Dictated;

[lightbranded]

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?

Comments

[im_the_doctor]

Ah one of the few lucky ones, then!

Read anything good?

[lightbranded]

Herbals, mostly.

[im_the_doctor]

... You were reading herbs?

[lightbranded]

[Will laughs. ]

No, a Herbal is a book written about the uses of plants. Some of the older ones are terribly entertaining.

[im_the_doctor]

Really? How so?

[lightbranded]

Some of them are quite clever, and some of them are terribly wrong about the simplest things. My favorite is old Gerard. He had such a way of putting things.

[Will closes his eyes as he tries to remember the quote exactly.]

The leaves and bark of the ash tree are dry and moderately hot. The juice of the leaves, or the leaves themselves being applied or taken with wine, cure the bitings of vipers, as Dioscorides says. The leaves of this tree are of such great virtue against serpents, as that they dare not so much as touch the morning and evening shadows of the tree, but shun them afar off, as Pliny reports.

[im_the_doctor]

Oh yes, I see what you mean! You are familiar with herb and their uses then I take it?

[lightbranded]

I know their virtues. I learned my trees and flowers not so long ago. Part of the learning of my kind, you could say.

[He grins suddenly.]

And I like reading about them, myself. Its an interesting subject.

[im_the_doctor]

It is, isn't it? I find it quite interesting myself. You never know when the right mix of this and that could save your life.

[ Tilts head, curious ]

How does learning of your kind take place? Did you attend a school of some sort?

[lightbranded]

[Will shakes his head.]

Nothing like that. My kind, we had a book. The Book of Gramarye it was called, although Merriman once told me that it was originally known simply as the book of knowing. When the time of learning came, they left me in a room to read it.

It was not like ordinary books. Every line in the book brought me to a new experience, that I learned as I lived it. I might have spent centuries reading it, or no time passed at all. I have never entirely certain.

[im_the_doctor]

Ohhhhhhh... [ Bounces slightly excited. ] That sounds like quite the book. Do you still have it?

[lightbranded]

It was destroyed. There will never be another Old One after me, so it didn't have a purpose anymore. And it can be dangerous, leaving things about with no purpose to them.

[Will taps his forehead.]

But none of it was lost. An Old One hardly ever forgets anything.

[im_the_doctor]

Oh.

Yes, very dangerous. I've had my fair share of tracking down such items.

[Pause] Why are you the last?

[lightbranded]

Because there won't be a need for another. [Will frowns as he tries to figure out how to explain this.]

There were prophecies, you see. One of the first things Merriman ever told me was that I was the first Old One to be born in over 500 years, and that I would be the last. Because my birth was the sign that the last great rising of the Dark would begin. One way or another, they knew the war would end.

[im_the_doctor]

Ohhhh. So they were waiting for you to arrive? And now that you're here, they think the war will come to an end... But, don't you serve a purpose outside of the war?

[lightbranded]

It did come to an end. Just before I found myself here, actually.

[Will smiles sadly.]

My purpose now is to be the Watchman. All the other Old Ones sailed away with Arthur. And all of our human friends forgot everything about magic and the war. My purpose now is to be the one who remembers and the one who watches. The one who goes alone, you might say.

Merriman told me that I would see everyone again some day. But it will not be until my task is over. Centuries, it might be.

[im_the_doctor]

Oh. [ Ten frowns. ] That sounds rather lonely. [ He knows far too much about that. ] And a lot of responsibility. [ He knows a lot about that too. ]

[lightbranded]

It will be, I expect. [Will smiles sadly.]

My master walked the world for over a thousand years on his task. It may be that long for me. But it is a task that no one else can do.

[im_the_doctor]

A thousand years is a very long time. I should know. [ Pauses. Smiles with a wide toothy grin. ] But that's where friends come in to help you pass the time. And adventures. Ohhh, you can have the best of adventures!

[lightbranded]

I don't know if there will be any friends for me. [He hadn't really had much time think to about it yet, but a part of Will had understood from the moment he had been named Watchman, that his life would be very lonely. There was no one left in the world that he could be entirely himself with. Even if he made new friendships, they would be shallow ones. Not the deep ones he had held before.

How it could be anything else, when there would always be a part of himself he would never be able to share?]

I don't know. I don't think I'll ever need to go looking for adventure. It does seem to find me.

[im_the_doctor]

What?! Of course you will have friends! We're friends now aren't we?

[ Should the Doctor know what Will is thinking, he'd definitely be able to relate. It's not often that he's able to be entirely himself either. And when he has, in thinking of Rose, it's all the harder when they're time together comes to an end. ]

I have that too. [ He grins ] Adventure seems to find me as well. No complaints here. Keeps things from being boring.

[lightbranded]

We are.

[Will offers him a small smile.]

I was thinking of my home. One day I will return there, and I think that it will be very lonely.

[im_the_doctor]

Ah yes. Home. They say you can never go home. I think what they really mean is that when you do it's never quite like you remember.

[ Unless of course your home was no longer there, but that was a different story. ]

[lightbranded]

I think that is more that I have changed.

[im_the_doctor]

Of course you have. No one stays the same.