Warning: I cried really really hard writing this. Editing was pretty non-emotional, but I'm not sure how all of ya'll will handle reading it so maybe keep some tissues on hand as I proceed to punch hearts.

Sofia's adventurous life never failed to keep the woman entertained, but there was just something about coming home to Enchancia that made her feel truly content. Even at fifty-eight, there was no place like home, and she'd been away for six months this time, helping a small village in Khaldoun implement the latest farming techniques as well as building a hospital and school.

"Welcome home, Duchess Sofia," the staff greeted her by name, and yet Sofia was having trouble recalling all of theirs.

There must have been another turn over of staff while she was away because while getting on in years, she knew she hadn't forgotten any names, but rather hadn't met a good number of them. Her nephew must be having trouble finding competent staff, but there wasn't a soul alive who could compare to the late steward Baileywick. It'd been nearly thirty years now, hadn't it? Worked right until the end, passing after excusing himself to sit down for a rest and never getting up again. It was a peaceful death, dignified even, completely befitting the steward who's pocket-watch had mysteriously stopped around his suspected time of death. On time even to his maker, they'd said in fond reflection.

Her mother and father were still doing remarkably well considering they were both nearing ninety. Happily retired, Roland and Miranda were living out their days together in the serene countryside, living a more humble existence.

James was fixing to retire now as well, but his son and heir was a fickle young man, still unsure of how to be king, let alone a good one. He had his advisers, but none as trusted as Sofia had been with her brother. Even the royal sorceress seemed a par below Cedric's commitment to the job, no offense to Calista, but she didn't have her uncle's stubborn determination when it came to getting a spell right, choosing instead to brush off the failure and a different method.

Cedric was the main reason why she was home this time after word reached her he'd been a bit under the weather and a visit from his favorite princess was sure to perk him up, or so Calista had said in her correspondence. However, after greeting her brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, she learned the situation was a bit more grave than the royal sorceress had let on.

Quite grave in fact... Despite Cedric being younger than both her parents, his health hadn't been as fortunate as he aged. He was eighty-seven, a good age for any old man to reach, but not one he'd reached easily. He'd been dying for a decade, slowly, a little thinner each time she saw him, his mind dulling and senses failing. It wasn't the sort of death Sofia wished for her beloved mentor, yet his whole life seemed destined to always be slightly unfair to him.

He never married or had an heir, passing his position and wand onto his niece when time made it evident he could no longer fulfill his duties. That'd been a hard day. A man so desperate to prove his worth being forced into retirement brought a tear to her eyes even now, but there was no stopping the arthritis in his hands and his failing vision. He'd kill himself if he didn't agree to retire which seemed a fate fine by him, but one Sofia begged him not to. Now she regretted it. Being killed in a potion accident would have been kinder than this...

Sofia had to withold a gasp of horror when she saw him sitting up in his sick bed, gaunt with thinning, solid gray hair. His eyes struggled to stay open, but he wasn't wanting to rest at the moment. He was too uncomfortable.

"Sofia, thank goodness," Calista got up from the bedside chair to greet the woman at the door. "He's not taking his medicine or his food again... Too ashamed to have me cleaning up after him."

"Is he at least drinking?" Sofia asked.

"Somewhat, but again, the incontinence is making him difficult. You can talk some sense into him, surely. If he doesn't want me doing it, at least convince him to accept a nurse."

"Is he... 'there'?" Sofia had to ask, knwoing there was little she could against senile stubbornness if some trace of the man wasn't still in there.

"Yeah, today's been a good day mentally... which of course means a bad day physically," Calista sighed in frustration, a hand clutching the roots of her dark hair streaked with natural gray strands. "I'm at my wits' end... I don't know what more I can do for him."

"I can't make any promises, Calista, but I'll see what I can do," Sofia assured the woman with a comforting embrace before parting to take the chair at Cedric's bedside. She felt like crying, but hid it behind a smile as she took hold of his right hand in both of hers. When did his hands become the smaller ones? She remembered how quickly she latched onto a gloved hand as a child, pulling him into all sorts of situations he was reluctant to confront himself.

His head slowly turned as he felt her hand grasp his and he looked down at them, puzzled, before looking up at her face with confusion.

"Mr. Cedric," Sofia smiled, calling him as she used to. "Your faithful apprentice is here."

It took him a few moments, but slowly she saw him recognize her. "Princess Sofia..."

"Yes, sir." She smiled. She'd been a duchess since her twenties, but saw no need to correct him.

"Why are you here...?" He asked.

"It was time to come home," she told him. "Think I'll stay a while this time."

She saw him smile a little before the corners of his mouth fell again. She couldn't be sure how aware of her mortality he was, but she knew he knew something was amiss.

"...Calista said you're not eating again," Sofia said a bit more seriously.

"I'm not hungry... Not much sense in eating if I'm not hungry," he reasoned.

"But you're all skin and bones to begin with," she squeezed his boney hand gently. "Please, Mr. Cedric, I'm worried about you."

"Then why do you leave me all the time?" He asked.

"Leave you? Oh, I know I was gone a while this time, wasn't I? I'm sorry. We were making such good progress, it made more sense for me to stay."

"You're always traipsing off somewhere..." He commented, leaning his head back against his pillows and turning away from her. "It's been so lonely in this tower without you..."

Sofia swallowed her guilt. Was that the issue? But Cedric had never been alone, not completely. Wormwood had passed twenty years ago, but Calista and his great nieces and nephews stayed with him since he had no desire to retire to Mystic Meadows. He vehemently stayed in his tower and there he'd remained.

"My life has been content... and yet... lonely... The only time I felt truly happy was when I was with you..." he confessed, his old eyes watery. "I knew you had to grow up... but I wish you didn't have to... why could I keep you in my tower as a wide eyed little girl who thought the world of me?"

"I still think the world of you, Mr. Cedric," Sofia smiled, unable to keep her tears in now. She knew... She knew he'd been waiting to tell her this until his last moments. Kept himself suffering, but alive until she was home again.

She spent her twenties and thirties traveling the world doing good deeds both with her magic and her kind heart, but the pull for a family life brought her back for a time. She decided to marry Prince Hugo, a recent divorcee but still a friend she felt comfortable enough to spend her days with. Their rather casual marriage came with a stepson she adored and while biologically she'd lost against time, it didn't stop them from adopting four other children and raising them as their own. Hugo's early death two summers ago hadn't hit her like she thought it would. She mourned for him, but wondered if he'd been her true love. They'd remained at odds with each other up until his death, his own arrogance being half the cause of the derby accident that ended up claiming his life a day later. And yet... it was a death that fit him in a way, not like this scene before her.

Out of all the people she loved in her life, she had so hoped Cedric's life and subsequent death would have been a little kinder to him. She was a fool for not realizing it sooner. Before she married Hugo was when Cedric was forced into retirement, a time when he probably needed her most. He was still of sound mind, all the more cranky his hands didn't work like they used to, but other than that still in good shape. She ought to have liberated him from that tower completely... gone on more adventures with him, enjoyed their time together to the fullest, and gave him the love only she could give him.

That was his lament. No other woman had loved him like she did because no one else could. The age difference was big, but no one would have raised much concern once she was in her thirties. She could have... She should have... But how was she to know? He never said anything or gave the slightest hint. He had always looked at her adoringly like there was no wrong she could do, no order he wouldn't refuse. He'd been her sorcerer since she was eight years old and like the youthful nave she was, failed to realize how truly special she was to him. How could he not long for the days when such a love was innocent and uncomplicated by the world around them? Here in this tower where it was often just the two of them making potions, studying magic, or having a snack together over simple conversation. If those had been the happiest days of Cedric's life, how miserable had the last thirty been without her? And if had been meant to be with him, how much more fulfilling could her life had been?

He coughed, retching his hand out of hers to cover his mouth and then try to wriggle his way down under the blankets.

Without a word, Sofia helped him lie down, making sure his pillow was fluffed and his blankets dry as she tucked him in.

"Merlin's Mushrooms... What a curse old age is..." He said in sarcastic amusement of his own pitiful state.

Sofia quietly smoothed back his thin bangs behind his ear before sizing up the open side of bed and carefully crawling on top of the blankets to lie next to him. "Can I hold your hand again...?"

Bewildered, but unable to refuse her, he turned slightly onto his right side and reached his left hand out for hers, grasping her slightly less wrinkled and liver spotted hand with his. "I'm still here, Sofia. Lord knows this body has been trying to die for years now... Although I don't know how much longer I can stay awake. You don't need to stay here."

Sofia shook her head and cuddled closer to him, knowing the warmth of her closeness would be appreciated. "After that guilt trip, how could I ever leave you again?"

They both chuckled, but Cedric's laughter faded quickly. The Sofia who rarely cried was struggling to keep back the tears, giving him a good idea why. "...I'm dying, aren't I?"

Sofia sucked in her lip, still trying to restrain tears, and nodded. "You're very ill... and very weak..."

"...I see..." His answer was vague, giving Sofia no indiciation about how he felt about his own demise. It was more than she could bear.

"I've know you nearly all my life... What am I supposed to do without you, Mr. Cedric?" She asked, letting the tears fall.

"You haven't needed an old man like me for decades..." He forced a smile, trying not to add another guilt tripping, 'no one had'.

"You fool, you should have told me years ago," she choked back her tears long enough to nudge her face nearer his and give his lips a chaste kiss. "I would have fallen for you in an instant."

Cedric smiled and his lips twitched as if he were about to say more, but decided against it. This was enough for him, and his body agreed, his breathing slowly ceasing and his features stilling with that slightly evil smirk across his face.

"No, wait...!" Sofia sat up and lightly shook his shoulder. "Don't go...! Mr. Cedric...!"

She wasn't sure why she was trying to wake him up when she knew better.

"Please...! I love you, Cedric! You can't die until I tell you that! I need to make sure you know that...!" She cried, losing herself to her tears for a minutes as reality set in.

He knew, didn't he? He had to... It was all she hoped for as she cradled his head, stroking back his hair and kissing his face adoringly in case his spirit had yet to depart entirely.

"My dearest friend, I wish beyond time... beyond space... if love and magic truly exist... we'll meet again and start over..."

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: I promise that should be as sad as it ever gets but it was an idea nagging at me so I thought I'd get it outta me and use it as a set up to an AU fic. Please look forward to it!