The Wizard of England & His Search For a Missing Fairy

(This is some of the backstory of a gentleman who gained the reputation of being a wizard in modern times. It is a revised edition of an initial chapter in a fantasy story).

Although mostly forgotten and unknown to humans, there are in fact superior beings from a higher world that came to be known as fairies. While they still resemble us, they are more excellent in both mind and body. The word ‘Fairy’ became the standard name for these beings although other names were also given to them throughout the course of history. For example, ‘the Higher Ones,’ ‘Agents of Mercy,’ ‘Messengers of Bounty,’ Saltors’ and ‘Elves.’

We still don’t know whether fairies have their own name for the world they inhabit or if there is more than one of these worlds, but it is likely that there is only one Higher World and it may or may not have a special name of its own.

Their original language is called Luminenya but there are four other languages that are not widely spoken among them, and these have never been studied or spoken by human linguists. Aside from these, the human language of English is also spoken by them because they used to make frequent contact with people who spoke Earth’s most common language. They can also speak many other languages that have originated in our world.

Yaronie Koobla, which translates to ‘Lower World,’ or ‘the Lower World,’ is a popular term of reference they use for Earth.

A long history of the Higher World’s dealings with us was gradually gathered together over many centuries into a compendium of records that came by fate into the hands of one man. At the time that this happened, he was one of few deep believers in the superior species. This man was Raymond Ashford and the records are known as the Higher World Contact Archives, or the H.W.C. Archives for short.

Raymond was the last remaining member of an ancient Order of scholars who specialised in fairies and gathered information about them. The Order called itself ‘Custodians of the Higher Ones.’ But it also became known as the Order of Custodians.

The reason why the Order fell apart was due to a decision made long ago by the Higher World to stop sending fairies to Earth because of its power to corrupt. As human history progressed and as technological advances and secularism became widespread on Earth, especially in the West, we began to lose our sense of the fairies and they themselves experienced a new kind of trouble and difficulty when exposed to ‘Yaronie Koobla.’ When some fairies became corrupt as a result of their contact with humanity, it was decided that they would have to close themselves off from us. Only highly trained fairies could visit Earth and even then, it would have to be for a gravely important reason. With the prolonged absence and aloofness of the fairies, members of the Order of Custodians as well as most people in general, began to lose interest and even belief in the mysterious, ethereal beings of the past.

They used to visit us on what were known as Errands of Benevolence. They would usually come and go without revealing much about who or what they were. Sometimes, they were said to come to us in what is called Condensed Form. This consisted in an appealing, small and humble appearance which they used as a way of preventing us from being intimated by them. Errands of Benevolence generally consisted in acts of kindness, usually in the form of little services and sometimes big and generous favours. Sometimes they were said to speak to the lonely, provide for the destitute and protect us from various dangers, both moderate and severe.

These mysterious visitors were known to have distinct differences among them, depending on which location of the Higher World they came from. The United Provinces are made up of many ancient, prosperous and extensive lands but the most commonly spoken of are the largest eight: Alpheabrook, Garlandwood, Maracynthiavale, Lavenders Dale, Keldervale, Roldervale, Shorniavale and Crimson Butterflyvale. Besides these, there are said to be some other locations including various mountains, islands, underwater locations and the quiet but hostile Outer Lands. But when speaking of the Higher World, one is normally referring to the fairies of the United Provinces who live under the rule of the current reigning Monarch.

One of the most significant events in the history of the Higher World took place during the lifetime of Raymond, a rather isolated individual who still held to the code and lifestyle of the Custodians and retained the rare knowledge of how to get into contact with the remote and mysterious species. There are five branches of this kind of knowledge which correspond to the five levels or stages of contact that are possible when communicating with fairies. If properly trained, a human can attain to the first and second levels but to go any higher, they need the influence of a fairy. The first of these levels consists in the sensing of a higher one’s presence. This usually comes before communication is initiated. The second is where a silent, inner exchange becomes possible. The third is where they make their voice heard. But it isn’t always their true voice because they can generate sound by other means and make it seem like their voice or something different if they so choose. The fourth, where things get truly advanced, is where they act on a human’s imagination in order to create a mental image of themselves while speaking audibly to them. It is only at the fifth level that they physically reveal themselves. The most common of these high and wonderful forms of communication are stages one and two.

At that time, these beings whom Raymond was remarkably familiar with, were widely considered to be nothing more than a myth and the subject of creative imagination, campfire tales and songs. Folklore was still enjoyed by many but only seriously believed in by very few. And among those few, there were some who held inaccurate beliefs. For example, they thought that fairies are essentially very small and that they fly through the air with wings that are somehow attached to them. While inaccurate, this iconic image of the fairy is something that people should be forgiven for believing in because while real higher world beings are similar in physical size to us and do not have wings as an essential part of their nature, nevertheless, they have been known to use three distinct powers that result in making them appear very much like the classic fairy or elf.

The two powers connected with their size are called Altered Perception and Condensed Form. The first of these, Altered Perception, is a power that affects human visual perception so that what in reality is not a small figure, appears to be so while the human is under the influence of this power. The more advanced power, Condensed Form, is a rare and controversial power that can be used to temporarily assume a smaller physical size, but it draws a potentially dangerous amount of energy and was never used much in the past or encouraged on a wide scale. At one time there was an on-going debate about whether it was a good thing or not to manipulate human sense perceptions. Those in favour of it argued that the appearance of a small size was less intimidating to humans. It was a humble and endearing form that banished all fear both from human adults and children alike. It was due to a fairy named Lisavell of Shorniavale who got the upper-hand in this debate and prevented the political decision from being made to ban the use of the power of Altered Perception.

As for the question of wings, the third power that was sometimes used did not have a name of its own but consisted in being able to use an Energy Harnesser, or as it later became known, a Wing Channel. The wing channel was an enchanted device that could be worn on the back and operated using a type of energy similar to that used in the power of Condensed Form. With a wing channel, a fairy could transmit energy from their life essence into the device and convert it into a complex substance known as Filtered Photon Essence. With the openings in the device, this substance could be utilised to form luminous and semi-transparent wings with real practical value. They could be used for extra light, for summoning particular woodland creatures and for short flights. Higher ranking fairies could use them for longer flights. However, they were usually only used for basic purposes such as crossing lakes and rivers and gaining access to tall trees. They had their time, but eventually wings went out of fashion and were considered to be an unnecessary luxury and a potential hazard to inner and outer well-being.

It had been a little over three centuries since fairies had ceased to visit Earth in person. But they could still influence it remotely. The Queen of the forgotten world made the decision to contact Raymond through one of her closest Advisors, named Vanessa Lumingale. Vanessa was a high-ranking fairy from Alpheabrook, the Royal Province. She had a certain strictness and professionalism about her and enjoyed the informal title of the Queen’s Right Hand. She had many duties including the management of the Royal Spokes Persons Unit, a political arm and voice of the Higher World and its Monarch, allowing it to communicate with other provinces within its own realm and occasionally to reach out to select human beings who are capable of and open to such communication.

Raymond had a taste for the old fashioned and sat at his oak-wood desk one day, feeling the approach of a fairy. He had his feathered pen and old, cream sheets of paper at the ready.

He would usually get a distinct feeling for several hours in advance, before a fairy made contact with him. He knew that they liked to speak only when he was in a quiet and recollected place, with natural lighting either from the sun or a candle. They liked natural things and natural light, and while they admired the technology of modern man, they themselves had an aversion to it.

Raymond made money by living like an old-fashioned wanderer wizard with robes and a hat. People would come to see him and listen to his passionate speeches in favour of simple living, where ‘less is always more,’ and his delightful fairy-tales which were in fact documented accounts of Errands of Benevolence from the H.W.C. Archives, one of which was an account from the fourteenth century and involved a series of visits from a young higher world male to a girl named Katherine Stone who called him ‘the fair elf,’ ‘my garden elf’ and later, ‘the elf who never returned.’ He once delivered her from a wolf who was about to attack her while she was feeding the rabbits in a local forest. He then led her safely home.

Parents would take their children to see Raymond and leave money for him. He would go from place to place, travelling and often sleeping in a wooden Victorian style carriage pulled by a horse. He would station himself at town squares and public parks where crowds of people would gather round to listen to him. He would take the addresses of anyone who wanted to write to him and receive his inspiring and helpful letters. He would also bring gifts such as cakes and wooden toys to the children which he kept in the back of his carriage. After a few days in one place, he would then move on somewhere else. This was all taking place in the digital age, though the smartphone had not yet been invented. Gradually, Raymond with his anti-materialism message and riveting fairy-tales, as well as his medieval fantasy attire and charm, became known throughout the country as the ‘Wizard of England.’

He was also sometimes called the ‘Wizard of Guildhall’ because with all his money, he was able to rent out a large space under the floors of Guildhall Library where he moved all the old books and documents that comprised the Higher World Contact Archives. He had a room down there with an old lantern. The library management organised for the creation of a trapdoor leading down to his archive for dramatic effect and anyone visiting him while he was there would have to purchase a ticket. Part of the cost for these tickets would go to the wizard, and the library would keep the rest.

Raymond could now strongly sense that communication had been initiated by a non-verbal voice that was felt rather than heard and said, “Are you prepared?”

He closed his eyes and nodded slowly, giving inward assent.

The Higher World messenger had been instructed to use the Fourth Form of communication, which is only one step down from the highest and hardly ever used. Being spoken to in this form initially frightened Raymond because it was so unexpected and he had long been accustomed to experiencing only the silent, inner exchange of the Second Form.

First there was a very sudden bang, followed by a loud buzzing sound that remained constant and struck fear into his heart as he frantically looked about for the source. He then made a dash for the exit of the room, thinking that there might be some kind of electrical device nearby that was malfunctioning. Not that he used any electrical commodities himself. The voice then burst out in sharp, concerned whispers, accompanied by sparks and flashes in all directions as if the elements in the air were somehow being manipulated to create sound and speak.

The first words were, “Raymond! There is news! Ready your ears. There is news, Raymond.” These words then repeated themselves again and again like an echo, sounding faster and quieter each time until only the buzzing sound could be heard.

Raymond already felt a little dizzy as he began to zone out more and more from ordinary reality. He then began to see a mental vision of the speaker. But it started out as a blue and white blur. It then slowly started to become clearer. In the meantime, he froze for a moment, feeling obliged to return to his chair which he did slowly and at last answered, “I am ready. Speak to me and tell me… Are you an agent from the Higher World?” He closed his eyes tightly, waiting for an answer.

The buzzing sound then went quieter and the voice refined itself, now sounding more like the messenger’s ordinary speaking voice. “Yes, Raymond. I am Vanessa. I speak on behalf of my Queen. Her daughter, the firstborn, is missing.”

Then several other voices spoke with her and repeated the words, “Firstborn is missing.”

The crackling and zapping sounds became a little louder when the other voices spoke. He could see in his mind one fairy in radiant, light blue and another beside her in rich, slightly dark red. The others were hidden behind a thick, luminous smoke. The one in blue with gold trimmings and light flowing out of her was the speaker, Vanessa Lumingale. But the one in red did not reveal who she was or what position or rank she held but stood to the right of Vanessa with a serious and even somewhat angry expression that made Raymond feel deeply uneasy. She was holding a short spear or javelin that seemed to go from being gold to red hot and then back again to gold. When it went red hot, her eyes turned a fiery orange and when it went back to gold, her eyes went dark green. There was also a swirling white smoke around the two fairies that also seemed to slowly change colours, going from white to blue when it was in front of Vanessa and from blue to red when it was in front of the other mysterious fairy.

Raymond spoke back in a low voice, “Missing? A fairy? Can you repeat that sentence?”

Vanessa spoke again. “Raymond, one who is of our kind and status should not have to repeat herself to you. Did you not tell me you were prepared for this conversation? The Queen’s firstborn daughter is missing. She has been stolen.”

“And do you know by whom and by what means?”

“We know little about him. But he is dead now. He was killed unlawfully by one of our own who descended to your world without permission in pursuit of the child. We believe this fairy has become corrupt and we have lost contact with her. The culprit used a form of witchcraft that we are still striving to analyse correctly.”

Raymond felt a sense of deep worry and concern at the same time. A fallen fairy was a terrifying concept. And a lost one in danger of becoming corrupt added fresh layers of alarm and urgency.

“Then I must look for her myself,” he said abruptly.

“We know that you have good discernment and should you ever come across the fairy, you will know that she is one of our kind. And should her full name have been retained, it may also serve as an aid in locating her. The royal one’s name is Stephanie Goldmaracynthia Bell. Our people and my Queen request that you do what is in your power to locate her and inform us of her whereabouts and condition. We cannot know where individuals are unless we can first speak to them.” As she finished speaking, the fairy in red could be seen staring at him with a threatening glare as if warning him that this proposed mission was very serious.

Raymond breathed deeply in and out as he said his last sentence. “This is a difficult case but I will gladly do as your Queen requests, Vanessa.”

There was a pause but the strange humming sound continued. Vanessa then closed the communication with the words, “On behalf of my Queen… and our people, I thank you Raymond.” She then turned to the fairy in red who looked back at her with her fiery eyes, awaiting some kind of instruction or command. Vanessa gave the instruction with a signal, stretching out her hand and directing it towards Raymond.

He then noticed to his horror that the fairy in red turned to him once again, this time with a more menacing glare than ever, and raised the burning javelin high above her head. She then threw it at him with a swift and powerful thrust. He sensed it approaching and then hitting him deep in the chest, making his entire body shake. He then fell to the floor and yelled out in pain. But he knew enough about the ways of fairies to understand that they were only purifying his inner being and mental faculties for the quest that lay ahead. And indeed, it was not a physical weapon that struck him but something entirely intangible.

He lay on the ground for a while, recovering his strength and groaning. A little later, he staggered to his feet. He felt a little lighter and his heart was beating quickly. It had been an intense conversation during which he had been carefully taking mental notes as the fairy spoke to him. A meddler in witchcraft had summoned a royal fairy to Earth, Stephanie Goldmaracynthia Bell, while she was still in her infant years. She was said to be the firstborn, meaning that she would be next in line for the Crown of the Higher World. Then another fairy went to Earth in pursuit of her; perhaps one who had some kind of special care of the royal infant and must have felt she had to make a fast decision and take a significant risk. But she was not prepared to withstand the corrupting influence of Earth and after destroying the kidnapper of the princess in a fit of anger, this fairy was believed to have become corrupt. After becoming corrupt, she later stopped communicating with the higher world and went missing, together with the royal child. The fairies then reached out to him to look for her. She could perhaps be recognised if her full name had been kept. And of course, if he were ever to discover anyone who displayed signs of a fairy nature, he was to report it. There was that added depth about someone who was a fairy and that distinctive presence that he had gradually become attuned to. These signs however, could be quite subtle, even for him, a man who was quite the specialist when it came to fairies. But a fairy that was to grow up on earth would probably lose those other more obvious signs of fairy nature which included a kind of brightness and ethereal aura that came with being completely uncontaminated by Earth and from knowing that they were from a higher world and had experienced it.

It wasn’t too likely that the name of the fairy had been retained. If that was the case, the chances of finding her would be truly slim. But perhaps he wouldn’t need to find her. Perhaps, when she grew a little older, she might sense that inner call to her true home world and with communication and guidance, learn to let her life essence return to where it belonged. But the ability to transfer the life essence between two contrasting worlds was no simple matter. One had to be prepared, separated in thought and desire from anything holding them back and wholly dedicated to some purpose in the other world, before they could make the transition. There was also a way to do this while the body remained in one world while the life essence received what was called a ‘Temp-Body’ in the other world. A temp-body which derives from the term, ‘temporary temple of the life essence’ was a realistic yet fake body, formed naturally and animated by the power and energy of the life essence. Its actual physical substance was no more than transformed air molecules.

The other, more dramatic way of transition, where the true body along with the life essence relocated together to the opposite world was by a process called Recessive Outer Form Transition, and meant that after a profound calming of mind and body and by a huge surge of willpower, the body or outer form could recede temporarily into the life essence, so that it was almost entirely spiritual, but not quite. Its particles joined themselves to light photons that were themselves joined to a more intellectual and invisible light flowing from the life essence. While in this state, the life essence could go where it wished at a speed that was undefined but was considered to be unimaginably great. When they arrived at the new location, there would be a great brightness as if lightning had struck and the body would re-emerge back into its natural state. No fairy could travel in this way without first being trained by a competent mentor.

That was how it began – Raymond’s long and frustrating search for the Fairy Queen’s daughter. He continued to attract visitors and would ask if any of them knew anything about the missing one. Every now and then, a girl would come forward and declare that she was the mysterious fairy. But with his deep knowledge of fairies, Raymond was able to tell that such claimants were only human and not of the high and wondrous fairy species. Besides this, it seemed that no one bore the full name that was given to the higher world princess.

One ambitious girl, eager for attention, tried to get her brother to buy her a fake passport and birth cert since he used the dark net from time to time. She wanted the documents to say that she was Stephanie Goldmaracynthia Bell from Berkshire. For a long time, he refused but she kept saying to him, “This could make us rich, Martin.” In the end he caved in and did it for her. This resulted in her immediately taking to the internet and claiming that she was the missing fairy spoken about by the Wizard of Guildhall. She did her best to build a following and posted videos of herself wearing a long wig and beautiful dresses. She would then speak about current affairs, make predictions and describe the contrasts between Earth and the Higher World. To her advantage, she did look impressive, grave, otherworldly and eye-catchingly beautiful when done up for her photo and video shoots.

Many girls and teenagers believed her and her following grew rapidly. Her website, Stephanie to Mankind, gained more and more traffic, and she encouraged her followers to heed her ‘messages,’ and send her donations by post if they wished to be ‘touched by magic.’ Her site was also riddled with testimonials of those who claimed to have been favoured by Stephanie the Benevolent. Some people came all the way from America and Canada to meet her, only to be told that the time had not yet come for her to appear in public. Raymond was suspicious about her from the start and after making a long string of inquiries, he eventually discovered that she was a fraud and that her real name was Jessicka Maria Cooper.

Besides this fraud, no means had availed to find someone with that strange middle name, ‘Goldmaracynthia.’ Raymond was aware that it might only be a matter of time before fans of his would name a child of theirs after various fairies he had spoken about, including the missing one. But the timing wouldn’t be correct. If still living somewhere on Earth, the fairy should be in her ninth year at that time. Internet searches for the mysterious name carried out by others on his behalf did not yet yield anything significant except for the Jessicka Cooper hoax and a few Quora questions and Reddit discussions.

The mainstream media decided that Raymond would make a good story and mentioned him now and then but he never agreed to be interviewed, since, like his ethereal friends, he kept himself away from technology as much as possible. News channels initially thought it wise not to make a fool of him because he was very widely loved, so they refrained from saying that he was searching for a fairy princess which would simply spell ridicule because society rejected the notion of fairies being real. But they said that his reputation was impressive and that he spoke of simplistic living and told engaging fairy-tales. Guildhall Library invested in advertisements run by the media to make more money out of the Wizard of England. However, when he started leaving notices about the missing fairy, it was reported in the papers, television and radio, much to the amusement of the people.

Every now and then the fairies would contact him but sadly, it was always the same news: nothing yet to report.

But it was in a small, obscure town in the South of England that the real Stephanie Goldmaracynthia Bell began to grow up.