"Or are you only telling me all this now, because my father ended the deal between you two?" Regalis thundered.

The tent, torn apart, by everything he'd thrown.

Since we returned from the field, where Nadia died, he'd not spoken a word. All he did in the last hour, until this moment, was break things, and listen as I told him the whole truth. Leaving nothing in hiding.

"After you figured out the prophecy, and suspected that my father killed Cleavon and still wanted to punish you, if you had told us everything, we would've been on the look out, protecting one another, 'cause we'd know that's how Randall operates. Harming people's loved ones!"

"I didn't know he'd do this!" I yelled.

"He did it to you! Hurt the people you care for. Why can't he do it to others?" A tear rolled down his cheek, as he stammered on his last words. He had been about to mention names - Nadia, Old Mother Aria, Ian, the thirty kids, who loved nothing more than pinching him - but he could not call those names. Could not breathe out their names. The wound in his heart, too fresh for his lips to form the words.

He sped out of the tent. There into the rain. And fell on his knees. And screamed, "Nadia!" He wailed. Not caring who saw or heard him. Not caring who knew that the Commander-in-Chief of an Army force had been reduced to a weeping child in the rain.

Lightning, struck the skies. And the downpour of the rain, became heavier. Yet, he remained there. Tears flowing down his cheeks.

"Derrick. Thalia. Steven. Princess..." the names of the thirty kids he fought for, at the Gladiators' Arena, rolling off his lips.

"Hah!"

The rain beat him harder.

"Hah!"

He pounded his chest. Lightning, striking several spots on the ground round him.

If he had not saved those kids from slavery. If he'd not broken their collars. Perhaps, they'd still be alive, 'cause then, Randall would've hardly noticed their existence.

"Hah!" His voice, broke.

Old Mother Aria. Who I thought, still had many more years to live.

Ian. The blacksmith/collar mage. But who chose never to make collars, though he had the Gift and knowledge of it.

"Hah!"

Nadia. The most courageous woman I met in the North. The girl who despite societal rules, became a soldier. And from a soldier, became a leader and General. And from being a leader, died... a legend.