Fairies were dangerous. It was a fact among humans, centuries ago. They were malicious and conniving; they were mischievous and often came to The Human Plane, looking for food and shelter, and the unsuspecting humans would see their beautiful, painted faces and their gossamer wings, and welcome them warmly into their household, giving them fire and sweet milk and cake, only to have their home destroyed and their children taken away in the middle of the night.
Fairies thought nothing of humans – some made sport of harassing human families, driving the young women mad with fantasy; some meaner, more brazen fairies took to fire, setting crops and homes ablaze, occasionally killing a human or two – no consequence to them, of course. The colonies more or less kept to themselves, seeing no reason to wage war between the tribes, when they could bent their frustrations on the humans.
His race had no motivations but to sustain themselves, and with the humans they were more than able to. With the discovery of The Human Plane came the end of magical sacrifice, the fairies using humans as we once used sheep and swine, tossing them into the swirling pool of magic with a prayer to sustain their world.
It wasn't until Queen Mab, thousands of years ago, who rose from the tribes, uniting them with species-wide civilization.
Her magic, the most intense and well-refined magic ever witnessed, had given her wisdom beyond her years, beyond the years of any fairy to have lived. She constructed a society, a plan devised to ensure the continued existence of their world and the abolishment of human blood sport, enlightening her race on the value of human kind, how it was wrong to treat them, the fairies' equals from another plane of existence, in such a way, and her learned ways taught them that the sacrifice was not necessary. Fairies merely needed to collect fragments – bits and bobs that the humans would not miss, that possessed the same magic; a stocking, a thimble, or a child's tooth.
Human sacrifice halted, the tales and belief of fairies dwindling save for the pure, untainted belief of the children, the most powerful magic available to feed their world, and Mab was praised as a Queen, lifted above the masses and made to rule in her wisdom and health, to preside over and entire race, and she did so gracefully, building an empire from disjointed colonies, a society that thrived in the space of a generation. Fairies learned that teeth, placed under the pillow with the express belief that it would be gone in the morning, taken to another world by a magical being, harbored far more magic than common items nicked from a human's house, and they took them more often, leaving trinkets or little silver coins in place of the teeth, as a thank you and an apology for the race's terrible deeds. Soon, the humans adopted the affectionate term "Tooth Fairy."
Oddly enough, it stuck, and they elaborated upon their discoveries, building Fairy around the massive pool of magic. , slowly learning more about the humans as their customs and conventions were accepted into fairy society. They began speaking English, a process that only took a few years to disperse throughout the population, and fairies flourished, their world being sustained and healthy, and most fairies could not recall such a level of efficiency or harmony among their people.
But even fairies die, and Mab, their beloved Queen, fell ill. Not even magic can reverse death, and they lost her. The late Queen's closest and most trusted friends took over, ruling in her name as they knew she would have wanted. They preserved the new society, building up from the substantial foundation left behind, leading the fairies forward, to the life they had today. The Monarchy was done away with, no one willing to take the throne after Mab, and an Oligarchy was established by her surviving friends. Every time the rule lost another fairy, a young man or woman, best and brightest of their generation, would be chosen to fill the position. Lily was one, he told her, and she didn't have a hard time believing him, but that didn't make the occasion any less sad.
It was Clour Deri, an Old Fairy term that literally translated to "Sadness of The Queen,"
She sat with him beneath the silver-leaved tree in their back yard, a candle between them. He guided the floating blossom into her palm, where it remained hovering and inch or two above her skin. Rae eased the blossom over the flame, letting it slip though her fingers and hover above the wick, engulfed by the fire. The delicate white petals curled and blackened as a sweet smelling smoke billowed between them.
Tracyheld her hand and smiled softly, thanking the late Queen for everything she did for fairy- and human-kind alike, for making it possible for him to be with his love, to keep her free of fear or prejudice in the world she now called home. It had often occurred to him during Rae's college years, that his time with her was extremely limited. An entire human lifetime could pass in the blink of an eye for a fairy, a full one hundred years seeming like a mere ten, and he knew that he had less than a decade with her. It had hurt so much, then, to know that after a few short years with the woman he loved, that they would be separated for centuries more.
He thanked Mab, blessed Queen, that he had been able to marry Rae and provide a safe home for her inFairyLand. He brushed her hair back, tying it back as she straightened his tie, and began to speak in quietly, muttering a prayer of another language – Mab's language – Old Fairy.
His voice came in a series of chirps and coos, and she smiled at him, so intrigued to hear his language, but completely clueless as to what he was saying. When he finished, the corners of his lips turned up, the smile crinkling his eyes. "Your turn," he said.
She stared up at him, a slight smile gracing her features. "How?" she asked, and he took her hand.
"Repeat," he instructed her, and he recited the prayer slowly in that old language, trying to get Rae to understand the strange noises. He chirped, and she chirped in response, and he laughed, leaning forward and kissing her forehead in the dying sunlight. "Close enough."
"What did I say?"
He pulled her close to him, having her lean back against him as he held her and hummed in thought. "Well. There were a few little mistakes, but that's okay. You said The Queen's Prayer. Some things don't translate very well, that's why we still say it in Old Fairy, but it's something along the lines of, 'my dear Queen, faithful and wise, thank you for your time with us, your compassion and your guidance. Thank you for life, love and health that I find in this place, the home of the fairies.' Not honestly as complicated as it sounds in our language, is it?" he chuckled, holding her. He watched as she lowered a second blossom onto the flame, the smoke billowing into the early night air.
He thought, closing his eyes and letting the sweet smoke fill him. If things hadn't changed all those generations ago, where would they be today, him and his wife? Millennia ago, for a fairy to love a human, things rarely went well for the couple. Most recorded instances of a human inFairyLandended in death for the human – fairies then were not accepting of humans in their world. They simply did not belong. The alternative was for the fairy to leave his or her world and live on The Human Plane, which was more or less the better outcome, until prolonged absence from magic ended their life. It was bleak for human-fairy couples, in the old days, and rarely were they able to make it work, where they lived on their respective planes of existence and the fairy flit by whenever they could, not unlike how he and Rae had seen each other in the first year.
He clung to her, the severity of the notion hitting him full force, and he found that he'd never been more grateful for their late Queen's compassion for humans than he was then.