//------------------------------// // Chapter 25: Duel // Story: Souls Apart // by GnollReader //------------------------------// For what seemed like minutes, the paladin stood frozen before him, his arms in her hands and her gaze locked on the burn marks that decorated them... until he grew tired of it. The necromancer pulled his arms out of her grasp with a sigh, readjusting his robes around his wrists once more and hiding the scars. His gazed followed her shocked, frozen expression, "Come on now..." he raised an eyebrow with a weak smile, "Surely, you can't be that surprised?" "I can't believe it..." she whispered, still frozen with her hands out, "I... it's impossible... it's forbidden!" she looked up into his face, "They simply couldn't have! The Order proclaimed this form of exorcism illegal!" her voice was becoming louder and louder with each word. A sad laugh escaped him, "Tell that to the guy with the branding iron..." he leaned his head back and closed his eyes before starting to chant the words from memory, "And by the blessing of the Lord's holy and purifying sun... the fires of life shall cleanse you from your wretched demons and sins... and then... sizzle... the smell of burnt skin and everything that came with it..." he opened his eyes again and looked at her, "They always took those psalms a bit too... seriously, didn't they? Or maybe I'm just standing on the wrong side of the fence?" The paladin continued to stare at him, "But why?" "Why?" he gave her a slightly annoyed look, "What do you think? Mengus would have looked like a fool if he tore up half the city and all they could present the Order was some low-life kid living in the sewers. So he became desperate and did what he always does, bend the rules a bit... declare it was demons all along and that only by his sheer sacrifice and faith he was able to save a child from the grasps of evil..." "That's not what I meant!" she gave him an angry glare, "Why did you save me?!" He sneered, "This again? I have no obligation to..." he was stopped as she grabbed him by the collar of his robes. "Stop it already! I realize by now that you could have killed me all along! I'm not that dumb! You could have let me die back when the portal crashed as well! Even in the forest you could have just left! And still... after all the Order has done to you, after all I did to you... Why?! Why did you save me?!" He looked at her with a calm face and slowly reached up to undo her hands from his collar, "You remind me of her..." he replied with a sad smile, "Naive... but kind." a small laugh escaped his lips as he watched her puzzled face, "More naive than kind though..." he turned around and started to walk back to his tower, "See you around..." "How..." Aergad stopped as he heard her voice, "How am I supposed to carry on like this?" he turned around to see Calindria had sunk onto her knees, "How can I continue to believe that the Order stands for all that is right when they did something like that?" she looked up at him, "What do I do now?" The necromancer shook his head with a smile, "Carry on, of course. What else? Just because the Order is made up of nothing else but dicks doesn't mean you've got to be one too. As far as I'm concerned, you're more of a nuisance than one of them anyway..." he chuckled, "So do what you do best. Be that paladin that you always wanted to be and annoy me some more... I still got a ton of challenges just for you, after all." he turned around and continued his way, "And I'll be the necromancer that I always wanted to be... wicked, but genuinely awesome." --- Aergad had been walking for half an hour, his mind constantly swaying between his past and these last days before he heard a small stampede approach his position from behind, "Great." he mumbled, "Here comes the cavalry..." he stopped and turned around to look back up the road. Just like he expected, the damn ponies were on his tracks... There was Applejack, and boy did she look furious. Next to her was Twilight... he scratched his chin in thought, what was the rest of her name again? There was also a yellow pegasus he didn't recognize, but she definitely looked angry too. The necromancer gave a sigh and waited for them to approach. "There you are!" Applejack hollered as she ran towards him, "Wait till I get my hooves on you!" "What is it?" he replied with a casual voice, "Do you want me to shrink you again? Or should I turn you into a frog?" The three ponies came to a halt before him... or at least two of them. The yellow pegasus chose to hover in front of his face instead, giving him a glare that would've put a pit demon to shame, "You big meanie! You're going to apologize to Applejack! And then you're going to go back there and apologize to Calindria for making her cry!" He stared into her eyes with an impassive gaze, "Nope." he flicked her nose with a finger, making her flinch and snap out of her glare, "That stare may work on animals and the lot... but I've seen worse. So, bug off." he turned to the other two, "Applejack was a bit too unfriendly for my tastes, so I gave her a chance to cool off..." Aergad turned back to Fluttershy, "As for the paladin... she's not crying because of something I did, but because of something I didn't." The necromancer saw Fluttershy's and the other ponies' puzzled expressions and shook his head with a groan, "Why am I even bothering? Damn ponies don't know anything..." he muttered and turned around to continue his walk again. "I challenge you..." The necromancer stopped dead in his tracks, "What was that?" he asked with a quiet voice as he turned around slowly. Twilight glared at him, "I challenge you to a magic duel! If I win, you're going to apologize to Applejack and Calindria! You're going to take friendship lessons... And you're going to teach me some of your magic!" Aergad stared at her with an unmoving face, "And what if I win?" his voice was a tone lower than usual. As Twilight continued to glare at him, a small smile appeared on her face. She was certain, if the paladin and princess Celestia could handle him, then she could too. "What do you want?" The necromancer stared at her for another moment. Then, a wicked thought crossed his mind and an evil grin spread on his face. This, he decided... he would enjoy.