No Such Thing as Good and Evil

Faylen groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. As her blurry vision straightened out, she realized she didn’t recognize the ceiling of where she was or the small cot she was in and began to panic. She tried to get up, but pain immediately coursed through her entire body and she began to cough violently. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down now, you're ok.” A gentle yet seductive voice said. Faylen looked at the person speaking and found it was a female human sitting in a wooden chair at the end of the cot she was in. The woman was around her mid-20s, with a relatively standard height and build, short neon green hair with a bright red streak in it, and a large nose ring. She also wore black leather pants with a leather jacket on top of chainmail armor. “It’s ok now, you’re safe. You’re in the guild base back in Fleetwood. My name is Alisson, I’m the guild master here.”

Faylen then realized there were loud moans coming from the left of her and looked to see who they were coming from. She found she was indeed in the middle of what appeared to be the main lobby of the guild. There were various monster skulls hung on the walls, as well as what appeared to once be a quest board. There were also many wooden chairs and picnic like benches leaned up against the outer wall, no longer being used. That was because now the main attraction in the main lobby were the many other small cots, all with injured people in them. Her eyes went wide at the sight of all the injured people in the room, dozens of them, all with horrific looking injuries. From amputations, to full body casts and bandages. Some even had blankets over their entire bodies, suggesting they were no longer among the living.

“Unfortunately, due to the griffons attack on our local medical center, the guild hall has been re-purposed to be an impromptu hospital of sorts.” Allison said. “But now that you and your friend killed the griffons, we can get to rebuilding, we owe you our thanks.” She said with a loving smile.

“I’m going to be honest with you.” Shade said. “She didn’t do a whole lot.”

Faylen turned her head to her right to see Shade, who she had somehow not noticed as he was completely hiding his echos. He was sat in one of the wooden chairs, casually eating an apple back in his human form, with Lilah leaned up against the chair. Her eyes glistened at the sight of Lilah, but turned to worry as she couldn’t sense her at all. “What happened to Lilah?” She asked him.

“Lilah?” Alisson asked. “There was a third with you?”

Faylens eyes went wide again as she realized she had just screwed up. Luckily for her, Shade covered for her, but did it in the most Shade way possible.

“She named her bow Lilah. It’s weird I know, but what can you expect from someone who chooses to wear armor like that? Or from someone who tries to 1 v 10 a bunch of Griffons. Just not quite right in the head this one is.”

Faylen scowled at him, but internally was relieved he quickly managed to make up a somewhat believable story.

“I don’t think it's that weird.” Alisson said. ‘Well, the naming the weapon part at least.” She paused. “Or the armor part either really. Yes, I may personally find what she’s wearing to be odd, especially for someone who is going to fight things. But people tell me they find my outfits odd as well, so who am I to say.”

“Your personality and voice certainly don't match with how you look.” Shade agreed.

She smiled. “I get told that a lot.”

He looked at the two large steel swords she had sheathed in an X on her back. “So, you’ve named your two weapons then?”

“Yes.” She said rather embarrassed.

“Well…” he said. “What are the names?”

She looked sheepishly at him, like a shy school girl as she began to blush. “Don’t judge me, I named them this a long time ago.

“I would never.” He said and meant it as he thought back to when his 15-year-old self had chosen the name ‘Shade Knight’ because he thought it was cool.

“The one on the left is Grim and the right is Reaper.” She said. He laughed and she crossed her arms as her embarrassment grew. “You said you wouldn’t judge.”

“No, no you’re right, I'm sorry. Those are great names.” He gathered himself as he looked at them closer. “Those are rather large swords. Would be two handed swords even for most other species, do you somehow dual wield them?”

“Oh hell no.” She replied. “It’s hard enough to lug both of them around as is.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because I can’t afford a magic bag. I’m a human. I’m well aware of how much weaker we are, I am, compared to, well, everything. The only real chance I have in a fight is due to my skill with a sword. But if I drop it, or it’s knocked out of my hands, I’m fucked. I don’t have a bag I can just grab another one from, or any other skills to rely on, so I carry two at once to be safe.”

Shade leaned back in his chair and pondered this. How could she not afford a magic bag. They had paid 40 coins for 2 bags and a carriage worth of clothes. Though Chris did say that the quest only gave 100 coins because that’s all they could muster. He then considered seriously for the first time what a coin was really worth. Being born into a major family, and then working as a knight and an obsidian ranked adventurer, money had never really been an issue. He wasn’t much of a material person either. While he had jokingly considered how odd some prices were, he had never stopped to really think about the value of coins or the items he was purchasing. If he had to guess, he would think the bag cost 5 – 6 coins. But that would mean she couldn’t even afford that, while he had bags and bags of coins littered around his cabin. He even had some bars, and bricks in the basement with all the armor. A bar being worth 100 coins and a brick 1000.

“How many coins do you make a year?” he asked her with genuine curiosity.

She let out a laugh. “I would be lucky if I made one coin.”

“That can’t be right.” He replied. “Then how do you buy things?”

“Sorry.” She said. “I worded that poorly. I make a good number of coins per year, but almost all of them turn into food, supplies, equipment or any other life necessity. If the question is how many coins do I make a year that I can spend on what I want, I would be lucky if it was one. That goes for the rest of the town as well.”

Shade once again pondered what she had said. He wondered how he would live under those conditions. “How do you deal with that being your daily reality?” he asked.

She shrugged. “What other choice do we have, kill ourselves?”

He somberly nodded. “Fair point.”

Faylen awkwardly cut in, still worried about Lilah. “So…the bow…. umm…Lilah?”

Shade looked over to her. “I guess you wouldn’t have noticed since you were too busy being eaten at the time, but it let out a huge burst of energy when it slammed into the ground from you dropping it. Not sure if it broke or what, but I have to admit, it was pretty cool.”

Faylen stared at the bow worriedly as she kept trying to reach out to Lilah internally, but was getting no response.

“You need to rest Faylen, worry about Lilah later. Here take this.” He said handing a glass vial to her. She looked at it nervously. “Don’t worry it’s a healing potion.” She nodded and drank the potion, then immediately collapsed back into the bed, unconscious.

“What did you just give her?” Alisson said.

“A sleeping potion. She should’ve realized it; she was the one who made it. Just another one of her many failures today.” He said with a sigh, then took another bite out of his apple.

Alisson looked closer at Faylens torn up rainbow wings, her shattered body, and shredded armor. Then she looked over at Shade, who didn't seem to have a scratch on him. He had changed out of the clothes that Lilahs light beams blew holes through into new ones. She had thought he was joking when he said Faylen didn't help at all, but now she started to take that assertion more seriously. She began to get nervous as she thought about what that would mean, and looked rather wearily at him. “You said she didn’t help kill those griffons, is that actually correct?”

“Yea, she didn’t kill a single one. At best she was a distraction. Like a play toy for them.” He casually responded.

“You know we sent some people out there to confirm the kills…” she trailed off.

“You didn’t believe me when I brought in 10 griffon tails?”

Alisson felt a chill go down her spine. “No, its not that.” She quickly corrected. “But with how they’ve been terrorizing our town lately, I wanted to make 100 percent sure.”

“Ok, so what happened then?” Shade asked wondering what she was getting at. “Were they not there or something?”

“No, they were there…” she said trailing off again.

“Then what’s the problem?” he said with a raised eyebrow.

She gulped. “Our scouts relayed to us that 3 of the griffons seemed to have some holes through them. 5 of them had their heads perfectly cut off, and two of them were blown completely apart. He also mentioned there was a large hole, he called a crater, like a meteor had struck the ground in the middle of the where the fight took place.”

“Yea, sorry about that. I didn’t mean for the explosion to be that big. Also, I can’t take credit for all the kills, the holes weren’t me, that was from when the bow fell on the ground.”

“So, you killed 7 griffons then, all by yourself, with no help?” She said with the same nervousness.

“Yea, that’s right.” He said still eating his apple.

She gulped again. “And also, one dragon.”

It was then he noticed the nervousness and anxiety in her voice. He took a closer look at her and saw her hands were trembling in her lap. “Oh, I understand now.” He said as he became rather despondent. “You’re scared of me.”

“No…I’m sorry…I just… there was this horrid aura…it was like death...i thought it was from the dead dragon....but was it...” she said as her eyes went wide.

He put his hand up to stop her. “Its fine, I’m used to it.” He lied.

She though continued her panicked rambling. “I’m sorry, it’s just, you look like a human. You also feel like a human as well, which means you must think you have to hide what you are. And that aura i felt, it was darker then anything I've ever felt before. I fell to my knees, and multiple people in here passed out. I don't know how to even describe it. It felt like a god was furious with me. Like death was imminent and there was nothing i could do about it. But if that was you, that fight with the griffons took place miles away, which means...how would it have felt if i was right there. I might have died just from you letting out your echos. Not only that, but if you truly did kill all those griffons and that dragon, and that was your aura, then you must be using an illusion right now to look human. But I don’t sense a trace of echos coming from you. Which means you can somehow hide your echos while using them. That shouldn't even be possible, it breaks every known law of echos usage. The amount of power it must take…”

He cut her off with a slight smile. “Very astute of you. Yes, this is an illusion, but I promise you that however scared you are of me now, you would be much more scared if you knew what I really was.”

Her eyes somehow went even wider as the rest of her began to shake. “I understand, I apologize for even asking, it was rude of me.”

Shade stared for a moment at the shaking human sitting across from him, like a baby animal that had lost its mother. He placed the apple on the cot, and got a much more serious look on his face. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.” She quickly replied. “Anything you need, I will see it done.”

He shook his head. “I don’t need anything. I just want to ask you something. And I mean you, not the, ‘oh shit who is this monster in front of me, am I going to die?’ you that’s sitting there right now.”

She continued to shake, but nervously nodded her head. “I will answer any question you have as honestly as I can.”

“Good.” He replied, then took a sullen tone. “I imagine I already know the answer to this question, but do you ever dream of being something other than a human.”

She paused at the question, as surprise and confusion washed over her nervous face. After a moment, her shaking hands turned into shaking fists. “Of course, every day.” She said with frustration mixing with her nervousness.

He let out another slight smile while looking around the room of gravely wounded people. “You might not believe this, but I actually dream of being a human sometimes.”

“Why?” she asked.

“I imagine there’s something freeing about it. Something freeing about not having the responsibility of being strong, about living in secluded places, about nobody caring about you, about being anonymous.”

“I assure you there’s not.” She said with some audible irritation in her voice, which she caught as well. “Sorry, that was rather rude of me.”

“No, not rude at all.” He sighed. “That’s really what I’m talking about. I’m not sure if you have a mirror, but just look at yourself really quick.”

She didn’t know what he meant until she looked down at her shaking arms and legs then back to him, apologizing again. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, I mean no disrespect.”

He put his hand up again. “That is why I dream of it. You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last. Everyone I meet is either terrified of me, or tries to use me. I’m either a threat, or a tool, never a friend. Sometimes I wish I was a human, its why I walk around like this, as well as the fact I live in the woods not too far from here. I sometimes wish I was born into a nobody family, in a nowhere town. I live a nothing life, marry some mediocre woman, have average sex, have 3 shitty kids, then die of old age never building that table I always wanted to.”

“Oddly specific.” She said, with her nervousness clearly lessening as he spoke.

“Yea, well, when you’re alone all the time, you have a lot of time to think about what you would want to do if you weren’t.” he again looked out at the sea of future corpses in the guild hall. “I know it sounds stupid, like first world problems. And it probably is. I know people have lives worse than I do, I’m not ignorant to that. Of course, I have no idea how frustrating it must be to know virtually anybody could come in here and kill everyone and destroy everything and there’s nothing you could do about it. But I’m not sure anybody knows how frustrating it is to be that thing everyone is scared of.”

“You’re right.” She responded. “I had never considered that; I really am sorry.”

He waved her off again. “No, I’m sorry. I blew up your fields and now I’m monologuing. I’ve been told recently I do it too much.”

She let out a slight smile as she got up from her chair. “Its fine, I think it makes you more approachable.”

“Then I guess I should keep doing it.”

She giggled. “Well then Mr.” Then paused. “I just realized I don’t know your name.”

“Human.” He replied.

“Mr.…. human.” She said quizzically, while he nodded like an idiot. “And what would your first name be then?”

“Person.” He said with a perfect poker face.

“Mr. Person Human?”

“Yes ma’am, that’s me.”

She giggled again. “Ok then Mr. Human, lets go to the back so I can provide you with the reward from the quest.”

“Don’t need it.” He said as he grabbed the apple off the cot and went back to eating it.

“You saved us, we have to give you the…”

He cut her off again. “Nah, we never even registered that we were doing the quest. We were only doing it so this failure could prove she was above sand rank, but honestly sand might be a ceiling too high for her after today’s performance. Just take the coins and use them towards rebuilding the town.”

“I appreciate the generosity.” She said. “But we have to compensate you somehow, we would all be dead within weeks if you hadn’t shown up.”

“I know just the way” He replied while looking at the face of the sound asleep Faylen.

“How then?” she asked.

“Like I said, this one is going to become an adventurer. She also wants to help people, even though it may cause her to end up like this. According to Chris, there were many other human towns suffering similar issues to this one. For our reward, I would like a map with all those towns circled on it, and who the guild master in those towns are so that this rainbow winged punching bag can maybe redeem herself.”

She nodded. “I will get right on that.” She went to turn away, but turned back to him. “Oh, we also piled all the griffons together for you. Well, the non-blown to pieces griffons that is. There at the northern gate.”

“Why?” he asked.

She looked at him confused. “Because that’s the way this works? Adventurers have the right to the loot from their quests, which includes bodies of monsters. I know you’re saying this wasn’t a real quest since you never activated it, but they’re still your kills.”

“I don’t want them.” He casually said finishing off his apple. “You can have them.”

She shook her head. “I know lots of places allow adventurers to sell their kills to the guild, but we can’t afford it, I’m sorry.”

He shook his head back. “You misunderstand, I’m not selling them, you can just have them. I have no need for them.”

Her eyes went wide again. “Just have them? You’re just giving away 8 griffons? Do you have any idea how much they’re worth?”

“No clue.” He said with complete sincerity.

“Thousands, each.” She said. “The wealthy love their feathers for pillows and couches. Their talons apparently make quality weapons and armor, and their blood is used in a lot of high-quality potions.”

Shade shrugged. “Cool, then use that money to help the town as well. I’m rather lazy, I can promise you if I take those things corpses, I’ll just end up dumping them in a river somewhere rather than taking the time to sell them.”

She tried processing his offer, but in the end looked rather glum. “I appreciate the generosity, but I’m not so sure giving them to us would be a good idea.”

He pondered why for a moment, before realizing the obvious. “If you go to sell them, being humans, you’ll either be intimidated into a low price, or they’ll just be stolen from you.” She nodded. “Well then.” He said as he got up, removed the diamond shaped obsidian adventurer badge from his waist and walked over to her.

“Obsidian.” She said shocked. “I’ve never seen one before.”

He grabbed the badge in both hands and pulled, causing the badge to open revealing dozens of smaller versions of the badge inside. He grabbed one and handed it to her. “Here, take one of these.”

She took one and looked at the mini obsidian badge. “What is it?” She asked.

“A token. Basically, it means you’re under the protections of an obsidian adventurer. If anybody gives you trouble, just show them that.”

“Thank you.” She said, but looked at him with some of the same nervousness from before.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“Who are you? I mean, who are you really, not some fake name.”

“You really want to know?” He smiled.

She gulped, but nodded.

“Ok, if you really want to know.” He leaned in and began to whisper in her ear. “Shad…” but he paused, before internally nodding to himself. “My real name is Valvath Endross.”