He was happy to have shared a childhood alongside Tavia, but he didn’t know what their future would be.

Besides, Wesley was less concerned about himself and more curious about Vea and whether or not she was happy with all he had become. He’d never wanted to impress anyone before, Tavia aside, but he felt the urge more strongly than ever now.

Did Vea fear him, like the others?

Was she angry at all he had done?

“Are your sisters well?” Vea asked.

His sisters.

Wesley had sisters.

Zekia. Saxony.

He thought for a moment about that and about what might have happened if they’d grown up together. Saxony was older and Wesley might’ve tried desperately to impress her, while she taught him magic tricks and ruffled his hair like he was some kind of welcome annoyance.

And Zekia.

Many Gods, then there was Zekia.

Would Wesley have looked out for his baby sister and teased her and chided her and fought anyone who hurt her?

He didn’t have the chance to know, because that world didn’t exist and in this one Wesley had sisters, but he had betrayed them instead of protecting them.

One hated him.

The other was driven to madness because of him.

“They’re alive,” Wesley said. “I don’t know how they are. I’ve never asked.”

“That’s not very brotherly.”

“You’ll soon learn I’m not all that familial.”

Vea’s laugh was like a music box and Wesley wanted to bottle the sound and take it back with him to the real world for safekeeping. It was the saddest thing that Vea was dead and nobody would hear that laugh ever again.

“You’ve become a bit of a liar,” she said, the smile still light on her lips. “Luckily you’re still kind. Even if it’s deep down.”

She paused.

And then—

“Deep, deep down,” she said.

Wesley scoffed a laugh.

Vea held out a hand and he walked forward, so that her palm pressed against his cheek, cupping his face. This close, Wesley could see his eyes in her eyes and his curiosity in her furrowed brows.

“Promise me one thing,” Vea said. “Promise not to forget when you go back.”

Wesley put his hand over hers. “I won’t forget you.”

“Not me,” Vea said. “You.”

It was a strange request.

“I know who I am,” Wesley said.

Though he wasn’t sure if that was true anymore. He wasn’t sure if it had ever been true.

“Not who you are,” Vea said. “Remember who you could be. Remember that only you get to decide such things. You made a home and somehow you also made a family. You are not the sum of your past. You are the decisions in your future.”

She smiled at him one last time and then without warning the wind breezed by and she disappeared along with it.