Sweet Reparations

Both Gamer and rogue squirmed at the presence of the other as they finished signing the contract. Despite how magical and powerful the whole process had seemed in John’s mind, the actual event was rather… boring. He got more excitement from seeing how Alanah reacted when she got too close to his aura, and even that lost its luster after the first hour. Despite the fact that they were working within a time limit, Alanah didn’t even try to speed things up. Anytime she thought she might have had a chance to trick him, she took advantage of it and added a line into the contract that would somehow inevitably lead to either his enslavement or the loss of his soul. There were some consequences of that nature in the contract that he let slip through, but none of them were brought on if John failed to do something like bow his head whenever he met the rogue. If one of them failed to see their part of the contract through to the end, however, then the punishments would take place.

When they finally finished and John was at last happy with the wording of the contract, Otrov signed it first… and then passed the pen back to John. Somehow, the hours and hours of work they put into wording that contract felt strangely insignificant when compared to the moment of time for John to finally sign the page. His hand was shaking so much when he touched the pen down that he was actually surprised to find that his signature was legible. Worse than that, he realized that there wasn’t any way for him to duck out of the obligations of his contract. As he was staring down at the pair of names on the paper, the ink seemed to shift before his eyes. John’s name remained the same when he looked at it, but the name next to his seemed to melt before his very eyes as he watched.

It wasn’t an illusion, that much he could confirm with just a glance. It was how her name had been written. The rogue had written ‘Otrov’ down on the contract instead of her actual name, but as John was staring at it, the name faded away like it hadn’t ever been written down in the first place, and in time… ‘Alanah Walsh’ appeared in its stead.

Achievement Unlocked! ‘Dangerous Game.’
You’ve signed a contract with one of the darker parts of the Abyss and have begun dealing in souls. That probably wasn’t a good idea. Hopefully, this will help you make better ones.
+1 Wisdom.

Achievement Unlocked! ‘Bounty Hunter.’
Someone has a price on their head and, unfortunately, you need to get paid. Thankfully, **** actually isn’t one of the worst things you can do in the Abyss… but if you were this **** for money, you should have just said so.
+1 Wisdom.
+$100

“Should we seal it with a kiss?” Otrov giggled, and John waved his pop-ups away. The screens were the only things he needed to see to know that the contract had worked. Despite her teasing, Otrov turned away from the Gamer when the two of them moved to climb back up off the ground. She didn’t step out of his aura, not yet. He had been in the presence of intoxicating women and could understand the instinct to linger. A part of him wondered if that meant that it was his aura that was so pleasant or if it was something else about him and the aura was just a bonus.

Neither seemed to be true, however. Once they finished stretching, Otrov turned away without a care in the world for John and his magic. In a way, she seemed to be just as relieved as he was that they were bound to this deal because, for the first time since he met her, Otrov actually put her back to him. At least as far as he knew. It was entirely possible that she had done it before when she was still able to hide from him with her illusions, but truly seeing it first hand made the moment all that much more important to him. That kind of trust was something he hadn’t expected from someone who had tried to kill and capture him not too long ago, and it almost struck the Gamer still with surprise as she collapsed the barrier around them.

A nearby dog yelped and whined seeing them pop back into existence and then took off running in the opposite direction.

He thought about some of the things she had said to him as she walked away, but didn’t let her make it ten feet before he chased after her. Ignoring the pup that had nearly suffered a heart attack thanks to their sudden materialization, John reached and grabbed her by the arm before she could disappear again. For once, Otrov didn’t try to pull away from him or reach for a weapon. Her hands went towards them out of instinct, but she didn’t actually touch the daggers. Instead, the rogue turned to smirk at him.

“Reconsidered? If not, then I ought to tell you that grabbing my arm is a good way to send the wrong message.” She smiled, and John dropped his hand. She cocked an eyebrow at him as he requested for her to wait, but the rogue didn’t seem like the type who wanted to listen to him. Almost immediately after asking her to stay for at least a second, she turned her back on him again, so he blurted out what it was that he wanted to say… before he lost the chance.

“I’m sorry.” he muttered, and Otrov stopped.

“I… didn’t want to kill him. When you guys attacked, I tried to- I wanted-” His voice got caught in his throat and John had to fall silent as he tried to find it again. “He was going to kill me and Grace and I couldn’t let that happen. I… I had to do it.” Otrov didn’t make him wait in silence.

“Then why are you apologizing?” Her voice was sharp with John this time. He could hear what sounded like a subtle warning in the way she was speaking to him, like she was trying to give him a chance to just stop talking, but he ignored it. Even if he did anger her with this, the contract protected him from her attacks. If either one of them tried to hurt the other now, before the contract was completed, they lost their soul to the other. There was a pause where only the sound of sprinklers going off in the distance could be heard, and then John frowned back at her. “Why are you sorry?”

“You said your Magus saved you, right? Raised Michel?” He hesitated, and slowly she nodded. “Raised you?” She didn’t answer that question, but John felt like he knew the answer anyway. “Then… then that means that, in a way, I killed your brother… so…

“I’m sorry.”