A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Neno - 1. Chapter 00

Dear Neno,

This book you are about to read contains the story of your family: how I ended up in Daisen, how I met your mother, how we started and ended a world war, how we came to fall in love and have you and your siblings.

I wrote this because I couldn’t think of a more fitting present on your 20th birthday. You are an adult now. My eldest child, my beloved son who somehow survived our disastrous parenting attempts… It’s time you know what really happened before you were born. No history book will ever tell you this. No one but those who were there, who saw what the man you have the misfortune of calling “grandfather” could do, will ever be able to tell the full tale.

And now that you’re an adult, you’re ready to face the whole truth. I wrote this book out of love for you, and because I’m proud of the person you have become. I watched you and your siblings struggle to find your place in the world as children born in a land that belonged to none of your parents. Parents, I may add, who could not even help you understand and control the gifts of your nature. Mother Deity knows how much I wished I could teach you how to use your fairy skills in the same way that my parents taught me. And even though your mother will never say this out loud, I know he would’ve liked to teach you your first magic trick too.

I hope you like this special gift. By the time you get to read it, it’ll be 2020. Right now it’s just a blank book. A thick, daunting blank book. I used to have a diary that looked similar to this, but soon you will understand why I never let you or your siblings have your own diaries. I don’t trust them. But this book, you will be glad to know, has been dully checked for magic tampering and is as safe as any blank book can be.

And it’s not a diary!

Now, as I sit on my desk to write for the first time, it’s the 18 of September, 2018. You and your siblings are at school. Your mother is working downstairs. I’m alone in my bedroom, with the Daisenian eternal sun shining on my desk (yes, I will close the curtains as soon as the poetic imagery is over. Your grandmother would never forgive me for ruining her precious wooden furniture!).

I’m starting on your gift now because I know it will take me some time to write down everything that happened in the last 23 years (25 by the time you read it). I know that, with my other work and family commitments, I’m unlikely to be able to write on this book more than a few hours a week. I’ll be lucky if I managed to sit down here every Tuesday!

I’m going to go ahead and bet that you are reading this page on the 10 February 2020. As daunting a challenge as this may be, I know myself well, and I know I would never back down from a task like this. I love you too much for that.

Happy birthday, Neno!

Your history awaits…

Love,

Nessa, the proudest Dad in the world!

Thanks for reading!
Nessa is back!
And she somehow managed to survive the demons, live another 23 years, and have children! (No prizes for guessing who her partner is, though I would like to see your thoughts on that)
The idea with this new story is that we're pretty much reading in real time as Nessa writes the story to her son. Which means we should be done by 10 February 2020, if not before... Let's see if I'm as good at planning this as Nessa...
Though by "real time" I mean real time for my patrons, who get to read chapters a week before everybody else. You're now reading what Nessa worked on last week, and the stuff she wrote today is now on available for my patrons. If you want to join them, it's only $1 per month.
And far from attempting some king of cheap psychological  manipulation, do you know this is the last thing I'll post on this site before my birthday?
I mean, I could go on and ask for some $1 birthday gifts, but I have more moral integrity than that... 
Right?