As I finally finished playing around at all the possible options for a “slave-sworn” in awe, I finally looked up and glanced around the room again. The sky was darkening, and since the sun entered these windows first thing in the morning, and I couldn’t see it now, that meant that the time had to be after noon. Isabella and Brandr were both sitting in the floor cross-legged and finger chatting with each other, so as to not bother me, I assumed. And, as much as I hate to say it, I wasn’t surprised to see that they were both naked and wet. The wet part I could assume was due to them probably indulging in a long bath or shower while I was occupied, but I couldn’t understand why Brandr hadn’t put some clothes back on afterwards.

“Ummm…” I cleared my throat to get their attention. “Iz, can you tell me why she’s naked like that?”

“Well that’s simple. We’re in the room and I told her she didn’t need them. Her old clothes are drying from where we washed them and I let her know that we don’t bother with them in the room here.” She said it so matter-of-factly that even I almost believed that was the way it was supposed to be.

“Don’t worry,” she assured me, “I’ve been teaching her everything she needs to know so that she can settle in and adapt to us without any problems.”

“Ohhhhh. Umm…. OK.” Isabella was teaching her all she needed to know. Somehow, I had a sinking feeling about this, but what could I say? They both seemed like they’d been chatting quite easily with each other, and Isabella was half the party as well. I really couldn’t tell her not to teach Brandr the way around things, could I?

To distract myself from being uncomfortable about saying something to Isabella that I shouldn’t, instead I looked both the girls up and down and made myself uncomfortable in a different way. I really was damned, no matter what I tried to do this afternoon.

I’d gotten used to seeing Isabella naked, but the fact that Brandr was sitting there just as calmly across from her, was shocking to me! Now that she wasn’t all covered in dried blood and gore, I could tell that Brandr was an extremely attractive young lady as well. She had inherited her father’s pale blond hair, and her mother’s shapely oval face with the slanted eyes common to Asian people. The combination was unusual and striking, and with her hair down it highlighted how shapely and attractive her face was.

Her body was muscular and well-toned, but not so muscular as to be grotesque like one of those mindless body builders. There was still a definite hint of feminine softness to her, and unless it was just my imagination, one of her breasts was noticeably larger than the other one.

One of her breasts was… was..

OH! Bloody Hell!!

I smacked myself upside the head and almost felt like crying. What type of stupid ass system only grows a single breast at a time? What the hell to do in a case like this?

Sighing deeply, I sunk my head low and did the only thing a man, who’s trying to be a man, can do – I apologized. “Brandr, I’m sorry.”

Isabella just giggled. “What for?” She asked.

“It’s.. “ Damn it was hard to say! “It’s my fault she’s whop-sided now.”

Isabella laughed so hard she tumbled over into Brandr’s arms and hugged her. “Whop-sided!” She couldn’t stop giggling it seems. “I guess that’s one thing you could call it!”

The more she giggled, the redder my cheeks got. This stupid ass system hated me! I was certain of it! “I’m sorry,” I repeated. What else could I do? Isabella giggled while leaning on Brandr, who still sat there cross-legged and looking unconcerned, and I just sighed and tried to wait until she could get herself back under control.

Finally straightening up and wiping a tear from her eyes, Isabella looked over at me and, while smirking, asked, “Why apologize?”

Huh? I’m certain I didn’t hear that right. I’d just been caught meddling around altering with a woman’s cleavage – well, HALF her cleavage – who wouldn’t think I needed to apologize?

Still smirking, Isabella got up, walked over, and then sat herself down in my lap. She nuzzled up to my chest and wrapped her arms around my neck, before she continued. “She’s your blade.” She stressed the word ‘your’ so that she could be certain that I understood her point. “If you want to make one boob larger than the other, what’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t the owner of a sword treasure the one that best pleases his eye and suits his hand the most? It seems a little odd to me that you’d like one larger than the other, but each person has their own taste in style.

“Some folks like a sword that’s curved. Some like the thin and straight. Some have elaborate hilts and others don’t even bother with one. There’s a world of difference between a rapier, a katana, and a claymore. Brandr is your blade now. What’s wrong with making certain she’s the type of blade you can enjoy using the most?”

“Uh… umm… duh…” My jaw was opened wide in shock, and Isabella leaned forward and took advantage of the opening to give me one of her patented ‘let me taste your tonsils’ kisses. When she finally let up, she laid her head back down on my shoulder and giggled again.

“I have to admit though, I do find your taste in aesthetics a little unusual.” She started giggling again while snuggled up tightly to me. When she finally got herself back under control, she finally asked, “So how did you do that to her? I take it that it has to do something with all the poking you’ve been doing at thin air while staring so intently at whatever it was.”

The BIG question. Now, how do I explain it all? Taking a deep breath, I figured I’d just try and man up and tell it as simply as I thought I could.

“Well,” I started, “apparently what happened in the restroom must have counted as some sort of game event. Or personal event. Or something! All is know is when she took her sword back and accepted it, a window popped up asking me if I wanted to name or brand my ‘true slave-sworn’. I honestly didn’t know what to say or think, but that’s why I was so careful trying to get back here. I didn’t know what to do with the window.

“What if I’d closed it and then couldn’t figure out the command to get the window to pop up again? But slavery isn’t right either! And yet, Brandr can’t speak, so I didn’t think she could chose a name on her own. Without a system name, she can’t join our party. I honestly didn’t know what to do, so I wanted to just get here and sit and think on things for a while.”

Isabella giggled and kissed me on the ear. “Well, I wish you would’ve asked me for advice. You could’ve saved a lot of trouble by just naming her on the spot. She did agree to be your blade, didn’t she? What’s wrong with naming your own stuff, or marking it to show the world that it’s yours? People put their name in their underwear in magic maker for goodness sake! Why wouldn’t you want to mark your own blade?”

She made it sound so simple! But people didn’t own people. At least they used to not own people. Now, in this new world, I don’t know. Nothing makes sense to me anymore, and women make even less sense than everything else!

“So what’d you name her?” Isabella asked. “I take it you accepted and must have named her, or else you’d never have managed to make her ‘whop-sided’.” She giggled once again when she said it.

I tried not to break down, or blush, but Isabella’s constant little titters were making my cheeks flush. “Zephyr Roseheart,” I told her. “Her family had named her after a blade already, and she’s already a weapon. I was hoping that a better name might help her find a better, kinder path in life.”

“Awww…. That’s so sweet! That’s why we love our Drakey-poo!” Isabella giggled and leaned up and planted several more of her tonsil-kisses on me. Had she just confessed her love to me?

My mind blanked and my lips returned her kisses, and another part of me was starting to stand up and take notice to our behavior before Isabella quit and then wiggled her hips a few times against mine. “Well, just don’t stand there, tell us what happened after that!”

Didn’t she mean sit here? Maybe not. I wasn’t going to ask. I swear, women baffle me!

I tried to focus my now scattered thoughts, and it took me a few moments before I could. “After that, there was a new image that appeared to the right of my vision – like the part images appear to the left. The only real difference is that the window is wrapped by in an image that looks like shackles. I tried to talk to her like we can with the party chat, but that didn’t work. When I tried to touch the image though, it activated a pop up that gave me her stats and such things, just like I normally see my own!

“Brandr already had a natural 18 DEX, and since she had 310 points to spend, I tried to tap it a few times to see if she could get past the human limit, or if I could interact with it. Since she can’t talk, she’s never been able to say ‘stats’ and interact with the system, so there was a lot of points there! And, sure enough, her DEX went from 18 to 21 and she got the same bonus for being the first to pass the old limits, so she picked up another 5 DEX, a title, and a level from the title.”

I took a few moments to let all that sink in (and mainly to build up my strength to continue), and then I finished up telling them what happened. “There’s also a window that pops up that looks like a floating figure in one of those video games I used to play. Touching it lets you zoom in and out, and just about any option you can imagine is available to change for various points. To make a breast larger was only 0.1 points, so I tapped it a few times to see how it worked. When I saw that it did work and that her points had decreased by 0.2, I stopped actually changing anything.

“All I’ve been doing is looking and trying to learn what some of the options is since then,” I told them both defensively. “Honestly, all I did was help raise her DEX to where she’d get the bonus before someone else might, and then test out the cheap alteration to her breasts! I haven’t really messed with much. I figured it’d be best to get her opinion first.”

“No.” Isabella said it simply and placed her finger across my lips.

“No?” Did I miss something? “No what?”

“No, you’re not going to get her opinion.” Isabella informed me matter-of-factly.

“Why? Why not?” I was blinking in confusion.

“Because, she’s your blade now.” She made it sound like such a normal, everyday thing – like saying, “It’s your car. Paint it or put the engine you want in it.” People aren’t like cars in this new world. Are they?

Slowly Isabella got up and moved out of my lap. She went over and tugged on Brandr’s hand gently and she got up to stand beside her. “We’ll go and continue our chat in the restroom and won’t bother you while you figure out what you want from your blade.” She kept emphasizing the word ‘your’, but I was still having problems accepting that they were going to trust this whole mess to me to sort out!

“Wait!” I yelled for them to stop before they could get to the bathroom. “There’s one important thing which I want to know first.”

Isabella frowned and looked like she was going to go on to the bathroom with her, so I continued in a rush, “Brandr, would you like me to fix your voice? There’s an option for that in there for 100 points, so it’d use a large chunk of what you’ve gained so far, but I can buy off your Disadvantage: Mute if you’d like.”

The two just stood and stared first at me, then at each other for several moments before Brandr’s hands started moving and Isabella nodded at her. “She says that it’s a wonderful thing to think and dream about, but she doesn’t think you need to waste the points on it. She can already talk with her hands, and there’s paper and tablets here that she can use if she needs to communicate with you. But, she says that the truth is, even if you were to give her a voice, she wouldn’t know how to use it. It’d take a lot of time for her to master using something she’s never had before, and that’s time and points which can be used for training and learning other things. She’s used to not having it, and she truly doesn’t need it.”

Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting! I would have thought that she’d jump at the chance to be able to talk! “Is.. Is that right, Brandr?” It’s not that I didn’t trust Isabella to translate; I just wanted to make certain to give her a second chance to think about it.

Brandr just nodded and then turned and starting walking back to the bathroom with Isabella.

“Are you certain?” I just had to ask once again, but neither one of them even looked back or answered as they walked into the other room and left me standing there alone.

Frustrated and uncertain how to proceed, I went over to where Lunchmeat lay tied in the corner and proceeded to kick him until he passed out again. That little bastard needs more health! I didn’t get to relieve half the frustration I felt!

Just what the hell was I supposed to do? Over 200 points left to spend, and neither of them was even going to so much as sit in here and offer me advice. The fate of another person was left solely in my hands. Or was it the fate of a blade?

I’ll be damned if I knew anymore!