A Midwinter's Nightmare
The setting is England during the winter of the year 1900. It is the twilight of the Victorian era and England has colonized much of the world. It is the seat of both the industries of science (the steam engine, railroad, workhouses for mass-production) and the fellowships of Western ritual magic (Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, esoteric Freemasons, and The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn). Among the middle and upper classes it has become fashionable to take an interest in the revived versions of local fairy lore.
When Basil's father, himself a member of an esoteric magical order, is committed to the asylum for the insane, Basil takes it upon himself to manage the family's business and undo whatever madness was brought about by his father's summoning. The Order of the Compass Rose mysteriously dissolved after his father was committed. His father often shouts about a night that will fall upon the human world for ever and of the old gods of their land. With his mother having passed away a long time ago and having no siblings, the last that Basil heard from the Grand Master of the Compass Rose was not to dabble in magic unless those who drove the eminent Mr. Watson insane (the Grand Master insists against it being himself or his fellows) would follow Basil. Basil, who has not himself been bothered by paranormal life, decides to dabble anyway. He searches for summoning and binding spells, geometry drawn in chalk on ritual spaces, with half-melted candles and ceremonial robes. He plans to summon the thing that ruined his father's mind and to compel it to undo its damage or at least get revenge on it.
What he summons, instead, is a panicked and beautiful woman who is out of her element. She introduces herself as Rosamond and at first resents that Basil summoned her without knowing how to return her to her Fairyland. When Basil brings her to the asylum to see his father, she is able to talk or rather, sing Mr. Watson slowly back into something resembling sanity. Mr. Watson, sadly, does not fully know how to return Rosamond either, but he commits to find out how to do so and until then or, failing this, he would take Rosamond as his very own ward.
Basil takes Rosamond to horse races, to train tracks under construction and to factories where they build train carts—all of which are part of the Watson family business and all of which cause Rosamond to despair at the domestication of animals and the industrialization of the links to Fairyland (which is the pristine condition of the natural environment). Basil also takes Rosamond to a masquerade ball and Rosamond calls attention to herself with a wild and beautiful dance. Others attempt to shame Basil for bringing along such an “ungentle woman”, but Basil only has admiration for Rosamond's dancing. When Basil, with the leave of his father, takes Rosamond to their home in the country, Rosamond shows herself to be very odd and enchanting. She encourages Basil to dance with her in the snow and releases the soul of one of the villagers who had been deceased so that they are not bound to haunt the human world as a ghost. They also visit sacred rock formations constructed by followers of the old faith (like smaller versions of the Stonehenge). When it occurs to her that she has the option to cross over back into Fairyland by using these sacred rock formations, however, she chooses not to for her growing affection of Basil and of his world.
While still at the country, Basil gets an urgent telegram from their majordomo saying that Mr. Watson has been taken away again to the asylum. When Rosamond and Basil return to London, Mr. Watson rambles the way that he used to except that Rosamond can fully understand it. The fall of the endless night heralds the return of Queen Titania, the daughter of giants who Rosamond's family defeated. With Rosamond gone, she would not be surprised that Queen Titania took over the throne, but Rosamond expected her older sister Heather, a warrior queen, who should rightfully be on the throne but preferred to go off adventuring during peace time, to be able to defeat Titania easily. With the way that Mr. Watson rambles about, it seems that Titania has overpowered Heather and is not content with supreme reign over the Fairy kingdom. Titania is rending the veil between Fairy and the human world and wants to conquer the human world as well. The ailing human Queen Victoria is the throne that Titania wants to challenge. The English people have thinned the veil by having everyone including very young children call for Fairies and attempt to summon them with imagination. Queen Victoria may have lost the Americas, but her empire expanded through much of the world.
As Rosamond had demonstrated with the funeral of the villager, the time of death, of a physical human being passing on to the spiritual—is another potential way to pass to Fairyland, but it is very specific to the soul. Rosamond fears that Queen Titania might be powerful enough to reverse the direction of this passage. When Queen Victoria dies, Queen Titania will possess Victoria's body.
Rosamond knows this because Puck, who is one of Titania's spies for the human world, has taken over Mr. Watson's mind and has been the one feeding Mr. Watson all these ominous messages about things yet to come. Rosamond was unable to catch it before because Puck is a master of disguises.
Basil sets up another summoning ritual for Rosamond's sister, Heather. It is a mix of the summoning ritual that he used on Rosamond and the sacred stone formations that they saw in the countryside. They successfully summon Heather, who dislikes what Basil has been doing with her sister. Rosamond, on the other hand, dislikes what Heather has been doing with her life—leaving Rosamond with the burden of the throne so that she, Heather, can go off on adventures. Nevertheless, Heather has a hostile takeover to stop. With Heather's fairy powers intact, Heather travels to the bedside of Queen Victoria and slips back into the realm between the human world and the Fairy world.
Meanwhile, Basil and Rosamond stay with Mr. Watson, who argues with Puck as Puck can see the battle between Heather and Titania but cannot interfere. When Heather wins, Puck disappears from Mr. Watson's mind permanently. Queen Victoria dies a natural death, surrounded by loved ones. Queen Titania is left to piece herself back together. Queen Heather returns to the stones, saying that she is done with adventuring and would rule over her kingdom and Heather gives her sister Rosamond leave to have adventures of her own. Rosamond chooses to stay in the human world with Basil as Mr. Watson's ward, she and Basil have a young completely human daughter who they name Heather and they live happily ever after.
CHAPTERS:
Chapter one: Princess Rosamond is leading her people on an exodus for the winter, not leading them away from the snow but from the darkness. Rosamond wishes that her sister would return to rule them, although an anthropomorphized cat who is her advisor, advises her against making wishes like that. Rosamond is lured by some chanting, and wonders if it's one of the fairy folk in need of help. The cat advisor tells Rosamond that where they are passing is a very dangerous place because the human world is always calling for fairies. Rosamond goes off on her own to look.
Chapter two: Basil Watson is reading from a book of magic in the attic of his house in London. He is wearing a ceremonial cloak and holding a magic dagger in his other hand, ready to attack whatever comes through. But when Rosamond comes through he finds himself unable to attack her. They both demand from the other to state exactly what manner of creature they are. Rosamond demands from Basil that he send her back. Basil tells her that he doesn't know how because he wasn't planning to send her back. Rosamond loses her temper and tells him that he didn't even know who or what he was calling. Basil calms them both down by saying that it's time for tea so they can think this through.
Chapter three: Basil explains to Rosamond that he is a human on a planet they call earth of the country of Britain, the Kingdom of England which has colonies in Asia, and the town of London. Rosamond declines to eat the sandwiches and drink the tea saying that her advisors told her that to eat human food meant that she might stay in the human world forever. From this, Basil decides that Rosamond must be a fairy and says that it is very different from the sorts of magical beings he'd been studying. He thought that he would be summoning a demon. Basil explains that his father joined a magical order of wealthy men and then went insane when one of their magical experiments went awry. The fellowship dissolved, and the Grand Master told Basil not to dabble in magic—so, of course, Basil had to.
Chapter four: Rosamond examines the sigil of the Order of the Compass Rose, which contains a butterfly-winged T-shape that Rosamond recognizes as a defeated royal house. She asks Basil to lead her to his father. Basil asks their majordomo for some proper clothes for Rosamond and maybe a bonnet or a hat to cover Rosamond's pointed ears.
Chapter five: The next day, Rosamond does eat breakfast and goes with Basil to the asylum for the insane. There, Rosamond examines Mr. Watson by looking into his eyes and sings him back to sanity. The cured Mr. Watson accompanies them home, saying that he can hardly make sense of what he was rambling about, but he is very happy to be back and that, in gratitude, he will continue his research to send Rosamond back to her home, failing that, she will be his ward.
Chapter six: Some weeks later, Basil accompanies Rosamond to a masquerade ball, which Rosamond misses from fairy land. They also attend horse race, which upsets Rosamond because of the domestication, and then Rosamond asks to see the industry of the Watsons, which is chopping down trees and building fire.
Chapter seven: Guessing that Rosamond will be far better suited to life in the country rather than in town, Basil takes Rosamond to their house in the country. There, she watches a funeral procession for one of the villagers and tells Basil that she spoke to the villager's ghost (invisible to Basil) so that it could pass on. She also dances barefoot in the snow, seemingly immune to the winter cold and explores the woods of the town seeking portals that ancient people used to set up for the fairy people. She finds one, realizes that she can go through, but lies to Basil and says that the magic is gone from the stones. Basil suspects that she's lying and that she simply doesn't want to return to Fairyland.
Chapter eight: Basil and Rosamond both know that they love one another. However, Mr. Watson falls ill again. The Watson family major domo sends a telegraph message to Basil at their country house. When Basil and Rosamond see Mr. Watson at their home, he has gone dangerously maniacally insane once again. Basil would rather keep Mr. Watson in the attic than at the insane asylum. Rosamond looks into his mind once more and senses that Puck is in Mr. Watson's mind. Puck is a shape-shifting spy for Queen Titania, whose royal sigil was on the Order of the Rose Compass.
Chapter nine: Rosamond explains that Queen Titania is a daughter of titans, or giants, who Rosamond's own family overthrew. With Rosamond's sister Heather away on adventures, Rosamond was supposed to lead her people away from Titania's darkness. Without Rosamond, it seems that Titania easily took over the throne. The reason that Mr. Watson is going insane is because Mr. Watson channeled the plans of this house, which Puck, as good of a shape-shifter as he is, could not help bragging about. What Rosamond predicts Titania's plans to be, judging by Mr. Watson ramblings, is that she will take over Queen Victoria just as Puck partially took over Mr. Watson, perhaps using the force of a deceased human's spirit to reverse cross over (which Rosamond acknowledges is not impossible, but very difficult if you're not a Titan Queen of Fairy Magic like Titania is.) Knowing Titania's destructive ambition, Rosamond tells Basil that they need to summon her sister, fairy warrior Queen Heather.
Chapter ten: Basil modifies the summoning spell that he used on Rosamond. Heather is summoned and Heather and Rosamond talk about their relationship, about Rosamond's and Basil's relationship, and finally about the urgent need to save Queen Victoria from Queen Titania. Queen Heather flies off invisibly to defeat Queen Titania (Heather disparages Puck on the way out.) Through Mr. Watson, Basil and Rosamond keep up with the battle.
Chapter eleven: Queen Heather defeats Queen Titania. Queen Victoria dies peacefully, surrounded by her royal loved ones. Puck leaves Mr. Watson's mind, saying that he will never return. Queen Heather returns to the attic, telling Rosamond that she is sorry to have left her little sister to lead their people against such a terror. Queen Heather will return to the throne again and Rosamond will be allowed to do whatever she wants. Princess Rosamond chooses to stay with Basil.
Chapter twelve: As an epilogue, Rosamond and Basil have a young daughter whom they name Heather.
CHARACTERS:
Basil Watson
Age: 19 Height: 5'5” Hair: wavy, black Eyes: green
Basil is a would-be magician from a wealthy family who summoned what he could not banish. His mother died in childbirth and he has no siblings. His father was a member of some esoteric magical order—basically, a cult, for wealthy people—and some practice drove him insane. He starts out as a wounded and vengeful character, but very soon owes Rosamond a debt of gratitude for undoing his father's insanity that was his cross to bear, as well as showing him an enjoyable life outside of conventions.
Rosamond Fay
Age: ? (appears 20) Height: 4'11” Hair: strawberry blonde Eyes: hazel
Rosamond is a fairy princess, whose accidental kidnapping by Basil left a power vacuum in Fairyland to be happily filled by rival royalty, Queen Titania. With Queen Victoria of the human world near death, Queen Titania has her sights set on the human world. Just as Rosamond learns to enjoy the relief from ruling, she finds herself compelled to protect the human world as well as reclaim her throne. She doesn't quite fit into the human world in which she is initially trapped, but she soon develops an attachment to Basil, and his human world by extension.
Earnest Watson
Age: 42 Height: 5'4 Hair: wavy, auburn turning white, not yet balding Eyes: brown
Earnest Watson is a well-to-do gentleman with estates in the country and an investment in a railroad company. He joined the Order of the Compass Rose, a fraternity of wealthy men who dabble in ritual magic as if it were a science and went insane after having his body possessed by the fairy spy Puck. Earnest Watson has a son, Basil.
Heather Fay
Age: ? (appears 30) Height: 5'3 Hair: strawberry blonde Eyes: hazel
Heather is an adventurous fairy Queen.
Titania
Age: ? (appears as a pure powerful force of darkness) Height: 5'2” Hair ? Eyes ?
Titania is a wicked sorceress fairy Queen.