Passerine and Peregrine

Act One

A roaming Seelie Fey comes across a Cuédleür girl out painting in the forest and she catches his interest, so he attends the Midsummer rites a few days later to seek her out. She is among this year's initiates, and he catches her eye in return across the bonfire, so he pursues her during the Hunt. She gives him her circlet and he spends the summer with her, but has to return to the Otherworld when the leaves fall. In spite of their inevitable separation, she begins to truly fall in love with him.

Act Two

When it comes time for him to leave, she asks him to take her life-circlet with him - if he doesn't want her in the spring he can return it, but she wants him to keep her with him so he doesn't forget her. He is happy to accept an additional claim on the human he's already been thinking of as his, and over the cold months he finds himself thinking of her often and missing her more than he expected he would. They're reunited when the snow melts, and as the weeks pass it becomes clear she's carrying his child. She wants to keep the child, and he wants to keep her, but she has been taught better than to enter the Otherworld, especially while pregnant. Still, the spring and summer pass in relative domestic bliss, and she prepares to shoulder her last trimester with the support of her village.

Act Three

He departs again when the leaves fall, and the pregnancy takes a bad turn in his absence, exacting an extreme toll on her body due to the baby’s gheástr. He hears from an Unseelie fey that if he waits until Snowmelt to return to her it may be too late, so when the veil is thin he calls upon her common name to send her a message telling her to walk the Path of Stars and make an offering for good health. She does, though at 8 months pregnant the stress it puts on her body nearly kills her. She collapses, and he brings her to the Otherworld to prevent her from dying. She recovers but is forbidden to leave until their child is born, as the baby is expected to be Seelie and thus must stay in the Otherworld until spring. For her safety, he gives her a fraction of his true name, allowing her to use his gheástr to protect herself if she ever needs to. After a healthy birth, she is given the choice to return to her home immediately or stay in the Otherworld forever; if she stays until spring, she could take the baby with her, but there's no guarantee time won't have moved on without her and catch up with her all at once when she returns. Choosing between the life she's known and the future she sees with her lover and child, she stays.