Her mother spent a few days out there, in the cold human world. Everything was dark compared to where the fae lived, not in terms of light levels but in the behaviour of the people. Many humans were evil, in the simplest sense. She had visited before and found only hatred in the hearts of humans.
She lurked around the streets during the darkest hours of the night to avoid being seen. The streetlights were old and rusted, with a sprinkle of white dust covering them. The glow from them was equally dull, casting very little light. She left no footprints on the ground as she walked.
"No. I don't think her room should be painted green! It should be pink like everyone else's daughters." She heard loud talking coming from inside a nearby luxury apartment building. It was tall yet oddly short for an apartment building and seemed to house only one family.
Quickly and swiftly, she made her way around the house in a circle, checking for any locked doors, open windows, and small spaces she could slip into, all the while holding Elena. She tugged open a window, hopping in fluidly. She closed the window to make it seem as if nothing had ever happened.
She lurked around the house quietly, setting Elena down on the nearest surface that would support her. She was set down on a bookshelf that wasn't full, one that had a mere one shelf completely free. Every other shelf on this particular bookshelf was stacked full with books, almost overflowing.
Her mother searched through the books, but they were all boring. They were books about yachts, how-to guides for dummies, and everything except for children's books. They were clearly planning for a child they already had but didn't have any children's books? What horrible parents.
She slipped away from her daughter as she went to check out other rooms. She skimmed past the living room books scattered about on chairs, sofas, and couches. She even went to the kitchen and went through all the books found there. Not very many and, of course, they were also of no use to her.
Finally, she found the room where their child was. She immediately forgot about Elena and picked up this human baby. She was blonde, had blue eyes, and was the definition of the perfect fae child, though without the magic and physical traits specific to fae, such as pointed ears.
With quick thinking, Elena's mother switched her own biological child with this blonde baby from the human world. Elena was now left with the humans, and her mother would have to pretend like her daughter had gone missing and, in her place, she found this one.
It was at this fateful moment that Elena's destiny changed forever. She would never go back to the fae world and never see her mother again. As she grew older, she didn’t remember her biological mother but always felt different from the humans, always an outcast despite her family treating her just like anyone else from the Alva's. Her powers fit in with theirs; she was a seer, and they had a history of such in their bloodline. Elena knows she has more potential with her magic but sticks firmly to her seer abilities to keep the chaos to a minimum.