Where do fairies come from? The oldest and strongest fairies were once fallen angels. These are the lightest fae and the darkest—the most benign, and the most dangerous.
Some fae were once humans who got lost in the fairylands (where time works differently). As magic permeated them to their souls, they turned. They became immortal and beautiful—but they lost their humanity and their capacity for compassion.
A fairy can begin as a faeling—the child of a human-fae coupling. If the child is born in the fairylands, she turns almost immediately. If born in the human world, she may never know about her fairy nature.
Fairies hate iron. A fairy feels icky near iron, like he just smelled rotten eggs or walked barefoot on broken glass. A fairy can’t escape an iron cage—it nullifies his magic. Iron gives fairies horrific headaches. Speaking of headaches—and having nothing to do with iron—a fairy can give a human an instant headache.
Never, never, never go into the fairylands without an exit strategy. Time passes so fast there, a hundred years can feel like a day. Be careful! In Into the Mystic, the breaking spell that lets a human escape is to say “I forgive you” three times to the fairy who detained you. Fairies like to steal babies and replace them with changelings. Okay, personally I don’t get this. Babies require a lot of work, and fairies are more interested in play. If they wanted a human to play with, why not take one that’s at least potty trained?
My theory is the babies they try to steal are faelings, and they believe they’re only returning the child to its proper world.
It’s dangerous to accept favors from fairies. See #4: Mere gratitude won’t be adequate payment. The fairy will want something in return. It might be your iPad. It might just be the cheap sparkly earrings you’re wearing.
But if you’re in a fairy story you know he’ll more likely want the one thing you don’t want to give—and when it’s most inconvenient to give it. Accepting fairy magic generally does not turn out well. If you think about it, in most fairy tales there’s always a problem with the wish a fairy grants!