"Do as you please. I apologize, Captain Wyrmweiss and Vice Captain Chart but I can't hand your friend to the military."
Those words crushed my heart in a pulse, then all of it clears up in my head. Whatever trust I have left in the kingdom cracked and splits open.
I had a friend. She was taken away because she can perform dark magic, despite her best intentions. It wasn't anything grand, she didn't even wish to use dark magic for her own good. Even at the end of it all, she refused to use it to make the trial favorable for her.
Everytime I sleep, I recall the face of my friend and her reassuring smile before she was taken away. During those times I was hopeful that I would see her again just as she reassured me, I thought everything is fair and justified. So long as the person does no evil they would always be protected by justice.
It was too late when I realized that justice has no will of its own, and we ourselves are the ones that make justice. As time passes by while I wait on our room, I started to think that the Divine Order did not truly gave her a chance, that she was executed the moment she arrived. It made sense after I never heard anything from her again, even when I visited the White City, where the Divine Order resides. Those liars who called themselves carrier of the words of the Goddess took her, with the pretense of confirming her innocence and good will before they executed her coldly.
She has a rather unique magic, she said that it just somehow came to her. A power to control the will, or so what she said she understood it to be. Yes, it is indeed dangerous in name, but she never used it for evil. She never had the intention to do so.
After I became a captain of the Eagle Knights, I came to hate the very magic that was gifted to her. Various foes we've hunted; casters that can invoke an air of poison, restraints, charm, and necromancy. Dark magic that would harm the people and despicable practitioners who would use such foul magic for themselves. It was engraved in my mind that dark magic corrupts its users and there was proof right in front of me. I started to connect the two as if it was natural.
However everything seem to clear up for me after I meet that man. At first I encountered him on the streets of his town, carrying boxes of ore to somewhere. He was an ordinary person who does labor, nothing special to note of except he ran off. Then the next I met he was sitting at the grass plains, holding a bag of potions. I approached him and ordered him to reserve the potions to those in need, but funnily enough he declined. The very same guy that ran off now bravely answers me back, the only difference here is that now he is helping me out. Due to my stubbornness however, an imp almost got too close. Then it suddenly weakened before my eyes. I was suspicious, of course, I've seen a number of dark magic users, but then I was curious why would he chose to risk his identity to just help me. After that, he ran off before I even rewarded him.
The next day he came back, so I took this chance to apprehend him. Under the pretense of recruitment, I was able to successfully secure my target. He seemed eager, and I found it to be suspicious. I kept my eye on him and kept him close, having him ride my steed while we run to the other side of the town.
While I was fighting on an attack on the other gates, I suddenly feel the strange wind again, it was much stronger than before. So I followed it with my eyes and I saw him, running about trying to save the guards that have fallen while a floating book orbits around him. I would have arrested him then and there, but he seemed...normal. It didn't felt like it was unnatural nor an act to fool me. He was genuinely down in spirits the next I saw him. In addition, despite him being a necromancer, there were no reports of any undead according to the guards. No reports, no traces and no hearsays. Even so, when everyone was asleep, I arrested him.
During our trip I realized that what I was doing was no different to what the Divine Order did to my friend. I acted under a pretense and tricked him, an innocent person who simply got cursed. Because of that I felt guilty of what I did and barely spoke to him out of shame until night came.
"If possible, I want to use this magic to inspire the people to move forward. Hehe, I'd make a good leader don't you think?", my friend said to me back when she was still here. In a way, I started to see my friend in Thane, especially after I get to talk to him.
Then came our audience with her majesty. It was as if I was brought back to the past. Defending not just a friend, but a genuinely good person.
Despite my efforts I still failed to convince the Queen. It really was as if I was sent back to the past, the time when I failed to defend her. I would see another darn smile in my nightmares, hunting me in my sleep!
Those liars are going to take another innocent person. I have to take arm and stand up for justice. If I back out now then how am I going to face her.
So I stood up, held my halberd and swung it to drive away the bishop and the nuns that are about to take Thane.
I won't let this injustice be done.
"...never again."