The Birth of Evangeline Ash'ke

I am told I come from a land neither here nor there, one that transitions between the human world and the fae world that only the lucky, or extremely unlucky, will ever come across such a place. Faint memories of a city of golden lights and evergreen shadows are still in my mind but I was lost to them long ago. I was a free spirit, a wanderer in my youth, and thus left myself far from home. My people, the Eladrin Elves, are all but a memory and the reflection of a face in the mirror.

The mirror belonged to a human, witch of the woods, druid, and friend. She found me wandering around her garden, eyes open in wonder, touching the thorns of her roses until my fingers bled. When she smiled at me, I felt safe, not lost. Welcomed into her home, she taught me the ways of her land, hunt, fish, fight if you must, protect nature and it will protect you.

In a sense, she raised me. Watched as she grew older in our 50 years together. But I barely changed. My hair turned to a darker shade of purple, not the lavender of my youth. My slanted eyes growing more defined, purple with flecks of gold. My skin darkening but not aging, not in the way she aged, into a frail old crone of the woods still defiant and kind.

Then, one day Evangeline was gone. I was devastated. My friend, mentor, and only connection to a strange world. In her tradition, I crafted a box of wood, wrapped her in gentle silks, and laid her to rest between the river that brought us life water, and the garden that gave us nourishment. Placing a stone at her head marking the memory, I made my vow. In honor, I would carry her name into forever and her memory in my heart. From there on, I am Evangeline Ash'ke. Keeper of her name and her home and her memory.