Tabitha

Tabitha (Japanese: タバサ Tabasa, pronunciation: /təbiθə/), real name Charlotte Hélène d'Orléans (Japanese: オルレアンのシャーロットエレーヌ Shārotto, pronunciation: /ʃɑrlət ɛlɛn dɔrlɛan/ or /ʃɑrlət ɛlɛn dɔrlɛã/) is the daughter of the late Charles, Duke de Orléans, younger brother of Joseph de Gallia. When the father of Joseph and Charles chose Joseph as his heir, the factions that supported Joseph and Charles, respectively, went into a civil war. Charles died in battle, allowing Joseph to secure the throne of Gallia. Later, she accedes to the throne of Gallia, reigning as Charlotte de Gallia (Charlotte of Gallia).

Personality Tabitha is a rather quiet girl who is usually seen reading. Her best friend is Kirche, although the two don't actually talk very much often. Kirche becomes very close after she find out what happened to her parents. Tabitha uses wind-water magic with a staff used as the wand; similarly, the coat of arms of Gallia displays a cross of two staves. Her familiar is a blue wind rhyme dragon named Sylphid.

Summary Tabitha, or rather, Charlotte, was once a lively and optimistic girl with a happy family. However, the Gallian royalty was unstable because of assassinations and wars. When the family decided the future rulers, the candidates were the eldest son Joseph and his younger brother, Charlotte's father. War suddenly erupted in the decree, and Charlotte's father was shot with an arrow by a mysterious assassin.

Later on, while the family was in a party, a stranger gave Charlotte a glass of wine. Charlotte's mother, meanwhile, saw the man snicker as he walked away. Charlotte's mother immediately recognized a potion in the wine and took the glass Tabitha held. Charlotte's mother drank the potion in order to save Charlotte, and became mentally ill. No one knows why she drank the poison, when she could have thrown it away. Now, her mother believes that Charlotte's doll, Tabitha, is Charlotte. And whenever she sees the real Charlotte, she assumes it is someone trying to separate her from her child,and so she treats her cruelly. Charlotte changes her name to Tabitha, the name of the doll that is now her mother's child. Soon, the once lively girl the Orléans family knew, became a different person. This Potion of Lost Heart changed Charlotte's life for ever.

Charles's brother, the new king Joseph, wanted to dispose of Tabitha, but since she was his niece, he allowed her to live. Instead, he gave Tabitha the most dangerous tasks to accomplish in hope she will die or fail. He had her doing missions from slaying monsters to recovering the rarest of items. Her first mission, which was to slay a three-headed monster, succeeded, and earned Tabitha the rank of Knight, though her rank should be much higher now, the king refuses to raise it.

Tabitha is eventually blackmailed into helping Sheffield to capture Louise. She is even forced to fight Saito, and almost loses her life in the process. When Tabitha fails her mission, her status as a knight is taken away. She then heads back home to see her mother, but she is not there.

She sees an elf, Bidalsha, who informs her that her mother has been arrested. He kidnaps her, and takes her to Gallia, as a prisoner of her uncle, Joseph. Sylphid had attempted to save Tabitha, though failed, for the elf's Nature Magic was far too powerful. Here in the novels Tabitha is said to have raised her level to that of a Square-class mage when fighting Bidalsha, but was still defeated.

Sylphid can magically change to a human form and goes to Saito, claiming to be Tabitha's younger sister, under the name Illococoo. She informs him of Tabitha's kidnapping situation. Saito and friends secretly sneaked into Gallia because of treaty where they plan to save Tabitha.

Meanwhile in Gallia, a potion is being prepared for Tabitha, the Potion of Lost Heart. She is to drink the potion just like her mother did. Joseph does this as a favor, being merciful and not killing her. While the potion is being made, Tabitha reads a book. It is about a girl, Lu, who is kidnapped by a dragon. Tabitha relates to the girl in the book. She wishes that Saito could forgive her for her betrayal, but she knows he would never forgive her. So she continues to read her book, while sitting by her sleeping mother. In the book the girl gets rescued by Ivaldi, and Tabitha thinks to herself that no one will come to save her. She then cries. This is one of the few times we see Tabitha showing so much emotion. Tabitha soon hears voices, and looks up to see her friends, her saviors. As Saito tells her everything is going to be alright, she cries again.

When heading back to Tristain, Saito sees Tabitha reading her book. She tells him about it, and he says how he wishes to read it. She tells him that she will teach him to read, in return for saving his life. As she talks to him there is a light blush on her cheeks.

Louise then comes and informs Saito that she cannot use magic. She says she feels nothing inside her, and is worried she won't be able to do magic again. When Tabitha hears this, she stands, and says if that is the case, then she will protect Saito. She says since Saito saved her, she will protect him this time, this is what she wants to do.

When the final battle with Sheffield comes, Louise can't do anything. She says she's worthless, and that there is now no bond between her and Saito. Tabitha then says that she will take him. She says Saito is her Ivaldi, and that she will become his knight, she then kisses Saito. This gives Louise the power to use void magic again, which Tabitha knew, and she tells Louise to cast dispel. Louise casts dispel, destroying the Golem, as the Golem blows up, we see Tabitha's mother look toward the explosion, and says, "Charlotte." She says this in a very calm voice, meaning the potion must have worn off, but she then shuts her eyes.

Tabitha returns to Tristain with the others, where she is welcomed back by Her Majesty, Henrietta. Tabitha basically gets her old personality back, but with an occasional fondling of Saito.

Later in the novels when Gallia was invaded by Romalia on a crusade against Joseph, she was tricked into publicly backing Romalia in her position as the rightful heir to the throne when they had someone impersonate Saito and won over her heart. When Joseph was finally crushed she became the monarch of Gallia, and finally realized she was tricked by Romalia.

Later it turns out due to Gallia's tradition when twins are born one of them must die (see Volume 17 Chapter 9, 'Two staves, One crown'), Tabitha has a twin sister. She was supposed to be killed at birth but Tabitha's mother could not bear to kill her own child and sent her away to a monastery. Tabitha's sister was then seduced by Julio and was brought back to replace Tabitha as the Queen of Gallia, and publicly supported the Pope's plans to invade the Sahara to take back the Holy Land. Tabitha's sister is also Gallia's Void Successor after Joseph was killed and the power moved to her.

When Saito and others found out about the switch and Tabitha was captured they went to rescue her, only to find it was all a plan of the Pope to get everyone to the Fire Dragon Mountains to see for themselves the crisis which forced the Pope to launch a crusade against the elves:

The windstones under Halkeginia have been accumulating over the past millenniums and it threatens to overturn the entire land, leaving resources vastly diminished and many will die. The Fire Dragon Mountains rose up into the air and became another floating island like Albion. Due to this Henrietta and others reluctantly agreed to the crusade against the elves for their survival.

As Saito and others agreed to help the Pope, Tabitha was allowed to leave, and Tabitha decided to let her sister have the throne of Gallia. Tabitha moved in with Saito at his mansion, and was there when the assassins came to attack him once more after Louise came back from seeing Henrietta and Saito kissing. After a fight Saito and Tiffania was taken by the elves taking advantage of the chaos. Louise, Tabitha, Siesta, Colbert, Éléonore, and the rest of the Undine Knights decided to head to the Sahara to retrieve Saito and Tiffania as of Volume 19.

After the death of King Joseph, Tabitha returns to Gallia with a potion that restores her mother's sanity. Soon after Tabitha is declared the heir to the throne of Gallia, but postpones the coronation to live with Saito in De Ornielle with Louise and Siesta, because Tabitha has a crush on Saito.