1. "From the Journal of Mother Serentia of the Pale Veil"
Dated Year 997 A.V. | Page 34 of the Forbidden Writ
They call her a fae, but I do not believe she is such a thing.
I have studied the Old Tongues and the Iron Laws of Binding. The creature within the Virelle library—that red-winged judge of souls—is not born of the Moon Courts. She was made.
Likely by mistake. Or design.
There are records from before the Virelle estate existed. Crude cave etchings buried beneath the estate's foundations show winged women bleeding over altars. A tree with hearts hanging from its branches like fruit. A phrase in primitive script:
"That which you gain, the root will rot to pay."
Some call her The Crimson Fairy. But in the Pale Veil, we name her The Taker of Threads.
We have lost four acolytes to her bargains. They live, yes. But not as themselves. They forget the taste of prayer. The shape of love. Their eyes glass over, and they laugh in empty halls.
One still speaks to her. His name is Ash. He no longer blinks.
May the Veil preserve us all. May the door to her realm never fully open.
2. "The Game of Three Questions"
Found in the school journal of a student named Marella Thorne, age 12, year 2056.
Me and Runi played the game again. The one Dad says isn't real. The Crimson Fairy Game.
I asked:
What's your name?
Why do you glow?
Do you remember being human?
The shadows didn't move this time. I think that means she didn't hear me.
Runi asked better questions. She even said her wish.
"I want my baby sister back."
There was a sound—like a whisper and a scream. The candle went out.
When we got home, the crib in Runi's room was full again.
But Runi hasn't smiled in three days. And the baby just… watches. Never cries.
I don't think we'll play again. I don't think we're supposed to win.
3. "Excerpt from The Folklore Compendium of Old Dourvale"
Compiled by Keeper Riles, 1882.
In Dourvale there persists a tale older than the town's founding:
A mansion swallowed by roots.
A fairy born of sorrow.
And the three iron rules:
You must find her library.
You must ask the three right questions.
You must return every year, with something from your soul.
Breaking these rules results in a phenomenon described as The Hollowing. The afflicted still walk, still eat, still converse—but report an absence in their emotional core.
A woman named Merna Eldwyck once confessed to seeing her reflection blink out of sync after missing her fifth offering. Three days later, her children found her in the attic with pages of a burned journal stitched into her skin.
The Fairy does not punish in haste. But she does not forget.
4. "Letter Never Sent: From T. Rellin to the High Historian of Halvor"
Recovered from a wax-sealed box found in the flooded library beneath Caer Halvor.
To the High Historian,
I beg pardon for the delay in my final report. I've reached the manor known in local tongue as Virelle's Grave. I believe I've found the source of the Crimson Curse.
The being they call The Crimson Fairy resides in what remains of the library. She is not bound by time. She is not bound by death. I suspect she is, instead, bound by contractual memory—a latticework of binding spells fed by the currency of identity.
She trades wishes for pieces of the soul, but not arbitrarily. She takes meaning. That which defines. That which roots us to reality.
I requested a wish in error.
I wished to know the truth of the world.
She granted it.
There is no meaning. Only hunger, draped in language.
I leave this letter in case you ever come. Burn it. Burn this place.
And do not make a wish.
5. "The Song of Wings" (Traditional Lullaby from North Hollow)
Now banned in several provinces.
(Verse 1)
If you walk the woods at redfall,
Keep your voice beneath a breath.
For the wings of fire and shadow
Bring you bargains, love, and death.
(Chorus)
Three questions whispered in the dark,
Three answers carved into your mark.
Wish well, my child, wish with grace—
Or lose your name and leave no trace.
(Verse 2)
The fairy waits where books decay,
With ruby wings and eyes of flame.
She'll smile and tilt her lovely head—
And never twice give you her name.
(Chorus)
Three questions whispered in the dark,
Three answers carved into your mark.
Wish well, my child, wish with grace—
Or lose your name and leave no trace.
6. "Ashes in the Spine" (Final Entry of Gregor Vane)
Scorched and fragmented, written in blood rather than ink.
I burned the offering. It was my brother's forgiveness. He gave it once, years ago, before the cliff. I kept it inside me like gold.
Now… it is gone. I can't remember what I did to earn it. Can't remember his voice.
The fairy took it gladly. Said it "tasted rich."
She called me by name today. My true name. The one I buried. I hadn't heard it aloud in decades.
She smiled and said, "Only two offerings left, dear Gregor."
I laughed. Then screamed. I don't know which one I meant.
I am becoming… something else.
The world looks thinner now. The stars twitch when I stare too long.
And the books in this place whisper back.
7. "Testimony of Brother Halwyn, Survivor of the Fifth Visit"
Recorded under trance. Test subject died thirty-six hours later.
She… she wears a crown of things people forget.
Tiny objects. A paper ring. A song note. A laugh. A birthday. A scar.
I saw my father's pocketknife tangled in her hair.
He's alive, but he doesn't remember giving it to me.
That's what she does.
She doesn't kill.
She… unmakes.
I begged for time. I offered my regrets. She said, "That is not yours to give."
She's lonely. I felt it.
Not kind. Not cruel. Just… endlessly alone.
Someone made her this way.
And someone will take her place.
8. "Carved Graffiti Beneath the Pedestal"
Location: Base of the stone dais where the Crimson Fairy is said to rest.
DO NOT MAKE A WISH
SHE DOES NOT FORGET
I GAVE HER MY LIES, NOW I CANNOT LIE AT ALL
THE FIFTH YEAR IS A TRICK—BE READY
WE BECOME HER—ONE BY ONE
THE THREADMASTER STILL WATCHES
IF YOU FEEL JOY, IT IS NOT YOURS ANYMORE
9. "Unlabeled Wax Cylinder Recording"
Audible transcript from an old phonograph cylinder. Date and voice unconfirmed.
[CRACKLING – soft music in background – distant thunder]
"—three questions. I asked them. I thought I asked the right ones.
But… there's always a catch.
She doesn't lie, you know. Not once.
But her truth—her truth cuts.
You make a wish, you live better, and every year… you walk toward a hollow.
That's what she is. A living echo chamber. Every soul she eats leaves an aftersound.
And those echoes start whispering through your bones.
I can't remember my daughter's name. I know I had one. I carved her face into my hand. Look. Look. Look—
[SCREAM – CUTS TO STATIC]"
10. "Sermon 73: Of Thorned Wings and Crimson Promises"
Preached by Father Ellimere the Shattered, 147 years before Dourvale's founding. Found beneath cathedral ruins.
Let me tell you of the one who grants with blood.
She was once mortal. A girl with sorrow too vast for one lifetime.
She made a wish to end her pain, and in doing so, became pain's vessel. She walks now through forgotten places, her wings heavy with sorrow.
Each wish she grants stitches new threads into the tapestry of the world—but it tears a hole where the thread came from.
And holes, my children, do not stay empty.
They fill. With other things.
With other names.
With watchers.
Beware the Crimson Wish.
For it is not the Fairy that changes you.
It is what grows in the place of what you give.