[Mkguild] Humble Request (1/1)

[C. Matthias]

And here is another short Metamor Keep story!  I 
would like to thank Hallan for giving it a beta read.  I hope you all enjoy it!

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Metamor Keep: Humble Request
by Charles Matthias

March 24, 708 CR


Four days past the news reached Lake Barnhardt 
that the quarantine had finally been lifted from 
Metamor Keep. The plague that had slain over five 
dozen and nearly killed a hundred more was over 
and defeated and Metamor's enemies had been 
frustrated anew. The celebrations that began were 
shared by all and accompanied by singing, 
dancing, feasting, and general merry-making. Not 
a single soul in all of Metamor was immune to the 
joy that suffused the people at their deliverance 
from an enemy they could not see nor could they 
take up arms against. And they grieved anew for 
the many husbands, wives, sons, and daughters who 
had fallen victim to the hideous malady.

Captain Dallar's squad returned to Metamor that 
evening, and it was the first time that many of 
them had set foot within the walls of Metamor in 
almost five months. And the last time they had 
been there they had been just released from the 
dungeons and assigned to Dallar's squad. For the 
four surviving members of the late Ambassador 
Yonson's personal guard, it was a strange 
homecoming since they did not truly have a home 
at Metamor to return to, and they had all made 
friends with the people of Lake Barnhardt. But 
they were soldiers of Metamor now and so they dutifully returned.

Dallar well knew their misgivings and so 
suggested several places around town that they 
might make their home, and while the celebrations 
continued, they, with Jessica always at their 
side, followed up on the ram's suggestions.

It did not take them long to make a decision. The 
Twin's Hearth had sufficient rooms that they 
could afford on their soldier's pay, one for the 
recently wed Larssen and Maud, another for Van, 
and one more for Weyden. And, once they were wed, 
that last would do for both Weyden and Jessica. 
While she had quarters in the Keep already, she 
knew that her husband-to-be would not like to be 
very far from his dearest friends, and after 
spending the last month with them at Lake 
Barnhardt, she did not care to be parted from them either.

And yet, there were still things in Lake 
Barnhardt that needed her attention. Specifically 
the hyacinth. She dare not bring it to Metamor 
for fear that it would be destroyed by 
overzealous but well-meaning friends – they would 
remember what Yonson's hyacinth had done and 
mistake her own innocent flowering for that 
former evil. And so it remained in the rooftop 
garden where few would ever notice it.

And those that did would never remember it.

Jessica's beak cracked in a faint grin as she 
angled over the lakeside town, circling around 
until she landed on the top of the barracks where 
she had made her home since her return from 
Marzac. There in one corner she had created her 
garden, a small plot of fresh soil watered from 
cisterns of rain and snowmelt. Little green 
plants that would soon flower in a bright array 
ran along the edge, while at the center stood the 
hyacinth. It's tall stalk with lines of purple 
blooms almost bent toward her as she landed, 
sharp talons scratching the stone roof.

“Hello my friend,” Jessica said as she folded her 
wings along her back and hopped toward the garden. “And how are you today?”

Of course the hyacinth did not answer. But she 
liked to talk to it anyway. With an excursion of 
will, she saw the lines of magic illumine the 
hyacinth. The light and bands of energy flowing 
into this one flower, swallowed into the cups 
lining its stem, cast a pale brilliance on the 
garden, the barracks, and the mountain wall 
rising a short distance beyond the city wall. She 
touched those lines of magic, testing them and 
feeling them, noting their strength and fidelity.

One of them she knew quite well. It was the spell 
that kept Maud a giraffe and had done so since 
their wedding nine days ago. The cord of magic 
flowed through her feathers and wing claws, 
coiling almost like a snake as it flowed, waves 
of power passing back and forth from the hyacinth 
as if it were deep breaths going in and out. Her 
golden eyes bored into the strand and noted the 
faint creases and fissures that had begun to 
form. The spell was starting to fray.

Jessica intoned a strengthening spell and felt 
the power flow through her, the hyacinth, and 
into that cord. One of the little plants at the 
edge of the garden trembled and began to wither. 
But the cracks in the stream of magic leading to Larssen's wife closed up.

“Almost two weeks now,” she murmured to herself. 
“Maybe another week. Until you have more 
strength.” She reached out with one wing and 
caressed the violet cups. Their velvety petals 
made her tail feathers tremble in warmth.

Strength will come with practice.

“And that I will do,” she said softly to herself, 
fluttering her wings as they settled against her 
back. The hawk wished to stay and admire her 
craft, but she knew that it were best if she 
return straight to Metamor. Not that Weyden would 
begin to worry – he never worried for her like 
that – but that he would begin to miss her, and 
nothing could touch her heart like his gentle care for her.

Someone comes.

Jessica turned, spreading her wings wide, finally 
hearing the sound of boots climbing up the 
staircase and pressing open the rooftop hatch. A 
familiar red-haired woman dressed in woodland 
garb with gold trim at her shoulders and down the 
front of her tunic to mark her as a captain in 
Lord Barnhardt's militia. Her face, worn by more 
than fifteen years outdoors in cold winters and 
rainy springs, warmed with a bright, dimpled 
smile when her eyes met the hawk's. “Jessica! 
What a pleasant surprise to see you again!”

“Naomi!” Jessica cawed and hopped toward the 
captain of Lord Barnhardt's archers. She wrapped 
her wings about the woman as arms slid through 
her feathers to return the embrace. “It is good 
to see you too. How is your family?”

Naomi's face flushed slightly as she drew back 
from the hawk's black feathered chest. “Difficult 
now. Edgar's change started two days ago and just 
finished. He's taken after his mother.”

Jessica blinked and lowered her wings. Edgar had 
turned thirteen years only a few months back and 
what few times Jessica met him had been anxious 
about what the Curses would do to him. He'd been 
the only surviving child from Naomi's first 
marriage. The archer's wife had died at the 
Battle of Three Gates, but a year later Naomi 
married the blacksmith and by that wolf had two 
daughters of her own, both bright faced and 
adorable children who seemed confused in how they 
were to take after a mother who didn't act like 
the other women they knew. “Oh my! How is he... she... taking the change?”

“Edgar's resigned. For now. He,” Naomi visibly 
winced as she corrected herself, “she doesn't 
want to talk to me yet, but she did cry a good 
bit on Harald's shoulder last night.” She shook 
her head. “It's so difficult for our children. 
They grow up knowing this change is coming, but 
they have no idea what it will do to them. We 
suffered it all at once never knowing that it was 
coming. They have years to ponder and hope.”

“Did she ever say what she wanted to become?” 
Jessica asked. She might not be able to make 
Edgar a boy again, but there were two other 
Curses that could be fixed to him. And with the 
magic of the Curse only now incarnating itself in 
Edgar's flesh, perhaps the spell was weaker and more malleable.

“No,” Naomi replied with a sigh. “I hoped Edgar 
would become a wolf like Harald, but... what's done is done.”

Jessica paused, a slight breeze dragging the 
scent of the hyacinth's flowers through her beak. 
She took half a step back as if pulled toward the 
garden. In a low voice, slow, almost hesitant, 
she said, “I might be able to help. The Curse on 
Edgar is still fresh; it might be weaker and, perhaps even removable.”

Naomi's eyes widened. “Is that possible?” The 
hope in her face quickly fell. “But I could never 
get her hopes up like that only to see them 
dashed. I... I don't want her to feel what I felt.”

“Anger and resentment?”

“For a long time; even after I married Harald.”

“Didn't you love him even then?”

“As a woman loves a man, oh aye. But a part of me 
didn't want to stop being a man either. It wasn't 
until... really until Heidi was born that I 
finally accepted I was a woman now and always 
would be. Oh, Jessica! I wish I were a better 
woman than I am, a better mother even. But... but 
I just never learned from my own mother.”

Jessica wrapped the upset mother in her wings and 
said nothing for several long moments. Naomi 
struggled to regain her composure but it took 
nearly a minute before she pushed away and smiled 
to show that she was all right. “I'm glad you 
came here. I'm.. sorry. I didn't mean to be quite so emotional.”

“But Edgar's just changed and in one of the 
hardest ways possible. I wish you'd let me do something about it.”

“Can you?”

Jessica swallowed and sighed. “I don't know. I've 
never examined anyone who's just been changed by 
the Curses. But I would very much like to try.”

“But I don't want to get his,” Naomi's face pinched in anger, “her hopes up.”

“Invite me to share your supper this evening. 
With your family gathered together, I can study 
Edgar surreptitiously. No one ever need know.”

Her face softened. “Do you not have to return to Metamor?”

“It is a short flight. Weyden will understand when I tell him.”

A faint smile pierced the red-haired woman's 
gloom. “Then I do invite you to supper this night, dear Jessica! Thank you!”

The two women hugged and Naomi turned back toward 
the staircase back down into the barracks. “Oh!” 
Naomi said after taking the first step. “I almost 
forgot to tell you. I came up here when I saw you 
because somebody came here looking for you only 
an hour ago. Berchem of Glen Avery.”

Jessica felt her stomach tighten. “What did he want?”

“He wouldn't say, but he started off for Metamor 
when told that is where you live. He was walking 
so you should pass him on your way back.”

“Then I shall find out what he wants, and be back 
here before the sun sets.” She bent over and 
wrapped Naomi in one wing. “And even if I cannot 
do anything for Edgar, she has a wonderful example in her mother.”

Naomi's smile broadened as she returned the embrace.

----------

It was not difficult to find the skunk along the 
winding southeasterly road toward Metamor. He 
walked alone in the middle of the road, his pace 
smooth and measured, his tail long and curling up 
behind his head, bobbing up and down with each 
step. The road passed through a series of hills, 
cleared between ten and twenty feet on either 
side by the woodcutters last year. Watch towers 
were positioned at the tops of hills just far 
enough apart that they could see each other 
except in the foulest of weather, but even they 
could not see into all of the dells and crannies through which the road passed.

And into one of these Jessica dived just ahead of 
the skunk, close enough that he would see, but 
far enough away that it would take him another 
minute to reach her. The hawk used this time to 
preen her feathers and to steel herself. The last 
time she had seen this man had been just before 
Maud and Larssen's wedding. He'd been rude and 
unpleasant then, and even after the 
Marzac-induced agony in his mind had passed, he'd 
not shown any but the most perfunctory expressions of gratitude.

So why did he want to see her now when he never 
had wanted to see her even when he needed her 
help? She had no answers and could only wait.

Berchem came over the rise and his expression was 
one of mild relief as he spotted her waiting for 
him at the nadir of the road. Jessica waited 
while his quiet steps carried him down the 
hard-packed slope, a small pack bouncing on one 
shoulder, and only a long knife at his side for 
defense. He slowed halfway down and nodded his 
head, “How did you know I was looking for you?”

“Captain Naomi told me. I just saw her in Lake Barnhardt a short time ago.”

“I left the Glen a little too early this morning 
then.” Berchem stopped and shrugged the pack off 
his shoulder and set it on the ground between his 
booted paws. “But I just couldn't wait any more.”

Jessica folded her wings against her back and 
narrowed her golden eyes. “What do you want from me?”

He lowered his snout and sighed. “First, to thank 
you for helping me. If you hadn't done any of 
what you did, I would have died before James 
defeated the evil in him. I didn't say it when I should have and I'm sorry.”

 From the tone of his voice and stooped posture, 
Jessica had the sense that his apology was 
genuine if difficult. It must have weighed on him 
for some time if he felt he had to come all this 
way to apologize given that she had otherwise 
hoped never to see him again. Jessica let some of 
that indignation out. “So? Why bother at all?”

Berchem's hands balled into fists, tail lowered, 
and his muzzle ground together as he schooled 
himself against humiliation. “Because I'm sorry 
about that and many other things I've done to you 
and to others. It didn't even take nearly dying 
to do this, which I'm ashamed to say.” His eyes 
bore into the ground beneath her talons and he 
took a deep breath to still a sudden tremor in 
his flesh. “Baerle confronted me... what she 
said... I didn't like it at all, but... it did make me think.”

Jessica did not move from where she stood 
towering over the almost crouching skunk. “What did she say?”

Berchem put one paw to his head and rested his 
fist over his heart. “Whatever you may think of 
me, I have always wanted one thing: to have a son 
and raise him up to be a good man. That desire 
has borne on my heart even before I attained my 
manhood – even before I lost my family to Nasoj. 
There've been women through the years, but none 
ever stayed with me long until Baerle. We both 
lied to each other, but me more than she. She 
lied about her barrenness, something she admitted 
and apologized for. But my lie was much worse.”

He beat his fist against his chest and snarled 
under his breath. “My lie was that I loved her. I 
did care for her and I did want her to be safe. 
But not for her. For the boy she could give me. I 
loved that idea more than her, and it is what 
drove her and every other woman from me. Now that 
I see it, I... I am so empty and miserable. I 
want... want so badly to do better, but, I just don't know how.”

Jessica felt a slight stirring of compassion for 
the skunk. His voice was jagged and torn and 
there was no question of his sincerity. But she 
would not let it be left just at that. With icy 
precision, she pressed at his pain to see how 
deep it went. “And even if Baerle hadn't been 
barren, what then? She may have never borne you a 
boy? How would you have treated the daughters she or any other woman gave you?”

Berchem gasped and lowered his snout further, 
curling his claws and dragging them against his 
tunic. “I probably would not have been much of a 
father to them. I probably would have... no, I 
would have resented Baerle for it. I know I would 
have. And I would have been terrible to a 
daughter. I was to my little sister. Oh, Artela 
forgive me! She just wanted to be with her big 
brother, but...” And then he did something she 
had never expected; the skunk archer, the haughty 
warrior, fell down on his knees and wept with fierce racking sobs.

Dumbfounded, and the iciness in her heart 
cracking in the face of the skunk's misery, 
Jessica could only watch as he wept. Sorrow upon 
sorrow gushed from his chest in human cries and 
beastly hisses. He beat his fists against the 
ground and lashed his tail back and forth as the 
shame of his sins overwhelmed him. She hoped that 
for his sake no travelers or merchants would pass them by.

But the storm of anguish could not last forever. 
Putting one paw on the pack resting before him, 
Berchem pushed himself back to his feet and took 
several deep breaths. “Did your negligence get your sister killed?”

Berchem's snout twitched but neither smile nor 
moue emerged. “That is one consolation; it was 
not my fault she died. My family was killed 
during Nasoj's first invasion. I almost saved my 
little sister; I carried her down into the caves, 
but her wounds were too great for Burris.”

He said first.

Jessica well remembered that, and did wonder what 
else Berchem had come for. But she too had lost 
her family during Nasoj's first siege of Metamor 
almost nine years ago now. “What was your sister's name?”

“Rhena,” he replied with the first stirrings of a 
smile that touched his dark eyes. “She'd be 
celebrating her sixteenth year this Spring.”

The hawk nodded and spread her wings in an 
inviting fashion. “Well, I forgive you for your 
rudeness to me. I did not expect a happy patient, 
but... I am glad that you have come to thank me. 
But that is not the only reason you've come seeking me.”

“Nae,” Berchem admitted with a heavy sigh. “There 
is one other thing. A boon, only one you can grant.”

Her mind swirled with possibilities, but she 
preferred the skunk state them. “What boon?”

He spread his paws wide and nudged the pack with 
his boot. “I know what I've done wrong to the 
women in my life. But I don't know what I should 
do right. I don't know how I should treat women, 
how they wish to be treated, and what they hope 
for in a man. I don't know these things. I 
thought I did but I was so very wrong! So very wrong.”

Each spell gives strength.

Jessica's beak cracked open in an avian grin. “I 
cannot tell you those things. You have to learn them on your own.”

“I know,” Berchem nodded. He glanced from side to 
side, anxious. “I do not smell anyone about... 
but I do not wish to be overheard.”

Jessica cawed and lifted one wing, twiddling her 
wingclaws in the air to craft the requisite 
spell. A simple casting that no mage would be 
fooled by, but errant travelers or eaves-droppers 
would not so easily pierce that veil. “Even if 
they are nearby, they will not be able to hear us any more.”

“Good,” Berchem fidgeted with his collar and 
tunic, took a deep breath and straightened his 
arms out along his sides. “You told me that you 
could keep me a woman for weeks, even months. I... I...”

“I?” Jessica asked, prompting him even as her 
heart beat with the hope of irony.

“I wish you to do that!” Berchem gasped as the 
words tumbled from his throat. “Not for months, 
but for a few weeks. Make me into a woman so I 
can learn how a woman feels and what she needs. 
I... I haven't been able to get the idea out of 
my head since it first came to me after I finally 
realized what Baerle said about me was true. I 
want... I need to be a woman, Jessica. When I 
groom myself I think about how women must do so. 
When I sleep at night I wonder what dreams women 
have. When I see the women of the Glen together I 
yearn to know what they whisper to each other, 
and I yearn to whisper with them! It's gnawing at 
me like a beaver a tree, but it's taken me this 
long to muster the courage to even ask.”

“Even being a woman for a few weeks won't teach you all that you want to know.”

“I know,” Berchem admitted with a swift nod. “But 
anything I can learn will help.”

Jessica folded her wings behind her back again. 
“The people of Glen Avery will not treat you as a 
woman even if I make you one.”

“I won't be going back until you make me a man 
again.” The skunk grunted and flexed his fingers 
a bit. “It's so odd saying that.” He lifted his 
eyes and met the hawk's predatory gaze. “I have 
asked Lord Avery for leave to see to personal 
matters down south. He has given me leave of my 
duties for a month, and if I need more time I am 
to write. He did not ask what I was going to do, 
and I do not wish him, nor any other in my home 
to know. I plan on traveling through the lands 
south of the Keep that lie beneath the Curse. I 
will stay for a few days in each town before 
moving on. I even have two pairs of woman's 
traveling clothes in my pack that should fit 
me... after you change me at least.”

There was no question in Jessica's mind that she 
would do as the skunk asked, though she could 
think of at least five different ways the skunk's 
plans might go awry, including the possibility 
that as a woman she might end up bearing a son in 
a way Berchem never intended, be it from too much 
drink or being ravaged by bandits along the road. 
But as she studied the skunk, a surprising 
thought came to her, one that blossomed as 
quickly a a desert flower after a rain.

How much money does he have?

Jessica glanced at the small money pouch affixed 
to his belt and pointed at it with one wing. “How 
much were you going to pay me for these services?”

Berchem looked down and loosed the pouch from his 
belt. “How much do you ask for your spells?”

“How much do you have?”

The skunk's jowls bristled and his paws tensed 
around the drawstring. “I need this to pay my way 
these next few weeks. Living on the road and in taverns is not cheap.”

“Nae, it isn't,” Jessica agreed. “But you will 
learn nothing if you spend your time in a room 
which you pay for out of your pocket. And if 
disreputable men see you have a lot of coin, they 
are going to rob you and perhaps worse. If you 
have little, you'll need to work for your room 
and your meals, but greedy, contemptuous men are far less likely to hurt you.”

Berchem scowled. “I can defend myself.”

“You will be weaker as a woman. You want to know 
how they feel? Then vulnerability is part of it. 
Even with all my magic I feel it too. How much do 
you have? How much do you want to know what it is 
like to be a woman? How much do you want to one 
day have that family? How much do you wish to be 
the man for your family that you never were for Rhena?”

Berchem bristled even more, his tail flicking 
erratically from side to side. But the anger in 
him quickly wilted as those questions struck him 
to the quick. He opened the pouch and poured the 
contents into his palm. The coins made a 
satisfying clink as they piled atop his calluses. 
He rifled one claw through them, and then sighed. 
“Two gold suns, six silver moons and about twenty 
bronze crescents. This is all the money I have.”

She bobbed her beak toward the coins. “Keep two 
silvers to make your first day easier, and I will 
take the rest. I will need the pouch.”

With a long sigh, Berchem took two silver moons 
from the pile in his paw, and then carefully 
poured the rest back into the money pouch. He 
pulled the drawstring tight and tossed it on the 
ground next to her talons. “There. Your money. 
What would you like me to do now?”

Jessica put one talon over the pouch to guard it, 
but made no other moves toward the 
soon-to-be-female skunk. “You wish to be a woman. 
When I changed you before you were very buxom. 
How much like that do you wish to be again?”

“Not at all,” Berchem replied with a quick shake 
of his head. “I want to be plain and 
unremarkable. Perhaps a little fetching, but... I 
don't want it to look like I had once been a man. 
And... a little closer to Rhena's age if you can.”

“Younger too?” Jessica felt her heart warming to 
the idea. “That I can manage. Show me the 
garments you have. I'll see if I can match the size.”

Berchem nodded as he bent over his pack. After 
undoing the drawstrings he pulled out a rolled up 
bundle of green and brown. He held it up to his 
chest and let the rest unroll down to just below 
his knees. It was a simple linen kirtle with 
brown skirt, and a patchwork of green and brown 
top and sleeves to suggest a two-piece gown 
instead of an unlaced pullover. From the size she 
judged that it would fit best were he a hand 
shorter. “I also have an apron dress that can 
cover this, and some simple undergarments. Walter 
told me they would match this; I'm glad she didn't ask who they were for.”

Jessica nodded and waved at him with one wing, 
even as her tail feathers twitched in excitement. 
“You may not be able to wear those boots when the spell is complete.”

He glanced at the leather boots that laced up to 
his shins. “I've gone barefoot before, but... I'll make do.”

“Are you ready then?”

Berchem nodded slowly and stood up, holding the 
kirtle tightly in his paws. “No one is going to see either?”

“Can you hear anyone?”

The skunk listened for a moment. The air was full 
of birds singing sweet songs but nothing more. He 
shook his head and sighed. “Nae. I'm ready then.”

Jessica's talons drew tighter over the pouch of 
money as she opened her eyes to the magical 
streams. It was becoming easier to craft spells 
to change her fellow Keepers, although it was 
still a challenge to balance the Curses 
correctly, especially when her subject had such 
specific requests. Maud had been easy to 
accommodate as she just wished to be a giraffe; 
rather Larssen wished her to be a giraffe and 
Maud was content to satisfy her husband. This 
time Jessica had to make sure that she made use 
of both the gender changing curse and the age 
reducing curse. More of one than the other, but 
not so much that the skunk had any control over 
either like a true victim would.

Her wing claws traced out the complicated weave 
into the shimmering blue nimbus before her, 
working as diligently and carefully as any sailor 
with his knots. The black mass that was the 
Curse, shimmered and bent beneath her 
ministrations, powered by the many cords of magic 
flowing past, as well as the few that she knew 
flowed right back to the hyacinth. These 
invigorated her spell, and even though they 
contained no image of what the change would do to 
Berchem, she could see in them feminine contours 
as if their essence, svelte and fine, danced 
through the veins of energy. Jessica tweaked that 
silhouette to something less exotic and a little 
younger, noting with satisfaction how, with only 
a little effort it yielded to her desires.

And through the swirling eddies of magic she 
could see the skunk waiting anxiously. Jessica 
wondered if he feared he might change his mind, 
or feared that he might like the change too much.

Would it matter?

Jessica spread her wings wide and anchored the 
spell to Berchem, wrapping it around him until it 
pulled taut against his essence. A low moan 
escaped his throat as his body was pressed in 
from all sides, the magic grasping him 
immediately and reshaping his flesh. The fur on 
the back of his head became flush and long, his 
shoulders and arms slender, his chest swelled 
with a young woman's breasts, and his hips bowed 
outward as his waist drew in. These and many 
other subtle changes washed through the skunk, 
until something much different stood there in now baggy tunic and breeches.

Her wings settled behind her back slowly as she 
watched Berchem stare at her arms and chest in 
wonder. Her hands, once callused from years of 
drawing a bow, were now smooth with thin, 
delicate fingers and claws. No longer did 
Berchem's chest and arms appear hard and taut; 
now they were soft, and smooth even through the 
fur and the male attire. Her face and snout were 
more angular, and less chiseled or square. Even 
her tail seemed to have a slightly different sway 
as it shifted back and forth as Berchem lifted 
one leg than the other, hips tilting away instead of toward each leg.

And in a softer, higher pitched voice, she 
murmured with awe and relief, “I'm... I'm a 
woman.” she turned her paws one over the other, 
reached up and stroked across her snout and jowls. “Do I look all right?”

“You look like a woman,” Jessica replied, feeling 
a warmth suffuse her. Suddenly, she didn't feel 
any animosity toward Berchem anymore. It was as 
if it had been washed away along with her 
masculinity. “You are a young, pretty woman now. As you wanted to be.”

Berchem lowered her arms to the kirtle folded 
atop her pack, soft blue eyes blinking in wonder 
as she knelt down, her now ill-fitting breeches 
bunching around her waist. “I... I should change. 
But... I want to see myself first.” She rifled 
through her pack and produced after a few seconds 
a small looking glass no wider than her first. 
This she held out, marveling at what she saw in 
the glass, turning her snout this way and that, 
thin lips stretching in a pleased but shy smile. 
In a chocking voice full she said, “I am... 
young... and pretty. I... I don't...” she lifted 
her gaze to Jessica and clasped the looking glass 
to her chest. “Thank you, Jessica. I don't know 
what will happen to me on the road, but... I'll find out.”

Jessica nodded and settled her wings behind her 
once again. “You may find out more than you 
expected, Berchem. Now hurry and change before somebody comes along.”

The newly-female skunk shook her head, as she 
began to undo the lacing on her tunic and 
breeches. “I think I will go by Rhena for now. It 
feels right. Like my little sister has one more 
chance to be with her big brother.” She turned 
around as she pulled the tunic over her head, 
hiding her nakedness from the hawk out of many 
years of habit. Jessica kept watch on the road 
while Rhena stripped down to her fur, and then 
wriggled into a set of linen undergarments of the 
sort that she remembered wearing in her youth 
before the curses had covered her in feathers and 
made such garments worse than useless.

Jessica chuckled to herself as Rhena briefly 
struggled with her breasts, but then she was 
shimmying into the kirtle, and a moment later was 
fully clad. The brown kirtle enclosed her tail so 
that only the tip poked out from beneath the 
hemline of the skirt. Rhena spread her paws over 
the skirt, noting the way the fabric turned as 
she turned; her whiskers twitched in mirth as she 
took a few tentative barepawed steps, her first as a woman.

“That looks very comfortable,” Jessica said warmly. “What of your boots?”

“A little loose,” Rhena admitted as she cast a 
glance at the empty boots standing alone by her 
pack. “I guess I should pack them up for now. 
I'll need them when you change me back.” She 
crouched over her pack and carefully folded her 
old tunic and breeches. These, along with her old 
boots she stuffed into the bottom of the pack, 
rearranging the contents until she was satisfied. 
After pulling all of the drawstrings tight, she 
slung it over both shoulders, stood up, and smiled to Jessica. “How do I look?”

“A young woman who needs to be very careful,” 
Jessica said with a little worry in her voice. 
She reached out and wrapped the skunk in her 
wings. “You be careful, Rhena! You aren't going 
to be able to defend yourself the way you used to.”

Rhena flinched at the hug, but softened after a 
moment to return it though it was hesitant and 
awkward. “I will be careful,” she assured the 
hawk. “When I'm ready to change back, how do I meet you?”

“You may find me in Metamor if you wish, or you 
may send a courier with a message. Whatever seems 
best to you.” Jessica let the uncertain skunk go 
and then fixed her with a firm stare. “I may need 
to check on you in a week or two to make sure 
that the spell is in good shape. We don't want it 
falling apart on you accidentally.”

“Oh no, of course not! How will you find me?”

“I can follow my spells. And before you ask, if 
you run into any other mages, they won't be able 
to tell that you are under two, nearly three of 
the Keep's curses. But, whatever you choose to 
tell people of yourself, do not change it here or 
there. You will only get yourself in trouble 
trying to remember two or three stories.”

Rhena nodded and took a deep breath. “Thank you, 
Jessica. I hope one day I can repay the rest of the debt I owe you.”

“One day you might,” Jessica replied, then patted 
the skunk on the shoulder and spread her wings. 
“May the gods watch over you, Rhena.”

“And you too, Jessica!”

The hawk leaped into the air and beat her wings 
until she was circling high above the trees. 
Below her the female skunk continued down the 
road, skirt twisting back and forth with every 
step. Jessica offered a prayer for her safety, 
and then, with the money pouch firmly clutched in 
her talons, headed back to Metamor.

----------

Jessica left the money in her old apartment at 
the Keep before meeting Weyden and her friends 
for a little recreation about the newly 
boisterous Keeptowne. They enjoyed a show from 
the Magyars, before reporting to the practice 
fields for training. Maud was still a little 
awkward as a giraffe and all of them helped her 
adjust to swinging a much bigger sword, and to 
learning how to deal with opponents much smaller 
than she. Jessica used the opportunity to check 
the transformation spell she'd affixed to 
Larssen's wife, but found that it was in much the 
same shape as the conduits racing back to the 
hyacinth. A few days more and it would probably 
fall apart and need to be recast.

After they finished their training, Jessica took 
leave of them once again and flew back to Lake 
Barnhardt. It only took about an hour and a half 
to make the flight, and so the sun was just 
setting as she reached the small city by the 
lake. Naomi was waiting for her on the roof of a 
small cluster of buildings near the castle 
abutting the lake. She waved to the hawk, and 
when Jessica landed, they embraced quickly.

“How is Edgar?”

Naomi's smile faded. “She tried to play with her 
sisters some today. Harald's out now gathering 
them in. Come down and I'll find you a perch for the table.”

Naomi's home was modest with only a few rooms; 
those in back for sleeping, while those in front 
for cooking, eating, and play. Naomi had bought a 
stew that afternoon and it was heating over a 
cast iron stove, spreading a meaty and potato 
flavor throughout the room. Jessica waited by the 
table, feeling a heady inebriation at being so 
close to the hyacinth twice in one day.

The wolfish blacksmith returned with their three 
children in tow only a few minutes later. 
Jessica's sharp eyes found Edgar, still dressed 
in boyish clothes despite the obvious feminine 
qualities she now possessed. But, to the hawk's 
dismay, Edgar spied her just as quickly, and 
before Naomi could even introduce her, the 
freshly Cursed girl stomped one foot and shook 
her head, glaring at her mother with a hideously 
pained expression. “She's the one who made that 
Keeper a giraffe. Did you bring her to make me a boy again, Mother?”

Naomi almost dropped the bowls she'd been 
carrying. “Oh, Edgar, no, I...” She looked at her 
husband, face suddenly full of pain.

“Heidi, Tessa, go to your room and clean up,” 
Harald said to the two younger girls. They almost 
skipped past, eager for any excuse to avoid 
whatever had been brewing. He then turned, tail 
wagging slightly, ears erect, on Edgar and shook 
his head. “Jessica isn't here to fix you. You don't need fixing.”

“I'm here because the Curse has just taken hold 
of you,” Jessica offered in a quiet voice that 
she hoped would be soothing to the young girl. 
“If the Curse's hold on you is not strong yet, 
then maybe I can do something to help people your 
age become what they want to be instead of 
whatever the curse decides. I just want to look at you and try a few things...”

“No!” Edgar snapped, her voice rising in pitch an 
octave. “I'm a girl now and that's that! Just like my mother!”

“Then might I look for the sake of others?”

Harald put a heavy paw on his daughter's shoulder 
to steady her, but she pushed it off. “No! Just leave me alone!”

This is for the sake of the many you can help. It 
would be right to make her listen.

Jessica always trusted her instincts, and with 
the family ready to tear itself apart, there 
really was no other choice but to slap her wings 
together before her, a nimbus of violet light 
flashing through the room and coating everyone 
present. She could feel the hyacinth twisting in 
its rooftop garden, one of the cups draining of 
its power in that sudden evocation.

Naomi, Harald, and Edgar all blinked for several 
seconds, their expressions gone slack and 
uncomprehending. The forgetfulness would not last 
long, but it gave Jessica a few minutes to do 
what she needed. She poked and prodded at the 
black mass of the Curse that had reshaped Edgar 
into a girl. The network of intersecting lines 
between that mass and her essence were already a 
complicated labyrinth that despite its newness 
and immaturity still seemed impossible to follow. 
The hawk pulled at each one she came across, but 
none of them would yield to her strength. Even 
when she drew on the hyacinth's many bands, she 
could only pry a few of the tendrils of the Curse loose.

Edgar remained, no matter what Jessica did, 
stubbornly female. After her midday triumph with 
Rhena, to be so completely balked with this child 
infuriated the hawk. She clawed and tore at the 
spell, beating her wings against it, and pecking 
it with her hooked beak like a crazed and starved 
beast. Resolute it remained, mocking her with its 
thousands of filaments threading through Edgar's flesh and spirit.

They are waking.

Jessica could see her hosts begin to blink and 
shake their heads as the forgetfulness wore off. 
She withdrew her focus from Edgar and returned to 
her perch beside the table, speaking a few soft 
words to still any anger in their hearts. “I have 
not come to do anything to you, Edgar. Unless you 
ask it of me. I am here as a friend, nothing 
more. I know how much you must hurt. But you 
don't have to hurt now. I'm sorry I couldn't do 
more. You... you will be a strong woman like your 
mother who loves you very much.”

She closed her beak and waited a few more seconds 
before Naomi set the bowls out and sighed with a 
faint dismay. “Edgar, if that is all, please get 
your sisters so we can share this meal together.”

The young girl nodded, offering her mother and 
father an odd look. “You don't have to call me 
Edgar any more, Mother. I'm more of a... Edwina 
now. It's okay. Really. I'll be fine. Just like you.”

Naomi's face blossomed with tears as she wrapped 
her arms around her newest daughter. Harald 
grimaced and looked on with an uncomfortable 
expression. For several seconds mother and 
daughter held each other tight, both of them 
crying into each others arms. Jessica felt great comfort in seeing it.

Edwina pushed back first, gazing up into her 
mother's face with a slight tremor in her lips, 
but growing confidence in her blue eyes. “I love 
you, mother. Could we continue archery practice tomorrow?”

“Aye, Ed... Edwina, we can. I love you too. Now go fetch your sisters.”

Edwina ran off into the closed room and was 
quickly met by a pair of high pitched voices 
shouting her new name. Harald took the serving 
spoon from Naomi's weak grasp and began quietly 
parceling out the stew. Naomi looked to Jessica 
and sighed, “I guess we don't need you here after 
all, Jessica. You are welcome to stay for dinner.”

“I'd love to,” Jessica replied with a pleased 
squawk. “You have such a lovely family, Naomi. 
Thank you for inviting me to spend a little time 
with you. I only hope that Weyden and I can have such a lovely family one day.”

“You will,” Naomi replied with a confident sigh. “You will.”

And she would, with the help of the hyacinth, 
unlock the secrets of the Curse too. Jessica 
cracked her beak in a smile as she settled her 
wings behind her back. “I know I will.”

----------

May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love,

Charles Matthias


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