The Geas Ingenerate

They call me Will, but in truth my name is Erwilian; an ancient name that falls strangely on today's ear. It is a traditional family name, borne by many of my ancestors as far back as our records go.

For generations beyond count my folk have lived in this village of Montrose, one of the largest on this world we call Selenda. Because we tend the power springs and flows, we bear the age-old name Trician; go back as far as you will in the annals of Montrose, and you will find Tricians. In most ways we are ordinary, traditional folk. Like every other family in the village, we have paid our tithes, fostered our share of foundlings, and taken our turns caring for Sleepers. Tricians have always served in the fire brigade and on the Village Council; my great-great granddam was Mayor. We dance at festivals and play on ball teams, we sing in choirs, and we always lend a hand when there’s a barn to raise, a house to be painted, or a child missing in the forest. In most ways, we live our lives in the age-old patterns dictated by the Eternal Ones. In one way, though, we are different. For among those in my family who share a bloodline—not counting fosterlings and adoptees but children of the body, as we say—among these there is an occasional one with what oldsters call the second sight, or the weirding way. Some say it comes from dealing so closely with the paths of power, others that it is a gift from the Fae. Some call it is a curse, and would shun those who display it. My mother had the sight, as did two of her uncles. Sometimes it skips a generation, sometimes there are several in the family at once. It is something we seldom speak of to outsiders. But it is real, and I know for I have it too. We speak of the Fae, the Eternal Ones, as if they lived long ages ago, in vanished places. Know, then, that this is not true: the Fae live now, and sometimes move among us. I have seen them, clearly as I see you here—heard their airy voices, looked into their fathomless eyes. And I was there on a night, many dozens of years ago, when one of them saved our world.