When I introduced Tryina, as a character, in my game, I had no idea that this drama would unfold. In the Bookish and the Brave, Season 6 of Sojourners, Awake! storytelling podcast, the Bookends encountered a redwood tree dryad. She planned to lure them into a trap, spring her wolves upon them and feed the powers of the dreamland with their pain. Following after her mistress, the Queen of Air and Darkness, Tryina only had one real option in life.
Until she met Von.
In my head, at the time, Tryina perceived Von as different that other travellers. Most of the time, she met men hungry for wealth. In Von’s case, he grew up in wealth, from a financial perspective, and knew how vain the accumulation of money can be.
Instead of a greedy traveller, Tryina saw a man that could help her. You see, this dryad was bound to the tree, a sort of prison for her impudence in the royal court of the fey. However, she still possessed a spark of energia, or magic, that allowed her to create life. She only needed a kiss from a mortal man in order to secure this formula as sure fire success. She convinced Von she was a friend and promised that if he did kiss her, she would then take him and his friends through the forest safely before the wolves attack.
She left out the part about the wolves adhering to her call. It is an fairy old trick to simultaneously create the problem and the solution. Now that I think of it, she also left out the part about a fairy kiss creating a fairy child.
And that’s just what she did. Saved Von and his associates from danger that she fashioned in order to appease an evil queen who exiled her for loving too freely and trespassing on matters of the heart. And in doing so, she created Eramante, her daughter.
I still don’t know why this story captivated my attention. But after this unfolded, I decided to make her a main character in the story. Eventually, she confronted Von for a second time, but this time, in her original form of an elven woman.
As she writes this letter, she is free. At least, she is free from the queen’s beck and call. She has a daughter, that she left. The fey know they are terrible parents by mortal standards, but they move on quickly and freely.
And that is the story that captivated my attention - the story of the mother moved on without their child. With so many orphan tales, I often wondered what became of the parents. For the child who grew up in the orphanage, there is a mother who grew up without that child. She moved on. Who is she?
She is the fairy and the free.
May your story continue.
For 26 episodes of bingeworthy material, listen to the Fairy and the Free on Sojourners, Awake! podcast. The season moves along simultaneously with the Bookish and the Brave.
Listen to when the Bookends met Tryina!
The Fairy and the Free Season 7 revolves around the themes of motherhood, adoption, and loss. While this story has concluded, it truly never ends. Remember that when you encounter a person on their journey of life, you are only witnessing them in this one moment of time. Sojourn with them throughout their journey, ask them of their past, dream with them of their future and stay with them in their present. May your story continue!
Tryina's Letter to Von