From the moment she was old enough to make friends, Lockwren knew she was different. Whether it was the marble pallor of her skin, white hair or violet eyes, she couldn't be sure. All she knew was that most of the children where she grew up looked at her as her mother once looked at a ghost.

Well, what she thought was a ghost. When she was even younger, Lockwren woke up one morning with a splitting headache. She looked into a mirror, into a face that was not her own. Her hair was short and black, her face adult and covered in scars. Seeing this, her mother dropped the set of tea she had brought up to her room for breakfast.

As she calmed down, her usual features returned, little by little. She had no idea how she changed form. All she knew was that children of eight were not meant to be able to change appearance.

The only one she told about this happening to was her only true friend, Zanael. The tall, blue-haired boy never flinched at her odd appearance. In fact he found her whole story fascinating. Together, they started studying shape-shifting magic, to try to understand how little Lockwren was able to change.

It took them a year to find the right word. Changeling. Lockwren seemed to be a fae child who was exchanged for her mother's own human child.

She... her mother wasn't her mother? She had a human sibling in the feywild?


A part of her - deep and dark - couldn't help but think that that made sense. There was always that portrait of another child on her bedside table, people kept saying she and her mother were nothing alike.

Lockwren spiraled then. She became obsessed with studying fae culture and what it stood for. Appearances, for one. She fell into fashion, and into a desire to be a part of the fae courts. She wanted a high society life, as she needed one to get where she dreamt of going. Every move she did was carefully planned, like a game of chess.

For it would take many connections to get to the fae courts.

Until she was old enough and saved enough gold to travel, she followed Zanael through school. They stayed friends through the years, and both grew into witty, charismatic people. He went from unusual and quiet to a downright model. She went from being the ghost to being the sun.

That was all they needed to get by.

Just a tinge of confidence.