Dictated

[lightbranded]

[The last week had been difficult with so many new revelations.  Eventually Will had decided to distract himself with one of his favorite pastimes.  Gently teasing his acquaintances with his favorite reading material.  And that is why today you will hear a boy reading aloud into the journals with an air of great solemnity.]

The black graines (that is the seed) to the number of fifteene taken in wine or mead is a speciall remedie for those that are troubled in the night with the disease called the Night Mare, which is as though a heavy burthen were laid upon them and they oppressed therewith, as if they were overcome with their enemies, or overprest with some great weight or burthen, and they are also good against melancholie dreames.

Comments

[lightbranded]

There will be time enough for that, I think. [Centuries, possibly. Until the time of his service was complete. Will knew better than anyone that he might be walking the world for thousands of years alone. But in another sense he was still a child. It was difficult to contemplate what all that time alone might mean when you had only lived thirteen years.]

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

And so there should be. Never forget that. Childhood's fleeting enough as it is, don't hurry it along.

[lightbranded]

[Will considers this advice quietly. It was nearly opposite of what Merriman had once told him, but he could see the wisdom in it. Even if it was not something that he could fully accept for himself. His duty would always come first before anything else in his life. That was his doom as an Old One.]

I am no longer a child, though it is true that it might be easier if I was. But though I look like one and may yet act like one, my understanding is not that of a child.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[That was just depressing. Actually, Bunny's found most of Paradisa depressing. So many children, forced to grow up too fast. It's like seeing what sort of world would be if Pitch ever took control]

Then that's a real shame. It's a very precious thing to lose.

[lightbranded]

[Will shakes his head as he thinks.]

It... This was always intended to be. It was my purpose. Since the beginning of time, that day was waiting for me to end my childhood and become what I was meant to be.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[Well, that's familiar, yeeep]

Some of us have a purpose whatever we want, right?

[lightbranded]

Will we or won't we. [Will agrees quietly.] For there is a duty that cannot be refused and a gift to be served.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

And that sort of thing never ends.

[lightbranded]

I expect my duty will last until the end of time.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

A friend of mine would find some way for you to enjoy it.

[...Oh god did he just refer to Jack as a FRIEND? Nope, that was totally a slip]

[lightbranded]

[Will chuckles at that, though the general effect is more that of an old man's amusement than a child's glee.]

And who says I do not? I have a great burden, but I cannot always be serious. Sometimes, but not always. I still have brothers and sisters and a human world to grow up in.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[That is almost haunting to hear]

...That's good. You should be able to enjoy that.

[lightbranded]

One day. [Will's tone is cheerful.] Once whatever task I have here is completed.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

How long have you been here then? Not long, I hope, if you don't know why you were sent here.

[He's also hoping it's not long because good lord does he need some pointers and the moon here is horribly silent]

[lightbranded]

Months. And months longer before that.

[He pauses, and the continues softly.]

I am used to being sent to new places without knowing why. The Light never reveals its plans until a place and a time of its own choosing.

But... I have not heard the voice of the Light for a very long time. The castle is blocking it somehow, I think.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[Bunny's quiet for a moment, taking that in, mulling it over]

I've got the same problem. The fella that gives me my orders hasn't said anything since I got here.

[lightbranded]

Who is that?

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

The Man in the Moon.

[lightbranded]

[Will smiles.]

How marvelous. I do not think there is such a person in my world, although I have spoken to the stars many times.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

There was a time once, when the world was ruled by constellations. The Golden Age, we called it.

[lightbranded]

In my world the stars have very little care for the concerns of men. But we, too, had a time that was called Golden. Until the first great Rising of the Dark.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

Us too. A trusted soldier was overcome by the darkness he guarded. Became the worst threat the world has known.

Nothing was the same after that. It got better, but the Golden Age was done.

[lightbranded]

[i>Will is silent for a long moment, remembering a bright-eyed man in a green velvet coat. Until his feelings of jealousy and betrayal had doomed him to his own betrayal. And centuries of suffering as he walked the world.]

Once such a time has fallen, it can never truly come again.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

Too right. We hoped maybe it could happen, but everything was too far gone.

[lightbranded]

We still speak of that time in my world. Even those who know nothing of magic. Though they think it nothing more than a story.