(no subject)
Jan. 27th, 2005 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sign_seekerWill sits on his bed, leaning against the wall, an open book propped up on his knees. He's reading a little before bed, in theory; it's been a while since he last turned a page, though. His attention keeps drifting off, to thoughts of a bright blazing sword and a fire blazing warm with Light beyond all the universes and the White Rider's warm farmwife's smile.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 12:37 am (UTC)Come in.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 12:55 am (UTC)Sorry, yes. Been up here for a bit. Were you calling? I didn't hear.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:10 am (UTC)Well, you've caught me now.
*He sits up a little against the wall, pulling his legs in to sit crosslegged, lifting his brows slightly in inquiry.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:20 am (UTC)*Will is fairly sure he knows what's coming. But for now, he waits for Paul to broach the subject, and perhaps for Paul to figure out what he is asking.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:36 am (UTC)With Mrs Rowlands, and Bran and all?
*It is as much statement as question.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:46 am (UTC)*Will blows out his breath. In his head is Bran's voice, angry, telling him You owe us some trust. And, longer ago, Morpheus's sober reprimand: Choose, and then live with your choice. It is not the right of the Light to take half measures.*
Do you want the full story, or the simple version?
*He meets Paul's eyes, and though his voice is calm his gaze is not that of the teenager. It has a weight in it. This is a choice Will is offering his brother, and not a light one.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:50 am (UTC)The long version, I think.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 02:11 am (UTC)It's complicated.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 02:42 am (UTC)All right, then.
To begin with, you must understand that this world of ordinary men is not the whole of the universe. There is the Old Magic of the earth in it, and the Wild Magic of living things, but beyond that there is the High Magic that by its law orders the whole of the universe.
Beneath the High Magic, but beyond this world of men, there are two... poles. Forces. The Dark and the Light, they are called. And they are of their very nature set in opposition to each other. The Dark sought ever throughout history to influence men, and so to control the earth, and turn the whole of the world to its dominion. And the Light had the task of preventing that, that men might be free. To live in this world of ours in control of their own destinies, for good or for ill.
*He is not looking at his brother, for fear of watching his expression change as Will knows it must, but instead is looking at the far wall of his bedroom without ever quite seeing it.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 02:58 am (UTC)*He thinks, but does not say, that what Will is saying could easily sound ridiculous. But Will doesn't often sound ridiculous, and Paul can remember the sound of his flute, bright as sunlight, as everything else faded. And that was real.*
*There's a touch of wonder in his voice.* Magic.
How . . .
*And the wonder changes, subtly.* Who are you, Will?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 03:08 am (UTC)Your little brother.
*a pause*
*gently* And an Old One of the Light. Both.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 05:34 am (UTC)*His voice is still quiet, but surer now, and stronger. Still he does not look at his brother.*
There is a great circle of us, from all places and all corners of time. I was the last to be born, and until my eleventh birthday when I was brought into my power and knowledge, I knew nothing of all this. We are of the Light, and fought against the Dark through the long eons until the battle was won, three years ago on Midsummer's day. Then the Dark rose in its power for the last and most perilous time, and was pushed back, and its servants cast out of all time.
And so too did those of the Light leave, or very nearly all, so that the world of men might be of men in truth, burden and gift and birthright.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 06:10 am (UTC)It's background. I told you it was complicated.
*He turns his head to look at Paul, finally.*
Bran is not of the Light as I am, not an Old One. But he had a part to play in the battle for all of that, and he stood with the Light.
*gently, simply* And Mrs Rowlands is of the Dark.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 04:33 am (UTC)*A gentle smile; a kind, pretty face; the flash of pain in her eyes that Bran's anger drew out --*
*after a moment* You're fighting a battle against Mrs. Rowlands? Who else, Will?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 04:57 am (UTC)*quietly* Not against Mrs Rowlands exactly. Against the Dark, and the servant of it that she is deep inside, below the lovely motherly farmwife. Just as she may love Bran, and in one sense bear no ill will towards me as Will Stanton, and yet in another sense her whole being is bent on ruling and destroying all of that.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:07 am (UTC)You as Will Stanton?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:16 am (UTC)Me as myself. As part of me.
As the boy I was born and the boy I am, and not the Old One of the Light.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:22 am (UTC)*slowly* What's the other part? Eons, you said?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:31 am (UTC)*He cannot find the words to answer Paul. Perhaps he doesn't need to.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:39 am (UTC)Will? Are you all right?
*There's worry written clear across his face, but not worry alone: a flicker, as well, of awe -- fear -- as he watches the younger brother he's known all his life, and never known.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:43 am (UTC)*Maybe it's the truth, or some kind of truth. Maybe not. His face is still solemn and compassionate, and very faintly, deeply sad.*
Are you?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:46 am (UTC)*He pauses.* How long . . . ? Five years, Will?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 05:57 am (UTC)He doesn't move. Softly:* Well.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 06:10 am (UTC)*Instead, he is silent for a long moment. Then his eyes drop.*
I'm sorry.
*When he looks back up, his gaze is almost that of the sixteen-year-old. Almost. He is trying, trying hard, but he cannot quite push back the Old One's grave sympathy and deep, old sorrow.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 06:27 am (UTC)-- I'm sorry, too.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 06:43 am (UTC)*gently, sadly* No reason for you to be. Truly.
*One arm loosens from around his knees, as if to reach out to his brother, but he doesn't quite complete the gesture.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 07:00 am (UTC)*awkwardly* I keep meaning to make up for missing the caroling. Want to, tomorrow? I'm sure James would be up for it. No need to visit houses, but we haven't sung together in ages . . . *He trails off.*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 07:04 am (UTC)Yes. I'd like that.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 07:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 07:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 07:37 am (UTC)*He curls up a little tighter, and rests one cheek on his knees, and stares unseeing through the bookcase beside his bed, and the small blue stone lying on the shelf.*
*Choose, repeats Morpheus's voice inside his head, and then live with your choice. Will waits, now, to see what that will mean, and silently mourns his quiet big brother. No matter what the final outcome, this is in some way a loss.*