"That would be the idea, yes. With the understanding that I will expand when invited to do so by a population."

"Yes. As long as your projects are no threat to provinces under my protection. If the inhabitants see you as someone to protect against, they may call on me. And if that happens I cannot promise not to oppose you."

"Well, then we may find ourselves doing this all over again if some sort of misinformation gets out, but I don't plan on harming civilians or harmless people in general."

"Then, if you include defense of others alongside self-defense, this should not conflict with anything else where I have given my word."

"Okay. And if this works out and you seem to be behaving yourself I might be able to provide you ethically sourced power fuel, but we'll see how it goes first."

"Three."

"Or maybe you will adopt a posture of only being interested in cooperating insofar as I trust complete strangers with enormous body counts and I won't want you to have any such thing! That's also an option." Cam shrugs, breaks the cuff on her foot, and appears a treaty.

Wanting it in writing is kind of extraneous to the whole inviolability thing, but it's not like Cam is the first to want the formality. She signs her no longer accurately descriptive name.

Cam's was already on it. He slags the Hatchet Face head. He turns to Rei. "Are you covered under her agreement?"

"If that kind of deal's all you want, I can be."

"Okay. See if you can sign one of these with your hands like that and then I'll see if I can undo the thing."

Signatures don't usually need to be legible. He scribbles some mark to indicate agreeing.

Cam attempts to disintegrate the bone linking his ankles with interpolated water.

That hurts, at least to the extent this guy can be hurt, but nothing disintegrates.

"Well, if you happen to know any substances that can damage your bones you could tell me, but if that didn't work..." Cam makes another Hatchet Face.

"Nothing. I'm indestructible as far as," the Hatchet Face appears less than a Hatchet Face radius away. "Usually."

And with the Hatchet Face in place presumably Cam can just work with an ordinary saw and painkillers and then patch the skin where the bone grew through.

Ordinary to Cam, yes. Not quite ordinary as far as the twenty-first-century observers are concerned.

Well, at any rate, Rei can move around again. And he can have a tracking chip as long as bits of him are numb. So can Moord Nag. So can all the sleeping assistant warlords before Cam wakes them up and explains the deal.

As soon as he's back to normal Rai walks outside the radius and kills the jar. No reason not to be indestructible as well as mobile.

Well, they are all informed of the parameters of the situation and informed that if they make trouble they don't get a second strike. Cam has killed people, but if the people are smart he usually doesn't have to.