Chapter Text
There is a popular tale from Briar Valley – one read to the younglings many times before they go to sleep. It always starts off like this...
Many centuries ago, there was a powerful old fae who lived in the forest of thorns. She placed powerful enchantments so that no outsiders could enter her realm. She was quite happy with this isolated but peaceful life away from the constant changes from the outside world. Centuries passed until one day, a young girl – a princess, in fact – suddenly appeared in the forest. No one knows how she got passed the powerful enchantments, but instead of sending her back, the fae got curious and proceeded to spy on the princess.
The young princess was beautiful with cherry lips and golden hair and an angelic voice that could speak to the forest animals. When she laughed, the dark forest seemed to glow radiantly from her joy.
The old fae was enchanted by this child's beauty and innocence, and from then on, whenever the princess came to the forest, she would watch from the shadows as if she was her own daughter.
However, as the years passed, the fae realized in horror that the princess started to show up less and less in the forest. She was growing taller. Her voice was no longer that of a young fair maiden but a woman – a woman ready to spread her wings and leave the forest once and for all.
The fae then heard the news that the now young woman was to be wed to a prince and whisked off to live in his far-away kingdom. The matrimony will end the fae’s time with the princess, and after that, the child’s beauty and innocence will be taken away. That sweet voice will decay into dry leaves, and the long blonde hair will turn into brittle iron.
With the prince and the looming death now coming, the fae hurriedly went through magic tomes from her collection. Scourging everywhere, she found a powerful enchantment that would immortalize the human princess and her beauty forever.
Perhaps it was because of her desperation to stop time from destroying the one thing she had grown to care for, but the fae didn't consider of the ramifications of such a spell and casted it immediately to shield the princess from the powers of time. The fae's powers were so great that the entire kingdom slumbered into a long sleep, along with the beautiful princess. However, the fae didn't care. For she was able to defy death and will now be able to protect and preserve the human princess.
However, word spread of what the fae had done. Her powers terrified the other kingdoms, and soon forces took arms to save the princess. The fae may be old, but her skills had not diminished since the great war, and she had an army at her own command. She fought the human soldiers easily, striking them down one after another.
Just when she thought no more would show, the prince came to the castle. The fae almost laughed at the sight of the lone man. What could he do against her and her army? But to her shock, he wielded power that she could never imagine – a sword that had been blessed by death himself. The prince destroyed her army and struck her down.
And that was the end of the powerful fae.
The younglings may see the fae from the story as a warning for underestimating humans, but the true meaning behind the tale is far more melancholy – the lives of faes and humans were to never mix, and we must distance ourselves from them. And most importantly, never to fall in love with a human, for that love was poison to the heart.
I have heard tales of how faes had allowed themselves to tangle with humans and paid dearly for the consequences. Marriage between faes and humans has always been met with animosity and pushback, and the ending is always bitter and sorrowful.
Yet, despite the warnings from the tales of how faes are easily susceptible to the nature of humans, I, myself, never felt an interest in them.
After all, why cling to mortals who are destined to perish before you?