Archive of Our Own

There was once a boy who saved the world with his sister, not once, but twice. The boy was blessed by the fairy queen and grew to live a very long life along with wings granted to him by the previous fairy king.

The boy became a man and lived many adventures. He learned as much as he could about all sorts of wonderful things and went out of his way to help people. He fell in love several times, until one day he married and had children. They had healing magic just like his and wings every colour of the rainbow.

The man became a grandfather, then a great-grandfather, then a great-great-grandfather, until finally he stopped counting how many generations of grandchildren he had. Though he was blessed to live long enough to see all of his family grow and find their ways, he was cursed with the sadness of outliving his own children, watching them grow steadily older while time held him still.

The man did not let this get to him. He had promised his family, back when he was a young man, that he would live his life as long as he could, whatever may come. Whenever he wavered under the weight of it all, he would think of them and feel better. Whenever he saw good things, he thought of them and how he was glad to witness it all in their stead.

He watched the world he had grown up in turn away from total collapse, watched as humanity undid the damages it had wrought on its planet. He watched in awe as countless people from all over the globe, on all levels of government and wealth contributed to changes and undid what had been done. He watched as their efforts gave fruit, as their planet stabilized. Nature returned to what it had once been, flourishing in a way it hadn’t in hundreds of years. Humanity overall was happier and healthier.

The magical world responded in turn, flourishing in ways the man had never imagined to see. As humanity let the planet have its wild spaces, the magical beings that had once resided there returned. The preserves remained as places of gathering and safety, but overhauls and reforms changed things ever so often and things continued to get better.

The man was there through it all. He helped in every way he could, sometimes changing his mind when he realized he was in the wrong. Sometimes, he found the way things changed to be difficult to adapt to. He retreated to the preserves for some degree of stability, but inevitably he would return to the world. Learn things anew. Find new passions and things to do.

After a very long time, the man grew old. He spent hundreds of years as an incrementally older man, until one day, after having lived several thousands of years, having outlived most of his magical friends and family, he came to a decision.

The world was well and truly saved for now. There were so many people willing to do good, so many people who could help if things went wrong as they inevitably would someday. Two people had attempted to open the demon prison since he’d helped move it as a child. More would inevitably come, but he didn’t need to be there. There would always be good people willing to help.

He was tired. He still loved life, but he had been old for so long he almost struggled to remember what it had been like to feel young. He had family, but they were such distant relations from him now that he couldn’t even name all the grandchildren he’d had between them. All of his lovers were long dead, countless scores of friends as well.

It was time to go.

He spent a century thinking about what he should do. The fairy queen, now a dear and close friend of his, told him she could turn him back into a human if he so wished. Live out a normal human lifespan, die a normal life. He refused with a smile. This was who he was, who he had been for countless lifespans. He didn’t feel the need to return to who he had been as a child.

Eventually, he made his decision. He told the fairy queen and she held a huge party to celebrate his life. Creatures came from all over and shared stories of the things he had done for them and their ancestors. His living friends celebrated with him and grieved his departure, but they all respected his wishes.

Once the festivities were over, he departed on a decade of travel, accompanied by several close friends. His best friend, the fairy dragon Raxtus, now one of the oldest dragons walking the Earth, stayed by his side the entire time. Together they traveled the entire world gathering magical objects whose curses could not be undone.

Once their goal attained, they traveled to the country that had once been known as Selena in the man’s youth. There, they said their final goodbyes. The man continued his final journey alone.

He crossed a desert and returned to a place he had only visited once before, the day he was blessed by the fairy queen. He stood before a huge flower, glowing faintly under the stars. As he approached, one of its petals unfurled, granting him passage inside.

Within the flower, the air itself seemed to glow. Colours and shapes were as soft and shadowless as a cloudy day and the interior of the flower was lush with plants of all shapes and sizes. The man met the two people who lived in the flower, two old friends he had last seen thousands of years prior. They spent a night and a day talking, catching up on everything they had missed in their gentle exile.

The man was overjoyed to hear his friend had fully healed, thanks to his time spent in the flower. The two had remained as guardians since, enjoying the countless years of peace and companionship they had been robbed of before.

When the sun set on the second day, the old man stood and announced it was time. He could feel death slowly growing in on him and he wanted to take action before it was too late. He presented the cursed objects to the couple and told them his plans.

They agreed, though they laughed at the sheer amount of objects he had brought. He was really making sure it would count, they joked. Then they drew him into one final hug and helped him gather all the objects in his arms and wings. Together, they walked to the Well. He wished them goodbye and jumped into the water without hesitation, sinking like a stone.

As the water covered his head, he was scared, but mostly excited. What would there be on the other side? There were so many people he wished he could meet again. But even if it was nothing but the final end, the journey had been worth it. Everything had been worth it and he would do it all over again given the chance.

As he sank, he smiled. The curses and cruel objects he brought with him fizzed and cried as their magic was unmade. His body grew hot and began dissolving painlessly into a million bubbles, like a bath bomb. The image made him laugh, and it was to that last laugh that Seth Sorenson died.