Fairhaven Chapter 1 Notes

"It had not rained in months in the city of Fairhaven - a small city of about 70,000 on the west coast - from the center of downtown clustered around the bay, to the surrounding forest full of ancient magical currents, to the mountains that ringed the city."
Fairhaven is based off of the town I go to university in - Bellingham, Washington, which sits at the foot of Mount Baker. Fairhaven is actually the name of the old town district. It's a very nice city in the farthest reaches of the Pacific northwest; in fact, it's the northernmost city with more than 50,000 people! It's around 80,000 and I love it a lot. While the general atmosphere of the fictional Fairhaven is dominated by the urban fantasy stuff, here's a shot of the Bellingham area that encapsulates what I was going for:



"...he retrieved the ziploc bag of crushed purple calla lilies and catmint from his jacket pocket, and dabbed it on his cheeks, down the bridge of his nose, and his lips."
Calla lilies mean "overwhelming beauty," and purple ones mean passion. Catmint is a fancier name for catnip.

"'I got tipped off to a possible Siren or Vila feeding in a downtown club,' he replied, slipping on his shoes."
A siren is, in this story, a beautiful mermaid that sits on rocks and lures sailors to a watery doom. A vila (also spelled veela) is a beautiful young maiden from Slavic folklore, said to dance young men to death. She will die if you pluck a hair from her head. I combined the traditional Vila depiction with the one from Harry Potter.

"Fai uncorked his vial of lethe water as he moved toward him..."
The river Lethe, in Greek mythology, was located in the underworld. Souls would drink from it to forget their past lives. This ingredient was snatched from Harry Potter.

“'Kurogane Amamiya. Hunter.'”
Amamiya is the last name of Sakura's great-grandfather in Cardcaptor Sakura. Conveniently enough, it apparently translates to "water shrine."

Fairhaven Chapter 2 Notes

 "'Do you want raspberries on your pancakes?'"
Raspberries signify protection and love, and could conceivably be harvested in November, when the story takes place.

"...pouring the residual magic from his dreams into the chunk of amethyst that shined by the window..."
Amethysts in general have a whole good for spiritual meditation thing going for them. They're a very important crystal in modern witchery.

“'Please make sure to take some labradorite with you today.'”
Labradorite is a crystal that heals and protects one's aura.

"...he had been going to visit his plot at the community garden, expecting some tomatoes and sage..."
Sage is used to banish negative spirits and grants protection, wisdom, wishes, immortality, longevity, etc - used a lot in witchcraft. Tomatoes could conceivably be harvested in April.

"A little old woman with bright yellow eyes toddled out."
This isn't anyone specific and it doesn't really matter, but I have obaa-chan from xxxholic in mind for this role.

"'I’ve heard a few people talking about hoop snakes making nests in parks on the forest side, and the calls of a strix at night...'"
Hoop snakes are a mythological creature/cryptid from the US, Canada, and Australia. They're kind of similar to the Greek ouroboros, as it's a snake eating its tail - but a hoop snake takes that to the next level. It rolls really fast at someone and then bites it. A strix is an owl that eats human flesh, from Greek mythology.
 

I would also like to say that my decision to make Fai not cis was based on personal headcanon. There are some unfortunate sections of wicca/paganism that are obsessed with menstruation and moons and whatnot. That is not the case in this fic - being a witch is a gender neutral profession. Later on in the fic, cis male witches will appear. The matter of Fai's gender or body will not be used as a plot point.
You can view him as a trans man or non binary in this fic as you prefer; all I know is that he's not a girl but still enjoys feminine fashion. I view him as having "less of a gender than an aesthetic."

Fairhaven Chapter 3 Notes

"She was crushing chrysanthemum stems in her mortar..."
In witchery: for protection. Used in rituals of death and dying. Promotes mental health. In traditional flower language: precious one.

 "'Or did you lose your library book? I could help with that, I know the returns guy - Vassago, he's a real sweetheart - I can get you an extension.'"
Vassago is a Prince of Hell in Christian demonology. He can be summoned to find hidden or lost things, and apparently has a "good nature."

 "Taking all this in, Fai first asked, 'A vielfrass?'

Kurogane scoffed. 'A jerff, a gulon, whatever. Big hairy hungry thing.'”
The gulon, which is explained in the fic, is the Scandinavian name for the creature. Vielfraß is the German name for it, while jerff is the term in northern Sweden. A fact about this creature I wasn't able to include was that when the gulon fills its stomach but still has food to eat, it will squish itself in between two trees to, er, push the meat through its body in order to make room for more.