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An as were recovered: bicycles, pets, keys, odd iteue bassoon which had been stolen and then apparently abandoned in a ha-ha when it proved i by that tied temporarily and then eventually permanently by the police at Dockery House, as if by way of an apology—a sort of replaceed to find Jane, in her inscrutable way, learned to play it passably well

A cloud of suspicion settled on Christopher Plover, but over ti on its way to shadow a few of the less savory locals in turn, but always inconclusively Truth to tell Plover was a little heartbroken when Martin disappeared There was no evidence, and no arrests were ever one, of course,I knew I never told them it was Umber who’d taken Martin’s offer I didn’t have the heart to do it

I think the adults kneere keeping so, cluers on what it was It was our shared secret

But we didn’t all feel the same way about what he’d done Helen in particular—always the arch-Ra Ember and Umber’s will, as she saw it But I believe that we all understood it and even, on soreat will and resourcefulness to seek out Uh with it He was s, and God only knohat he is now, but Martin was not stupid, and he wasn’t a coward

Though it was difficult to reconcile Martin’s escape into Fillory with the dae it caused in the real world One of the secrets Martin must have learned down below the Northern Marsh was how not to care about sos, and there was power in that, the power to live as though his actions had no consequences It fell to us to witness the consequences, and they were ugly Our ile, and Martin’s disappearance finally and permanently annihilated her We saw her more andinstitutional setting, she never failed to accuse us of keeping Martin from her Her own children seemed sinister and alien to her She knew, soht

But I never saw Martin again I always looked for hih as time passed I became more and more worried about ould happen if I found him He could or would not show himself to me I’ve never understood why not

He certainly had the chance There were more adventures left for us in Fillory,Dune I didn’t turn them down Even after what I’d seen that day, even with my heart half broken, I still could never say no to Fillory

And then Fillory said no to us By the end of A Secret Sea I elve, and after that I was never asked back One by one we became too old Helen had one final adventure, in the coical buttons which Jane claiiven them free entry to Fillory forever But Helen considered the buttons to be a perversion of ainst the rams, and she disposed of thee their hiding place Her arguainst her, even Jane It was a schisain, and our integrity as a tribe was diminished even further

Maybe the strangest consequence of Martin’s disappearance was that Plover started writing Whatever went on between hian, and one day Plover surprised us with a book He’d had it privately printed He called it The World in the Walls The cover was his own charrandfather clock

It will sound strange, but after the initial surprise the book never interested us lance at it, norant, sentimental ideas of what a dwarf looked like—but we already knew everything in it People like to call the Fillory books ical, but they never seeic, then the Fillory books are very pale imitations indeed Plover’s words were like dried flowers, stiff and cru, bloo blossoms all around us

Now all I can see is how si the Fillory books you would think that all one has to do is behave honorably and bravely and all will be well What a lesson to teach young children What a way to prepare them for the rest of their lives

We each of us on our own found ways to get on without Fillory The real world was not as fantastical and brightly colored as Fillory, but it was very distracting nonetheless, and if it didn’t contain any pegasi or giants it was absolutely teeerous Fillory eet, but this world was very savory It was easy to let Fillory go when every football match and scholarship exaet it, let it be, leave it behind We talked about Fillory less and less a ourselves, and ent to Plover’s less and less, and the whole business began to seem less and less real

By this tiun to sell, too, and a an to fall upon us We wouldn’t have said it out loud, or even to ourselves, but it was as if we had sold Fillory itself—or rather we’d sold its realness, reduced it to the status of a children’s fantasy, in exchange for regular and startlingly large payments into accounts which would come under our control ere twenty-one By the ti an entrance exae, Oxford, I’m not entirely sure I believed in Fillory at all anymore

Jane did She never stopped looking for the buttons that Helen hid, and when she disappeared at thirteen I believe that she found them But she knew better than to try to take me with her, and none of us tried to follow her When she did not return, I could only assume that she went down the same path that Martin did

It has been years now since Helen or Fiona or I have mentioned Fillory to each other, except as it pertains to our finances We don’t talk about Martin or Jane—in their way they’ve come to sees we’ve got very little to talk about at all, and I would pay any price not to have to suffer any littery-eyed, Ah we three are the survivors of a great disaster—like the bo bombed to pieces now—and to evenback the planes to blast us to pieces all over again

—

I wouldn’t even have written this much had it not been for the events that have overtaken Britain and the world in the past three years They have driven ht possible There is no telling noill triumph in the present conflict, and there is every chance that the Gerland itself before it is all over

Perhaps help will come Perhaps Martin is able to perceive events in this world, from wherever he is, and he will come back; if he doesn’t care to I would think that at least Jane would If they are unable to intervene in the affairs of this world, perhaps E-lost brother and sister and the two Great Ra abreast on Berlin to chivvy Hitler out of his bunker like a stoat

But they haven’t co to come