.A Spark From Before.

-49-

(Seva was always meant to be the villain of her own story, a mind falling into the madness of grandeur with the want to save everyone turning vile, dying a hero, or living long enough to become the villain.)

One such a beautiful night, the moon would soon shine red, painted that color by the loss to come.

I wished it had never come to this, but her delusions were to be the doom of this queendom.

She had become the villain of her story.

Innocent lives are gone.

She murders to get what she wants.

The safety of all those that live here.

The safety of all those around Solor.

All of their fates...

They all rest on my shoulders tonight.

"Hya!" I spun the staff, swinging it in a half circle, magic flowing through it and forming into a fire charge that was blasted off the swinging end.

But Seva just slapped it away, and it exploded a hole in the castle wall.

"Is that all you can do, traitor?"

"Not even close."

I snapped the staff at her head, but she blocked the hit with her forearm. Unlike me, who was in my everyday clothes, she was in night clothes, actually having been asleep before this mess, a loose white shirt and pants, so no bracers to protect herself, and yet the smack of the staff didn't even leave a mark on her hand.

"And you dared to hide just how useful such a dragon-scale weapon was, channeling magic through it. I should have known you could never be trusted."

She flicked that hand. The gust of wind created so hard and brisk that the staff was flung from my hands as I flew back a good few feet and fell on my back.

I gulped. This will be hard; even the stab with the dagger was no longer there, just the blood.

I got up, going in for a swing, but she blocked with her palm, grabbing my hand and swinging my body, throwing me at the castle wall.

I gasped as I hit the stone and fell on the grassy ground, pushing up before a kick came to my side and sent me hitting the wall again but higher off the ground, that kick sending me flying so that I was eye level with Seva before she grabbed me by the front of my shirt and swung me over her head and into the ground.

Gasping again, I coughed while standing up.

"You are still a weak head mage. Do you really think you could ever take me on? I have eras worth of experience over you."

I threw my hands out, a gust of fire blasting her before. With a swing from my seat, I sent a bunch of gravel into the fray.

"I taught you your magic; you think it can hurt me?"

I watched her pat out the fire on her clothes, but that was not what creeped me out.

The gravel had hit its mark, shredding her left cheek and up the left side of her face, blood dripping from it.

What scared me was what was revealed under it. It was not bleeding flesh; it was just black, just darkness, the void of a starless night, a black no one should have ever seen, the black of death.

I watched how pieces of skin turned green like plants and knitted together before turning into skin again, her face fixed up.

"What did you do?" I asked in horror as she touched her face. That explains her healed hand.

"Oh, this?" She said, tilting her head into her palm with a sinister smile. "I took inspiration from somewhere." She chuckled; it was blood-freezing, eyes hungry for power. "Why would I remain flesh and blood if I could offer everything up to elemental magic?! I could be a god!!" She yelled, ending in a laugh.

Oh my gods, how deranged does someone need to be to do that?

Even with how the previous queen worked to destroy the past knowledge to stop uprisings, no one could erase the knowledge of the madman who sacrificed his body to wild magic.

She looked at the dagger and kicked it up from the ground before throwing it at me, but in a way, I easily caught it.

"Try as you may." I looked away from the dagger and at her, her arms lifted at her side, wind whirling at her command, and fire dancing to her whims. "You will never beat me."

"I still need to try for the sake of everyone's lives."

I was a staff fighter, but I knew how to hold a blade well enough not to be a poor schmuck who was embarrassed when they grabbed one.

I tried to swing left, stab right, or cut upwards, but nothing could be done. Like a little game, Seva stood on her own without doing anything.

Just staring with a wicked smile as even the elements didn't interfere in the fight, only her stepping to the right, to the left, and backward.

I could not predict her move, each swing and stab as useless as the next one, always out of her reach.

I can't beat her physically; there is absolutely no way, so I will need to think of something.... I'll have only one chance at this.

I swung, making her hop back towards the castle wall.

"As much as this amuses me, I have a queendom to rule." She said it is now or never.

"Please stop this, Seva." I swung towards the wall in a backward swing. "I love you."

Those three little words seemed to have gotten through the madness, the lovely spark I got to know in her eyes as her mouth went agape.

But...

My arm smacked into the wall, hitting the cuff with the dragon stone right into it and breaking it because of the angle of the hit. The magic blasting from it sent my arm the other way so fast that it threw my body away with my arm, and I fell on my face.

I heard a small gasp before hitting the ground and knew it was over.

When I looked up, just as quickly as the fight had started as fast as it was over.

I looked at the blood on the dagger.

I looked over my shoulder, feeling singed by the magic that was blasted out.

Because of the weird attack and the speed, my arm was thrown through the air despite my body being connected to it. I had swung the blade through Seva's throat, and the explosion had aided in making sure magic couldn't get it to stay on... I was looking at a limp, headless body.

I knew one thing about the wild magic man: he couldn't bleed as a human did, but Seva was still bleeding. She hadn't given her body away wholly... And so I know this would end her if I were correct.

Tears came to my eyes as I choked back a sob.

My heart felt heavy as I stood. I walked to the crown and picked it up.

I glared at it through the tears and grabbed it in two hands, even if my arm hurt from the wild swing caused by the magic blast, fire lighting in my hands.

I watched as my anger and hurt fueled it, from orange blazing to a deadly blue, before silver took over and consumed the metal, melting it between my fingers and dripping it on the ground.

"You taught me all I knew about magic, the court, and the past, correct." I choked out, walking to the discarded head. It hurt so much to see that... At... At least she looked peaceful. "But you failed to consider something... I can think for myself... And I had more than one secret I hid from you...." I fell to my knees, shakily brushing her head out of her face. "I am so sorry." I choked out.

Only love can hurt like this.

And it hurt so much.