No Such Thing as Good and Evil

Faylen, Gaelin, Merith, Saria, King Orist, Queen Leena, as well as the 8 other knight commanders all in their golden armor, sat around a large round marble table that had a detailed map of the continent pictured on it. Merith and Saria sat next to each other, staring at Faylen, who was sat on the other side of the table, with Gaelin to one side of her, and an empty chair on the other.

Gaelin had his head in one hand, while he was tapping his finger on the table with the other. He peered over at Faylen. “Did he say where he was going?”

“No.” She replied awkwardly, her anger from before had turned into nervousness from the immense amount of powerful people who were in the room with her. “All he said was there was some place of mass importance he had to visit before he came here.”

King Orist slammed his fist onto the table. “I knew it, I knew we couldn’t trust that guy, why did we let him into the castle! He’s probably off murdering…”

He was cut off by the door flying open with Shade walking through, now back in his human form and a dozen bottles of liquor in his arms. He walked over to his chair, with everybody watching in shock as he dropped the bottles onto the table, with none of them breaking by some small miracle, before sitting down in between Faylen and an elf. He stood all the bottles up and looked around the table. “Anybody want one? I brought enough to share with the class.” Silence echoed throughout the room. “Oh, come on, there must be something here you like. I got one of virtually everything, vodka, gin, rum, even something called Gods Elixir. I asked the bartender, at least I think he was a bartender, either way, I asked a man at the bar what it was, and he said it was liquor made from Godstone. I have no idea how you get liquid from a rock, but it sounded expensive, so I wanted to try it.” He picked up the rainbow-colored bottle and looked it over. “Only 25 percent? God must have a low tolerance.”

“It’s like he never left” The female elf that was sat next to him said.

Shade looked over to her. “Rania! You’re a knight commander now? Good for you.” He then turned to Faylen, gesturing towards Rania. “You know she once served under me, in more way than one. We would have sex ALL the time, you should see the kinky shit she’s into.”

Rania looked over at him, mouth agape, then slapped him on the shoulder. “What’s wrong with you?”

“What?” Shade said, rubbing his shoulder with mock shock to being slapped. “I don’t see a ring on your finger.”

“That doesn’t mean you just talk about those types of things.” She replied.

“I’m just saying, maybe if you were more open with your wants and needs, someone would’ve married you.” Shade shrugged.

“Then Mr. Open book, where’s your ring.” She retorted, pointing to his ringless ring finger.

“Marriage isn’t for me; I prefer messing around with emotionally broken people, like you.”

“Emotionally broken? What does that mean?”

“You know what I mean.” Shade said gesturing at her hair. “I mean c’mon, what’s with the hair?” Her hair was mostly pink, but the tips of the hair were teal. Her bangs were stylized like shark teeth while in the back her hair looked like a large letter V.

She threw her arms up in exasperation. “This is my natural hair; we’ve been over this thousands of times! My mother has pink hair and my father blue!”

“Hmm.” Shade said squinting his face with doubt. “I don’t think that’s how genetics work.”

“What do you know of genetics!” She yelled.

Loud bangs echoed through the room and Shade turned to see Gaelin was slamming a gavel he didn’t have before on the table. “Order, can we have order in this room. If you two want to have flirtatious sexually charged banter, please do it on your own time.”

Rania looked offendedly at Gaelin. “Sexually charged? With him? I would neve…”

She was cut off by Gaelin pounding the table with the gavel again. When he stopped, Shade looked over at her. “You can’t say never, we did multip….” He was cut off this time by the pounding gavel. He turned and looked at Gaelin. “What, we did?” Gaelin then threw the gavel at him, and it struck him square in the forehead, before clanking to the ground by Faylens feet. Shade rubbed his forehead, confused. “Ouch…that…legitimately hurt.”

“It’s made from godstone.” Gaelin said.

“Is everything here made from godstone now?” Shade asked.

“Pretty much.” Gaelin replied matter of factly.

“Was there some great godstone revolution I missed. Was a huge godstone mine discovered? Isn’t it supposed to be rare and powerful, yet it’s being used for gavels? I mean…”

While Shade was going on a godstone rant, Gaelin leaned in close to Faylen. “Can you reach down and grab the gavel so I can throw it at him again.”

“Of course.” Faylen replied and grabbed the gavel off the ground, handing it to Gaelin, who threw it at Shade immediately, hitting him square in the forehead again, this time leaving a welt.

“Son of a bitch Gaelin!” Shade yelped, rubbing his forehead some more.

“If you’re done Shade, we can begin the meeting.” Gaelin said pointedly.

“You know, leaving the knights and becoming a criminal outlaw doesn’t have many perks, but one of them has to be the lack of meaningless meetings.” Shade replied.

“Calling what you did ‘leaving’ is a bit generous, no?” A phoenix said from the other side of table. The phoenix was a female mostly human looking figure. She had bright red hair that had embers crackling off it, bright glowing golden eyes, and the same angelic wings Gaelin had, except hers engulfed by flame. Her fingers looked more like talons then fingers and her voice was high pitched, almost like a bird’s chirp.

“Oh! A phoenix! Those are quite rare!” Shade said turning his attention to her. “How do you keep your armor from melting all the time?”

“It has heat resistance imbued in it.” She replied flatly.

Saria cut in. “Are we just all going to pretend that a mass murdering wanted criminal isn’t sitting calmy in this room with us right now?” She said rather emotionally. Saria, being the daughter of the current king, was a Fairy like he was. She had the standard royal rainbow wings, royal golden hair, golden eyes, and just like Faylen and Vestelle, a figure that would make models jealous.

“What’s your deal?” Shade asked her.

“What my ‘deal’?” She said harshly. “My deal is my daughter is currently traveling around with one of the most notorious mass murdering lunatics the continent has ever seen!”

“Big words from someone who threw her out the door merely because the church decided she was evil.” Shade replied while taking a swig from the bottle of Gods elixir, then coughing. “This is awful.” He said, then took another swig.

Faylen looked over at him disappointedly. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I haven’t seen you drink in weeks. I thought maybe you had finally quit.”

“Yeah, well, I wanted to, but when you’re in a room with as many self-righteous hypocritical assholes as this, the only thing to do is drink.” He replied.

Saria was still seething from Shades barb. “How dare you. How dare you! Do you know the risk it was for me to even bring her to that orphanage? I tried; I did everything I could for my daughter!”

“Well, your ‘everything’ led to your daughter being raped, tortured, then sold as a slave to an alcoholic dead dragon, so I’m not quite sure how much your everything is really worth.” He replied.

“You have no idea what I did to try and save my daughter.” She said through gritted teeth.

“Maybe, but can I take a guess? You did what you could for her, but when it failed, you had to follow what the church said to do. You seem to think taking her to that orphanage was some heroic act, but it wasn’t, it was cowardly. A way you could do what the church wanted while you could tell yourself the bullshit you are now to help you sleep at night. You see you might not like anything I’ve done, but I’ve always done what I felt is right in that moment. You on the other hand do what the church tells you to, like the good little pawn on their chess board you are. Where is this church for this meeting anyway, we all know they really run the show around here. I mean, all your swords have golden cross hilts.”

“That would be me.” A man sitting on the opposite side of the table said with his talons calmy folded on the table. The man looked like an anthropomorphic eagle. With a large white feathered bird head, white feathered wings coming off of his back, and birdlike talons as hands. He also had the same golden glowing eyes that Gaelin and the phoenix had.

“Oh, a harpy with angelic wings represents god, how cliché.” Shade said taking another swig. “Which god do you follow here again? There's so many of them it’s hard to keep track.”

“Rivas.” The man replied.

“Rivas, the god of light, that’s right. Makes sense with your eyes looking like torches. What’s with that anyway, Gaelin said it was some sort of blessing? I thought it would be rare but it seems Rivas is rather loose with who he gives it to.” Four of the 10 armored knight commanders had the glowing eye sockets, Rania and Merith though did not. Shade turned to her. “I take it you’re some sort of sinner then? Actually, you don’t need to answer that, I know the things we’ve done.”

Rania scowled. “I just haven’t completed the trials yet.”

“Trials?” Shade asked legitimately intrigued. “What are they? Can I do them?

“No.” The harpy said.

“Why not?”

“Because you have dark echos.”

Shade shook his head sarcastically. “So, he’s a slut and a racist, some god.”

“I would kindly ask that you do not disrespect our god.” The harpy said sternly.

“Or what, is he going to smite me? You know I’ve met people claiming to be gods before, and I’ve disrespected them before, and I’ve yet to be smitted.”

The bird raised an eyebrow. “You’ve met the gods before?”

“Just one actually.” Shade replied. “Also let’s be clear that I don’t believe any of these beings are gods, I think they’re just powerful creatures who call themselves gods to make people think their more important than they actually are and further their own agendas.”

“Which god did you supposedly meet?” The bird asked, ignoring the atheistic comment.

“After I left the knights, I traveled back north towards Endross, which obviously was in ruin. From there I went west, and ran into an old run-down temple. It was sealed shut, but as anybody would, I broke the seal and broke in. There I found a woman made completely out of water. She claimed to be the goddess of life, Colandria, and that she was banished to live on the mortal world for a thousand years, or something like that. Apparently, the so-called gods aren’t supposed to interfere with the mortal world, which is clearly bullshit based on your eyes. Either way, she said she killed off a bunch of necromancers and some ultimate god banished her from where the gods reside for a thousand years. I didn’t talk with her for very long though as talking with crazy people trapped in caves isn’t a past time of mine.” He replied, while aptly finishing the bottle of Gods Elixir during the conversation.

The birds’ eyes went wide as he leaned back in his chair shocked. “That information is top secret. I’m not sure how many people know of the reason for Colandria’s banishment. You really did meet her?”

“Yea?” Shade replied dismissively. “What, have you never met Rivas?”

“No.” The bird replied. “We only ever hear his voice.”

“Maybe he’s ugly.” Shade shrugged, opening a second bottle, this one whiskey.

Gaelin pounded the table with a new gavel he had pulled from what Shade assumed was a magic bag he had hidden somewhere. “You can have as long a theological argument and discussion you want later; we need to get back to the point of the meeting.”

“What is the point of the meeting?” Saria snarled. “You wish to ask the black devil for help in some matter? After all he’s done?” She then looked at Faylen. “Has he ever told you why he ‘left’ the knights?”

“No.” Faylen replied flatly, refusing to make eye contact with her mother.

“Oh?” Saria replied as if it was a huge revelation, turning her gaze to Shade, but he had no visible reaction.

“Go right ahead.” He replied taking a swig of whiskey. “I’m not hiding anything.”

“Well then.” Saria said gesturing with her hand to Gaelin. “He’s your guest, the honor should be yours.”

Gaelin sighed. “Fine.” He then turned his whole body to face Faylen. “Are you aware that the king here is the brother of the former king?”

“Yes.” She replied.

“Well, as you may know, the only way a king leaves the throne is if he resigns or dies. In this case, it was the latter.”

“Shade had something to do with his death?” Faylen asked.

“Something.” King Orist snarled.

“I don’t want to go into the specifics of why he did it, as Shade and Orist would argue all day about it, he can tell you his side at some other time.” Gaelin replied. “But yes, he had something to do with it. And by something, I mean, he killed the King, Queen, half the knight commanders and about 50 other knights, all at once.

Faylen slowly turned her head to face Shade with an odd expression. It was a mixture of intrigue, anger and confusion. Shade returned her gaze with a proud face, like this was his greatest life’s achievement. “Impressive, right? I think he’s lowballing the number by quite a bit too, there were some merchants in that room as well as some minor nobles. You would think with how many people were in there, one of them would’ve thought ‘hey, maybe we shouldn’t threaten a dragon that can shoot hells fire in a tiny room with only one exit’, but I guess that was asking too much from those idiots.”

Faylen shook her head, but turned away from him without saying anything. Saria was confused by this. “You don’t care that he killed all those people?”

Faylen glared at her mother, finally looking at her for the first time. “I don’t know what the situation was or why he did it, but I’ve known him long enough to know he does what he believes is right.”

“You believe he of all people is a good person?” Saria asked, bewildered at her daughters’ words.

“I’m not saying he’s good, I’m not saying he’s bad.” She replied. “I think he does what he thinks is good. Whether or not it actually is, is another story. I’ve heard many stories of awful things he’s done from Aerith, and I’ve seen him do things that I don’t agree with, but I’m confident that in his mind those things are good things and the right things to do. Compared to people who know the things they are doing are bad and do them anyway, he’s an angel.”

Shade smiled at the response, while king Orist slammed the table with his fists again. “He killed my brother, my sister-in-law, and 50 plus knights and nobles, and you call him an angel?”

Faylen turned her cold glare to Orist. “Do you know why we’re sitting here your highness? Let me enlighten you in case you forgot. All of these people here.” She said gesturing at the rest of the table. “All of these knight commanders, some apparently blessed by a god, failed to protect or find your daughter Vestelle. You failed to protect your daughter. Shade though, did not. He knew that saving her would be a risk, he didn’t know what he was going to find when we went to her, but he didn’t care. Do you know what we found your highness? We found her, and her captors naked. They were going to rape her, torture her then bring her to Merellien where they were going to rape and torture her some more. Shade stopped that. Then, he brought her here, knowing he might be attacked, he might be killed. He also knew if he came here, the fact he’s still alive would be revealed to the world, but he took all those risks to save your daughter.”

She then looked back to her mother and father. “And the same goes for me. Where you gave me to some orphanage and left me to die, he saved me. I was going to be killed and sold for parts because slavers didn’t even think I was worth one coin, but Shade bought me, helped free me from my curse, and has now helped train me, how could I call him evil when I wouldn’t be sitting here without him?” Shade got an even bigger grin on his face as she continued her rant. “Was he black out drunk when he bought me? Yes. Was that probably a large reason he bought me? Yes.” The grin lessened a bit on his face. “Did he bring me to Aerith and get my curse broken because he felt bad about sleeping with me while I was his slave? Yes.” The grin lessened more. “Is he a terrible teacher? The worst.”

The smile completely left his face. “I think they get the point.” He said.

She looked over to him quickly then back to her parents. “The point is, he may be one of the worst people in your history books, but my history book would’ve ended a long time ago without him, and it would’ve been because of you. No knight saved me, no god saved me, and certainly you didn’t, but he did, and I won’t forget that.”

“My history book? That was cheesy as shit.” Shade said, and Gaelin nodded causing a huff from Faylen.

King Orist opened his mouth to speak but his wife put a nervous hand on his and he stopped, then looked at her. While still refusing to look at Shade, instead shaking while staring blankly at the table in front of her, Queen Leena spoke for the first time since Shades arrival. “I do agree that saving my daughter and granddaughter is worth a lot, it’s worth the world to me. We though also can’t overlook his transgressions, his saving my blood does not clean up the gallons of blood he has spilled of others. You would struggle to find mathematicians that could count in their head high enough to match the amount of people that dragon has killed. But now is not the time for this argument. Gaelin, if there is a reason you called this meeting and allowed Shade to enter back into our castle, please get on with it.

King Orist looked surprised at his wife’s words, while Gaelin nodded, then leaned back in his chair.

“Sounds like you need some better mathematicians.” Shade quipped.