paradisa | Dictated;

Entry tags:

will stanton

Dictated;

Its nice to have spring weather again, isn't it?

[Will pauses awkwardly in his dictation. Even after so many months in the castle he still found it uncomfortable to admit what his loss was.]

I was thinking that it would be fun to go for a walk in town. But I don't do so well with going places alone anymore. Would anyone be willing to go with me?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm not quite certain I understand. I look like a kid, and most people assume. And in some ways I am still a kid.

I didn't mean how do they assume. I meant, how are you a normal child?

You're actually an immortal being, despite how you look. Correct?

Yes. I am an Old One. But I am also a child. Both of these are true.

[Will's answer came slowly as he tried to figure out how to explain this.]

My kind.... Although we have existed since the beginning of time, we are born as humans and we live as humans. We have human families and human lives. But there is in us a part that can never be human. And which is ultimately more important than our human lives.

So it's more than just a disguise.

Do you feel human?

[Will shrugs to himself.]

How do you know what it is to feel human when you have never been truly one of them? Even when you thought yourself to be one of them?

I only know that I have never been quite like the other children I know at home.

You can know if you don't feel human.

How long did you think you were one?

Until my eleventh birthday,

And how many... human birthdays have you had now?

Fourteen last December.

And yet you're really far, far older than that.

Does your family know?

No.

[Will left the answer at that. He didn't like thinking of the only time he had tried to tell the truth to his family. Even though he would never forget the look of dawning fear that had appeared on his favorite brother's face.

Will had never wanted his human family to fear him. That was why he had chosen to take away Stephen's memories of that moment.]

Hm.

If you're worried about me giving away your secret, don't be.

It isn't a secret, really. [Will is careful with his answer.]

It is only that some people have difficulty understanding when their understanding of the world is shaken. Sometimes, it is just best never to say anything at all.

Maybe that understanding should be shaken.

Why? Most people are perfectly happy as they are. Sometimes forcing them to understand will only harm them.

So they should stay ignorant to the realities of their own world? Their own lives?

I don't know how it is in your world. [Will's voice had grown very solemn.]

But in mine...

My master told me once that long ago men lived among magic, much as fish live within water. They lived with it, and it was in everything in the world.

But that was a very long time ago. Now, matters of magic are hidden and half-forgotten. Most humans think of magic and my kind as nothing more than stories to tell children. And soon we will be completely forgotten. For the world belongs to men now, and it is they who will choose its future. There simply isn't a place for magic in the world of men anymore.

That doesn't sound completely dissimilar to mine-- and I don't see why, given the circumstances, you wouldn't want to try even harder to make yourself visible and believed-in.

An Old One leaves no footprints.

[Will speaks the old saying with a certain degree of sadness and resignation.]

My kind... We were never supposed to be believed in. We were meant to be forgotten. To do our work without ever being noticed.

Sounds to me like this Old One doesn't like that much.

It is my nature.

[And even if Will was saddened by what he knew his duty would lead him to, he would never speak a word against it.]

Is it your nature to not like it, or your nature to do it even though you don't like it?

It is my nature to serve the Light's wishes.

Even at your own expense?

If it is my duty, then yes.

Dictated;

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

Pitch

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

The Watchman

Pitch

Pitch