Owen sat by himself, his head on his knees, staring off into the blackened, charred remains of the Magister’s study, not speaking, barely moving.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been there, just sitting. It was hard to tell time in a place that didn’t believe in the science behind clocks. Though those clocks probably would have been destroyed in the explosion that Owen had caused anyway. Ruined just like everything else.
A light appeared in the dimness, and Charm stepped out of a teleporting beam, then slowly walked over to Owen, who didn’t look at her. Kiel’s winged cat, Alphonse, appeared right after her, then took to the air, sniffing all around as he flew. Owen watched as the cat settled on the remains of a high cabinet, then moved one glowing paw in a circle. Food magically appeared in a bowl in front of him, and the cat happily began to eat.
“What are you doing here?” Charm asked him, sitting down next to him. Owen noticed out of the corner of his eye that she had a new robotic arm. Apparently, her ship didn’t just do brain surgery.
“Waiting,” he told her.
“For what?”
“To go home.”
She looked all around. “This isn’t home?”
He shook his head. “You should probably leave.”
“I can’t. You know that. All of Magisteria is about to be destroyed in just a couple of hours, and—”
“I can’t do this, Charm,” Owen said quietly. “I don’t belong here. I never did. She was right, and I should have listened.”
“She?” Charm asked quietly.
“This friend of mine,” Owen said. “I thought this was going to be fun. We’d go on adventures. I’d cast magic spells and fight Science Soldiers and take down Dr. Verity. My friend told me it was a mistake, but I didn’t listen. And the worst part is, I might even have put her in danger, and it’s too late to do anything about that. I have to leave. I have to go home.”
“I’d do it myself, you know,” Charm said, turning her head back toward the burned study. “Give up my heart, if it weren’t made of metal and plastic. So you wouldn’t have to.”
“You’re a much better person than I am, then,” Owen said, looking away.
“That’s not why I said that. I meant that if I could take this choice away from you, I would. It’s not fair. You’ve given up almost everything to save your world, and now it’s asking for what little you have left.”
Owen squeezed his eyes shut, wanting to punch something. No, he hadn’t. He’d done this on a whim, wanting to play Kiel Gnomenfoot instead of doing the smart thing and heading home with Nobody! At least then he could have made up for his original mistake by helping find Bethany and bringing the Magister and Kiel back. Instead, he’d chosen to stay, knowing that by not helping, it’d give him more time to be the hero.
And now, when people actually did need him, all he wanted to do was run home.
Part of him wanted to scream and yell, kicking floors and punching walls. It wasn’t fair! This wasn’t his fight. He didn’t know any of these people. Were they even real? And if so, was there even going to be an attack, or was that just what they as characters were told so the story could move along? What was real here?
Part of him thought those things. But the rest of him knew better. The people of Magisteria might be fictional, but they were as real as Charm was, sitting there beside him, trying to be there for him when all he wanted to do was run from his mistakes and from Kiel’s future. And he’d chosen this to be his fight when he hadn’t left with Nobody. He hadn’t realized it at the time, but not knowing didn’t change what had to be done.
“Whatever you decide, I’ll understand,” Charm said, pushing herself to her feet. She paused. “But in the meantime, I have something for you.”
He glanced up to find her holding a familiar-looking box, one that increased in size as he took it. “It’s the magic box you gave me when we found the First Key,” she told him. “You should have it back. Just in case.”
He took the box but didn’t open it, not even sure what had been in it when it’d first turned up back in the original Kiel Gnomenfoot book. “Thanks.”
“I’m going to go back to the ship,” she said, standing up. “Even with a robotic heart, maybe there’s still some way I can stop Dr. Verity. I’m not going to give up. You . . . you do what you need to.”
He watched her move away and ready the teleporting beam. “Charm?”
“Yes?” She stopped before pushing the button.
“Since when were you comfortable being all emotional like that?”
Her eyes narrowed, and she started to yell something, then stopped. “Honestly? It’s been you. Without all that arrogant bragging and those clever jokes, I actually don’t hate you.” She grinned slightly. “At least not as much.”
Then she clicked the button and disappeared in the same light that had brought her.
Owen dropped the magic box, gritted his teeth, and let out a growl of frustration. “I don’t want to die!” he shouted to no one except Alphonse, who looked up for a moment, licked his lips, then went back to eating. “It’s not supposed to be me. I just . . . I just wanted to go on an adventure. Is that so wrong?”
No one, nor Nobody, answered.
Owen looked across the destroyed study, the room that he’d destroyed himself. Yes, Kiel should have been here, and he would have been, if Owen hadn’t tricked Bethany into coming in the first place. None of this would have happened, and Owen would still be safe at home, reading about Kiel sacrificing himself for his entire world.
Magisteria, all those people . . . They didn’t have a hero anymore. Not when they needed one. And it was Owen’s fault.
He glanced up at Alphonse noisily eating his magically created food. The cat looked up again, then leaped into air, his wings gliding him over to Owen, where he landed on Owen’s shoulders. The cat began to purr, pushing his head up against Owen’s, his wings wrapping around his body comfortably.
With a sigh Owen opened the magic box Charm had left him. Inside was a teleportation button, which would bring him back to the ship. She must have left it just in case.
Owen reached up and scratched Alphonse’s neck. “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” he told the cat.
The cat just purred in response.
“I really hope there’s a big funeral,” he said.
Right as he pushed the teleporting switch, he glanced down and noticed one last thing in the box as he disappeared in a beam of light.
There, at the very bottom of the box, lay a robotic heart.