Prologue

Everyone has a what if feeling. That moment that makes you question where you would be if you did’t do that thing, go to that place, meet that person. Everyone has a what if. Some people know exactly what moment that feeling is from. Others only know the insatiable fear, the unquenched longing, of knowing things could be different. I’m one of those who are lucky [cursed] enough to know exactly what that moment is. 

 

My what if, was the fall.

 

They say that if ‘you fall as Lucifer fell, you fall from grace’. Although I have been led to believe that perhaps it is the other way round. My fall was not grand or dramatic. No great explosions or fiery infernos. My fall was a tumble, a surrender to the greatest of the four. My fall was a splash.

 

If you are to understand my story, you must first understand that not all we see is truth, and not all we know is true. There is a thin line, a veil, that makes all the wonder and magic in the world, even more wonderful and magical. 

 

If this were any other tale I would start from the beginning, from the ashes. I would tell you of a young orphaned princess and her evil uncle, for isn’t that how all fairytales begin. But this is not a fairytale of fantasy, more a non-fictional tale of fairies. And as every reader knows: stories don’t end on the last page, no more than they begin on the first. So let us begin our tale, not on the first page, yet not quite in the middle. Let me tell you a story that begins one third of the way in…