The Tale, Simply Told

The Tale, Simply Told is the introduction to the book The Secret, and its central treasure hunt. It describes the “wonderstones” of the puzzles, the mythos of their burial, and establishes the rules of retrieval.

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A long, long time ago, before the age when Man and Woman sailed in ships to lands they had never seen, there existed in the Old World two empires: that of Man and that of the Fair People.

Man named his abode Civilization, for Man was an acquisitive creature and names were things he could possess. He could not fly on wings of gossamer, like a fairy; nor hide in the gentle slope of a mountain, like a giant; nor throw fire through a gust of wind, like a dragon. So Man often found his strength in words.

The Fair People had no cities or towns or houses. Their home was Nature, and in it they could play or hide or make themselves unseen to Man,

who feared Nature, for he could not control it

What Man could not control, he often sought to change. Thus, over

centuries, Man built his cities, and his villages and diminished the Fair

People's domain.

Where once lived a goblin, there rose a tavern.

Where once swam a river maiden, a water wheel spun.

Forest to lumber, earth to road . . . Man expanded his empire and the

Fair People were threatened.

From England to Cathay, from Bristol to Bombay, there came a call

from the Fair People for a new home, untrammeled by Civilization.

Representatives of the Fair People of the Old World were sent to seek it

Elves, fairies, sprites, foletti, duende . . . from thirteen lands they departed the

Old World to find a New one.

And they did.

You are about to read of the fantastic passage of the Fair People, who,

like Man, arrived on the shores of the New World with dreams of freedom

and contentment. You are about to learn of their wonderstones, the twelve

treasures brought with them in their passage to the New Found Land:

diamond, ruby, pearl, amethyst, emerald, sapphire, peridot, garnet, topaz,aquamarine. . . And you will discover what happened when the Fair People

found Man of the New World, who shared their deep love for nature. Best of

all, you will learn of your role in the Fair People's story, and the significance

of the quest for their treasure in the relationship between Man and the Fair

People.

Across North America, twelve treasures are waiting. The key to each

requires the proper combination of one treasure painting with one treasure

verse. You need only decipher the clues in any pair to learn the location of a

treasure casque. In each casque, waits a key. The return of the key will gain

its treasure for you. (If you are unable to retrieve the casque, but believe you

have determined its site, you may acquire its treasure by successfully

completing the form in the back of the book with a precise description and

explanation of your discovery.) Any successful discovery of a treasure will

be described in the next edition of The Secret.

Finally, you will meet many of the modern descendants of the Fair

People who arrived on America's shores. You are cordially invited to inform

us, in words or pictures, of your own sightings of Fair People as yet unseen

for inclusion in the next edition of The Secret.

This is our story, simply told.

The mystery is yours to unravel.