To his credit, Sven tried to stop her before she could say another word. He took several steps towards her, clearly intending to grab her and try to wring her neck, but he never got the chance.

"Stop," Joel commanded, instantly causing Sven to freeze in his tracks. "I want to hear what you've been hiding from me."

Sven turned towards him, his one good eye blazing with malice. "You would listen to her lies and half-truths-"

"I'll determine for myself what's a lie and what isn't. And besides, if it's all obviously false, then it should be easy for you to disprove, shouldn't it?" Joel shook his head. "In any case, if you don't want to be here for this-"

"I'm staying.'

"Then fine. But you will let her speak. I owe her that much for saving my life."

Sven glared at him. "I was there, too. I had just as much a part to play as she did-"

"Do you?" Joel challenged. "Because as I recall, you left the room completely when that would-be assassin filled it with smoke."

Sven bristled at his words. "That was to search for him-"

"Regardless, the fact is that you weren't there, and she was." Joel crossed his arms. "If you want to rebut any of what she tells me, then you're free to do so afterwards. But I want to hear what she has to say first."

Sven glared at him once more, but backed down, slinking away from Pale's chair and back to his spot hovering behind Joel. Pale returned his baleful gaze with one of her own, then looked back over towards Joel.

"I suppose I'll start with a question," she said. "What do you know about Sven, exactly?"

"Not much," Joel answered. "Just that he's from the northern isles. He stumbled into my father's territory a few months back; said he was looking for someone. He was already injured by then; we all figured that he was searching for whoever it was that had maimed him. My father offered to assist him, with the caveat being that Sven would swear his fealty to my family for a term of a year. He agreed, and his terms of service ended up bringing him here as my bodyguard."

"That's all you know about him?" Pale asked.

"It is," Joel confirmed.

"You never thought to ask why your father was so willing to help this random, one-armed, one-eyed stranger?"

"Father's business is father's business. I figured they were already associates somehow. Is that not correct?"

"Parts of it are," Pale admitted. "Sven is from the northern isles, but not in the way you might think. Truthfully, he is – or rather, he was – the warrior-king for a large tribe of berserkers."

Joel blinked, his eyes going wide. "And you know this how?"

'Because I'm the one who maimed him in the first place."

Silence reigned over the library for several seconds, all while Joel stared at her in absolute shock. Eventually, he shook himself out of his stupor, then turned towards Sven.

"Is that true?" he demanded.

Sven hesitated. "...Parts of it are-"

"It's a yes or no question. I expect a yes or no answer."

"Then yes, it's true."

Joel's brow furrowed in confusion. "Then why…? She would have had to track you all the way to the northern isles. What the hells did you do to her that made her so persistent on finding you?"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"He didn't do anything to me," Pale stated. "My friend Kayla, though? That's an entirely different story. His men crossed the ocean, and razed her village to the ground. They killed almost everyone there, then took a small handful of people as slaves, including her father. Kayla only survived because she managed to hide, but they found her after a few days. She would've been killed or enslaved along with the other members of her village if I hadn't stumbled upon her and helped her out."

Joel was stunned. "Then… you both-"

"Yes. We tracked Sven's men back to the northern isles, all to try and save Kayla's father." Pale turned to Sven, giving him a harsh glare. "But we didn't get the chance. Sven killed him personally before we could free him."

Again, silence reigned over the three of them. Sven stood there, clenching and unclenching his fist while grinding his teeth. Joel eyed him with no small amount of trepidation the entire time.

"Is that true?" Joel demanded.

"Why don't you tell him the rest of the story?" Sven growled. "Go on. Tell him about how you wiped out an entire village full of women and children using Explosion magic."

This time, Joel whipped around to face her. Pale didn't falter for a moment, though – she held Sven's gaze the entire time, before slowly nodding.

"You're right," she said. "I did do that."

"That's it?" Sven challenged. "You don't even sound guilty about it."

"I'm as guilty as you are over the destruction you ordered done to Kayla's village."

"Enough, both of you!" Joel all but shouted, silencing them. Pale turned towards Joel, watching as his shoulders heaved with every breath he sucked in. After a moment, he let out a long exhale, then turned towards Sven, glaring at him.

"You hid all that from me," he growled.

Sven didn't flinch under his gaze. "You had no right to know-"

"I am your ward. I have the right to know how dangerous you are." Joel rounded on Pale, giving her the same glare. "And you… why would you do that?"

"Because Kayla and I were already heavily injured and Sven had proven impervious to all other forms of attack we tried to use against him," she insisted. "He was going to kill us both, if not enslave us. I did what I had to do for the two of us to survive and escape. I don't regret it."

"And yet, you have the nerve to sit there and lambast him for wiping out villages, when you just admitted that you did the exact same. How are you two any-"

"Don't," Pale warned, her voice coming out as a low growl. "Do not for even a single second insinuate that the two of us are even remotely the same. We aren't. Sven allowed his men to pillage and raze villages because he was being paid for it by a local lord who wanted the land those villages were built upon. Everything those men did, they did purely to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. Meanwhile, I only razed his village and killed his people as a consequence of trying to escape from him. Those two acts are not equivalent."

Joel stared at her for a moment before turning back towards Sven. "Is she wrong?"

Again, Sven bristled. "The situation is more complex than-"

"Not what I asked. Is she wrong, Sven?"

Sven hesitated, again giving Pale a harsh glare. "...No."

"And she's not lying? None of what she said was a falsehood, or an exaggeration?"

"...No."

"That's what I thought." Joel took a breath, then turned back to Pale. "And you… I don't know how to feel about you. I don't know how you can sit there and justify the deaths of possibly hundreds of people so callously the way you just did."

"Those deaths are on Sven's head," Pale countered. "None of it would have happened if it weren't for him."

'And yet, he's not the one who killed them all." Joel sighed, running a hand through his hair. "...I need some time to think about this. I don't want to see either of you for the rest of the damn week. And if you two have any common sense, you'll stay away from each other, too."

With that, Joel stood up and left, leaving the two of them behind. Pale and Sven glared daggers at each other before she stood up and walked off.

Something told her that this particular incident was far from over, however.

XXX

Pale spent the next few days carefully looking over her shoulder. She knew that Sven was going to want retribution for what she'd told Joel – after all, she'd ruined his reputation with Joel and made him look completely untrustworthy in one go, to say nothing of the accusations she'd levied at him, which he'd all but confirmed. The question wasn't if Sven came after her as a result, but rather, it was when.

And as it turned out, it happened when she was walking back from working out. She had been entirely unprepared for the floor to suddenly open up and swallow her whole, dumping her in a large pit a few feet below. Stunned as she was, she had no time to reach for the knife on her belt before her hands were bound behind her back with what felt like manacles made of pure stone, and a gag was slipped into her mouth, followed by a hood over her head.

At that point, Pale was completely disoriented. She had no way to resist as Sven – because who else would it be but him – slung her over his shoulder. She felt the earth shift, and suddenly, the two of them were out of the pit. She could tell he was walking down the halls, but she had no idea where; her first thought was that he was carrying her off-campus, but she soon realized that wasn't the case; he would never be able to make it past even the front gates of the Luminarium with her in tow like this.

Her questions were answered when he unceremoniously dumped her onto the floor, then pulled the hood off her head. To her surprise, she was in Professor Marick's classroom, and the man himself was standing over her along with Sven. Pale's eyes widened in surprise, though she only got more confused when Marick turned towards Sven and gave him a decidedly irritated look.

"Did you have to be so dramatic about it?"

"She wouldn't have shown up if I hadn't made her show up," Sven countered.

"Even still, this was overkill."

Pale tried to talk, but the gag in her mouth muffled her voice. Marick rolled his eyes, then bent down and pulled it out for her. Pale immediately glared at Sven.

"What is this?" she demanded. "Professor Marick, what's going on?"

"It's simple," Marick said. "Sven is claiming you dishonored him. He wants retribution in the form of a duel."

"Dishonored him…?" Pale echoed. "Everything I said was true. He even confirmed all of it."

"Dishonor doesn't require that the statements be false, only that they negatively impact a person's reputation."

"Which they have," Sven spat. "My ward has refused to speak with me for several days now. I demand an opportunity for retribution."

Marick crossed his arms. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. She has an opportunity to back down-"

"What are the terms?" Pale demanded.

Marick eyed her with surprise. "...You're considering accepting?"

"I am," Pale growled. "Now tell me what the terms are."

Marick blinked. "…Standard fare – no kill shots, or even debilitating shots; the fight goes until first blood, until someone cries for mercy, or until I put a stop to it. In addition, Sven has requested that no magic be used, including barriers and the like."

"You're damn right," Sven confirmed. "I want this to be as bare-knuckle as possible."

"Those terms are agreeable," Pale said. "Untie me and we'll get this over with."

Again, Marick eyed her with suspicion. "...You would really allow yourself to be-"

"I've been waiting to beat his ass," Pale spat. "This is my chance to do exactly that."

Marick hesitated. "...Very well."

Sven snapped his fingers, and the manacles around Pale's hands fell away. She immediately stood up, giving Sven a harsh look even as the two of them made their way over to the center of Marick's classroom.

"Combatants ready?" Marick asked.

"Ready," they both echoed.

"Okay… begin."