Mages and Fairies have had difficulties since the Curse of Avalon got activated. Often characterized by mistrust, but sometimes by open battles.
Mages:
Powerful and live long lives. Bound to humans since the Curse. Every witch is a Guardian and has a Charge. The bond lasts a few centuries, and allows a witch to heal a Charge, and bring them back to life. This healing comes from the source of magic in all witches: The union between fairies and humans creates witches.
Forbidden Road, Chapter 10:
“Actually, that’s why I have magic. My powers exist so that I can meet the right person in life, fall for them, and protect them.”
“Fall for them.” He breathed hard, and then finally smiled.
Fairies:
Immortal and known for their enchanting beauty. They were less affected by Avalon’s Curse than mages and can still cast permanent magic. Keep to themselves. Live in tribes, mainly in Ireland, but some like Morgan La Fay, choose to leave the tribe and live among humans.
Dragon Fire, Chapter 11:
I read up about fairies. The Curse had influenced them differently, which was why they still had permanent magic. They didn’t have Charges or anything like that. If they had children with a mortal, they were born mages—I already knew that. Many mages thought this was where we’d originated: our healing and the ability to bring a Charge back to life, were considered immortal powers.
Julie’s clash with Morgan
Dragon Fire, Chapter 14
What sort of person does that? Fairies. I should have known. Always distant—living away in their tribes—keeping to themselves, and their own interests. Was it not enough that the Curse didn’t affect them like us? That they still had permanent magic? And lived forever? No. She had to meddle.
Dragon Fire, Chapter 15
We had had another call with Morganstein. I didn’t want to speak with her again, but Mark insisted…said we had to listen—hear what she knew about Kim.
So, that was all I did: listen. I kept silent, muted—I didn’t even let her hear me breathe.
“I’m mad too,” Mark had said then. “Quite frankly, I’d happily burn her alive, but we need her. And one of us must play good cop here.”
Let him do it.
The things Morganstein said to us formed my dreams. I saw Kim as a medieval princess—we were told she’d been adopted into nobility—alone in a foreign court. Waiting for someone out there to tell her who she really was. Bearing the dangers and brutality of life in the Dark Ages.
more Mages vs. Fairies
In this shot story, Leonard the dragon from Loch Ness, creates a collaboration between fairies and mages
I’ve overheard it said that a dragon could smell a witch with a Blue Diamond ring from miles away. That the very sight of the rings—worn by the members of The Guild—caused us to involuntarily snort out fire, after what they did to us.
Few know that long before that, we dragons had worked with the Guild. And the fairies. And together created the most powerful collaboration ever known.
It was shortly after the Curse of Avalon got activated, causing mages to lose dominion of the Earth to humans.
The Guild, then known as the Order of the First Shrine, split in two. Many wanted to reverse the Curse. But some wouldn’t give up the life-changing magical bond between a mage and a human that the Curse had created. We dragons sided with those, for one of them had once created us.
I remember the day when we welcomed mages and fairies to our home by Loch Ness, to create a new alliance against those who wanted to reverse the Curse. Now known as the Dìonadairean. I stood by our leader and the clan.
Fairies arrived first—traveling with fairy magic. Suddenly, they appeared: 5 leaders of their largest tribe. Their queen, Morgan La Fay, stepped forward silently. She’d covered her body with a fine silk gown and her fairy skin glowed at first—though nothing in comparison with the shine of even a newborn dragon.
The mages were close too. These normally chose more sturdy fabrics with which to clad their form. I could sense them walking through the dense foliage. Nobody flew in—none had wings, or our strength of body. They also lacked fire, poor cold beings.
“Almost here, bairns,” I turned to a group of toddler dragons who got excited: mages meant cookies—if you could find one willing to conjure them. “Haud yer wheesht”.
The mages emerged from between the trees to the east. Their leader stopped before Morgan and nodded his head in respect.
I watched her hesitate. There was tension between mages and fairies since the Curse. Fairies had been less affected by it, so some mages spread rumors that it was their plotting that created it. Even though a tyrant mage-king had orchestrated it. Members of her tribe had been ambushed and killed by mages.
Still, they chose to unite with mages now.
I tried to break the ice. “Keep yer heids,” I told all of them. “Cannae let the scunners pick ye off yin by yin.”
“I agree,” said the mage. “I have saved my wife’s life twice now, through the new bond’s magic, and I will fight with you to defend this new ability.”
Morgan observed him as he held out his hand to her.
“It is a tragedy—what happened to your people—together, we can protect everyone.” Beside him, the mages nodded.
I felt a change in the air. Morgan looked him in the eye now. In her silence was a power that no words could give, when she put her hand in his. And shook it.
Finally, the seed of peace-however small-was planted.
For millennia, fairies collaborated with like-minded mages to stop attempts at reversing the Curse. We dragons no longer meddled, but the organization we’d helped create—the Dìonadairean—was the one place where fairies and mages trusted each other with their lives.
This video story is a background for characters in Evans Witches:
Books with Leonard the dragon from Loch Ness:
Books with the Dionadairean:
In this shot story, king Ban of Benwick faces tension between fairies and mages, but finds a peaceful resolution:
A young king rose to the throne of Benwick. His kingdom was a small but complex one. Every day in his court the rising tension between mages and fairies would threaten the safety of all his people. The same tension had once caused the short but deadly battle that killed his great grandfather. King Ban had a wise advisor. She told him to appoint a new foreign minister, from among the fairies. Someone respected by the tribes, who would be listened to in the lands around Benwick and by fairies in neighbouring kingdoms. But Ban’s foreign minister had served his father for many years and was loved by the high king, Uther Pendragon. Instead, Ban chose a more traditional route-an arranged marriage with a fairy of noble birth: Vivienne, Lady of the lake, daughter of queen Morgan La Fay. They mages supported this decision too, for the children of a mortal-like him-and a fairy were always mages. What he didn’t expect was that one look at Vivienne, washing her hands in a fountain where they first meet, sprinkles of water shimmering on her skin, will seal his heart forever. And hers.
This video story is a background for characters in the FREE book Black Emerald