Dread Mage

She held the knife tightly, as if the world would end if she let go.

"What are you doing?" The orc asked.

"Exposing this fraud," the elf said, "he may be a mage, but he definitely isn't Accismus. I've heard of him, and he's a gnome."

"Now, now," Vell said, his voice returning to his youthful sound, "I may not be old Acci, but a wizard nonetheless."

"Nah, you must have a reason to lie to us like that. Where'd you find this girl? Tell me quick, or just like that sword in her belly, my knife will be in her throat." The elf warned.

"Okay," Vell exhaled slowly and clapped his hand to his thighs as he stood up. He put his staff down as a sign of trust. "I have a question for you."

"What is it?" She moved, so there was a good distance between her and him.

"Do you recognize that sword?"

"Huh?" She said that and turned to look at it. "That's..." she mumbled, "that's my sword, but..."

"What do you mean, 'that's your sword'?" The orc asked.

"I carved a mark into the hilt, and that same mark is on this one. I lost it when..." the elf muttered.

"When what?" The orc asked.

"When a little girl saw me." She answered.

"And we can imagine the rest," Vell said, "What is a human life to an elf, isn't that right? They would die in a hundred years anyway. You'd rather cut down the weed before it grows too tall, right?"

"No! No, that's not it at all." She yelled.

"What then? What is the reason for such cruelty?" Vell said, in a serious tone, his voice alone seemed to darken the room, and stepped closer.

"You wouldn't understand. None of you do. No one here is of another long-lived race." She pointed the knife at Vell to keep him away.

"Oh, I am far beyond what I look like," Vell said, he didn't seem to fear it at all.

"We already had too much on our hands. We were starving and needed everything we could get—another girl, another mouth to feed, especially a human—which would just have been too much. What should I have done? I couldn't take her with me. Should I just let her fend for herself in the winter, all alone, to slowly starve or freeze to death? I thought a quick end would give her the least suffering."

"But... killing a little girl, no matter who she is, is wrong!" The orc said.

"Don't pretend you're better than me. You did your fair share of evil. Everyone in this band did things they knew were wrong, no matter the reason.