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The EverAfters

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Stephen Reid edited this page Oct 2, 2026 · 4 revisions

"We came to tell one story. Turns out this town needed them all."
-- Tolly TellTwice - The EverAfters

The EverAfters are a troupe of ten travelling storytellers who came to the border town of HemsHollow for a single night, and stayed forever. Day and night, from their ramshackle wagon stage in the town square, they tell stories without ever stopping, because their telling is all that holds the Void back from HemsHollow's East Wall. They are grand performers and humble neighbours, as likely to be found ladling soup or patching a roof as taking a bow, and they have not had a single night off in all the years they have been there.

At a Glance
Type Troupe of travelling storytellers
Home HemsHollow, on The Fraying
Members Ten
Stage A ramshackle wagon that folds open into a stage, in HemsHollow's town square
Known for Never stopping, and always ending on a happy ever after
Core Thread Spirit

The Troupe

Before HemsHollow, the EverAfters were wanderers. They rolled from town to town along the roads of Threadbare in one battered wagon, painted and repainted in every colour the roads had to offer, telling stories in market squares and on village greens for a hot meal and a dry place to sleep. They were never famous, and they never wanted to be. They told stories because stories needed telling, and they moved on when the telling was done.

Each of the ten has their own craft. Some call the crowds, some steal the stage, some stitch brand new stories out of scraps. Some tell in whispers, some in tumbles, some in silence and some in a voice that could knock the frost off a roof. Each of them has a little story magic of their own, a way of drawing a crowd in and keeping it there until the very last word. Together, they can tell any story there is, in any way it needs to be told, and they always end it on a happy ever after.

Coming to HemsHollow

One evening, the road ran out at HemsHollow, a small and shabby town on the edge of the Fraying. The EverAfters meant to stay a single night. They unfolded the wagon in the square and began to tell, and as they told, the townsfolk saw something they had never seen before: the grey threads of Void Creep on the East Wall were drawing back, the Void Blisters beyond it were shrinking, and a little colour was creeping back into the houses by the Wall.

In the morning, the EverAfters packed up to leave. Before they had reached the end of the street, the Creep came crawling back over the stones and the blisters swelled up fatter than ever. The troupe looked at the Wall, and at the town, and at each other. Then Endil EncoresEdge quietly turned the wagon round, and they unfolded the stage, and began again.

They have never stopped since. Threadlings call them the EverAfters because they will be telling stories in HemsHollow ever after.

Never Stopping

The EverAfters tell in shifts, a few telling while the others rest, so that there is never a single moment, day or night, rain or snow, without a story being told in HemsHollow's square. Clem CurtainCall takes dusk, when the Void presses hardest. Milla MoonMime takes the moonlit hours, when voices are tired. Tolly TellTwice takes the dawn. The rest fill every hour in between.

HemsHollow looks after them in return. Someone always brings them hot soup and blankets, and the townsfolk keep a Listening Rota, so that there is always at least one person sitting in the square, listening, because a story needs a listener as much as it needs a teller. The EverAfters, for their part, have become as much a part of the town as its well and its bridge. They mend fences, mind Patchlings and patch the East Wall alongside everyone else.

The EverAfters and the Battle of HemsHollow

To a Storyvore, a town that never stops telling stories is a feast that never ends, and it was the EverAfters' telling that drew a pack of Storyvores to HemsHollow in the first place. During The Battle of HemsHollow, the troupe could not stop to help, because if their stories faltered for even a moment, the Void would come over the Wall. So they did the only thing they could: they kept telling, all night long, louder than ever, so that the Void would hear them over the Storyvores' snoring.

Every year on the anniversary of the battle, the EverAfters tell the story of the that night, highly embellished, of course.

The EverAfters and the WonderWings

WonderWings are seen in HemsHollow more often than almost anywhere else in Threadbare, which is all the more remarkable for a town on the very edge of the Fraying. They gather above the wagon stage whenever a story is being told, and the EverAfters are rumoured to be able to still them, and to speak with them. WonderWings, which never stay still for anyone, have been seen to land on the troupe's shoulders, hats and hands, fold their wings, and rest there for the length of a whole story. It happens most of all to Winn WellWhisper, who is said to whisper with them, often for hours.

Nothing like it has been seen anywhere else. The University of the Unseen has sent scholar after scholar to HemsHollow to learn how it is done, and every one of them has come home with nothing to report. The EverAfters only smile and say that they are good listeners.

Many say this is where the troupe's never-ending supply of fresh stories comes from. Every WonderWing carries a library of imagined worlds on its wings, and one that rests a while on a storyteller's shoulder, they say, always leaves a story or two behind.

Members

The EverAfters are ten strong:

For Contributors

  • The stories never stop. There is always an EverAfter telling in HemsHollow's square. Scenes set in the town can include the troupe in the background, day or night.
  • Grand yet humble. The EverAfters are wonderful performers who never think of themselves as heroes. Keep them warm, funny and kind, and a little defiant in the face of the Void.
  • Happy ever after. Every story the EverAfters tell ends happily. It is a point of pride.

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Images

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