A middle-aged woman carried a basket with her as she parted from her husband in the small room in the inn. 

She was going off to see if there was a way to pass through the barren lands ahead of them. In the stories, these lands had once been full of forests and magic. Some parts were still alive with life, they say there were communities of Fae living in this land, somehow surviving. Still under the hand of the king, whose power reached the land, despite how far it was from the capital and the mainland. 

It was impossible to miss the border of what is the inhabitable parts of the kingdom and what was not. Like two oceans that could not mix, the ash-colored ground of the barren lands contested the soft grasses beside it. Even the water runs mostly dead in these lands. 

There are a few places where water still runs, but it runs like the winds are angry. The tide rips along their banks and carries anything downstream towards an agonizing death. 

The ocean that surrounds this part of the island is just as unreachable. No man has ever crossed it safely without the assistance of a Fae who can calm the cry of the winds and soothe the anger of the waves.

Beth stepped onto the ash-ridden lands. Even the atmosphere separated itself from the world beyond the sullen line. She needed to travel past here and find somebody to take her across the ocean to the Kingdom of Wisteria, where she could plead with the gods to give her a child. All she wanted to do was raise a child with her husband and have a quiet little life. 

Every step felt like she walked a graveyard. There is magic in their world, little of it remains, but it provides the land with life and beauty, but here there is nothing. It is drained of life and magic. Cursed. 

Still, her feet carried her across to the sight of trees. They did not match the trees she was used to seeing. They were thin and looked like they might fall over at a slight shove. There was nothing to them. With bark stained black and leaves a bloody red, they were straight out of a book of nightmares. 

Even with dread creeping to her bones, she continued to make the journey. She traveled for days, nearly a week, to find this small place of refuge from the scolding sun.

Her tired legs carried her toward the roaring of a river.

She approached it carefully before her feet came to life. The energy she’d needed to restore came back to her as she rushed to a body. 

At first, she thought the child looked about nine or ten, but as she pulled the girl from the river, she figured she was older than that; but incredibly thin and frail. There was still a pulse, be it weak and unsteady. 

Beth tugged the child to where she’d set her things down. She tried to find a heartbeat or signs of breathing. The girl was soaked in water, and quickly Beth began to notice blood.

By no means was the human woman set to take charge of anything medical-related, but she began to hold the child close and hit her back until red came from the child's lungs. It was thin like water, so Beth thought the child had blood in her lungs and then began to drown. Something of that sort.

When she was sure the child was breathing, she set her on her side to make sure the airway was open. As quickly as her body could move, she sifted through her bag. 

It’s a good thing her husband had been a worried old man. He’d made her overpack with gauze and bandages. He’d made her pack ointments and needles with thread for stitches. 

Beth was no doctor, but she did her best before hoisting the child into her arms. It was only then that she noticed the child was not like her. 

She saw the child's ears and wove her hair into a braid to keep them tucked. Being Fae put this child at a disadvantage. 

Was she about to save or doom this child? She couldn’t leave her to die, and the safest place for her is Alveria. This kingdom did not execute her kind. But they were not kind to them either. This poor child.

Every few hours, she stopped to check on the child and do what she could with what little she had to keep the child alive.

They had spent a lot of their saved-up coin to buy things imbued with the healing of the Fae. She hoped it would help with whatever natural abilities the child's body may have. 

Her feet bled from the soles of her ruined shoes as she walked and ran, then walked, only breaking to care for the child. Her arms grew tired, but she held the child close, never letting her slip or fall. 

When she was within view, the child’s breathing slowed again. The third time since she’d saved her. There were no miracles left in her bag, no pills to pop into the small child's mouth. She ran faster, whispering to the child.

“Stay with me, fight. The Fae are the great ancestors of this land. Do not fall, little one. You’ll make it. You will make it, darling child.” She carried the child until her body was over the border and to the inn.

Her panicked face met the shocked face of her husband, who sat anxiously in their room. 

“What is this?” Marks stared at the child in his wife's arms.

“Please, we need to find her help. Please. I found her by the first river. She’s dying. Please. I can’t watch a child die.” 

Her pleas struck Mark, but he could not fathom why she returned with the child to the inn instead of running straight into town. “The closest doctor is in town, why did you not head there Beth?”

“She can’t go there. Mark, we need to find somebody who can do things on the low.” Her eyes pleaded with him as the child began to wheeze. Slowly, Beth moved her lips to form the word Fae, but the sound never left her lips.

The hesitation was there in Mark's face and in his thoughts, but he could not listen to his wife weep like she was holding their stillborn daughter. Even if this only offered her a bit of relief from her pain, he’d let her save the child.

Mark ran from the inn and found the Fae serving the bar, Fae live in tight circles. Most work the jobs people scorn any living thing for. From clubs to brothels to maids. They are not open to helping humans unless it’s for money. 

Mark dropped a few atari on the counter, hoping the coins would bribe the Fae. When that wasn’t enough, he dropped a few closi coins. He can’t spare a crown, that would be far too much money.

“Please, my wife and I took the child in. She’s injured and she’s-” He motions to the Fae. 

With a heavy sigh, the male takes the money and says, “Back of the town, go through the back alley until you see a brothel. Go two alleys down to the underground entrance there. It's the first place to your right.”

With a heavy thanks, Mark ran to grab his wife. They hurried to find this person.

When they arrived, they were already cloaked to prevent people from seeing them. The couple took no offense to this, Fae have the right to be cautious of any humans who walk into their area’s. Humans usually appear to cause them trouble, harm, or use them.

“Where did you find her?” The medic ran her eyes over the couple and the child. She was looking them over for threat.

“I was trying to cross the Deadlands to reach the Kingdom of Wisteria.” Beth’s voice trembled as the woman questioned her.

“What will you do with her when she wakes?” Scepticism slipped through the uneven waver of her tone.

“Care for her, let me care for her, please. I spent days keeping her from dying. Please let me care for this child. I will raise her well and care for her. Please don’t take her from me.” The broken voice of a mother who never got to care for her child must have convinced the female that she was no threat.

With a grateful sigh, the female took a small scalpel and took it to the child's throat. “She was stabbed with something poisoned. Likely another Fae, given the traces of our magic in pure lingers in her blood. It is not uncommon for Fae to turn on each other these days. Or your king murdered another innocent court or a fragment of what we used to call a court with a traitor.” The venom the female speaks with will never be forgotten.

The human couple spent hours watching the female Fae work her magic. They watched bones snap, then connect again in perfect mending. They watched as the skin mended itself and closed without a stitch or scar. However, old scars remained, but any raised area fell to a flat scar. 

“Her throat will be sore, but I have mended the damage done to her lungs and to her throat where the blood was dripping into her lungs. I can’t promise that she will be okay mentally. She had a relatively bad head wound. My magic can only mend by speeding up the cells. Fae are easy to help considering we heal quickly naturally and can reconnect severed limbs, unlike you fragile things.” The medic looks over her handy work.

She pauses as she assesses the young Fae’s body making sure her work was complete. 

“I can not heal her mind. I do not have the levels of magic required for that. However, I will say I ran into resistance. Whoever’s magic etched itself into her body will likely continue trying to kill her. She will be weak, and I doubt she will grow to be who she could have been. Are you still willing to look after her, even if she has no memory? Or if she is disabled in any way?” The fae looked to the human couple unable to believe without hearing it that a woman could raise a fae child for no benefit.

“Yes! I will adore her like my own child. I will keep her safe.” Beth was quick to answer, before looking at her husband, who bit his cheek. 

There was no way he could say no to Beth, his beautiful and mourning wife. He could not tell her it was an impossible task. “We will raise her well.”

The female took the child in her hands and handed her to the human couple. She then provided them with a list of herbs and tonics, as well as providing them with a bunch of premade medicines imbued with her power. “She will need constant attention for a few months.”

When they returned home, the child had yet to wake up. 

It took months of Beth feeding her and making sure the medications were administered before she caught sight of the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. 

The only information the child gave them was mumbled two weeks after she woke up. Just her name and her age, that she was Fae. That was all she knew.

“Selenetta, thirteen-half, fae.” Selene had spoken just like that before going silent again. 

Selene touched her cheek, unsure why she was crying, but she couldn’t help smiling lightly to herself. “Thank you.” She was truly glad that chance had saved her.

While Beth may think it was the will of the gods, Selene thinks it was by luck she was found at that riverbank.

“There is no need to thank me Sel, I care for you as if you are my child. Even if you get your memories back and wish to find where you came from, I will support you. If you need a shoulder to cling to for your tears, I will be here. I know we may not have been ideal, and Mark and I may fight, but you mean a lot to us. If you have questions, there is still time to ask.”

Selene nods, fidgeting, a bit afraid to ask her mother questions. “Was the poison ever figured out?” Is that why she’s so small and fragile among Fae? For a human, it would be normal, still maybe a bit short, but for a Fae? They tend to be taller than humans. Even a weak Fae can beat the average mortal in a battle of strength, yet she struggles to carry laundry outside.

Beth shakes her head as she reaches to twist a strand of her child's hair around her fingers. “I apologize Selene. We went back once or twice, but she never figured out what it was. She figured it was coated on cold iron, which would have made whatever poison have tenfold the effect, that’s it though.” The reason there is no iron in their house. They made sure anything that could be of harm to their child was gone.

Selene nods standing up from her seat before she pauses. “I think I am starting to gather memories. I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I went outside.”

“In the rain? Sel, that’s a bit much, even for you!” Beth interrupts, before sighing and shaking her head. “Sorry, go on.”

“I was relaxing and I liked how the water hit my face, but there was a loud crash of thunder, and I felt like I was suf… like I could not breathe. It makes sense if you found me by a river out there.” 

Beth nodded, standing to hug her daughter. “Now, go get ready, I'll take care of this, but you go into town and enjoy it. I want you to come back with a smile and a good story to tell! You hardly go out, so go enjoy yourself without your mother worrying. Though, I’ll worry from here. Ah, and remember to be home by dark. You can stay past noon, but please don't worry this old woman's heart too much.” 

Mark sighed and rolled his eyes as he stood and walked to his daughter. He tucked a strand of hair from her face, patting her on the head. “Be careful. Mind your words and your manners. Stay away from any guards you see, Fae or not. Don’t linger too long around anything mystical, and if you're suspecting danger at all, come home.”

“Oh Mark, she’s not going into a wolf's den! We are on an island. The mainland rarely causes us trouble, and most people here do not think as low of Fae as they do there. But still, be careful and keep low.” A worried mother and father…

Selene giggles slightly to herself as she gives a small curtsy and rushes to her room. She braids her hair and pins strands, making sure her ears are hidden. 

She takes sunglasses, places them over her eyes, and spins in her dress. She adores herself. She may hide who she is from others, but there is no insecurity or regret about her appearance. She loves it. She loves who she is. She takes the bag of coins she’d been saving from her parents and tucks it into her pocket, then grabs her basket, ready to go.

Before she can leave, her mother takes her pouch of money and drops four closi and ten atari. In her bag are twenty Atari, the equivalent of a closi, and 3 atari. So in total, she has five closi and 13 Atari to spend. To her, that’s a lot of coin to spend. She smiles and hugs her mother before she heads out into town.