The last survivor of three fairy sisters works in a slaughterhouse, because even a fairy has to eat. She's the best butcher in the slaughterhouse, and she can handle animals too difficult for others. Her coworkers slowly realize she's living there, too, but that's no great concern.
Even more slowly, they realize she's making things, small things. like things somewhere between birds and bats, out of leftover pieces and parts from the slaughtered animals. That's creepy and wrong and very disturbing. But she's the best butcher there, and the foreman says that when one of them is the best butcher he has, he'll listen to the complaints. Then one day an old mare is brought in, who isn't really ready for death, but she can't do her old job anymore, and can't be sold for enough to keep her out of the slaughterhouse. The fairy persuades the butcher to let her have the mare, and makes a promise to the mare.
Until now, she's made small, unimportant things. Now, she's going to make something beautiful and grand.
This is the origin story of that grand thing, that may be wonderful or evil, but this is the origin story.
T. Kingfisher, the alter ego of Ursula Vernon, continues to make me break my No Horror rule.
Recommended.
This short story was free to members on Libro.fm, and I am reviewing it voluntarily.
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