Returning Home: The Fairies

[Treadwell]

Morning of the twenty-first day of the ninth month, 214.

The Eastern Reach of Hibera.

Throne room at the royal palace.

"Settled, Marian?"

"Doctor?"

"This business. It's settled. You're certain of it?"

"My children are two months of age today. You, I, and they live among a people that is growing too rapidly. But, my brother, we are running out of space in this cave."

"So you suggest we leave it. We've lived here for a great, long time, Marian."

"And we lived in Old Hibera before that."

"But Old Hibera--pardon. The Western Reach doesn't live under the same blessings as we do here."

"Doctor, if your eyes aren't beginning to fail, look about. The Eastern Reach doesn't live under the same blessings as it once did. Food is slowly beginning to spoil, no longer able to sustain indefinitely. As our kingdom grows and our peoples unite again, the faith disperses. More are returning to the Priesthood of the Great Fae."

"You would abandon Tubbius?"

"I fear that Holy Tubbius is slowly abandoning us, Doctor, withdrawing the touch of his roots from the kingdom. Ours is a lazy society, a realm given too far to gluttony and sloth, and thus we are compromised."

"And we leave on bad terms, then?"

"No, Doctor. We return this land to its bigling owners. We thank them for their hospitality. We return to our home. We maintain the faith."

Morning of the twenty-eighth day of the ninth month, 214.

A letter arrives at the Myrken Wood Meetinghouse, delivered under magical shade of invisibility by a pair of bluewinged fairies. It is tucked through the back window into the office of the Lord Steward Aloisius Treadwell, growing to proper bigling size on leaving their grip and hitting the floor as they flutter away.

The text is a variant of one drawn up in A.R. 145 under the Governorship of Maxwell Beauregard.

Treaty of Dissolution and Notification of Going Home: New Hibera

It has been decided in the course of our events that Myrken Wood cannot and will not remain a whole with a piece missing from within it for all of time. As it is a province of Trae Kelsa, bordering upon other territories, sovereign in its right under the rule of its king, it borders upon our own, that is the realm of Hibera, once known as New Hibera, and we, the rulers of Hibera, have found it fitting, just, and necessary to end this adjacency humbly and peacefully, thus returning full rights of ownership to the land we occupy--namely, the Cave where we have lived since before the signing of the Treaty of A.R. 145.

For the duration of this stay, this kingdom has been ruled in one form or another by the Aengus family, currently led in perfect sobriety and peace by one King Oswald Aengus and the Queen Mother Marian Aengus.

ITEM: Since 145, Myrken Wood and New Hibera--now known as the Eastern Reach of Hibera--have lived in peaceful coexistence as dictated, living in mutual respect for one another's realms.

ITEM: The kingdom of Hibera, however, must take into account its own growing population and its adjacency to its neighbors. We seek to return to our ancestral home secured within what we know as the Western Reach of Hibera, formerly Old Hibera, to the northwest in the province of Amasynia. We have a tested, suitable, magical gateway devised that will see all of the approximately one thousand inhabitants, their belongings, and their pets safely home before being sealed permanently.

ITEM: The government of Myrken Wood may, upon our leaving of these grounds, do as they wish regarding the remaining properties and structures within, from the Royal Palace at the top to the town houses below, assuming they wish to knock out the wall wherein lies The Tunnel to The Eastern Reach of Hibera. Any magic left within the Cave will be immediately extinguished at our complete absence, so any visitors will be in complete safety.

ITEM: As a parting show of good faith, we will leave first and thus trust Lord Steward Treadwell and any of his fellows to act judiciously regarding this matter. We trust his signature on the treaty form below. We leave no other parting statement other than one of wholehearted praise for him in all his roles.

With these terms, we thus set forth at midnight on the twenty-eighth of the ninth month, 214. We will be gone by morning. This original document, like the Peace Treaty before it, should be stored in the office of the Lord Steward in the Meetinghouse. We will maintain a copy for safe-keeping in the Hiberan records. We wish all in Myrken Wood well.

We have thus settled our affairs and are finally returning home to finish the unification of our kingdom. We wish Myrken Wood the greatest peace and stability in reestablishing her own governance under the rightful rule of her King.

The document ends with a trio of signatures--King Oswald Horace Grimley Aengus, Queen Mother Marian Ora Aengus, Orin Barrin: Royal Physician--and an impression of the Hiberan royal family seal. A suitable amount of blank space is left beside these with indications for "His Excellency, the Right Honorable, Ld. Stwd. Aloisius H. Treadwell" and room for two witnesses and the Governor's seal of Myrken Wood.