A/N: Thank you to those who are enjoying the fic, despite the problem that I mentioned in the last chapter (as well as the last line in this one) and sorry that I didn't manage to get those parts right. Anyway, here is part 6 of "More than Just Duty":
Disclaimer: The owner of The Order of the Stick is Rich Burlew aka The Giant, not me.
Oh Twelve Gods, why have you turned from me? Is it my destiny to be abandoned by all whom I love? No, I will not accept that this is my fate. You have a plan for me. I need only to discover it. The other prisoners are distracting. If only I could be alone with you. Then I would know when you showed me my destiny. Wait, someone is coming. Could it be? Yes, it's Sangwaan!
"Sangwaan, have you come back to me?" I ask. Could this be the time when things finally begin to come right? When I will be rewarded for my duty to the gods. Will she return to me and reveal how I can atone to the gods. "I am here on Hinjo's orders." She says coldly. "Hinjo has asked us to bring all prisoners over level five to see him. However, I think he has seen enough of you, Miko." She turns to the guards. "According to the official records, we need to bring the halfling, the goth theurge, the larcenist and the old kidnapper."
As the guards lead the prisoners off, I call out, "How could you still be so bitter?"
"Go ahead, I'll handle this." she says to the guards. When we are alone, she begins to speak, "I thought that we had finished this discussion years ago. You disobeyed my orders. How can I trust you again? And now, once again, you have proved your tendency to kill people whom you were merely meant to take into custody. I'm actually shocked at the patience the Twelve have shown you. You should have fallen after you killed that necrocarnate."
"How can you believe that?" I ask, "He threatened YOU! It was for your safety."
"He was an INCARNUM user." she replies, "I am a WIZARD. What was he going to do?"
I hesitate, "He could have gotten lucky and critted you with a greataxe..." I begin.
"The greataxe that we would have confiscated?" she asks.
"Um…" I say, "No…the one that he may have kept hidden in case he was captured." Sangwaan places her face in her palm before suddenly lifting it and beginning to wildly gesture whilst yelling, "Because of your indiscretion, he will be raised and reach 18th level in service of an evil, hobgoblin army! Perhaps this army. I didn't bother checking."
"Will he have any useful class features by then?" I ask.
"Well, no...but it's the principle of the thing!" answers Sangwaan. "I'm finished with this conversation. Goodbye, Miko." She walks out the door.
"No, Sangwaan!" I cry, "Don't leave me again! Sangikins…!"
A/N: For those of you who don't know, I must give Raging Gene Ray credit for the incarnum joke which I used practically word for word with just a couple of minor additions. I hope that it adds some light humour to an otherwise sad scene. Unfortunately, I quickly developed an intense hatred of the last line. It doesn't do what I wanted it to and I've seriously considered rewriting it. The irony is that it was the very first line that I wrote of the entire fic. I guess that as a fic evolves, sometimes certain things don't fit anymore.