All my training brought me to this. I am finally ready to confront the murderer. Yes...ready.
"Turn to face me Lina Inverse!! Face your punishment!" I call. It didn't sound that...pathetic in my mind...but it turned out that way. Never mind that...back to the present. The murderer turns to face me, she seems confused. If I were her I would be too. The last time she saw me, I was a little girl...eleven years old, covered in soot, holding a dead dragon's head. A little wisp of a thing then, I was. I looked into a mirror before this day...and I am still repulsed. All this time wanting to hate her...I'm just like her.
More like a negative...My fair blonde hair turned white in my latter years...my eyes a dull grey. And ironically...without styling of it's own...my hair has grown exactly like hers...When I kill her...I'll chop it off.
Back to the present. While I was reminiscing I stated my demands. Not very diffivult when you've had practice. A simple fight...me and her...no one else. Anything goes. Magic, swords...anything. Her friends step back. Fools...how dare they follow the murderer! Oh well...their intelligence was not in question...the only thing that should be on my mind is the murderer. Lina Inverse...
Drawing my sword, I figured there would be a great battle...which there was. I score a hit here...she scores a hit there. It's all rather...amusing. Then, I hear her start muttering those accursed words. Anger flares in my cold eyes. "NO!!!" I scream...this was the murder spell. "HOW DARE YOU!!!" I am filled with such darkness now. She dared to use the same spell that she killed my friend with. SHE DARED!
I'm being sloppy now. I don't care. Tears streak my vision, but I can see enough to tell she is confused by my outburst. She stopped the accursed spell...thankfully. I'm still being sloppy...and am showing the marks to prove it. She is scoring more hits on me then I am her...
Finally...the final blow. She won. The murderer won. Dropping my sword I stare at he sword, embedded in my stomach. She lets go and staggers back. I give a slight snarl and pull the blade out, just noticing that it went all the way through. A tingling in my spine tells me so. Strange how you notice those little things that don't really matter...
I hold a hand over my wound...futile really. Blood is flooding out my back anyways. Suddenly...pain wrenches through my gut. It makes me double over in pain, giving a slight gasp. Only then do I notice that my hair is stained red in most places. For some reason...this makes me extremely angry.
The murderer takes a step forward but stops when I flash a look of pure hatred at her. Reaching down to my boot, I pull out my dagger that I strategically placed there. Looking up I smile slightly. "Murderer..." I try to yell, but it comes out more like a strangled joking sound. Giving up words, I hurl the dagger. It misses...as if I'm surprised. She dodges and it merely clips some of her hair. A fairly good shot considering everything...
Crimson floods my eyes. Funny...I don't remember bleeding from my head...why am I seeing blood. Suddenly, everything swims, and I fall to my knees. My legs buckling, unable to hold my weight anymore, I fall to my back, legs still twisted somewhat to my side.
As my vision and other senses start to fade, an image comes before me. It the murderer. Again, the look of pity. "I...d..don't need your... pity!" I spit out at her. "I..I...didn't need...it then....and I don't...n...need it...now!" She merely shakes her head but continues to stare at my prone body. I can't feel it anymore. Sure-fire sign of death creeping. I can feel its presence in the back of my mind. The murderer's face is still there...but fading quickly. Thankfully. I didn't want to see that...that heathen's face any more. Not when such a beautiful vision was waiting behind closed lids.
There was my friend. He looked sad...almost. But he also looked glad. To see me most likely. As the vision of him gets clearer, the murderer completely fades away. I look around and can see everything now. I'm young again. Older then when my friend left...but not as old as I was before I faced...faced...who did I face? The memory is slipping. My friend is calling. He wants to go race in the field. We did that yesterday...oh well. I bet I can beat him this time...
Lina finished burying her opponent in a lightly decorated grave. A small rock of a headstone lay at the head, enscribed with the sword that had ended that life. Brushing off her hands, she stared at the grave a moment more and then walked over to where her friends were waiting. They then traveled on.
After walking a ways in silence, Amelia ventured a question. "Lina...who was that?" she showed who she was talking about by pointing back over her shoulder to their previous location. Lina sighed.
"Someone from long ago...A regret of mine...I'm sad that it ended itself this way." And with that, ended the whole conversation. As their figures faded into the horizon, one beam of light through the trees hit the stone in its rest in the shadows.
She lived,
to bring anothers death;
but in turn,
found her own.
May her soul rest
with that
which she saught
to avenge.