F.D. Lee

You worked at night, when the shadows masked you and you were little more than a dream. You hid in the forest or the mountains, away from the steam engines and the lamps of the cities, the things that would expose you, confirming you and stripping you of your mystery. You showed yourself rarely, and only to the ones who needed to see you. After the free-for-all that was the earlier Chapters, when babies were stolen, young men murdered and maidens locked away, the fae had had to learn to be very careful about their involvement in the lives of the characters, lest they turn still further away from their beliefs.

Once upon a time there was war, and starvation, and death. Once upon a time we would kill our brothers and sisters, fearing for our own lives. Once upon a time the characters turned from us, and we wept. Now we do not war, nor do we fear, nor do we weep. We Redact.

She was here and the world, for so long ugly and deformed, was all at once itself again. She was taking a glass of sweet wine from one of the waiters. She was smiling. She was breathing. She was here. She was an island of such colossal importance within a sea of inconsequence that it seemed impossible the Ball was able to continue its empty existence.

You don__ approve?_ Joan asked, picking up on Delphine__ tone. __heir stories were for themselves, not the Mirrors.___hat do you mean?_ said Bea.__ertainly sometimes a good little character would find a lamp, and would not be so corrupted by the strangely endless possibilities of three wishes that they ended up causing more harm than they ever imagined. Those stories fostered belief, they were retold, certainly; but they were few and far between. Most of the genie__ tales showed the characters exactly who they really were, not when they were despised and degraded, not when they__ reached the gutter and been given licence to look at the stars. No, the genies showed them who they were when they were invincible. The characters, they try to forget stories like that.

How can we learn the value of saying no, if we didn__ occasionally say yes?

Mistasinon stood as the music of life flowed around him, the instrument of his agency muted.

The woman above him had tumbled out of his dreams, and now stood like a half-waking ghost, a photograph double exposed, showing him in one moment the fallacy of his past as it bled into his future. The image of Maria Sophia had grown too large for him to bear. He had made it so. In his industry and creativity he had transformed her into something so wonderful that the very fact she might now be anything less terrified him almost as much as the prospect she might exceed it.

I just wonder_ Isn__ it better to start as a monster and become a hero? Isn__ that what creates belief? The idea that someone can change?

There are a number of rules that should be observed when one meets royalty, ranging from what one can say and when, to where one should stand, when one can sit, even where one should look. Sindy bobbed a nervous curtsy and, before being introduced, blurted out an invitation to come inside whilst looking John directly in the eye.

There isn__ anything I can tell you that you don__ already know,_ Melly answered.__es, but if we already know it then you__e not telling us anything new,_ Bea said, thinking her way through the carriages of fear on the witch__ train of thought, __nd if we don__ tell you what we know and what we don__ know, then you won__ know if you__e actually told us something we don__ know, and what you don__ know we don__ know won__ hurt you.__elly stared at Bea, her cigarette hanging from her lip in defeat.__id that make sense?_ Joan asked.__es,_ Melly said slowly, __ut it probably shouldn__ have done.

It__ a terrible person who listens to what we say rather than what we mean

You don__ know anything about me.___o, I know not everything about you. But I sense enough to know you have mistaken obsession with drive, guilt with injustice. I know you want to escape what you are, cabbage fairy,_ he said, reaching for his hood and gloves and tucking them into the waistband of his trousers. __our desires are no different from my own, I simply have the courage to face them.

It is a rather remarkable trick of the mind that there can be a wicked little voice that whispers in your ear that you__e done it before and nothing happened, so why not do it again? Everything will be OK, it says. Things are bad now, but something will turn up. The good will prevail, you__l be rescued, you__l find the answer at the last minute. No one dies in a story_

He started to draw. He drew from memory. He had a good memory, something which, all things considered, was far from a blessing.The pencils moved quickly across the paper, scratching back and forth in deepening shades of grey. He leaned low over the paper, concentrating all his energy on his work. The candles flickered and dripped wax, having nothing better to do.Eventually he lifted his head and looked at his creation. The face of a young woman stared back at him from the paper, a slight smile playing on her lips. She looked as if she was about to say something, and that once she had you would laugh. She looked happy.Seven stared at the picture, his strange eyes unreadable _ eyes that, now he made no effort to mask them, were from edge to edge only the deep blue of the dead ocean. He swallowed hard, as if he was trying to imbibe something foul tasting but necessary, like a child sipping medicine, and pulled another sheet of paper from his desk.

Today was the introduction, and introductions were important. The girl had to meet the boy in an equal setting _ if they met any other way there__ always be a question about whether it was True Love or a more financially motivated desire that awakened the passions.

I__ not_ What__ wrong with them believing?_ Bea asked, a note of pleading creeping, uninvited, into her voice.__ou do not sell belief, you sell belief-in. Belief in true love, as if everyone were entitled to it. Belief in a simple solution to a complex problem. Belief in one type of person, one type of future.___o I don__. I offer people dreams, and hope, and, and, something to organise their lives with,_ Bea said, not sure why she was trying to convince him. __ don__ make them into __ne person_._ __h no? Let me recall your doctrine: Kings, Princes and their ilk must marry girls whose only asset is their beauty. Not clever girls, not worthy girls, not girls who could rule. Powerful women, older women _ like one day you will become _ are nought but wicked creatures, consumed with jealousy and unfit to hold position. No,_ he said as Bea began to speak, __ am not finished. Let us turn our attention to the men. As long as the woman is something to be won, it follows only the worthy will prevail. It matters not if they truly love the girl, nor if the man is cruel or arrogant or unfit to tie his own doublet. As long as he has wealth and completes whatever trials are decided fit, he is suitable. For what is stupidity or arrogance when compared against a crown? The good will win, and the wicked perish, and you and your stories decide what makes a person good or wicked. Not life. Not choice. Not even common sense. You.