I shift from under my covers, slowly realizing that I've awoken for the day. I snuggle deeper into my pillow sleepily, surprised by the tickle of my hair against my shoulders. In a thin veneer of confusion, I jolt upright. My mind slows to a stop as I look down at myself, slowly settling on joy as I recall the transformation from the day before. It hadn't been a dream. It was all real. Really real.

Speaking of dreams, there were definitely no half remembered images of mysterious women this time. A little disappointing that I can't remember having any dreams at all, but that's a large majority of nights anyway. 

With the new euphoria lingering in my mind, I look tentatively back at the pillow. I'd really like to go back to sleep because it's the first day of the weekend and I don't have anywhere to be, but after all the excitement of remembering how nice my body feels, I don't feel the least bit tired. I sigh and stretch, letting out a very feminine squeak at the act. I blush a little upon hearing it, feeling just a little self-conscious about the sound. It's just stretching, though, and it felt really nice.

I go through my morning routine, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, and everything else, eventually making my way down the stairs. As I reach the top of the stairs, though, I hear a voice I haven't heard in a long time. I make my way down the steps nervously, wondering what kinda response she will have to my transformation.

As I listen, I realize that Mom and Aunt Fern are having an argument. I hesitate to climb down and interrupt at all, something urges me not to try to calm them down either. Instead, I hang back and strain my ears to hear what's being said.

"So, what are you going to do?" Aunt Fern’s voice is unexpectedly stern, a stark contrast to any other time I've heard her.

"I…" Mom retorts, but she pauses. Her tone going limp as she continues. "I don't know."

"Well, you better figure it out, quick. I don't want Dawn to suffer for this."

"She won't! He's not like that, he's… He'll understand. I'll make sure he understands." They're talking about dad? The only response to that I can hear is a scoff from Aunt Fern. "I just… I thought I wouldn't have to tell him."

"What, not to be a piece of shit? I'm pretty sure I warned you before you got married." Aunt Fern dismisses.

"No! He's not a piece of shit, we've been over this!" Mom sounds at the end of her wits, but her tone deflates. "I meant about us. About our family history. When Elaine tested negative all those years ago, I was hoping we could just be a normal family, Fern." Mom's tone drops enough that I have to climb down the stairs a bit to listen better. With my new vantage point, I can see Aunt Fern rubbing Moms back reassuringly as the two of them sit on the couch.

"I'm sorry, Lia. At this point, I was hoping you'd gotten your wish answered." Aunt Fern sounds much less harsh, the same comforting tones I'm used to hearing from her.

"I don't even know how I'm going to explain this to him. I never told him that I used to be a Witch. That you are a witch." She winces as she mentions it, looking over at Fern.

"No offense, but, yeah, no shit. If you had, maybe he wouldn't call me a, I'm sorry, what was it?" Fern asks drily.

"Fern…" Mom glances away.

"Deranged Liberal uneducated crack-job of a therapist?"

"You know he didn't mean it like that, Fern."

"Oh, and please, tell me what he meant, Lia. I'm absolutely dying to hear you defend the man's words against me for a third time this day." She bristles, scooting away from my mother on the couch 

"He just… Doesn't believe in the same things as us, Fern. It's not his fault he didn't grow up with the same feelings on magic as us."

"You can not believe in magic and still be a decent person! It's not just that he dissed my profession, Lia. He talks down about me as a person." Fern shoots a pointed glare at my mother, who has the forethought not to respond to that. "My opinion about the bastard hasn't changed, but I hope that for your daughters, yours does. You can't earnestly think that he'll react well to learning that his 'son' is now his daughter?"

"... He has to. I told you, I'll make sure he understands. I'm sure once I can talk to him about it, he'll get it."

"I really wish that I could believe you." At that, Fern gets up from the couch and turns around. Our eyes lock and my brain stops as both of our eyes go wide. "Dawn?" She asks, her tone hushed as she looks me over through the stairway railing. I nod, picking myself up and walking the rest of the way to the ground floor. I arrive at the bottom and shuffle my way into the living room nervously.

"Um, hi, Aunt Fern. It's n-nice to see you again." I don't look her in the eyes, but I notice her looking me over closely. Eventually she takes a stride forward and I flinch, expecting to be struck. She wraps me in a warm hug and I let the tension release from my body. Of course Aunt Fern wouldn't hit me, she's much too lovely for that.

"It's wonderful to see you, dear. I'd say that you've grown, but I'm afraid it's quite the opposite." She chuckles at her joke and I join her with my own quiet giggles. "You look amazing, Dawn. As is expected of one of my nieces, of course." I clutch her again for a hug, smile beaming wide. I can feel the power welling in me to release in a burst of positive emotion, but before I can try to reign it under control, I feel it slide out neatly. An unfamiliar sensation compared to any previous event. I pull back from the hug to find Aunt Fern holding a wispy, glowing orb of energy.

"Is that…?"

"Magic, yes." Aunt Fern pulls me away from her gently with her other hand. As I step back, she uses her other hand to fiddle with the orb, her eyes taking on a faint blue glow while I watch her. "Hmm… Interesting." Mom gets up and stands next to her sister, looking at the orb tentatively. "Well, if you had any misconceptions about her possibly not being a witch, I'd get rid of them, Lia. She's one hundred percent a witch." Aunt Fern finishes, her eyes losing their glow, but still holding the orb of magic.

"That's great and all, but I already knew that. What about the weird emotional pulses?" Mom asks, glancing at the orb.

"Magic overflow. She's a late ascender, so her spark is practically bursting with magic. Now that she can use the magic, there's just a lot of excess that's getting expelled. The emotions are just her talent at work."

Mom blinks owlishly before looking down at me. She looks back at her sister, "Her talent is emotions? What, like a Succubus?" I blush at that, taking a step back. I'm being compared to a Succubus?

"Kind of like a Succubus, yes. Not quite the same. Her talent isn't Intimancy if that's what you're asking. No, she's closer to an Empath." Aunt Fern corrects. My thoughts swirl gently as I digest the information. I've heard of Empaths before, they felt emotions really strongly or something? "But there is something else to her magic. It has hints of the Fae in there…" Aunt Fern sounds unsure, nervous even.

"So it was her." Mom says, her lips pursing gently in thought.

"Who?" Aunt Fern looks surprised at my mother’s comment, looking at her curiously.

"Lady Greystorm."

Aunt Fern gasps. Quietly, she asks, "The Moon Throne Court's Greater Spirit?" Mom nods solemnly and the two seem to share a look. I'm mostly just confused, though.

"Who's Lady Greystorm?" I ask. The two older women look at me first, and then each other.

"Can you get Elaine first, please? We have a lot to explain to the two of you." Mom says finally. "She should be awake, Marissa said she was when she left earlier." I nod and head back upstairs to get my sister.

Ela shifts next to me on the couch, trying to get comfortable. Mom and Aunt Fern are situated beside each other, Mom on the same couch as us and Aunt Fern sitting in a recliner facing towards the two of us.

I don't know what she did with it, but Aunt Fern isn't holding the orb of magic anymore. Instead, she's flipping through a worn leather journal. Both me and Ela wait patiently for her to speak up.

"Now, girls, it should be fairly obvious, but what we're going to talk about shouldn't get out to the wider world. There are those that would hunt us down, for various reasons. I'm sorry to say that magic isn't exactly the safest thing to possess. That being said, I'm sure this won't come as a shock to you two at this point, but we're a family of witches." I listen attentively, absorbing as much information as I can. Ela seems similarly engaged beside me as Aunt fern continues. "I'm a witch, your mother was a witch, our other sister was a witch, and your grandmother was a witch. Granted, it was unbelievably lucky that all three of our mother’s children were born with what we'll call 'the spark'. 'The spark' is a trait that you need in order to be a witch, but just having this spark isn't enough for you to be able to use magic. The spark needs to be awakened, usually this is done by a large amount of direct exposure to magic of some kind. Any kind really."

Ela seems to slump back a bit, "oh, so, I don't have the spark, then?"

"Afraid not, dear. Your mother had me test you for one when you were younger." Aunt Fern offers her an apologetic smile. 

Ela nods slowly before pointing at me. "You didn't test her?"

Mom cringes slightly, she's the one that answers this time. "Um, no. It hadn't occurred to me to get Dan- er, Dawn, tested."

"Why wouldn't you get her tested?" Ela asks, staring straight at Mom. Mom looks to her sister for assistance, but Fern just raises her eyebrow.

"Because only girls are born with the Spark. I… I didn't think that she was a girl." Mom hangs her head and I gawk at her.

"But, I'm…" I start, but I'm cut off by Aunt Fern.

"A girl. Or, at least mostly a girl. I don't want to decide anything about your identity for you, but no boy has ever been born with a spark. Many trans girls have, though." Aunt Fern smiles comfortingly and I feel my words catch in my throat. It was one thing to have a body that felt right, but another to be told that my feelings about it were validated. "And before you ask, we don't exactly understand why. It's thought that the spark is tied to some intrinsic connection to the witch mother. Some part of us that’s made in her image.” Aunt Fern shrugs as she continues, “I guess the magic of a witch is feminine.”

I process all this new information, but one word jumps out at me. “Trans girls?”

“Transgender. Born in a body that doesn’t quite fit who they are on the inside.” Aunt Fern explains. “If you have any questions about the topic, we can talk about it later. I am a licensed therapist, despite whatever your father thinks. For now though, let’s focus on the magic side of things, okay?”

“So… I’m a trans… girl?” I ask for confirmation and she nods encouragingly. “And because I came into contact with magic and had a spark, I awakened to some magic powers that I didn’t know I had and that turned me into a girl? Er, that is, gave me a girl’s body, I guess?”

Aunt Fern purses her lips, “Mmmm, not quite.” I tilt my head, but she continues without me having to ask the question. “Awakening to magic doesn’t normally have any physical changes to it, nothing on the scale of this. Specifically, for other trans witches, they might find that their body starts producing the correct hormones more readily, resulting in eventual changes to appearance usually. No full body transformations. No, what changed you is much stronger magic, and that transformation is what led to you awakening. A permanent full body change to this extent should be a very taxing and difficult spell, a sign of immense magical strength. Easy for a group of witches maybe, but should be very difficult and probably near impossible by any single magical being acting alone. Unless that magical being is a greater spirit. Which brings us to your mother and I’s concerns with the situation.”

“Lady Greystorm?” I guess.

“Who?” Ela looks between me and Aunt Fern.

Aunt Fern nods, “Lady Greystorm is a Greater Spirit. Your mother filled me in on what you saw and I think that with all the information together, I have a hard time thinking that anyone else could have done this. The problem is that we don’t know why she did it. Greater Spirits are a type of Fae, the kind of ‘Fairies’ you’d read about in old tales as opposed to anything pixie-like. While none of the Fae are inherently evil or malicious, you definitely can’t always trust them to act in your best interest. Especially not of their own volition.” Me and Ela share a look, digesting the information. I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion, looking down at my lap.

If this Lady Greystorm is really as tricksy as that, why would she help me in this way? Did she not know that this would be helpful to me? More than that, why did she change me at all? Why me specifically? There are too many questions about the situation and not enough answers. I turn my head back up to look at Aunt Fern and Mom. They seem to wait for me and Ela to process what we’ve heard so far.

“Wait, so… Guys can’t use magic at all?” Ela asks, focusing her thoughts on a different question. Probably for the best, considering how little I was getting out of thinking more about Lady Greystorm.

“Well, no, they can. It’s just different. This actually brings us into the second part of our talk, so I’ll just start explaining it all from the top.” Aunt fern takes a couple deep breaths to collect herself before explaining. The two of us sit in rapt attention while Mom gets comfy in her seat, content to let her sister explain. “There are three main categories for magical beings. The first is Conduit or Channeler type beings. This includes Witches, Wizards, Sorcerers, and even, tentatively, Magicians.

“Witches inherit their magic through bloodlines, as you know, but Wizards are different because anyone can be a Wizard. Wizards inherit their powers from another Wizard. The power is, essentially, passed down from Wizard to Wizard, the former Wizard usually taking on a Mentor role for the younger Wizard. Young Wizards tend to be stronger than young Witches because a Wizard’s capacity for magic never changes, whereas a Witch’s power grows with the Witch. This is because a Wizard’s body isn’t made to house magic like a Witch’s is, their magic requires lots of study and effort on their part. Wizards also don’t have any magical specialties because all of their magic is learned. Witches have fascinations, affinities for certain types of magic and spells that they find easier to cast. They’re still able to cast other kinds of magic, it just takes practice, much like a wizard. They may find it easier than a wizard might, though.

“Sorcerers are people who have taken magical power for themselves. They are not always evil, but most often are considering the very few ways there are to take someone’s magic from them. They are not like Wizards, their powers are more volatile and put immense mental stress on them. Their powers don’t replenish themselves as quickly as a Wizard’s or a Witch’s might, but Sorcerers can increase their capacity for magic by taking from more beings. As you can imagine, this can make the mental pushback from the magic worse and worse, until it eventually kills them. Sorcerers are very dangerous, and I hope that you never have to meet one.

“Lastly, are Magicians. They’re not even technically a type of magical being? Magicians are magic using beings, humans, who don’t have any magic inside themselves at all. The methods are different, but all non-magical magic users are referred to as Magicians. Their methods of magic use also come with mental drawbacks to using them, but it’s usually not as severe as the drawbacks a sorcerer would face.” Aunt Fern pauses briefly, presumably to think of if she missed anything. “Questions?” She asks.

“Wait, so, I’m not a witch, but I could still be, like, a magician or something?” Ela asks excitedly.

“You’d have to find something external that would allow you to manipulate magic. An artifact of some kind maybe, but yes. It’s a possibility.” Mom cuts in, shifting in her seat to get a better look at Ela.

“Or you happen to find a wizard willing to pass down his magic.” Aunt Fern adds helpfully.

“Speaking of Wizards, didn’t Mrs. Kane mention Wizards yesterday?” Ela asks. Mom slumps back in her seat at the question.

“Yes, she did. I still have no clue why she knows about Wizards, but I plan on talking to her about it later.” Mom answers. I nod at the thought, hoping that she’ll tell us what comes of that conversation.

“Well, if that’s all the questions you have, I’ll move onto the next category of beings?” Aunt Fern looks between me and Ela, but neither of us speak up. She nods, continuing, “I won’t go in as much detail about the next category, otherwise we’d be here for a while as I try to cover everything. The next category of beings we refer to as ‘Heritage’ types. In essence they tend to be entirely a magical creature of some sort or mostly humans who happen to have the DNA of a magical creature in their bloodline somewhere. The specifics on how Heritage types come into their powers is a bit different depending on the type of creature, but Heritage types are far less prevalent than the amount of relationships which would cause one. I’ve only met a handful of Heritage types in my day. Ones that are human, that is, I’ve met plenty of full Demons, Fae, and Angels.

“The last type of magical being are Preternatural beings. They’re beings that aren’t inherently ‘magical’ or descended from any magical lineage of sorts, but do possess specific magic abilities. Oracles, Empaths, or just humans with Spirit sight. Preternatural beings' powers are so mild that they’ll usually just turn up as mundane to people who can see or sense magic.” Aunt Fern sighs, shifting in her seat. “And that just about concludes the impromptu magic lesson. There will be more you can learn in the future. Specifically, Dawn, today and tomorrow I’d like to do some actual magic training. Help you get some control over those outbursts of yours.”

I blush brightly at the mention of my outbursts, remembering the previous night. Mom looks away at the thought, but Ela nudges my shoulder to get my attention. She winks with a thumbs up and I jolt my head quickly to look at the floor. I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but I try not to think about it too hard. I nod to Aunt Fern, who is looking amusingly at my other two family members, but she doesn’t comment.

One question stands out to me, though. One I’ve been worried about the answer to since I changed. I clear my throat and glance upward, making sure I have Aunt Fern and my Mother’s attention. “So, um, about my transformation… What do I do about school and stuff?” Aunt Fern and Mom exchange a glance.

“We’re not sure yet, hun.” Mom replies, meeting my eyes. I glance away from the stare, sighing gently at the response. That response I was at least expecting.

“Honestly, I’m not sure there’s anything saying you can’t just go to school and try to just, convince them about who you are. I can write you a therapist’s note informing them of your intent to and consent towards transitioning. Now, they’d still have to believe that you’ve actually been taking hormones for a long time and maybe recently had surgery of a kind, but I might be able to teach you a glamour that might make them believe it more readily. If that doesn’t work, you can just re-enroll.” Aunt Fern explains. I nod at the explanation solemnly. Despite how tough school was on me socially, I still wanted to try going.

“And if anyone gives you trouble, let me know and I’ll take care of them.” Ela says, hitting her palm with a loud smack. I giggle at the gesture, trying to imagine Ela fighting anyone. I’m so glad to have Ela’s support. I’m so glad for everyone’s support, I’m certain that I’m extremely lucky to have such an accepting family. Despite my determination to go to school, the idea of facing any of my classmates or teachers fills me with abject fear. I still have two full days before I even have to worry about that, though.

Two full days I get to spend with the Aunt I haven’t seen in years. I beam at my Aunt and she gives me a warm smile back. I get up from my seat on the couch and cross the small distance to Aunt Ferns seat in the recliner, embracing her in a hug. “It’s nice to have you around again, Auntie.” I tell her. Her arms wrap around me.

“Glad to be here, dear. I hope that your mother will allow me to continue to visit in the future.” Aunt Fern’s words are soft, but the sentiment is tense. I don’t see mom's face at those words, but I hope her answer was there, because she doesn’t say anything verbally. I pull back from the hug excitedly.

“So… you said that we were going to do some magic training?” I ask, barely containing my excitement. Mom is the one that answers first, though.

“Before you two get too caught up in that, let’s get some breakfast going. I’m sure my sister would like a small break after that last stint of early morning driving to get here.” Mom says.

Aunt fern nods, “Your mother’s right, I am hungry. We have plenty of time to practice later.” With that, Mom and Aunt Fern get up to get some breakfast started. Somewhat dejectedly, I plop back on the couch next to Ela. Ela looks a little distant. Her eyes are staring forward, her eyebrow scrunched, she looks like she’s deep in thought.

“Ela?” I ask, prodding her side gently. She startles out of her thoughts, her head turning to look at me. “You okay?”

She waves her hand dismissively, shaking her head as she does so. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Just, a lot to process, I guess. I just got introduced to a hidden world of magic and I’m just, like… wow.” She wraps her arm around my shoulder, pulling me in for a side hug. “Guess I’m gonna have to rely on you to introduce me to all the cool magic stuff, though. Would have been nice to be some kind of magical myself.” She shrugs, rubbing my shoulder. I nod, thinking about it myself.

“I mean, you still can be. What if you’re… what was it? Preternatural? Or, you could become a wizard maybe, we just have to find you a teacher!” My response causes me to get excited. Ela just ruffles my hair with a small chuckle. It was neat to have my own powers, but I could always try my hardest to keep an eye out for some way for Ela to get powers of her own. Magic is a completely unknown world to explore, after all.
 

SylkWeaver

Exposition! Answers! Simultaneously a tough and easy chapter to write. I've been a little distracted with a writing project that has the majority of my attention at the moment, so the next update might be a bit slow again, but hopefully not too much so! We're getting to the juicy bits after all c:
 
hmmmmmmm, hope I'm not forgetting anything dklsfjsdfjslkd. Thank you for your readership!