This one takes place right after Pykon.
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Even when they finally found a safe place to rest for the night, Wil couldn't sleep.
It wasn't because of the Reaper, or their harrowing (and nearly fatal) escape from the fortress. It wasn't even because he could currently hear Amberle and Eritrea bickering in hushed voices beside him.
No.
It was because of her.
The little girl he had known for only a few short hours.
…the little girl who had died in his arms.
Despite everything else that had happened in the past few days, it was she who most haunted his dreams.
It wasn't really that surprising, he mused as he tossed and turned uncomfortably on the mossy ground. She had only been a child, and she had died to save him from her evil keeper. Plus, when it came down to it, she was the only reason that any of them were still alive. She had dragged Wil to safety, and conspired with him to get Amberle out of her father's grasp.
But, the more he thought about it, the more he realised that it ran even deeper than that.
The others had been deeply saddened by her death as well, but he could tell that it had affected him most of all.
During their brief conversation, he had felt such a sudden and strong connection to little Mags—even though she had been so shy and withdrawn. Although he hadn't quite realized it at the time, the pain in her eyes had been so familiar to him. Eerily familiar. She had grown up isolated, without friends. Her father had lost his mind. Her mother had died.
And she, like him, had been stuck between two worlds.
It was the first time he had ever seen and sensed such similarities in someone else.
Maybe people like him were more common than he thought, but during his twenty years on earth he had never seen or heard of another half-elf. As a general rule, elves kept to themselves and humans despised them. That did not leave room for much romantic interaction, let alone marriage and childbearing. He had no idea what Mags' full story had been but, somehow, she too had come into this world as a rarity.
Somehow, she had been like him.
And he wished that he'd had more time to get to know her. He wished that he had been able to help her.
But, Wil supposed, even if things had not transpired in such a tragic way, there was little hope that she would have lived the wonderful life he had briefly envisioned for her.
He had told her that he could find her a family. And friends. That, upon reflection, was an unlikely prospect.
After all, he had not fared too well out in the big bad world because of what he was. He had been ridiculed and attacked. At times, he had even feared for his life. Simply because his parents' had been an unlikely pair…simply because he looked a little bit different.
It was little solace, but at least Mags had been spared from the unjustified hatred of those around her.
With a deep sigh, Wil rolled onto his other side and brought his hand up to his ear. As he ran his finger up and down across the pointed tip, his mouth formed a sad smile.
Perhaps the girl would have had more luck in the elven world, he mused sadly. Maybe they could have taken her to Aborlon and put her in the care of a warm and willing family.
He couldn't say for certain, but his recent experiences led him to believe that people like them could fare much better amongst elves than they could with humans. While he did not regret his own choices in life—and he was glad he had never given up his time with his mother and uncle— a small voice in the back of his mind led Wil to wonder what things would have been like if he had gone to that elven school all of those years ago. Perhaps he would have met others like Amberle, who simply accepted him as part of the elven world and did not condemn him for his unusual heritage.
Perhaps he would have fit in…
In all honesty, it seemed likely. During the last few days, he had often dwelled on the fact that it had taken him several hours to notice that Mags' ears were not completely elven. When she had greeted them in the cave and accompanied them through the caverns, even he had simply seen her as an elf. She'd had pointed ears, porcelain skin and delicate features—he was pretty sure that any onlooker would have reached the same conclusion.
It had only been much later, after he sat down next to her and took a very close look, that he noticed the subtle similarities to himself. Her ears had not been quite as long as one might expect, and the tip had not curved as sharply upward as most. That's how he had eventually known.
But even then (despite his expertise in the area), he had second guessed himself and had to ask her for confirmation.
And that, he realized, was how people probably saw him.
No one could ever look at him and think that he was human. But they could easily see him as an elf.
That was how he had seen Mags. And, Wil supposed, he would probably be better off if that was how he started to see himself.
He had spent his entire life trying to explain himself to people. Begging for acceptance in the human world by doing everything he could to blend in as one of them. But that had been a fruitless battle, and he had now come a long way from Shady Vale.
If they saved the Ellcrys and survived their quest, Wil wondered what sort of life he could build for himself. The only other kindred spirit he had ever met was gone, but perhaps he could still honour her sacrifice by making her dream a reality. He could settle down in Aborlon, in a home by the sea. Perhaps there, for the first time in his life, he could find the peace and acceptance that he had always craved. He could go about his daily life without a disguise and without fear.
Mags had deserved a life like that. But she had never even been given the chance to see the sky.
As painful as it was to accept, it was too late for her now.
But it wasn't too late for him—and Wil was more determined than ever to prove that even half-breeds could find happiness in this world.
And if he ever did manage it Wil hoped that, somehow and somewhere, Mags would look down, and smile.
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