Disclaimer: I don't own the Abhorsen trilogy or any material related to Garth Nix in any way or form.


Lirael knew it could never be, the attraction she felt toward Nick when she first laid eyes on him through the eyes of a Charter-skin owl. The feeling intensified when she had stayed with him in the tiny reed boat in the middle of the Red Lake, trying to avoid Hedge. Despite the part of the Destroyer within him, and the harsh metallic odor of Free Magic flowing off his skin in nauseating waves, she had, in truth, found him quite attractive. After being forced to abandon him, Lirael tried hard to convince herself that it was only Sameth and possibly the Kingdom she had failed, instead of Sameth, the Kingdom, and herself.

After the business with the Destroyer had been finished, Lirael knew she had to help her half-sister, Sabriel, with her work. There were more than enough Dead and Free Magic beings roaming the Old Kingdom to put to rest, bind, or destroy, and Lirael knew she couldn't afford to start a relationship.

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Nick had also found himself attracted to the young raven-haired woman, the girl who had tried to save him when he could barely cling to lucidity while the Destroyer was growing in power. When he had first seen her, she wore some strange elaborated armament of the Crossing Point Scouts at the Wall. He wasn't sure what the bandolier across her chest had signified, or what the seven pouches had contained. It wasn't until she had mentioned the word 'Abhorsen' that he felt the pain, blinding and deafening him until he didn't know who or where he was, and he lost all sense of the beautiful woman no less than an arm's length away.

When he finally found himself free from the Destroyer's grasp, he felt he understood what Sameth had been talking about. Through the pain—blessed, truly human-nerves pain—he felt the clarity of what the Old Kingdom's technology was based on: the Charter. Ever since he had been 'baptized' by Kibeth in the form of the Disreputable Dog, Nick had felt a small spot of warmth directly in the middle of his forehead and an indescribable magic flowing through his veins. Magic that, he knew, now connected him even more intimately with Lirael.


A/N: Pardon any discrepancies with my writing and the actual storyline. Despite the fact that I absolutely love the Abhorsen trilogy, I haven't read the entire series straight through in over a year, so I may be a bit rusty.