Chapter 139

She nods as though She'd expected it. "He is more than Watcher, indeed more than Guardian. He is Witness, he is Historian. He will sing the Aisling's dirge, add it to the songs of his country, wound through with his tears and cries of loss. He will carry on and teach because you have asked it of him. He will wait, alone, for the call of the next, and when he has fulfilled the duties of the Guardian, he will die, still alone, still reaching for you in dreams he won't allow himself to know he dreams, still feeling his finger on the trigger and trying to call back the bullet with his last breath."

Wil flinches, shakes his head, but She doesn't give him time to respond, even if he could.

"Is that not what you wanted?" She asks him softly. "Is that not what you have demanded of him?"