[Dictated]

[lightbranded]

[It had been a rough month for Will. 

He'd failed in something important for the first time in his life. He had been forced to face the harsh of truth of what his duty to the Light might mean., one day. 

More than anything else right now, Will desperately wished that he could speak to Merriman.  Even though he knew that there was no way that he could speak to his master.  Even if he had been home, he wouldn't have been able to speak to him.  Merriman had left with the rest of the Old Ones.

Will missed his family. He missed Stephen and James and Paul and Robin and all of his other brothers and sisters.  And most of all he missed Bran.

But there was nothing he could do about his homesickness or his desperate wish to be with some of his kind again. The best he could do was find something to occupy himself.  Something useful.]

Please, does anyone need any help with anything right now?  Or could someone suggest a book to read? 

Comments

[lightbranded]

I could do that.

[inlifesname]

Great! Not enough people appreciate that sort of thing, you know?

[lightbranded]

I agree with that. Its really quite an interesting thing to study.

[inlifesname]

I remember when I first started studying astronomy what I found most amazing was this sense that Earth is really just our own backyard and that all these powerful, strange, wonderful things are going on just outside of it. And most people never know.

[lightbranded]

[Will remembered going camping with his brothers, and listening to them pointing out the constellations. It had been one of Stephen's favorite activities.

But Will himself had learned the stars from the Book of Gramarye. He had learned their names and stories, and learned to hear their song. He had learned the mystery of Uranus and the sorrow of Mercury, and he had ridden on a comet's tail.

But he had never thought such things. To Will, the stars and the planets simply were.]

Sometimes, I think, the oddest things of all can be found in our own backyards. Things that have been half-forgotten, and truths that have yet to be discovered.

Curious, isn't it? How many things most people never notice.

[He smiles vaguely to himself.]

I was always fondest of the old stories that went with the stars.

[inlifesname]

You know, it's funny. Officially, we're supposed to keep wizardry quiet on Earth- and we do- but, really, most people don't even notice when it's done right in front of them. People see what they want to see, I guess, and most don't look any farther.

[A few do, though- Dair, for instance. She noticed, of course.]

The myths that go along with the constellations? I still have a bunch of them memorized.

[lightbranded]

Wizardry? Sorry, but what sort of wizard are you?

I've noticed that as well. But that is the way it is supposed to be, I think.

[inlifesname]

That's a hard question to answer. Do you know Dairine at all?

[lightbranded]

I've met her quite a few times, actually.

[inlifesname]

Great! That makes things easier. She's my little sister; we're the same kind of wizard.

[lightbranded]

[And Will grins.]

That's marvelous! It isn't often that anyone has family show up here.

[inlifesname]

I'm just sorry it took me so long. [Powers only know what Dair's been up to while she's been alone here.]

[lightbranded]

Don't think anyone can really help that.

[inlifesname]

Probably not, but I can wish.

[lightbranded]

Sometimes wishes can have a power of their own, I think. The more so when they are built on loving bonds.

[inlifesname]

[Nita thinks about all she's learned since she became a wizard. About the power of words and the importance of watching what you say. About the Timeheart and what lies within it- 'what's loved lives.'

She smiles.]

I think maybe you're right.

[lightbranded]

[He smiles.]

It is a very old wisdom.

[inlifesname]

You don't talk much like a kid your age, do you know that?

[lightbranded]

I've been told that before. I suppose I'm not much like other kids, sometimes.

[inlifesname]

[A pause.] I guess that's something we have in common.

[lightbranded]

More than that, perhaps.