Notes – Done for pw_contest, under the prompt "Ghost(s)" and with the limit of 300 words or less. Set pre-canon when Pearl was a baby.
People said many things about the women of the Fey family.
Some of them were rumours, but most were true, and the Fey women themselves wouldn't deny them. Particularly the saying that men did not stay long with them because of the importance of the Fey heritage to female members of the family only. Men are often excluded and shunned, something no one likes to deal with.
One other such rumour was that Fey children made difficult babies. The spiritual powers were strong at that age, but the child's mind hadn't learned how to deal with those powers yet. During the night they would see people who weren't really there, they would hear voices when there was no one in the room and in the most extreme cases a baby may be accidentally possessed by a wandering ghost.
It was very distressing for the children and they often screamed throughout the night.
Pearl Fey did not scream.
Her powers were stronger than most, she saw the spirits wandering and heard them talking but she wasn't scared of them. They were there for her to look at and learn from.
The village slept soundly when Pearl was growing up.
But she did not sleep.
She just watched.