Written in the words of Duchess of the Faree Clan, Princess of the Fairies

The ringing in my ears won’t stop. I hear a knock on a door. No, it’s a hammer banging on a wall—but now it has stopped. I see something that hurts my eyes. It’s the sun, yet it hurts me now. Didn’t I love the sun when I was a child growing up in the Garden Gate Village? I can’t remember now…the sun…my home…my life…my dreams…

I hear my mother call my name.

“Duchess, where are you sweet child?” she calls.

My eyes still hurt but are open to see the light…

I see the sun, I feel the earth, I feel each flower on my fingertips as I walk through a field of lilies. I shut my eyes to listen to the water’s voice flow through my spirit. My feet feel the earth and the ground, yet I have no stinging pain of sharp rocks, nor do I feel the tiny legs of ants crawl across my toes.

Am I awake? Am I really here? Is this death?

I frantically search for my mother, but I only hear her voice. It’s too much to take, so I shut my eyes to breathe in. When I open them again my world has changed…

I can see my cottage just over the hill of green that I tumbled down as a child. The memory of my village life seems like a dream that I had many years ago.  Now I hear voices and see the dark dances of sorcerers that have harvested the essence of my soul.

I was so unhappy for so long as a child, even though I was surrounded by the beauty of the earth that those on high gave to humanity long ago. I dreamed of a life that was not meant for me. I loved a man that hated me. I lived a lie that will haunt me forever.

Now I head into the unknown without knowing who I am. What I once knew as love I now fear. My world…it changes. It shifts like the eyes of a lion stalking its prey. I close my eyes in fear, hoping to wake up but I can’t. I’m caught in his lair.

I’ve heard his voice many times. I still hear it echoing in my head. He calls to his conjurers, to his soldiers and to all of darkness to come to him and bow before him.

I scream at him, “What am I to do with the world’s dark destiny? Tell me!”

I’ve chased him in my dreams yelling that I am only a village girl. What have I to do with the end of the world!? Please…please…please let me go.

In every dream Epsilon turns to me and says, “The world can be overthrown by an army of ants. Its destiny is in the hands of the abandoned, yet they do not know it nor act upon it.”

I will never be who I once was.