OPTIONAL QUESTS: LIONEL CASTLE (GATE)

[Ramza's company stands before the gates of Lionel.]

RAMZA: The gate stands open. I've not seen a trap so plain.

BEOWULF: Nor I.

[Aliste's voice rings out in the distance.]

ALISTE: Beowulf, at last! I'd near grown tired of waiting.

[Beowulf steps forward. Aliste can be seen from the gate's battlements.]

BEOWULF: Aliste!

ALISTE: I thought to ease your passage within, but I see my hospitality is met with scorn. No matter. I'd not planned to let you pass beyond here.

[Aliste turns and a number of Lionelese troops appear.]

ALISTE: The effects should have taken hold by now. Let us treat with steel!



[BATTLE BEGINS]



BEOWULF: Lay aside your sword! I've no wish to fight you!

ALISTE: Ha! Have you lost your edge in all these years of chasing after that girl?



ALISTE: Are you truly the same knight once hailed as Lionel's finest? My contract ends with your last breath. Stay not your hand--I shall not stay mine.

BEOWULF: Where gone is the noble Ser Aliste--the knight I once trusted with my life??

ALISTE: The man has long since passed!



[ONCE ALISTE IS INITIALLY DEFEATED]

ALISTE: Mayhap your edge is not lost after all.

BEOWULF: We've fought enough, Aliste! Will you not end this madness?

ALISTE: It's not over. Not yet...



[BATTLE ENDS]



ALISTE: I am...defeated.

BEOWULF: Aliste!

ALISTE: Dwell not on this, Beowulf. My days were already at an end. *chuckle* Even the noble Ser Aliste cannot best malady.

BEOWULF: What?

ALISTE: I'd not die...in a sickbed, succumbed to weakness and...and infirmity. What...what are you doing? Go! Go...and save Reis! She awaits you within. Take her...and your freedom. I die now...fulfilled. Farewell, Beowulf...my lord...

[He dies.]

BEOWULF: You fool!