"Yes, liebling, the fairy-tale guys. But there is nothing in this book that's a fairy tale. This is a history book. Every story is an account of something that really happened."
The girls looked at each other, unsure of what to say.
"Back when Jacob and Wilhelm were alive, fairy-tale creatures were still living among people," Mrs. Grimm continued. "You could still wake up and find a giant beanstalk on your farm or pixies in your barn or see a group of knights fight a dragon. But things were changing. For a long time, a tension had been building between humans and fairy-tale creatures. Everafters were being persecuted, even arrested or forced into hiding, just because they were different. Magic was banned and dragons were captured and caged. The brothers realized that the age of fairy tales might be coming to an end, so they set out to document as many stories as they could, for posterity's sake. Some of the things they wrote about in their book happened hundreds of years before they were born, while others Jacob and Wilhelm witnessed themselves. Naturally, as they collected these tales, they made a lot of friends of Everafters."
"What's an Everafter?" Daphne asked.
"That's what fairy-tale creatures call themselves. After all, fairy-tale creature implies that they are all some sort of monster or animal. Many of them are human, or once were, before a spell changed them. They can be quite touchy about it.
"So, like generations of poor and persecuted before them, many Everafters decided to move to America. Back then so much of this country hadn't been settled that for a group of folks trying to keep a low profde it seemed like the ideal place to live and thrive. Wilhelm acted as their ambassador. He found ships and used his connections to buy five square miles on the Hudson River. The Everafters built this town on the land, more Everafters came here from all over the world, and for a long time everyone lived together in peace. But inevitably human beings started to move into Ferryport Landing, and soon the Everafters felt endangered again. Wilhelm tried to convince everyone that there was nothing to worry about, but a small and vocal group of rebels argued that it was just a matter of time before they would be persecuted again. They saw humanity as an infestation that needed to be rooted out at the source, and began tormenting the humans who had once been their friends."
"That's not nice," Daphne said.
"I agree, but fear can make people do terrible things. Wilhelm tried everything he could but the rebels' popularity and numbers were growing. It wasn't long before a plan was discovered by Wilhelm to conquer Cold Spring—the next town over-—and make it part of Ferryport's territory. Desperate to prevent what would surely be an all-out war between Everafters and humans, Wilhelm went to the most powerful witch in town, Baba Yaga. Together they cast a spell on the town, preventing any of the Everafters from leaving."
"And then what?" Daphne asked. Sabrina watched her sister's widening eyes. She seemed to believe every word the old woman had said, and even if she didn't really, the little girl was happy enough here to want to believe.
"Then the problems really began . . . especially for Wilhelm," the old woman said. "You see, to get Baba Yaga to cast such a powerful spell, Wilhelm had to sacrifice something of his own. Magic always has a price and what the old witch wanted was what Wilhelm had taken from the Everafters—his freedom. It's a price that hangs over our family to this day. A Grimm must stay in Ferryport Landing, just like the Everafters, as long as the spell is intact. It's the reason I couldn't come to the orphanage and get you myself."
"Isn't there something that could break the spell?" said Daphne.
"Yes, there is," Mrs. Grimm said as she shifted in her chair. "The spell will be broken when the last member of this family is dead. When there are no more Grimms, the Everafters will be free."
"What a bummer," Sabrina said.
"Indeed," Mrs. Grimm said, ignoring Sabrina's sarcasm. "But we make the best of it, and so do most of the Everafters. They keep a low profile, buying homes and starting businesses. Some have families and have even given up their magical powers and possessions in hopes of living more normal lives. And, with a couple of exceptions, things have been pretty peaceful in Ferryport Landing between humans and Everafters. But just a look through Jacob and Wilhelm's book, and the books of Hans Christian Andersen, Andrew Lang, Lewis Carroll, Jonathan Swift, and countless other chroniclers of Everafters shows you how fragile the peace is, and that trouble could be right around the corner. So, like Wilhelm, we have the responsibility of keeping this pot from boiling over. We watch the town, investigate anything strange or criminal, and document what we see, so that when we are gone our children will know what we went through. Think of us as detectives. Someday I will pass all of this on to you, as your Opa Basil passed it on to me when he died. It is your destiny. We are Grimms and this is what we do."