Without Starlight

Endings are Just New Beginnings

~Chapter 12: Abagaila~

Abagaila didn't know what to do. Nicholas stood over the black spot on the ground that had been a Tragoon. He looked ill, his face ashen and his hands shaking.

"By golly!" Master Climens exclaimed. Rushing up to the young man, the nymph put a comforting hand on Nicholas's hand. "Why didn't you do that before?"

Nicholas shuddered but didn't say thing. He turned to look over his shoulder at her. Abagaila saw the magic in his eyes, swirling like smoke.

"Abagaila!" A hysterical voice called from the crowd. She spun to find her mother pushing through the crowds.

"Mother!" Abagaila embraced her mother in a rough hug.

The queen held her daughter's head in her hands. "I'm so glad that you are okay!"

Abagaila pulled out of the hug. "Mother, I have someone that I need you to meet. He helped us to defeat the Tragoons." She turned to introduce Nicholas to the Queen, but she could no longer see Nicholas. Master Climens pointed to the gardens. She felt the need to go after him. They had both had gone through a lot to make sure that her country had been safe from the Tragoon, but that was the extent from their relationship. How could she follow a stranger?

Resolve pulled at her heart. He was the reason that they knew about the Tragoons with his warning, even if the warning didn't do that much. Still, Nicholas had been the reason that she had been able to know. He helped her and now it was her chance to help him.

"I'll be back." She murmured. Her hands clamped around her tunic, she ran in the direction that Master Climens had pointed in. The clouds above the palace cleared, moonlight lit her path to Nicholas. The young man was leaning up against a tree, his back to her.

"Should I feel like an awful person?" He asked softy. She could see him shivering.

"Is there a reason to?" Abagaila asked after a moment's thought.

He remained silent.

She approached him, "Nicholas," laying a hand softly on his back, "why don't you come back to the palace, we'll figure everything out."

"I'm sorry, Your Highness, but I'm not going back." Nicholas turned to look her directly in the eyes. "I should have done so much more to help you. To help your country." He pulled away from her, wondering deeper into the gardens. "I helped those things, fed them for years." Anger entered his voice and Abagaila wanted to back away.

"How were you to know?" Abagaila asked, she didn't like where this was going.

"I can't stay here." He looked up to the sky. "My grandfather's death stopped my training in my magic. What I did to that Tragoon was pure hatred. I...I don't want that to happen to anyone else."

Abagaila could see the tension in his shoulders. The loathing in his balled fists. "Then train here, so it doesn't. The palace has plenty of magic users to help you."

"No."

She thought he hadn't heard him speak. "What?"

"I said 'no' Your Highness." He turned and looked at her. "I can't be here. This is where my magic nearly toppled your country. I'm leaving to be elsewhere. I would be suffocated being so close to where I didn't really feel my magic." He sounded too final in his decision.

The feeling that she barely knew this person returned. Maybe he was the kind party-goer that warned her that shadows were after her throne or maybe he was the emotionless magician that smote the Tragoon with immense power. She didn't know. Another thought was entering her mind. Why was she trying so hard to make him stay? He really wasn't anything to her.