Prologue
~
I've been able to see them for as long as I can remember. The 'little' people. Pixies, gnomes, faeries, goblins - fae. I thought I was going insane when I first realized that no one else saw the tiny winged women asleep in the wildflowers on hot summer nights, or the small brown-furred creatures with human faces that scurried up and down the halls of the ancient family manor. In time, though, I came to realize that I was not mental, but merely unique.
I was eight years old when I began my research. Our century-old home was equipped with an extensive library of dark mahogany bookshelves and countless volumes on every subject imaginable. I was banned from the library for reasons I wasn't privy to, but I snuck in anyway and would stay up until the crack of dawn reading everything I could about fae, magic, and superstition. There were plenty of books on the subjects, my favorite being a small, fat book with a wooden cover wrapped in worn black leather. Stamped on the spine were the gold-embossed words, 'A Færye Gÿde' and a symbol of some sort. Inside were detailed drawings of dozens of different kinds of fae, each with a description and a name. It was written entirely in very old-fashioned English by a man named Igovin Buschnaûdt, and I had to read aloud in order to understand it. I scribbled my own notes all throughout the margins, checking off each species I saw around the manor and on my rare excursions to town.
During my research, I saw many references to a condition simply called 'Sight.' Each writer had a different definition and name for it, but the gist was that those with Sight could see things that no normal human could see. I diagnosed myself with the condition. Some of the writers claimed to have had it as well, and wrote of similar experiences to mine when they were young (thinking they were insane, hallucinating, etc...).
I was blissfully ignorant and naive during these younger years of my life, when I spent most of my nights hidden away in the library and most of my days running about the manor grounds looking for fae.
Little did I know that someday in the near future, Sight would be the least of my abnormalities.
~ ~ ~ ~
CITEȘTI
I See Faeries
Fantezie***Re-write in progress! "I See Faeries" is becoming "Ashen."*** Cassaundra Heathway is a girl born into wealth and elegance. Her family tree stretches back centuries, and in her veins runs the blood of royalty, of noblemen and dukes and duchesses...
