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[giantanimal]

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[giantanimal]

Yes. I am a prisoner here until you decide I am reformed.

[major_rawne]

Basically, yeah. Though it's not my choice unless we get permanently paired. Or you manage to graduate in a month.

[giantanimal]

So graduate me. I've learned my lesson. I'm a changed man.

[major_rawne]

That quickly? I'm surprised. How did you change, exactly?

[giantanimal]

However I need to in order to get back home fastest. I have responsibilities. I'd think you wardens would be in favor of me honoring them.

[major_rawne]

You can go home to the instant you left. Your responsibilities will be there when you return.

[giantanimal]

So? My life is on pause at the whim of someone I neither know nor trust. That he will supposedly leave my entire world on pause until I return does not make me feel as much better as you seem to think it should.

It's like being caught in the middle of a sneeze.

[major_rawne]

I was an inmate, when I first got here. I know it's not pleasant to be ripped away from home and dumped here. Going back isn't a question of ticking a few things off a list, though, and the sooner you realize that, the better.

[giantanimal]

[A moment of tense silence, then:]

Is there anything else you require of me?

[major_rawne]

No. If you have any requests for items, let me know.

[giantanimal]

I'd like a sword.

[major_rawne]

[Of course.]

No weapons.

[giantanimal]

Afraid I'll go on a murderous rampage? I'm a dangerous barbarian, I know.

[major_rawne]

Not because you're a barbarian. I don't give any inmates weapons.

[giantanimal]

Fine. Afraid I'll go on a murderous rampage? I'm a dangerous inmate, I know.

[major_rawne]

You'd be far from the first if you did.

[giantanimal]

Did you?

[major_rawne]

Not a spree, no, but I killed a few people when I was an inmate.

[giantanimal]

Before you heroically reformed and became a warden, you mean.

If I really wanted to kill people, I wouldn't need a sword to do it.

[major_rawne]

Believe me, I've been tempted to kill people recently, but if I did, I'd get demoted and I don't want to slog through being an inmate again.

You seem the sort who can kill with anything he can get his hands on. [He means this as a compliment.] I'm still not giving you a weapon.

[giantanimal]

Yet you have no qualms dragging others through that slog. And your only motivation for being reformed is a fear of punishment?

I have lived my life with all the honor I could. I protect those weaker than myself. Everything I do, I do for my country and my people. Please explain what precisely it is that makes you better than me.

[major_rawne]

From my perspective? Not a damn thing. The only difference between you and me is luck and time. I'm not better than you just because I graduated and anyone who'd say I was is a fool.

[giantanimal]

So what is the point? And why are you going along with it?

[major_rawne]

The point is that you get a second chance. A chance to figure out why you ended up here and do it over, better. And I'm doing it because the Admiral offered me a deal to save the soldiers under my command.

[giantanimal]

I'm looking to save soldiers under my command too. I just don't expect the Admiral to be much help.

[major_rawne]

Wardens make deals for things we can't do on our own. The men and women under my command are at the brink of death and there's too many enemies to deal with without an outside intervention. So I made a deal for him to provide that.