Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or its characters.
A life devoted to the study of magic is a life of solitude. It is the place of a magician to help the people, but live apart from them. To study everything and be attached to nothing.
I woke up in the middle of the night, a bout of pain and nausea gripping my insides so forcefully and so suddenly I nearly vomited before I was truly awake. Clutching my stomach in silent agony, I crawled to the edge of the bed and sat for what felt like an eternity, an ironic turn of phrase considering my situation, before the horrid feeling faded into an unfamiliar hollowness.
That was it then. It was done. My dues had been paid.
Ties of blood to ephemeral life break those to the eternal, and must be avoided.
Molly stirred, perhaps sensing the emptiness of the pillow next to her. I rose from my hunched position near her feet and padded lightly to the side of the bed, stroking the backs of my fingers across her forehead and watching her drift back into a deep sleep. I couldn't help but smile, especially when her mouth began to sag open as she relaxed even more.
My gaze turned from my wife's face to the digital clock she kept by on the nightstand. The numbers glowed faintly, the dim lines showing the exact hour I thought they would. Exactly one year ago my child had been born.
On the year anniversary of the forging of such a tie, the Wizard forfeits his immortality. Thus stands the choice: eternal life or the continuation of life.
Once I had simply been known to every other being as 'the Wizard'. I was still only that title to many, but I was also 'Gale' and 'sweetheart' to the woman I loved. Now I was 'Daddy'. The past two years of my life held more meaning to me than the two hundred before them. I knew the rules, and I had made my choice.
I crept over to the crib that held the tiny bundle that completed my life.
"Happy birthday, little one."
Author's Note: A post on tumblr got my thinking about the immortal love interests. This is where my brain went for the Wizard.