Changeling: The Daughter of Fire (GxBxNB)

Changeling 21

The next day, Lucian sat me down in his office at the mansion for a lesson in Changeling history. His office at the mansion wasn't really any different than the one at school, except that it fit the rest of the building better.

Lucian, it seemed, had a very old fashioned taste in decor, I didn't know jack about antiques, but everything in the office was clearly old, older than even my grandparents... Did Lucian have a taste for antiques, or was he simply that old? Changelings could live a long time...

What was even Lucian?

I sat in the old chair and watched him carefully go over his bookshelf for a moment. He pulled out an old leather-bound tome made with rag paper. I saw what seemed like cursive in a language I didn't understand.

"Where to begin... Perhaps at the start," he said.

"The start?"

"The first changelings."

"Changeling history is ancient and most of it was never recorded, we predate civilization and history proper. The first of us were born in what we now call the stone age. It was then that humans, having evolved from more primitive apes, first dreamed of greater things, birthing gods and monsters, whom some would come to mate with, sometimes willingly, sometimes not."

"So all changelings originate from humans and mythological creatures having sex?"

"Not all, sometimes a woman pregnant with a child witnessing a great power gives birth to a changeling, the embryo affected by the supernatural event. This is how less anthropomorphic changelings such as elementals are typically born. "

I nodded.

"We weren't always so tightly lipped about our existence, many myths of the bronze and iron age have some sliver of truth in them where our kindred acted through history."

"What changed?"

"The rise of monotheistic religion played a great part. Now that all had to be of a specific God, many supernatural beings that did not fit the Abrahamic narrative as well as their changelings were recast as demons and had to hide their true nature.

This coincided with the emergence of the feudal system, which greatly influenced the new separate changeling world in the west. The most powerful of which became kings. The kings and courts were necessary to keep order, keep the Changeling world hidden and avoid discovery. In the high middle ages, the courts of dozens of countries came together and signed the Seelie accord."

"I've heard about them, but I don't know what they mean..."

"The Accords are a series of rules all Changelings are expected to abide by. To keep the existence of our kind a secret, to respect the power of the local King and their court, not to breed with mortalkind, not to leave a trail of bodies from one's feeding."

"What's wrong with breeding with mortals?"

"When Changeling breeds with humans, the children are born as bastards, a little improper of a word for modern days, but that is their name. You see, although they carry the essence of a myth in themselves, it can never awaken. Sometimes, however two bastards, or a bastard and a Changeling will give birth to a trueborn changeling, this is what we call Orphans."

"Like me?"

I nodded. "But what about Hollows? If Changelings come from supernatural creatures intermixing with humans, where do Hollows come from?"

His expression hardened into a disgusted sneer. "Miscegenation."

His answer took me aback. Now, in case you didn't know, Miscegenation is a fancy word for race-mixing...