Justice

The table creaked under my weight, foot pushing me onto the back legs of my chair. I closed my eyes, darkness giving me a few moments of rest, hood pulled over my face. I knew this place; a murmur filled building, a place where I could and be alone, surrounded by people, silent and safe.
The murmurs stopped.
My eyes snapped open, shooting towards the door. He stood there, staring only at me, a force of nature come to find me.
My hands flipped to the hilt of my knife, hiding underneath the fabric of my cloak. I took a moment to gather more about him.
The city paled behind him; the snow looked grey behind the white of his armor. His coat was flipped back, ignoring the weather, pressing forth his purpose in a way only that stance could.
His cloak was white, but his sword shone as his side.
I smiled at the irony.

"What's your pleasure?" The innkeeper asked, prodding at the man who appeared in the doorway.
"I've come to free you." He said with a smile.

"Do you think about me now and then?" She asked, a smile creeping across her face.
"Of course." I replied, smiling just as wide. She giggled, twirling her hair around her finger. Her smile sobered. "I can see things, you know." She whispered.
"What do you mean?" I asked, reaching across the table to take her hand.
"I can see you for what you are."
My skin crawled cold.

His eyes locked into mine. I swallowed. He knew, as well. Her face flashed across my vision, and a sneer crossed across my face. They had finally sold me out. He motioned for me to come to him. I stood up, spinning my chair around my finger. He smiled. I stood up next to him, the pinnacle of darkness against the newest champion of light. She winced in my mind, face floating across my vision. He sized me up as I paced around him, waiting for who would back down first. His smiled stayed up, even though his fingers twitched. He wanted that fight. I wouldn't give it to him. I walked past him, brushing against him as my cloak swirled around me. His anger flashed, and he spun to face me, pulling his sword. My eyes flashed and I turned, knife spinning into my hand.

"I'm giving you this." She whispered, pulling an ornate knife from the shelf and placing it on the table.
I looked up into her eyes, questioning.
She smiled. "It's the only that will save you."

The knife grew in my hand, engulfing the space around it as it turned into a spear, the shaft split into three pieces, a button on the hilt that extended the spear even further. I smiled for her. She had sacrificed so much to give this to me.
The spear clicked into place, the metal familiar against my palm. He smiled.
"So it was you."
"The oracle of vengeance, yes."
His sword shone in the sun as he stepped towards me, boots sinking into the snow. "I'm here to free them."
"From what?" I asked, spinning the spear around my arm. "From themselves?"
"From you." He sneered, pulling his sword up next to his face vertically. "From your oppression."
"And what have I done to them?" I asked, dragging the tip of the spear through the snow. "What has made living in my shadow so horrific I require the work of the Lord through me?"
He spun his wrist, moving towards me. "The contract was very clear. Rid this place of you, so that they may live of their own accord."
"So you never asked, did you?" I took a step sideways, kiting him to the plaza where I would have more room. "Never questioned why, never thought for a moment that just because I am viewed with disdain that I am not the one who needs to be smited?"
He continued to step forward, waiting for that moment when he could engage. "I have my reasons."
I spun the spear and dug the hilt into the ground, standing finally in the middle of the plaza, citizens of this city I had loved so much crowded around it, watching me finally take my fate head on. He charged, sword raised above his head. I swatted away the sword with the tip of my spear, spinning on the ball of my foot as I swept over, trying to knock him over with the horizontal spin. He ducked and thrust forward, closing the distance between us swiftly. I backed up and slammed him to the ground, my spear catching him in the back. I stood on his sword, pinning it to the ground, leaning my other foot on his shoulder. He growled, struggling against me. I smiled, prepping the spear to run through him.

She stared deeply into my eyes as she ran the knife through her own chest, grimoire open and honest, glowing with magic long forgotten. My hands flipped the table between us, closing the distance in seconds. She smiled, her life transforming the space in front of me, knife growing longer, splitting into three pieces, taking final shape as a spear formed of the most perfect obsidian, sliding firmly into my hand.
"I can see things, you know." She whispered. "I can see you for what you are."

"Maybe you're right." I whispered to him. "Maybe I do need the hammer of God to remove me from this earth." I ran my fingers through my hair and turned around to look at the crowd surrounding us. "Maybe you're right." I growled. "I killed her. I never put the knife through her heart, but I killed her." I looked from person to person, averting their eyes under my heavy gaze. "I never did one thing wrong by you, but you pushed me away. You condemned me, judged me for taking something so beautiful from this world. But that was her choice." I tightened my grip around the spear. "Her choice. She chose to save me, something I never would have anticipated from a woman like her."
I smiled. "But I never wanted to be saved."
I turned around, looking him in the eye as he stood, raising his sword. I closed the spear, morphing it back to the ornate knife she had given me in the beginning.
"And so, if love is stronger than justice, then this is the way it always should have been." She smiled as she entered my heart.