When Rafa was a child, she had had a dragon friend to play with when she was bored. She never told anyone about her, not even Malak, because he was always the loyal one and would have told their parents. Then they would have to kill the dragon. They played together almost every day. One time, she and the dragon snuck into town and stole a sheep for the dragon's dinner.
"Cute kid," came a sinister man's voice from Rafa's left. "But I fail to see how this gets you out of limbo."
Rafa turned to face the man. He wore a green robe with a goldenrod undercoat. His straw colored hair was streaked back, and he held himself with such composure that one might think him royalty. And one would be right, for this was the Grand Duke Gelkanis Barinten himself.
"I made a deal with some sort of higher power to get you the hell out of here so I can go to Heaven," Barinten said. "Why he's giving someone like me this offer, I don't know, and I don't particularly care. All I do care about is get you to deal with some sort of issue you have, and get the hell over it so I can leave."
"And what issue would that be exactly?" Rafa asked skeptically, because this man had deceived her in the past. The scene outside changed to match Rafa's memories inside. It switched to her hometown of Lycia, where she and her family lived peacefully until she was about six and Malak was ten. Her parents had told her to go out and play by the river with their aunt, a boisterous woman by the name of Fiona, while the chief elder, her father, talked with a man who had visited their town.
"Well?" asked her father Marik, chief of the village. "What have you come to me for? Do you have need of my Hell skill to protect someone? Because that is the only way that you will ever get the Heaven and Hell skills. To be used as protection."
"Ah Marik," the Barinten from years ago scolded. "Naïve as always. That was the reason your village was conquered so quickly during the war. Pathetic."
"Barinten," Marik spat back at him. "What do you want?"
"Why, nothing more or less than the Heaven and Hell skills you and your wife possess," Barinten threatened. "And if you don't offer them to me freely, I will take them from you by force."
"Impossible," Marik said. "You are just as able to take the green from the leaves as to separate us from our powers. The only way it will pass from our bodies is upon our deaths."
"Then, my dear old friend," Barinten said, reaching inside his hunter green cloak and beginning to pull out a weapon. "You have just written your own obituary."
The Grand Duke pulled out an ancient weapon, unknown to anyone in the village. Rafa now recognized it to be a gun. Most of the villagers, including Marik's wife and Rafa's mother Ishizu, heard the quarrel in the tent and came to investigate. Since no one knew the gun's power, Barinten gunned them down, one by one, until ten were dead. It was then he realized he was outnumbered.
"Fine," said the Grand Duke. "I'll just call for back up." At that point, the two mages Rafa recognized to be Auron Stratski and Vanessa Broyer burst into the tent and set fire to it. Then they preceded to set fire to the rest of the homes. Rafa was mortified.
"My Auron did all this?" Rafa asked, stunned. "He isn't capable… He can't be…"
"Yes, Auron was a bad apple," the Grand Duke commented. "There's one in every bunch. But I took care of him. Sent him on a suicide mission against Marquis Elmdor's assassins, Celia and Lede. You know, the human ones."
"Who are Celia and Lede?" Rafa asked, as she was hiding safely in the fort in Poeskos Lake when Ramza and Ophelia coordinated the attack on Limberry because Rafa was never much of a fighter back then. Now, on the other hand, she was well versed in the Truth and White Magic spells, and quite good at casting and controlling them.
"Well, the two your friends may remember were demons," Barinten said. "But the real ones were actually servants of the Marquis. Good women too. Very righteous and god fearing."
"You monster!" Rafa lunged at him, but she passed right through. Confused, Rafa looked back at the man she once trusted.
"Please," the Duke said nonchalantly. "I am a spirit. You can't touch me."
"Did I just need to know what happened to my parents or are we going to continue this delightful little chat, oh great 'King Weapon'?" Rafa mocked him, her somewhat shy barriers breaking down because of her intense hatred for this one man.
"Well, your parents are part of it," Barinten continued. "You remember how after your aunt heard the screams, she went after your parents first, correct?"
"Correct," Rafa replied, still on her guard. She raised an eyebrow.
"Well," the Duke finished. "Who do you think transferred the powers of Heaven and Hell from your parents? Did you think it was me?"
"Aunt Fiona gave me my Heaven skills?" Rafa thought out loud, looking at her hands. "If it hadn't been for them, would Malak and I have been in the Kamyuja?"
"Are you kidding?" Barinten said, and Rafa let out a sigh of anger at her aunt. "Of course you would. You two were as adept as mages get. If you only knew Poison you would still have gotten into my special organization. Your Heaven and Hell skills only helped the decision."
"So what you're saying is," Rafa replied. "That whether or not Aunt Fiona had given us our powers we would have been in the Kamyuja anyway?"
"Yes," the Grand Duke replied. "So you can't pin all those people you killed during your stay at my castle on her. It's all your fault."
"No."
"All those deaths, all those women, all those children," the Duke continued. "You reveled in it. And at the time, you were only twelve. Imagine what I could have done with you if I had kept you until you were older."
"Shut up!"
"Yes, yes," Barinten said. "The truth hurts doesn't it? The truth burns like a holy fire!"
"Leave me alone!" Rafa yelled. "I will not take responsibility for those deaths. Those were your orders! The deaths are on your head!"
"Au contraire, ma peche," the Grand Duke stated, infuriatingly calm. "It was you who cast the spell. Or swung the sword, or whatever the case may be, that is unimportant. The important part is you could have disobeyed the order."
"Then I would be dead," Rafa snapped.
"But all those people wouldn't be," Barinten replied. It seemed almost as if he was testing her, staging his side but trying to get Rafa to believe the contrary.
Rafa thought for a moment. "I suppose you're right. I'm a killer."
"Rafa, Rafa," the Duke scolded and clucked his tongue. "You always did cave too easily." Seeing Rafa would not change her mind, he shook his head and the room glowed black.
"They would have died anyway."
A/N: What? Did you really expect everyone to pass this higher power's test? If you did, then you're naïve. She may or may not be the only one who fails however. But this is pretty good odds. Only one out of nine so far. Anyway, I like sadistic killer Rafa. It's so much better than the sugar and spice and everything boring character that she is in the game. Up next is a look into the Fifty Years War through the eyes of T.G. Cid. Also, Olan's true parentage is revealed.