The Lost Child of Faerie

[Bliss]

She had always believed in fairies, but not like this.

Ever since she was really small, she felt connections, even in spite of her adoption: connection to other girls, to nature, to the flowers that bloomed in a riot of fragrant color in her adopted mother's garden. When she found wicca as a tween, it all appealed to her - the idea of connection, of being able to tap into power, of respecting the earth and trying to live in harmony with it. Even as other friends grew out of it through high school and moving on in the world, she carried on in he tradition. It wasn't simply a phase; there was something in the idea of magic, of power, of unseen beings, that all just seemed to make sense.




Now a young woman in her own right, she has taken the savings her adoptive parents slowly built for her and, instead of pursuing a career in higher education, she's taken her talent for gardening and nature work and done what felt right for her by opening a nursery. She's set someplace almost rural, but she's so good with all sorts of plants that people find their way to her, and she finds a way to put together the right plants for them, be it to fill out a full garden or simply to bring some life to the middle of their kitchen table.

Everything changed when the fae world made itself known.



In a move that had her thinking, of all things, of the way vampires had 'come out of the coffin' on an amusing fictional television show, an unearthly man and woman appeared one night to all the world, taking over the broadcast of every news station big and small; they claimed to be the King of the Seelie Court and Queen of the Unseelie Court, and together revealed to all mortality the existence of fae living among them. They were glorious and terrible in their beauty, and even moreso in their revelation and appeal - a child of their people, they said, had gone missing. One in whose veins ran blood from both courts, and who could be the key to the mutual survival, or mutual destruction, of all the fae. They needed this child found.




She felt it, in that moment; she knew it was her.




The question becomes now, whether she will show herself to them, or will she be sought and found? It does not take long for a great many young women and men to decide that they, in fact, are the Lost Child of Faery, and the world is thrown into turmoil. Finally it is declared, for the sake of keeping peace among the mortals (despite how much delight some of the fae take in such upheaval) that these many would-be faery children will be examined in the proper way, and any among them with Seelie or Unseelie blood will be welcomed to the proper courts. It is given out to the world that this will happen with the pomp and circumstance of a ball. For one night, a way will be opened for each and all of them into Faery, and they will be tested.




What the hopeful do not realize, not even she, is that after the dancing and mingling, after the very brave eat and drink with the unearthly beautiful creatures who swirl among them, that they will be tested by way of The Great Hunt. Those beautiful beings and some far less beautiful will set all the hopeful to running, and then will give chase - countless beings and beasts running down their prey, with one mortal after another falling beneath their feet to be sent back to the mortal realm, a glimmer on their skin and a terrible, irrepressible longing for a return to those otherworldly delights they had been granted for the span of a night. When morning comes, only the true and hidden fae will remain, and only one will have outrun all the King's horses and all the Queen's men.




Eventually, even she will fall, exhausted, a sleeping Stag for one of the Hunters to find - for she is the Lost Child of Faerie, and on her rest their hopes, for in the begetting of a child of both bloods came proof that the Fae are not yet dying out, and in her they must plant the seeds of the new generation.

So who will find her first? And who will steal her away? Will he be of the Seelie or Unseelie?




Will she be invited into the warmth of a well-lined nest, or granted wings but placed in a cage?




Will she feel the terror of a faceless, featureless coupling, or be granted the soothing relief of a truly pure and depthless darkness?




Will she be forced to submit endlessly to the chase? Will she quail before the power of storms?




Will she bring forth a light in a lover, or drain it from him entirely?




Can she endure the encompassing heat of a Djinn's passion, or be set aflame like the phoenix?




And how will she handle those with even less humanity of form? What of it when the Sluaugh try to press a claim upon her?




Will her revealed presence among the fae and their desire to be the first to beget the new generation bring these fae to blows - will it instigate war between the Courts, whose work to find her together was part of a truce precarious at best? Will someone decide the best thing for her is to hide her away new, and force the fae to die out entirely? If so, who might mount a rescue?

For this unexpected princess, this lost child of Faerie - can there be a happy ending?

And, if so, must it only be with one alone?

As you can likely tell, I have put a lot of work into this call for a partner. This will not be a one-and-done story; I want it to be long-term and arching, with a lot of sex, a lot of intrigue, with connection and betrayals on both the personal and national (insofar as Faery can be considered a nation) level. If the idea of playing a multitude of Fae appeals to you, over the course of the long slow journey toward the future of Faery, please let me know so we can start working out some of the metaconflicts, and figure out some of the fae folk.