Page 21 - The Flickering Cauldron Magazine - April 2022

However, despite their best efforts the Spell masters were unable to ‘join’ their creations within the (now) Fey realm. The only access to one from another would be to cross into the realm of Man and physically cross the land from one anchor to another.
The Fey King and his council, once again sat down with Man and made the Pact.
The Pact:
Man would allow unhindered access for the Fey Folk to move between their (Fey) realms, on the night of each full moon, provided that the Fey folk were once again within their realm at first light and that they enacted no harm to Man as they passed.
Further the Fey King and his lords were only able to move between (Fey) realms, twice a year. This additional restriction was so that the Fey King who would travel in force, could in effect be Marshalled whenever he was in the Lands of Men.
Man would ensure that the portals or anchor points would remain free from obstruction to allow the Fey Folk to move between realms. To this end they would mark the passage of each year with an offering of Gold laid into the anchor point, to prove that the portal was clear of obstruction. The Gold provided a ‘visible’ bridge between the Fey Folks realm and ours.
If the anchor point portals became obstructed and the Fey King and his subjects were unable to move between them, then the Fey would consider the Pact broken and once more, war would be joined between the Fey Folk and Man.
The Fey King, his court and all who sided with them, then entered the twelve portals, Man was so concerned that the Fey Folk would not keep to their word that he searched his land far and wide for those few left that had the ability to work magic.
Man at one time did have almost the same abilities as the Fey Folk, but after centuries of Man fighting Man the numbers of Sensitive people had been greatly reduced, then when war was joined with the Fey, Man's numbers of Spell workers were again further reduced.
Thirteen Sensitive souls were needed, one for each of the twelve Portals and the best of them was not assigned a Portal, their role was to oversee and help any of the others as needed.
So, the Thirteen Watchers were appointed, each to a Portal and one to organise.
For a short time, all was good, but Man is a fickle and forgetful being that loves to fight. Man's battles with Man continued and soon the war with the Fey Folk was forgotten, rendered into stories, into myth, except for the Watchers, mainly women, for no greater reason other than, they tended to die less often as soldiers and so lived longer.
Each Watcher passed the knowledge down to the next generation, after a time Man created bigger villages, towns, tamed more of the land, which often meant that the Watchers lived rurally, in the fringes and hedges of ordinary folk, becoming known as Wise Women or Hedge Women. Again, as these things do, even their purpose became forgotten and their name twisted through language and dialect changes.
Eventually no one knew what the Hedge Watchers were there for, only that they could generally help with advice or poultices for the sick, but they remembered that they should be left alone, not interfered with, again as is often the way, once the reason these people were protected was forgotten, then resentment set in and they became outcast by the very same people that asked them for help.
The Flickering Cauldron® Magazine - The Watchers | 21