Notes from a Time Traveller by Elke Stevens

The Lady of the Lake Speaks

Her wisdom does not allow imperial-minded restriction,
where fear destroys what it cannot control,
and then calls the ruin protection.

To speak of autism is not a story from the Book of Invasion.
But a plea to the folk, to educate themselves, to loosen their grip on old beliefs that turn naming into exile.
It is, instead, to finally give language to what has always been.

Life, as written in the books, is a mixture of beauty and sorrow.
Some stories are epic, but resistance to novelty cannot be held sacred
when it causes fellow humans to suffer through misunderstanding.

There are those whose intensity of nature is vast:
colour, sound, emotion, carrying the universe through mind and body.
Ecstatic in joy, and at night, haunted by demons on mythical adventures.

For the Lady of the Lake, a “normal” life is bloody hard work.
Some things can only be understood through experience.
After autistic burnout, what came before is lost, not just erased, but no longer inhabitable.

Her Lady did not rise from the water to frighten anyone, nor to demand belief, nor to claim superiority. She rose because the truth mattered.
Because hiding was no longer possible.

The Lady does not need rescuing from the lake; the water is not poisonous because it is named. She only asks that those on the shore do not turn away in fear or discomfort.

There is no need for yarrow to divine the future when truth is spoken and met with care; then understanding becomes possible.
And epistemic injustice softens when we change the stories we believe.

© Elke T.B. Stevens 11/1/2026