“Well done, Anthony,” said Gerald into the silence that followed my revelation. “You spent five months outing the trans girl.”

Anthony’s mouth was working up and down, but no words came out. He, like most of the others, was looking back and forth from my face to the painting. Aubrey was looking only at me, her eyes red and watery. I could not see Darren. He was behind me, and I did not have the courage to turn around.

My clothes had not changed with me, except to grow in size to fit. I felt foolish in a little black dress that was now broad and flat chested, in heeled shoes that fit my feet like boats. I did not move, though. Where would I go? I had no script to tell me what was the appropriate behavior in this situation.

“Let’s at least get him something else to wear,” said Madge finally, clapping her hands together briskly. “He can’t be comfortable in that dress.”

“It’s not her clothes that doesn’t fit, it’s her body,” Gerald cut in, and he approached me, put an arm over my shoulder, drew me towards the couch. “Put the glamour back on, Cinnamon Bun,” he advised me. “I can tell it makes you more comfortable.”

I don’t know that I had intended to do so, but I was so relieved at having someone tell me what to do that I complied. The change swirled out and around, and I was back to myself again. I gathered up the strength to look around the room, and I could see that everyone there could still see my old male body like the afterimage of a bright flash of light.

“From the first, I knew it was a glamour,” Anthony was saying, but to no one in particular. “Remember, Gerald, I said that first night when we went to bed that it was.”

“No one is disputing that,” Madge cut it. “But there is no law saying that you’re not allowed to wear a glamour. What do you think these earrings are? I went gray years ago. My question,” and now she turned to me, “is why.”

“The girl said I had to,” I said. The words flowed out in a torrent. “She came into my show, the only person that came, and said that she had a place at Belmont House, but that I would have to go in disguise, and she gave me this necklace.”

“And you just put it on and showed up at our door?” Madge inquired.

“Not right away!” I shot back, a little fire showing through the numbness. “But it was everything I had ever wanted, and I thought, maybe for just a week or two, that it was a small price to pay, but then I got here and everything was perfect, and I didn’t want to leave, and back home was terrible, and....” I think I kept talking, but I doubt anyone could understand through my sobs. An arm draped around me — Aubrey was there, letting me cry down onto her shoulder.

“You don’t understand,” she told them. “You don’t know how much she agonized over this.”

“She told you?” Darren asked. It was the first words he had spoken since my revelation, and the hurt in his tone extracted another flood of tears.

“I figured it out!” Aubrey shot back. “When she went home to get her stuff, she was really leaving for good.” Nicholas nodded at this. “But she was miserable. I... I convinced her to come back.”

“What I want to know,” Madge said, “is why Caroline gave you that necklace.”

“It wasn’t Caroline,” I said, my voice tight. “You said she was older. This was a younger woman. Short hair and glasses. Flowy skirt, lots of jewelry.”

“Lots of jewelry, huh?” asked Gerald wryly. “And tell me, who gave you the magical necklace of illusion again?”

I felt very foolish. Of course, anyone who can make a magic necklace could easily have been wearing one herself.

Madge cleared her throat. “There is one option that no one seems to have considered. Anthony, in all of your travels in search of truth, did you ever think to ask Caroline.”

“I couldn’t find her,” he replied sullenly.

“And you didn’t ask me?” Madge prompted. “The one person you know who specializes in location magic?”

“So you know about magic!” Aubrey exclaimed.

“Yes, yes,” Madge said. “You do too, and not just from that glamour. You’ve both performed some recently. Cayley did some very nice change magic today, and you performed a divining earlier this week. You were supposed,” and she stared daggers at Anthony, “to have a chance to discover more on your own. But that can’t be helped. Nicholas, could you fetch my sketch pad and pencil?”

The older man bounded up and returned only seconds later with a large format sketch pad. Everyone was silent as Madge began to dart the pencil around the page. A minute later, she grumbled, cleared her throat, and turned to the next page. She did this twice more, before putting the pad down on the table with more force that was strictly necessary. “I can’t find her either. But there are other methods. Josephine, could you provide an avatar?”

The French woman took longer to return, and when she did, it was pushing a platform holding one of her large, complicated sculptures, made from all sorts of electronic bits and plastic pieces. The figure was a lioness, sitting up proudly.

“Gerald, could you help her make the connection?” Madge asked. “I know you don’t need a physical location for that.” Gerald got up from his place next to me, and moving to the statue, placed one hand on its head, and his other in Josephine’s. They closed their eyes, and a blue pulse seemed to travel along their linked bodies, embedding itself deep in the metal and plastic lion.

It began to move and shift. Little bits of metal rearranged, flipping as if on hinges. The lioness reared back on its hind legs. Paws extended into hands, knees flipped around, and long strands of wire burst from a head that was now human-shaped. A metal woman now stood on the platform, and with mechanical clicks, she stepped lightly off onto the floor.

“Well now,” it said, flashing teeth in silver, gold, and bronze. “Isn’t this a pleasant little gathering.”

“Hello, Caroline,” said Madge, guardedly. “We have a few questions for you.”

Gears whirled, tiny bits of plastic slipped against each other, and the avatar of Caroline spread out its arms. “You have but to ask, my dear.”

“Tell us, if you’d be so kind. Who did you select as your successor?”

“Her, of course.” Caroline extended a long mechanical finger to point at me.

“And did you give her that necklace?”

“Naturally.”

“And tell her to use it to disguise herself?”

It was difficult to read expressions, but I think the metal face dimpled. “I believe I phrased it that way.”

“For heaven’s sake, Caroline, why?” Madge demanded.

“I used your spell to locate a replacement, you know,” Caroline said with a slightly accusing tone. “I gave it the age I wanted, the skill set, the magical potential, and the gender. Female, of course, to keep the numbers balanced. I followed it, and to my surprise it led me to a man. He was clearly the one I wanted, you know. He fit all the criteria, but one. And then I looked closer.”

With a clink and a clunk, the avatar stepped forward, stepped again, until it was standing directly in front of me. Yet she continued to speak to the group. “You know, Madge, that my speciality was with illusion. And not just glamours. I can sense when people are lying to themselves. This one,” and she jabbed a silver finger at me again, “was so wrapped in layers of lies that I knew she would never break out on her own. So I gave her the chance to figure things out on her own. A means of learning who she really was, along with incentive to stick with it long enough to come to the realization in her own time.”

“But you gave her a lie,” Madge said. “Two lies don’t make a truth, Caroline.”

“They don’t not make a truth,” she retorted.

“Did you explain what a glamour is, at least?” Madge asked. “Did you tell her that it’s only an illusion? That it hasn’t changed anything about her? Did you tell her that everything she would come to believe about herself would be based on your lie?”

I didn’t hear what Caroline said in return. Instead, I looked down at my body. And it was my body, wasn’t it? Not real. No, it couldn’t be. It felt entirely real. I got periods, with cramps and everything. I bought clothes in my size, and they fit. It was real. It was all real!

Except, suddenly certain things that had been difficult to explain were resolved. All of my old male clothes changed to female along with me, but everything else I bought stayed the same. No, it got bigger. What if it had always been that size?

My own possessions seemed to change, but nothing at my work had altered. No one’s memory was changed. If I changed in the car, the seat shifted automatically. Why would it do that, just because I put on a necklace? It wouldn’t because it hadn’t. My height had not changed, only my perception and that of the people around me. A glamour.

I wasn’t actually a woman at all.

I sidestepped the metal monstrosity, shook off Aubrey’s restraining hand, and fled upstairs to the safety of my rooms.