Day 17 of Fómhar, Year 634 K.E.
I yearn for the days of Éireanna. But I fear I made a grave, irreversible mistake. Dear reader, whomever finds these words, please listen carefully. I am no mere mortal. Nor is this a riddled tale I spin for my amusement.
My True Name is Rònan Ó Conell Macbeatha, a druid from the faerie line of Maebh and the human kings of Éireanna. Perhaps I am reckless in writing down my True Name for anyone to find. But I am already a prisoner of Mælfallyn, the Queen of the Sluagh, Queen of the Malfae, master shapeshifter and spell weaver. She alone now determines my fate. A fate to blend my druidic lineage and runic technology with her elemental magic to create a faerie more powerful than she or I. This child will assuredly be weaponize to bend Ealdspell to her will. And since I have refused her hand in marriage—in Éireanna before our civil war, before she had shadowed, and again a fortnight ago—it is only a matter of time before I am rune spelled to become her king consort.
There is no more of my kind. Before I created the Kingdom of Ealdspell, I was not only a prince but the last druid of Éireanna. Do not forget the land of our ancestors, dear reader. For we still belong to this hidden realm on Earth. Ealdspell is simply a world within this world.
But why, you ask? The land of humans is a polluted wasteland filled with warring machines. Nanotechnology is in everything—the air, the water, the trees, the people. These machines eventually seeped into Éireanna and poisoned faerie minds until many went mad with greed and cruelty. I needed to keep safe those who were not yet infected. I needed to protect what was left of our sacred lands. For if Éireanna falls, then all of Earth will fall too. And we need Earth’s magic just as much as Earth needs ours. We are joined strands in an endless knot.
Rather than fight this cursed iron, I wove the language of circuitry and machines with fae elemental magic. Then I used this runic technology to not only create Ealdspell, but to sustain it. I entrusted the magic of Ealdspell with Gedlen Fate Maker and Gellynor Death Talker of the Dúnælven. They alone know where I have hidden the Kingdom of Ealdspell.
Or so I once thought.
I made a terrible mistake. A decision I can never take back. One Mælfallyn will never let me forget nor forgive. And so, I await her vengeance.
Forgive me, dear reader. I tried to protect faerie kind, as a halfling fae prince and human druid. But I have failed.
Burn this note, but do not forget my True Name. Stop Mælfallyn, even if it means you must kill me. I spell wove an Éireannan knot, what those of Earth call Celtic knots, to appear at the nape of Milfae royalty. These are the only faeries you can trust in Ealdspell.
The Malfae found my hidden kingdom, they now live among us, and they introduced their poisons to our land.
Rònan, High Druid and Prince of Éireanna
The Ealdspell Cycle is a secondary-world collection of standalone mythpunk faerie tale retellings, blending faerie magic and pagan ritual with high technology. Guaranteed to please readers who love angsty, enemies-to-lovers slow-burn romances, twisted faerie tales, and strong found family themes.
