Ackerly Green’s Secret Society

1. Publisher’s Letter

1

Publisher’s Letter

Saberlane: December 1, 2017, 9:32 AMThis past year wasn’t my first brush with magiq, or so I’ve come to learn. Through the events that unfolded via the volumes of The Monarch Papers, I’ve learned more about myself than I could’ve ever imagined. I’d been in a kind of denial, even when my children found The Guide to MAGIQ in the park. Even after the Guide consumed my thoughts. Even after the current Mountaineers came asking for it years later and my dreams became haunted by visions of an untold life I lived as a young man.

A life I thought was fantasy.

I was blocked by a denial that I’ve come to learn was magiq that I’d cast on myself as a young man, to save my own life. But The Monarch Papers, and the Mountaineers, showed me the truth. Not just about the world. About me.

I had refused The Guide to MAGIQ’s call, refused to be involved in all this, though I couldn’t explain why. But now I know. This was my second quest to find the truth. And this time the Mountaineers, after centuries of failure, have succeeded. It could be a coincidence that I’m here now, just as the Book is finally opened, to help usher in this new age. An author, a publisher, a lover of magiq and literature . . . but perhaps my soul’s providence has led me here. Either way, I welcome the chance. As you may have guessed, Ackerly Green is more than a publishing house. More than a bookseller. Ackerly Green will turn Martin Rank’s account of The Monarch Papers into a new story for others to read and explore. Ackerly Green will, with the blessing we’ve recently received by the Council of the 18 Gates (a story for another time), we will publish The Book of Briars, so everyone can learn a truth that so many wanted hidden. Ackerly Green, and I, in its heir’s absence, will do whatever we can to bring wonder to this world.

It’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly, and a burden I hope I can bear.

C.J. Bernstein

Saberlane

Steward of Ackerly Green Publishing

And now, backtracking a bit, here is a familiar voice for those of you coming directly from The Monarch Papers. This next post was found by C.J. Bernstein in December of 2017 and dates back to the day Deirdre first joined the Forum to tell the Mountaineers what she learned about her father from Orvin Wallace during Fragment Sixteen. It has the same formatting and style as the entries posted to her blog, “Deeds Done,” but was never posted there, as far as we can tell. C.J. found the draft of this post included with the relevant Ackerly Green Publishing documents Deirdre forwarded to him before leaving for Neithernor. It explains how she came to find C.J. and pass on the stewardship of Ackerly Green, so I will now defer to Deirdre herself for a more thorough account of the events that transpired.