Ackerly Green’s Secret Society

By C.J. Bernstein

Artifacts lost in time, supernatural alliances, and a desperate choice that changed the world. The adventure that began with The Monarch Papers continues with Ackerly Green’s Secret Society.

When Deirdre Green places the stewardship of Ackerly Green Publishing in author C.J. Bernstein’s hands, he expects his days to be filled with copy edits, contracts, and cover designs. 

But when a box of collectible pins is discovered in a long-forgotten storage room, it triggers the reformation of The Ackerly Green Secret Society, a fan club from the company’s lost history. Armed with the pins, the Mountaineers begin to find themselves inexplicably drawn to forgotten magimystic corners of the world, and it becomes clear that there is more to the society than simply honoring Ackerly Green’s enigmatic past.

As magimystic artifacts from the alternate timeline begin surfacing, CJ and the Mountaineers realize a new story is rising from the ashes of The Monarch Papers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ackerly Green Publishing
• Release date: Sep 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9780999038796

Book preview

Introduction

If you’re reading this, it’s very possible that you’ve just finished The Monarch Papers and found yourself unable to extricate yourself from this strange and wonderful world that you’ve discovered. If that’s the case, then welcome. You’ve come to the right place. This is where the story continues.

Much like TMP, this is an adaptation of events that occurred throughout the course of a year, as documented originally on the Ackerly Green Community Forum. While the original threads are still available to read, I have condensed the information most relevant to the story in these chapters and have retold it from my perspective, so that you may follow one narrative voice as you make your way through the books of Ackerly Green.

I suppose that means I should introduce myself. My name is Catherine Thoms, and I began working as the publishing assistant for Ackerly Green in June of 2018. The events of the Secret Society were well underway by then, and The Monarch Papers adaptation had yet to be published in book form. When I started, I thought that was going to be my job: helping to get a series of fantasy books out into the world. I had no idea I’d be haunted by a magimystic ghost or doing deep dives into old forum threads and blog posts, searching for applicable spells to protect said ghost from harm, never mind helping to perform them. But I’m getting ahead of myself—that’s what you’re here to read about.

The story, as I am telling it, begins in December of 2017, a rare liminal time for Ackerly Green, in which things appeared to have finally quieted down. The events of The Monarch Papers had concluded, leaving many wondering where to turn next and what was to come of the community that had formed around this fantastic experience. None felt this more keenly than C.J. Bernstein, who had been left with the stewardship of Ackerly Green in Deirdre Green’s absence, consequently becoming the hesitant voice of the company. It is with his words, his promise to the Ackerly Green community, that we begin this story.

I’ve done my best to report the events of the Secret Society as they happened. For the most part, I have merely reprinted the relevant blog posts from Saberlane and included the actions and reactions of the Secret Society members as they were posted, with minor formatting edits. Any editorializing or speculation about the thoughts and feelings of the Mountaineers that were not explicitly expressed at the time is my own, as are any mistakes about the nature of magiq or the history of events at Ackerly Green. Much like you, reader, I believed the action to have already happened when I came in, but instead found myself dropped squarely in the middle of it and left to play catch-up. I hope that for you, this can be the resource I never had (but would have desperately appreciated). I also hope that, when you’re ready, you can join us in on the forum in creating even more magiq.

And to the lucky, treasured few who contributed their efforts to this story as it was happening or as it continued in The Search for Magiq, and who may be reading this to rekindle old memories, we’d like to say that we see you and we thank you for your continued support. This adaptation is as much for you as it is for those who follow in your footsteps.

Yours in wonder,

CT

1

Publisher’s Letter

Saberlane: December 1, 2017, 9:32 AM

This past year wasn’t my first brush with magiq, or so I’ve come to learn. Through the events that unfolded via the volumes of The Monarch Papers, I’ve learned more about myself than I could’ve ever imagined. I’d been in a kind of denial, even when my children found The Guide to MAGIQ in the park. Even after the Guide consumed my thoughts. Even after the current Mountaineers came asking for it years later and my dreams became haunted by visions of an untold life I lived as a young man.

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A life I thought was fantasy.

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I was blocked by a denial that I’ve come to learn was magiq that I’d cast on myself as a young man, to save my own life. But The Monarch Papers, and the Mountaineers, showed me the truth. Not just about the world. About me.

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I had refused The Guide to MAGIQ’s call, refused to be involved in all this, though I couldn’t explain why. But now I know. This was my second quest to find the truth. And this time the Mountaineers, after centuries of failure, have succeeded. It could be a coincidence that I’m here now, just as the Book is finally opened, to help usher in this new age. An author, a publisher, a lover of magiq and literature . . . but perhaps my soul’s providence has led me here. Either way, I welcome the chance. As you may have guessed, Ackerly Green is more than a publishing house. More than a bookseller. Ackerly Green will turn Martin Rank’s account of The Monarch Papers into a new story for others to read and explore. Ackerly Green will, with the blessing we’ve recently received by the Council of the 18 Gates (a story for another time), we will publish The Book of Briars, so everyone can learn a truth that so many wanted hidden. Ackerly Green, and I, in its heir’s absence, will do whatever we can to bring wonder to this world.

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It’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly, and a burden I hope I can bear.

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C.J. Bernstein

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Saberlane

Steward of Ackerly Green Publishing

And now, backtracking a bit, here is a familiar voice for those of you coming directly from The Monarch Papers. This next post was found by C.J. Bernstein in December of 2017 and dates back to the day Deirdre first joined the Forum to tell the Mountaineers what she learned about her father from Orvin Wallace during Fragment Sixteen. It has the same formatting and style as the entries posted to her blog, Deeds Done, but was never posted there, as far as we can tell. C.J. found the draft of this post included with the relevant Ackerly Green Publishing documents Deirdre forwarded to him before leaving for Neithernor. It explains how she came to find C.J. and pass on the stewardship of Ackerly Green, so I will now defer to Deirdre herself for a more thorough account of the events that transpired.

2

The Lost Post of Deirdre Green

Deirdre: October 1, 2017:

I am writing this all down as quickly as I can. I’m leaving for Neithernor and don’t know when I’ll be back. I’d made a promise that I would wait to reveal what I’m about to reveal until all of this was finished. If it was safe to reveal it at all.

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First off, hello! I hope all’s well with you. So yes, I have a secret. One I’ve kept from everyone, even Cole—a secret I promised to keep. This all started in November of 2016, back when I was going to restart Ackerly Green on my own. Before things took a dozen or more turns for the weird and my life changed forever.

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It all started with this:

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I didn’t receive a response when I messaged whoever it was who registered the Ackerly Green social accounts. So . . . I did a little more digging. And by digging I mean I did some borderline unethical things like emailing Instagram and claiming the @AckerlyGreen account was mine, but I couldn’t remember what email address I used. I needed it to reset the password. (I only wanted the address to email them directly, I swear.)

Instagram helpfully responded . . .

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[e-mail]

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The email of the man whose children found the Guide to MAGIQ my father had left in the park. The man whose son recreated the Guide and essentially set us all on this path. The man who claimed he wanted nothing to do with all of this magiq business and asked to be left alone.

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Well, if he wanted to be left alone, why was he claiming Ackerly Green social media accounts?!

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So I emailed him. Over and over and over.

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And it wasn’t until February or so that he finally wrote back:

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I said I didn’t want anything to do with this, yes, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. I can’t explain why, but I’ve been fixated on all of this ever since they came looking for the guide and I created these accounts . . . I don’t know . . . as sort of a lure? To see if anyone else out there felt the way I did when they heard the words Ackerly Green. And the messages started rolling in, from all over the world. People with stories and memories, asking what I knew, what I remembered . . . It was overwhelming, in a way I didn’t understand, until recently. And so I had to ignore them—tried to anyway. If you want the accounts, they’re yours. I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble.

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I felt wretched. I responded, reassuring him, explaining that I understood.

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And we started a correspondence. The only thing he asked was that I not tell anyone about our talks. He said that something in him was scared for everyone to know. He wanted to protect his children, his husband, but there was something else pushing him away from all things Mountaineer and he couldn’t explain why. I learned he was a writer, an indie publisher, and self-described geek . . .

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We became friends. Though, I admit that as the months rolled on and the craziness of my life increased, I corresponded less and less. But it didn’t matter. C.J. had decided to help me manage the business here in New York City while I was traveling the world, running from (and to) knocking doors and mysterious, far-off locations.

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C.J. took on the responsibility of helping me gather up everything I’d need to restart Ackerly Green Publishing when I came home, learning more about the company he’d found himself so drawn to.

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But as you know, my interests in publishing waned as I dug deeper into the mysteries of The Monarch Papers and finally saw Neithernor, the world my father led me to.

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I’d missed dozens of emails from C.J.. In the time I’d been away, he’d become a sort of expert on Ackerly Green. The emails were all about the company, its strange history, the memories others had shared with him . . . And a few secrets C.J. himself had been keeping and was finally willing to share with me. (Editor’s note: you can read about this in C.J.’s Publisher’s Letter.)

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So last night we met for coffee.

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And I put the company in his hands. He refused at first, but we finally agreed that he would run it while I was away, and if I wanted it when I came back, I could have it.

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I’m about to join the forum—about to tell you what I’ve learned about my father, what I’ve decided . . .

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I don’t know when I’m coming back, but I’m sure we’ll cross paths again. But between the Mountaineers and C.J., I’m more sure than ever that Ackerly Green Publishing is in very good hands.

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DGx – Stormslayer

This post, though technically written before her appearance on the Forum, is the last that we have heard from Deirdre Green as of November 2019. The following email was then sent out by Saberlane to everyone who had participated in The Monarch Papers, after taking on the stewardship of Ackerly Green and making a strange discovery.

3

The Ackerly Green Secret Society

Saberlane: December 12, 2017

First, hello, and if you're wondering who I am and why I'm emailing you, at some point, you joined a group called the Mountaineers and you worked to unlock a mysterious novel called The Book of Briars, a series of events that has come to be called The Monarch Papers.

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I can't believe it's been almost two years since all of this started. We've learned magic (or magiq) is real and fading from the world, we've unlocked The Book of Briars. We even found a pocket world called Neithernor, and now we're all wondering what’s going to happen next.

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Well, as we begin to unpack (literally and figuratively) the history of Ackerly Green Publishing, we've begun to find some interesting things. Not least of which are materials from something called the Ackerly Green Secret Society.

The original email featured a photo of a small cardboard box filled with about a hundred hippocampus pins on black paper backings. The pins were approximately an inch and a half tall, and a deep bronze color that appeared gold in the light. The outline of the hippocampus was raised, almost serrated, like the scales of a dragon, which traveled across its pointed ears to its forked tongue, raised forelegs, and down the length of its small body to its curled tail, which looped in front of its trunk at the bottom.

Orvin Wallace (the executor of the Green estate and expert on all things AGP) and I found a box of pins in a storage unit that held documents and materials from the first iteration of Ackerly Green Publishing way back in the 1950s.

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At first, we thought they were just promotional materials, a golden hippocampus, the company's mascot.

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And then I put one on.

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And very strange things started happening:

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I found myself feeling called to wander around the city while I was wearing it—like when Sullivan Green said Central Park talked to him.

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I also started receiving strange notifications on my phone that would disappear before I could capture them or write them down.

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I’m not completely