The Lantern Bough

The Lantern Bough began as a pact between the first settlers of Mossvale and a circle of forest fairies. For centuries, the agreement worked. The fairies protected crops from blight, hid the village from raiders, and guided children safely home when they wandered. In return, Mossvale left certain groves untouched, honored seasonal offerings, and allowed the forest to reclaim abandoned homes and fields. During the Year of Seven Winters, starving settlers cut into the western hollow to harvest ancient timber. The disturbance cracked the first root seal, and the sealed presence began appearing in dreams throughout Mossvale. Entire families forgot one another's names. The fairies responded by sealing the village within a wall of perpetual mist and forbidding all travel beyond the old boundary stones. This was the first great crisis of the Lantern Bough. The watershed moment came during the Night of Open Doors, when the presence briefly reached the surface through the village well. The Keeper at the time, Queen Ilyra-of-the-Last-Moth, used the First Lantern to bind the entity to the roots beneath Mossvale. The ritual saved the settlement but consumed most of Ilyra's court and caused every surviving villager to forget the true nature of the danger. Since then, the fairies have maintained the village's protection through secrecy, selective memory, and increasingly strict control of its borders. In later centuries, the Lantern Bough drove away loggers, redirected roads, sabotaged mining attempts, and formed a quiet partnership with Mossvale's healers. Their reputation shifted from mysterious benefactors to dangerous woodland spirits. Recent years have brought new pressure. Mossvale is growing, outsiders are mapping the forest, and cracks have appeared in several wardstones. The old bargain is no longer stable, but the circle cannot agree on what should replace it.