Moongrace

Prologue

Once, a girl fell from another world. She was gifted with magic and beauty. Expelled from the Otherworld, she had to make a living among our medieval world. For her own safety, she covered her wings and beauty, but she still was one of the most beautiful creatures you have ever seen. Men and woman marvelled her appearance, but she still seemed so strange to them that none offered her shelter.

You may not know that there are magicians among us as well, witches in most cases. Well, the girl wandered among the humans for some time, when she came to a castle. It was a castle owned by a witch. As this witch, which was the queen of the country the girl came to, set eyes on this beautiful girl she knew she wanted her. The queen used a lot of her magic to stay beautiful and this girl offended her.

So, after she invited her to her castle, she made her soldiers bind the girl with strings and bring her to the throne-room. Her very daughter who was becoming a witch, even meaner than her mother, helped the queen to form a mask to cover the girls' beautiful face. By humiliating the girl put the mask on her face. They fixed it with magic, under the condition that it can only be removed for an hour every third night so that the girl could wash her face. They summoned a lot of people from the castle and declared her a criminal with no rights. After that they made her a servant of theirs and treated her quite badly. As every servant under the Queen, she got an isen. An isen is a solid iron choker that tightens and even strangles its bearer once he leaves the castle grounds.

The girl had a hard time getting to the people, since she really was ugly with that mask and had some strange habits. But eventually she started talking and found friends within the other servants – especially a young man called Evan who was one of the gardeners. They eventually fell in love, but they hid it so that the queen who liked to punish the girl very hard may never find out.

You may wonder, why I haven't written the girls name. Point is that she never mentioned her name to anyone so that she was simply called "Girl".

Evan was one of the servants who always had a feeling that Girl wasn't truly a criminal. And he was the only one who could see behind the mask and didn't judge her a bad person just because of her looks. They started talking when Girl had to work in the garden for a change and was not allowed to sleep anywhere inside. He was the one who brought her blankets and food. Only after some time, she told him to meet her late at night at a park fountain a mile away from the castle. It was the place where she could wash herself and find strength in the moonlight for the next three days. You must know that moonlight was something she needed to stay alive. It is like drinking water for us, only that she didn't need it as often.