The Fall of Sir Brisbane

Part 1

"I should behead you where you stand, creature, but I cannot detect your intentions. Reveal yourself." His gruff voice echoed with a holy resonance throughout the cave. Despite bloody armor, tattered cloak, and sweaty, disheveled hair, he stood tall and with the authority of a god.

"Such mistrust and hostility. I have done nothing but help you and yours. Where is the justice, oh Paladin?" Her voice trailed like a lit fuse through his veins. He knew what she was: trouble. He was sworn to destroy all evil, and yet he detected none from her. She had helped him, and his clerics, defeat the vampires infesting the cemetery from below. He knew she was some form of dark spellcaster but that did not make her evil.

"Why did you help us? You are not with the forces of good or you would not have casted such grave spells." He was grateful for such vast power that had poured from her just moments before since he had felt his life being drained by a vampire leech. However, the power was not from a good source, so conflict raged within him on how to handle this unforeseen situation.

"Just because I'm not with the forces of good, does not mean I'm against them. Perhaps I just wanted to practice my Destruction spell." She lifted her head just enough that he could glimpse the bright blue of her eyes beneath the black hood. She practically blended into the surrounding twilight but for her glowing blue eyes. Somehow, he thought they'd be red.

"Well, why do you hide yourself from the world if you're going to be of help to it?"

He could see her smirk as she dropped her hood back.

"Have I piqued a brave Paladin's curiosity?" Her voice was light and teasing.

She was beautiful and the Paladin felt as though he had gone against a sworn duty from the Heironean Code. He dropped to one knee. "My lady, I meant no disrespect. I misconstrued the situation. It seemed as though you were in league with the vampires at first. I know you are not undead, but you are not all that good either. Please, lady, before I dishonor The Code further, tell me what occurred here."

She looked down at him, barely because he was quite the hulking mass in his plate compared to her simple black robe which seemed to cling beautifully to her curvaceous frame. He became lost in her curves as one lost at sea with a small ship, waiting to drown amidst tempestuous waves.

"Sir?"

He resurfaced and met her eyes. "Lady?"

Her grin was tantalizing, and luring. "You were right, about the vampires. They were mine. But they had overstayed their welcome."

He stood quickly, eyes narrowed at this woman. "So, you are evil and you killed your own creations because they 'overstayed their welcome?'"

"Essentially. Besides, you were riding in looking all heroic. How could I not help but join your noble cause?"

"You make no sense."

"What does make sense in this world, Paladin?"

"Law. Law makes sense."

"Everyone makes laws, everyone breaks laws. It cancels out, therefor there are no laws."

"That is entirely illogical. You are speaking evil, and I'm about to behead you regardless of your assistance."

"Oh but Paladin, logic is ruled by laws; I already stated that there are no laws. So everything is illogical."

He stared at her incredulously. His mind was spinning. How was a High Paladin supposed to make sense of all her nonsense. All her nonsense amidst all her arousing beauty. Oh, how he wanted to get lost in her endless sea.

"Ever wonder what it would be like to be bound by nothing, Paladin? To be..." she took a half step closer, "completely free?"

"That very thought is treason. Law and order are to be maintained at all times. It is for the good of all men."

"But I am a woman." She closed the distance between them and looked up at him with fathomless blue eyes. Despite the darkness surrounding him he felt as though he were looking at the sky during the brightest sunlight, or maybe the brightest moonlight. Are her eyes getting darker? he wondered.

"What if, Paladin, good was not just about law and order, but about beauty?"

"Well, beauty is a good thing. But beauty comes with honor."

"Was I not honorable by helping to kill off the evil I unleashed? Does the eradication of my own mistake leave me in the good category?"

He was at a loss. He was not a cleric to debate ethics. He was a paladin who saw evil and destroyed it without a single doubt. This woman however was making him doubt his beliefs. He had to know what her motives were.

He glared at her stubbornly, "What do you want? The immediate vampire threat is eliminated and it is time for me to follow my clerics back to the church."

"So you don't see me as a threat to the balance of good?"

"I feel as though without your help the outcome of the battle would have been less in our favor. Therefore, leave now before I change my mind and lock you in the dungeons until I decide what to do with you. However, if you continue making more vampires or causing this good town to reek of evil, I will hunt you down and do what I should've done earlier."

He turned his back and strode off toward the church wondering if he was ever going to be able to get those haunting eyes out of his mind.

When he returned to the church he barred the doors for the night as it was well past the moon's apex. He faced the back of the church, toward the proud, mighty fist of Hieroneus. For some reason he felt guilty though he had done nothing wrong. I felt tonight like I did so many years ago. The time I turned from the faith for just one night... He stopped himself from thinking further. He atoned for that act of blasphemy and he was paying penance every day. That indiscretion had cost him dear and he was finally to where he wanted to be in the ranks of faith. He couldn't grow weak now. Not even for the chance to be lost within her fathomless ocean.