[ WP ] `` Give up your cause , hero . Join me on ﻿the side of evil , and we can rule together . '' `` Okay . ''

The `` join me'' speech. Again. I'm a professional hero and I've heard this thing so many times. When I started out with a head full of idealism and a heart full of pure intentions, I also gave a haughty laugh and turned them down. 
 
 But that was a lifetime ago. 
 
 I looked down at the three guards I had slain to enter this room. Their blood was seeping into the stones and gave the room a coppery tang in my nose. I tried not to remember how many guards and minions I had slaughtered over the years - the ones that still came to me in my sleep. 
 
 I thought back to Delia. How she laughed when I fell off my horse. How her eyes blazed when that innkeeper turned that starving orphan away. How her hands flew across her bow when those highwaymen were riding us down. I fought back the memory of watching that trained beast gore her and how her hand felt as it slipped from mine for the last time. 
 
 I thought back to Michael. He followed us from some nameless village even though we told him not to. His father had been a farmer but the drought had taken his crops. The father started beating Michael who decided a life on the road was better than that Hell. The fever took him when we crossed the Trevan River. I watched the infection crawl into his chest and wither him away. 
 
 This was the ninth time I had battled some evil wizard in this precinct. I had lost track of how many bodies I'd left in my wake. My sword was slick with blood in my hand. My feet were sore. Funny how even in life's biggest moments it's the little details that stick out. 
 
 `` Ok''. As soon as I said the word, I felt a weight let loose of my heart. I stood up from my half-crouch position and let my sword dip to the floor. 
 
 `` Really?'' The evil wizard - I could n't even remember his name - was skeptical. 
 
 `` Look, I've been battling one sort of evil force or another my entire adult life. I have no family, very little money put aside, and the world is no better for it. I walk past people in every village starving. They do n't want a hero who kills some hellhound in a cave. They want food in their bellies and to see their children grow up. Man, I'm pushing forty - this is a young man's game.'' 
 
 `` Well, that's... certainly... something. Why me? Just last month you killed Count Pue. Surely he made you the same offer?'' 
 
 `` Everyone does. Pue was a vampire. So there was that. But honestly, he was a dick.'' 
 
 `` Yeah. Did you know he tried to invade us once? I had to summon a horde of wyverns to battle his zombies in the mountain pass.'' 
 
 `` See, that's why I'm throwing in with you. You might be a little power mad but I honestly think you have your people's interest at heart.'' 
 
 `` I mean, it's just good business, right? Ca n't be a ruler of an empty land.'' 
 
 `` Right. So, uh, what are your plans?'' 
 
 `` You know, honestly, I put everything on the back burner when I heard you were coming. I've been toying around with this idea of recruiting some minor wizards and putting them to work in town. Healers, soothsayers, summoners, and so forth.'' 
 
 `` That's pretty good. I think the townspeople would like jobs first though. Have you considered putting a bridge up over the river? You'd get a lot more trade. I mean, your village would become the gateway to the mountains. Maybe make some deals with the mountain dwarves?'' 
 
 `` That could work. I'll call my prime minister and we can work out the details.''
