if we turn back time; any

[magnus]

He was different now.

Standing here, slick with the exertion of his run, exhaustion setting into the very marrow of his bones, Magnus knew that he was different. Ever since he’d met that strange, pale stallion, the man who had talked of love and fear—of life eternal—he had known he was different. Tobiah had bargained, pleaded with the faeries and unrooted an immortality that felt more like a prison than a gift and unwrapped it from his core. He had reached down inside of himself and then pressed that same gift into the very begin of Magnus, and the faeries had accepted the terms. And now Magnus, dead once, could live forever.

It was strange to think of the years stretched out before him. The time that now unraveled seemingly endlessly with no end, no natural progression of age or illness. He was forever locked in this moment, too young already for the years (centuries) that have passed since his birth and now forever more stuck there. He would never know what it is to lie down and let death take him, to know the exhaustion of age.

But he would also love those years relatively alone.

It left him hollow, lonely, aching, and he didn’t try to pretend otherwise. He was stripped bare, vulnerable, and was taken by surprise when he heard the voice calling out to him. Without hesitation, he whipped his head down, ignoring the wild hurt that spread through his chest. “Hello?” called softly into the darkness around him, the silver of the moon illuminating the area directly around him only. “I’m not going to hurt you,” confusion crept into his voice, but he fought to keep his voice reassuring and steady.

“I apologize if I frightened you.”

He thought that he could maybe sense another creature there, another nearby, but he couldn’t be certain. In this moment, he couldn’t see anyone and so he did not move, hoping that by remaining still that he would cut a less imposing figure in the dark. “My name is Magnus,” he offered to the phantom creatures nearby, hoping it would help, hoping it would put their mind at ease at the very least.

out of the blue out into the loneliest place that you'll ever know
I carried the world just as far as I could but the damage had taken its toll