Elements of Glory: The Princess of Nothing

’I’ve decided… I don’t like being alone…’

-Emily Weral, to herself, the night Wilth died

It was still raining, but it was dark now. Emily hadn’t moved very far since Wilth had died. In fact, all she’d done was pull his cold dead body up into her lap, where she cradled him and cried. She didn’t know how long she’d stayed like that. She didn’t know how much time had passed, only that it was dark now.

She heard footsteps and someone approaching. For a moment she wondered who it could be. Was it the one who’d killed Wilth? Had he come to kill Emily too? She wasn’t scared. Part of her didn’t even care.

Part of her even wished it were so. The hole in her heart left by Wilth’s sudden death hurt more than anything she’d ever felt in her life. It hurt more than the deaths of her own parents. She’d never known them, and yes it hurt that they were gone, but she’d known Wilth… He’d been the only one she’d known for a long time… and now he was gone.

It was so sudden... so final.

It hurt in a way that words couldn’t express.

It felt empty, like a dry well.

Eventually the footsteps stopped at Emily and Wilth.

Wilth wouldn’t want me to be thinking like this.

Emily looked up. To her utter shock, she saw Aragam standing over her. He looked cold and pale, and was soaked from head to toe, his tall blue hat’s tip bent over and dripping. Aragam stared at Emily and the motionless from of Wilth. He looked haunted, and when he looked at Emily, his blue eyes were filled with compassion.

‘What happened?’ Aragam asked, his clothes dripping on the floor, his voice soft, kind, worried.

’He’s dead,’ Emily whispered. She looked back down on Wilth, staring at him and the emptiness of his body. He was gone. Completely gone, and she couldn’t believe it.

She couldn’t accept it, though, she knew she must.

Did he ever know that I loved him? He was the closest thing to family that I’ve ever had. Did I ever tell him? Did I ever let him know?

In her pain, Emily suddenly recognized the strangeness before her. Aragam was back! But where were Togik, Wuzzul, and Samantha? Slowly she looked up at the blue Wasgician. Staring into his blue eyes, she knew that something terrible had happened to him, just as something terrible had happened to her.

He looked almost as bad as she felt.

‘What?’ she said softly, in the silence of the hallway.

Aragam stared at her for a moment. He looked so utterly shaken. He was pale, shivering. When he spoke, there was desperation in his voice.

’Emily, I need your help.’