A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Neno - 2. 01 - The Beginning is the Best Place to Start

The Beginning is the Best Place to Start, but we don’t need to go that far in the beginning. I’m skipping most of my first sixteen years of life because your grandma has already told you almost everything there is to know about my cute toddlerhood and my amazing childhood (her words, not mine).

You and your siblings know that your grandfather Jurandir was captured by demons when I was a toddler. You’ve heard my mother’s second-by-second retelling of her marriage to Morumpi, the man who brought me up as his daughter. And you know that my step-father’s death caused me to lose my powers and my ability to guide you through your fairyhood. But I could never bring myself to tell you how or why it happened. It's not that I don't want you to know, but... This isn't a story suitable for a child.

When we get down to it, the fact is that I killed him. Not because I wanted to (that was the last thing I ever wanted!), but because if I hadn't done that, he would've taken me to the demons who captured your grandfather (and who later became your other set of grandparents, though that is in no way due to their charm or social skills).

Never think for a second that Morumpi Jacaranda was evil or acting of his own free will when he tried to kidnap me. My step-father loved me and my mother more than anything in the world, and I loved him just as much. But Hereweald used Morumpi’s love for his family to force him into a contract. Morumpi didn’t have a choice from that point on.

So the beginning of my story... is actually the end of Morumpi’s. And it goes like this:

Once upon a time lived a fairy with a heart made of gold. He wanted to get to know the world and was even studying abroad (in Daisen!) to make his dream come true. He came across an empty book, a diary, and started writing on it. Morumpi poured all his secrets into the diary, all his thoughts... all his admiration for his cousin Jurandir their other childhood friend Nelma. The three of them had a long history of friendship and pranks, which had only become stronger once Jurandir and Nelma married. Morumpi found the diary on the day I was born.

But the diary wasn’t just any diary. It belonged to Hereweald, the evilest demon to ever walk on this world, and was his instrument for locating his next targets to be bound in eternal servitude. Hereweald became interested in Jurandir because of what Morumpi wrote in the diary, and captured him. Then he convinced Morumpi that he would be able to help Jurandir if he gave his life to the demon in exchange. Of course, this was a lie. Hereweald didn’t help at all, and Morumpi was bound to do anything the diary told him to.

But Morumpi didn’t give up. He resisted the diary as much as he could. He got Nelma to help him seal it away, and that led to them falling in love and getting married (just as your grandma loves to tell you). I got a second father while I was still young enough to not remember the first. And the diary should have been gone forever...

But unfortunately, my mother's seal wasn't strong enough to make it completely gone. Fifteen years passed, with the diary out of everyone’s minds, until it magically appeared among my things. Morumpi saw it before I did, and understood Hereweald was using me to get to him. The last thing Morumpi wanted was for me to fall in the same trap as he did, so he took the diary away before I knew it was there. unfortunately, Morumpi’s touch broke your grandmother’s seal, and put Morumpi under its spell once more. This time, the demon made sure he couldn’t escape.

Morumpi came for me after the New Year festivities. I didn't understand what was happening then, but now I know that Hereweald took control of his body. Morumpi was still conscious of everything that was happening, everything Hereweald was making him do, but he couldn’t use his mouth to shout for help or clue me in to what was going on. Hereweald wanted him to watch his family being taken away as punishment for having defied him for so long. Hereweald was angry and wanted to make Morumpi suffer as much as possible (a lovely guy, your other grandfather. I’m so glad you’re nothing like him).

And how do I know this now? Your evil-lord grandfather told me himself. He relished in recounting how much Morumpi begged him to stop, to take him instead, to do anything but touch me. And then he relished in watching me suffer a mental breakdown upon realising everything I had believed about that New Year’s day was a lie.

Morumpi never gave up resisting the demon's control either. Even as Hereweald made him attack me, even as I fought back with all I had so that I wouldn’t disappear like my father, Morumpi kept trying to take over his body again. Until he realised that Hereweald would torment him for as long as he lived. Even if he stopped the demon this time, he would come back and threaten me and mum and my brother again. The only way to be truly free and to keep us safe was to give up his own life. That realisation, that hope that his loved ones would be able to find peace, gave him the strength he needed to overpower the demon's control. He managed it for just a second, but it was enough.

Morumpi saw I was going to attack, and took control of his body so that he wouldn't try to dodge. He let me kill him to save me and my family.

Even now, 25 years later, it hurts to think about his sacrifice. Until I learned of this truth, I suffered believing my loving step-father had betrayed me and that I had become a cold-hearted killer. I'm sorry I ever doubted his love and dedication. And I'm sorry you'll never get the chance to meet your other amazing grandfather.

My mother arrived a second too late. When she saw her husband dead and her daughter without her wings, she had no questions about what happened. I lost my powers the moment Morumpi gave his last breathe (it's a horrible feeling, though I have since felt worse, mostly while dealing with Hereweald). And so she did the only thing she could do in her grief and anger: she banished me from Floresfada.

It was only the next day, after my step-father was buried and the funeral rites were over, that she remembered the diary that had haunted her husband. She went looking for it, but couldn’t find it anywhere. She understood what had happened then: Hereweald’s plan had succeeded. My mother forgave me, but her position as the High Priestess and the loss of my wings meant she couldn't go back on my banishment. It was only a small consolation to know that her daughter wasn't an evil assassin in the face of so much loss, but it paved the way for our reconciliation years later.

It would be a long time before we saw each other again. And until it was really happening, until mum and I were face to face and touching each other and crying of relief and laughing and thanking our Mother Deity, I never believed it would ever happen.

After the banishment, I had no other choice but to run to the Daisenian border. While I was gathering my things, I found the diary that had ruined Morumpi's life. I took it, because I didn't know any better, and committed the same mistake he did: I confided my life and soul into its pages.

Thanks for reading!
The first few chapters of the new story will be a bit of a recap of part 1, though not so much for the benefit of readers who decide to ignore the 72 scenes of Nessa's diary writing (this is not a criticism ), but because I wanted to put Nessa's new perspective of her life into the story as well. We'll get to understand a few things better now that Nessa knows what actually happened, and hopefully we'll get to know a bit more about adult Nessa as we go through her new writing.
My birthday was 2 days ago. I'm now 29, though according to the birthday card I got from my partner, I'm still secretly 21 (the card says "21 again? Your secret is safe with me!").  
I celebrated with a lot of Japanese food (or the closest approximation of it one can get in Glasgow), and I know it's technically morally wrong to use my birthday as a pretty please moment for people to consider sending me some Patreon-themed gifts. So I'm not going to do that, even though I technically just did it.
Next week we should be back to the normal Tuesday update. Until then, try not to repeat my mistakes with food overdose, and have a good week!