed her intelligence crystals in the morning. She did it outside so she didn't make a mess in Sally's place. I put my hand on her shoulder and smiled at her.

"Thank you," I said.

"I would do anything for you, Tom," she said.

"I would do anything for you, Abigail," I said, taking a sip of my coffee.

"Would you really?" She said.

"Of course. Did you think I wouldn't say the same?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. I thought I liked you more than you liked me. I guess I'll have to try harder," she said.

I looked at her like she was a crazy person. "You are a strange one. Why would you want to like me more than I like you?"

"Because that's what the girl is supposed to do. The girl obsesses over and dotes on the man and the man stares stoically into the distance and protects the girl," she said, like it was obvious.

"You have a very strange view of relationships, but I like you all the same." I smiled. She certainly was strange, but I really did like her. She was kind and understanding of my needs, which were two very rare things in my experience.

"Good. I'll accept being called strange if you admit that you're a really weird guy," she said.

"Fine. I'm a really weird guy who has to justice everything. Happy?" I said.

"Yes!" She kissed me on the cheek. "So what are we doing today? The mercenary company is dead and you don't want to collect any more crystals. Do you want to just do a dungeon run for the experience and stat cores?"

"The mercenary company isn't dead. There's still Stylus. Oh, shit! Stylus! I forgot about him," I said. "I have to go back and see if he's still there."

"I'll go with you," she said.

"I don't want you to because it puts you in danger, but I know you won't listen to me," I said.

"You're right. I won't. I'm going no matter what you say," she said, still smiling.

"Right," I said. "Let's go then."

We went through the building, walking past corpses I created the night before. Abigail looked at them in wonder rather than horror.

"So are these guys were evil?" She said.

"According to my moral code, yes," I said.

"What's your moral code?" She asked.

"If you harm innocent people, you're evil. If you harm guilty people, that's acceptable," I said.

"Makes sense," she said.

We made it to the fourth floor and I opened the conference room door. Sure enough, Stylus was still there. He was sleeping with his head resting on the table.

"Stylus," I said.

"Huh? What?" Stylus looked at me. "You came back. I thought you had forgotten about me."

"I did. Sorry about that. I remembered this morning," I said.

"Understood, sir. What do you need from me today?" Stylus said.

"I need you to inform the mercenaries in the company's employ to continue running the dungeons, but don't collect any crystals and absorb all the cores they collect. Their payment will stay the same," I said.

"Yes sir. What will you do today?" Stylus said.

"I'm going to look for a good source of information on magic. Probably a bookstore," I said.

"Ok. What are you going to do about the higher-ups? When Dorian doesn't check in they'll send someone to investigate," he said.

"Higher-ups? What do you mean? This isn't the whole company? Dorian wasn't the head of the company?" I said.

"Uh, no. This company spans multiple kingdoms. Dorian was just the head of the local branch in charge of mercenary operations," he said, his shoulders bunched up.

"How many other branches are in this city? And what are they in charge of?" I said.

"There are two other branches. One is in charge of selling the crystals obtained by the mercenary branch. The other is in charge of noble and political operations. They basically just maintain good relations with the nobles to keep the crystal trade legal and the company from being removed from the city," he said.

"Ok. I'm going to need to take down those other branches too, but first, we need to find a new base of operations before the company investigates Dorian's disappearance and finds us here," I said.

"Oh! I know just the place!" Stylus said. "There's an abandoned merchant's guild hall here in the undercity. It would be the perfect place to start up new operations. It would have meeting rooms, storage space, even living quarters."

"That sounds great, be a little obvious? If a guild hall started operations again, wouldn't someone investigate?" I said.

"Not if you use the secret entrance. They'd never even see people coming and going. I don't know where the secret entrance is, but all of these guild halls have secret entrances in case they need to do business with people they don't want the public, or even other guild members to know about," he said.

"Ok, I'm on board. When can we move in?" I said.

"Today preferably," Stylus said.

"Ok. Inform the mercenaries of our new operations procedures and then go to the merchant guild hall. I'll meet you there when I'm done researching magic. I may be late though, just letting you know," I said.

"Yes, sir," Stylus said.

"You don't have to call me 'sir'," I said.

"Yes, sir," he said. I gave him a look. "I mean, yes, uh, what's your name?"

"Tom," I said.

"Yes, Tom," he said.

"Good. Alright. Unless you have something else to say, I think that's the meeting," I said, starting to walk towards the door with Abigail.

"There is one thing," Stylus said. "What are your plans? What is your goal? It's clearly not to take over and rise in the company."

"I want to rid the world of as much evil as I can. I know I can't eliminate it all. That's unrealistic. But I want to do what I can," I said.

"Ok. I can help you do that," Stylus said.

"What are your plans and goals, Stylus? How did you come to work for such a corrupt organization?" I said.

"I made a mistake at a major company in the upper city. They fired me and blacklisted me. No one would hire me. Dorian was the only person who did. So I took it. I didn't like the business practices, but they were legal as far as I knew. At least, the mercenary part was," he said.

"I know Dorian kept parts of his personal business from me, but I didn't look into it, because I needed the job. I couldn't afford to have moral objections."

"I understand that. You couldn't afford to disagree with your boss over how the business is run. You still can't directly choose the decisions my company makes either, because I'm in charge. But I can promise you I will always listen to what you have to say and be transparent with you about what I'm doing," I said.

"Thank you, sir. I mean, Tom. That means a lot to me," he said, his eyes watering.

"You're welcome. Alright, I'm off. I'll see you sometime tonight, Stylus. Be careful," I said.

"I will," he said.

Abigail and I left the building to look for a magic bookstore. The Red Tail Fox Company would be sending reinforcements soon and we had to be ready.