Hello, Everyone!
How are you? Summer here is quite the adventure. It’s hot as hell at one moment and raining cats and dogs at the other. Funny how that works…
Anyway, let’s go back to Mary.
Last time , she finally fell asleep (or maybe she didn’t, we don’t actually know). She woke up in a sunlit cottage and had the chance to meet with her Patron. He was quite welcoming, made her tea and told her he was going to answer her questions and tell her a story.
Let’s see how that goes, shall we?
Gillean!
Finally, after months and months of guessing and wondering, Mary knew her Patron’s name. It was as if that opened up the floodgates of her curiosity.
"Why orange seeds?" she asked.
Gillean looked at her strangely and pointed at his head. The crown of living orange tree foliage rustled in a magical gust of wind.
"Oh." Mary said. "Right." After a few seconds, she continued. "But why plant them at exactly those places?"
"Planting my trees in places of strong magical energy makes my influence in your world--and the magic I can bestow upon you--stronger."
"Yes!" Mary said. "I remember my Eldritch Blasts getting more powerful after I planted the first seed!"
"Indeed."
Mary frowned. The next question she wanted to ask was a little tricky. She'd read enough novels where the heroes got lied to by their seemingly well-meaning masters to--in fact--have them become their instruments for destruction. She hoped this wasn't the case.
"Why do you need your influence in my world to be stronger?"
Gillean sighed.
"The Fey are a boring bunch," he said. "Their Courts--the Winter and the Spring--they have nothing to offer after you've lived there for a thousand years or so. That's why I'm here, between the two Courts, in a place of my own. By the way, heads up, it'll soon be spring!"
Mary looked through the windows. The snow outside was quickly beginning to melt and thawing icicles drip-dropped their water on the ground.
"Humans are so much more interesting!" Gillean continued. "I'd like to meet more of you and see what you can do." He sighed. "But after a being like me passes a certain threshold of power, we can't freely come into the Material world anymore."
"Are Oberon and Titania real?" Mary asked. She'd read books about the Fey. She'd done her research before she chose her Warlock Patronage.
Gillean rolled his eyes.
"Yes, yes, they are,” he said. “Oberon, Titania, the Queen of Air and Darkness – they are all real and they are all tedious to be around."
"My friend Aurum came to the Feywilds when he was little," Mary said.
Gillean nodded.
"They gave him an amulet. Is it, you know, magical?"
"Mine is magical." Gillean shrugged and pointed at his heart-shaped crystal. "If the fairies liked your friend well enough, it wouldn't surprise me if the present they gave him had some magical properties."
"They can't not have liked him," Mary said knowingly. "Aurum is very charismatic."
She looked at the thawing snow outside, thinking that she couldn't imagine someone not liking Aurum (and forgetting that she didn't like him when they first met).
"Mary, your tea," Gillean reminded her.
Mary's cup was lying on her lap, half-forgotten in her desire for answers. She picked it up. It was still the perfect temperature for drinking. And when she took the first sips, it was like she had ingested liquid energy. All the exhaustion, all the pain from the previous days melted away. Her whole body filled with vigour and vitality. She looked at Gillean who was watching her intently, and smiled. He looked pleased.
"So," he said, "Is it time for the story I promised you?"
Mary settled in the armchair just as she did when she was little and listened to a bedtime story. Gillean opened a tiny notebook and looked at her pointedly, as if to show her that he was something of a writer himself.
“Once upon a time,” he started reading, “there was an Archfey. He spent his days joking around and playing games with the other Fey in Court. One day, unexpectedly, he was called upon to the human world, to the bottom of a deep gorge. It was a harsh winter. A young man with brown hair and honest eyes lay on the ground before him. It looked like he was the one who had summoned the Fey. The man’s horse lay dead beside him. Judging by the tracks around, it had slipped and fell down from the cliff.
The man was uneasy. He looked around frantically, like a hunted animal. It was obvious that someone was chasing him. He said his name was Halas and asked the Fey to save his daughter. The little girl’s name was Mary. Just Mary.”
Here Mary gasped. Her hands tightened their grip around the cup of tea and her heart started thumping inside her chest. Gillean continued, as if nothing had happened.
”Halas had received heavy wounds when he’d fallen in the gorge, but it looked like he’d protected the baby, disregarding his own safety.
The Archfey nodded. He was going to do as the man wished but he had one condition. The girl would be Fatebound to him. Halas agreed and, soon after passed on, hugging his daughter for the last time.
The Fey took the girl and flew on the back of the wind, as quickly as he could before the magic keeping him in the human world expired. He put the baby in a basket along with a few oranges as his mark, and left her near a group of colorful people. The only thing he had time to learn about them was that they were musicians. Which, he thought, was a good sign.”
Dun-dun-duuuuun!
As you might have already read, some details of Mary’s story were given to our DM to play with however he chose. One of those things was the question about Mary’s heritage. I knew I wanted to make her a ‘found child’ (because what better hook for Big-Revelations-Down-The-Road than that?) but apart from this, I didn’t want to know anything else. After all, if Mary herself didn’t know, why would I? And so, this moment in Gillean’s cottage was something really special! I remember having the same reaction as Mary when she learned of her father’s fate.
It was real, y’all!
(Also, our DM is a really good storyteller!)
Anyway. Let’s see each other in the next part where we’ll see how Mary’d react that story.
Until then,
Take care and be well!
P. S. By the way, I’m having a Q&A post about Gillean and Mary soon. Our DM is going to answer some questions, too. If you have anything you want to ask about this mysterious Archfey, please leave your question as a comment and we’ll make sure to answer it!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)