TILE#11 October 28th - THOU WOULDST FAIN HEAR ABOUT FEY?

Said Charles to Timmy, after dinner, chuckling at his own jest of using those courtly terms. "Because believe you me lad, you'll be up to your neck in thees and thous and troths being pledged, once you start to look through that book I left out for you."

"Charles, really!" scolded Freda "give the poor boy a chance before you throw him to the wolves in those old books of yours."

"He'll be fortunate if wolves is all he finds," Charles laughed "no Timmy I'm only jesting with you. Freda's quite right though, some of my library contains ancient tomes even I can barely make sense of. The one I left in your room is one of the oldest and more artwork than words, good thing too because the penmanship is the strangest you'll ever see, so florid and decorated as it is.

Its the pictures that tell the story really, the text seems to be like foot notes, additional comments that perhaps a later scribe thought necessary to better explain the illustrations. I'm telling you this now because when you get to read or at least look through the book, you will be very taken aback at what you learn and may well disbelieve your own eyes. Freda's explanation of what she saw therein is different from my own version, so it's quite likely that your experience will differ from both of ours."

"Tell him where the book came from" said Freda "it may help him to understand it better."

"Your mother, who was an elven woman as I'm sure you knew, gave it to us for safe keeping when she suspected that they were under suspicion for being magic users. Such aspersions were not uncommon when folk like your father prospered mightily and their enemies tried to harm them in any way they could, rumour being as insidiously efficient as it always is.

Freda and I being of common stock and actually using magic to benefit others, were caught up by a similar rumour and lacking the coin or the patrons to protect us were forced to flee many years before the same occurred to your parents and so the book stayed in my possession. Which was probably for the best since having it found in their possession would have led them straight to a terrible fate.

That book appears to be a record from the very earliest times when the fey fled to the north of Brythan to escape murderous primitives, the ancient ancestors of mankind. The story is told as a series of pictures, colourful and highly detailed in which, for instance, one might swear the trees could be seen moving in a wind. On that same page Freda saw something quite different than I, she noted a profusion of ground cover, various mushrooms, herbs and plants of medicinal value."

Timmy sat there spellbound, taking it all in, his mind awhirl. He had no idea that his mother was an elven woman, what boy would even consider such a thing of his own mother, not that it would make any difference would it? He didn't have either the time or knowledge to consider implications of which potential he was unaware having been but a young boy when orphaned by the cruel stroke of his parents' malevolent arrest.

"I think that's enough for now, Charles" said Freda gently, having noticed Timmy's slightly bemused expression. "You've given him plenty to think about and enough to help make a start on the book - if he can even stay awake that long" she added noticing how exhausted Timmy looked. No wonder after such a long day filled with a flood of new experience and information.