Wow. I can't believe it's been… *checks calendar* nearly seven years since I finished this fic! And fifteen years since I started writing it!
This story is far from perfect – I wrote the majority of it as a teenager, and never had a beta-reader or sensitivity reader of any kind, and oooh boy does it show in places. There are many characters and plot points that I would approach differently if I were writing this today, honestly too many to count. I have changed and grown quite a lot since I published this thing; I like to think it was for the better, but I guess others would be in a better position to decide that. (I'm still a horribly inconsistent writer who's entirely incapable of brevity, but aside from that… yeah, I like to think I'm better).
Still, writing and sharing Aisha's story has taught me so much about storytelling, worldbuilding and expressing myself through the written word. I will always be grateful for that, and for it, and for you – the readers.
I went back and fixed up some formatting, particularly in the early chapters, where it was frankly horrendous (if you want any proof that I had no idea what I was doing when I started writing this, look no further. I didn't even know how to type proper quotation marks XD). And while I didn't re-write anything, I did make a few small edits for the sake of reading flow and consistency (like writing "Syaoran" the same way the whole way through, for example). While I didn't go through and fully edit the story, hopefully this makes it a bit easier to read.
I also took out a few instances of strong ableist language in the very early chapters, which I regret ever using. Being young isn't an excuse for that one – it was wrong, and I sincerely apologize.
To my unending surprise, this fic still gets traffic all these years later. It looks like at least part of that traffic is people re-reading specific chapters, which leads me to believe that some people like this fic enough to revisit it – and that's why I decided to do this little "restoration" project rather than just deleting my teenage cringe off the face of the internet XD. While I left most of the story in all its unpolished glory, I felt that any readers coming in at least deserved to read legible paragraphs.
I want to sincerely thank anyone who's read this story and left reviews over the years. I didn't reply to all of you, but I read every single one, and seeing that my story (as deeply imperfect as it is) was able to impact people was truly a humbling experience. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it as I enjoyed writing it.
Anyway, that's it. I hope that anyone who has derived value from this story continues to do so, and that you find it in your hearts to forgive all the not-so-good stuff.
Thanks again, guys. I mean it ^_^
-BB
