“Fuck!” Terra curses while coughing, “It’s so dusty up here! And all these cobwebs and shit. When was the last time you cleaned up here?!”

“Umm, probably never?” Blake admits sweeping away more of the dirt and junk with a broom. “I don’t think anyone has really been up here since we first moved in.”

“Hopefully the chest you’re talking about is still up here. And in good condition,” I mutter, covering most of my face with the collar of my shirt and looking around in the dim lighting of the attic for the treasure we’re searching for. The attic isn’t really what I would consider old, but it’s definitely seen better days. The low beams are prickled with exposed nails and dust permeates the air like a small fog. Hopefully we don’t actually run into any of the architects of the cobwebs lying around here as well. 

Most of what I can see are old cardboard boxes. Some are labeled things like “Blake’s old baby clothes,” “Liam’s old college stuff,” and “Sandra’s Furby collection (DO NOT OPEN)”. That last one confuses me and for a moment I almost curiously reach over and open the sealed box, but then I hear Blake gasp happily from the other side of the attic. “I found it!” she yells, and I go over to where she is as quickly as I can.

Blake is kneeling on the floor and in front of her is an old, ornate chest. You know, one of those really old ones with a special padlock on the front and everything. Despite being old, and most of the wood paint having faded with time, I can still see traces of the old colors that used to ordain it. Slight hints of pink, blue… and white?

“Is it just me, or is this chest painted with trans pride colors?” Terra asks.

“That doesn’t make any sense. This chest looks way too old for that to be the case,” I comment, shaking my head. “It’s gotta be a coincidence at best.”

Blake just laughs nervously. “Yeah, I’m sure it’s probably just a coincidence.” Then she frowns. “Unfortunately, I don’t know how to open this. I don’t have a key or anything and this looks locked pretty tight.”

“Do your parents have the key?” I ask as I grab onto the lock, giving it a few good pulls. But it holds fast and tight, refusing to budge.

Blake shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so. If they did they would have given it to me when we mentioned wanting to find this earlier, wouldn’t they? Instead Mom just told me where it is.” She shoos away my hand and grabs onto the lock herself. “Here, let me give it a try.” She pulls on the lock and it instantly flies open. Blake practically falls onto her back. “Jeez, I thought that was gonna be way harder considering how strained you looked trying!”

“I-I loosened it up for you is all!” I stammer back, crossing my arms. 

Terra smirks. “Or maybe it’s a magic lock that only opens for members of Blake’s family.”

“Then why wouldn’t it open for Angel?” Blake replies as she sits herself back up. 

My cheeks instantly burn red. “Wh-wh-what do you mean?!”

“Well,” Blake blushes, playing with her hair, “I mean we’re like, dating and all. And I read this thing on the Internet the other day about found family, and well. I still love my parents and they’re family, obviously, but I wouldn’t mind you being a part of my family too…”

“I, um, well, I--!” Words fail to come to mind with exactly what I should even be saying here. I know it’s not quite the same thing, but it feels an awful lot like Blake proposing to me. Like some sort of next step in our relationship. I wasn’t prepared for something like this today!

“It’s okay, you don’t have to agree or anything. I mean, it’s just how I think of things anyway,” Blake adds. 

“No, no, it’s okay!” I blurt out. “I’d love to be a part of your family!”

Blake’s face lights up into a huge grin. “Aw yay! Thank you, babe!” She leans over onto me and kisses me lovingly, which I reciprocate wholeheartedly. 

“Um, Blake?” Terra says after a few seconds of us making out, her voice wavering a little. “I think, uh… the lock?” 

We both stop kissing and look where Terra is pointing, only to gasp at the sight. The lock is glowing! It cycles through a rainbow of colors over the course of a minute as we watch. Finally it ends on a soft white, and from there the light dims down and fades away. 

Terra blinks rapidly in disbelief, then shakes her head. “What the hell was that? Was that actual magic?”

“Yeah, I think it was,” Blake replies. “Or well, at least I don’t think locks normally start glowing randomly like that.”

“What do you think it means?” I hesitantly ask.

“I guess, considering it’s after you agreed to be a part of my family… Maybe it means you can open the lock now?”

Terra frowns. “That kind of light show just so someone else can open a lock?”

Blake shrugs. “Hey I’m just guessing! And why not? It was super pretty after all.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Terra admits with a sigh and smile. 

I grab the lock from Blake and hold it, flipping it over in my hand. It feels warm, like a comforting kind of warmth. I fiddle around and find I’m able to open and close it with ease. I guess I really am part of Blake’s family now. I can feel my cheeks warm up from the blush in my face. “Well, uh, anyways, so… let’s see what’s inside?” I ask, reaching over for the lid.

“Yeah, let me get it,” Blake says, stopping my hand. She opens up the top of the chest, which flops over with a resounding thud. She sifts through the inside and pulls out two items. One is an old photo album, while the other looks like a diary of some sort. “Looks like this is all that’s in there.”

“Seriously? A whole chest for just these two things?” Terra crosses her arms. “Seems like a bit much if you ask me.”

“They must be special or important,” Blake replies. “Let’s see. This is labeled History of the Rose Family.” She holds up and flips over the diary, dusting off some minor dust. “Seems in really good condition actually!” On the back something is engraved in shining gold. “Looks like this says… oh my gosh!” Blake looks over at me, shock on her face. “It’s the curse! The one I told you about that my mom said the sorceress said to my great-great-great-grandfather!”

I grab the book from Blake and take a look. Sure enough, in elaborate handwriting is written, word for word, the curse as Blake told me those couple of months back when we got started on this whole crazy journey. The very same words I heard the day I kissed her and she transformed. “Woah…”

Terra leans over and takes a look. “‘Ne’er shall any of your descendants be fathers.’ Interesting wording.”

“Yeah, I think it’s about--” Blake starts.

“The curse turning all the boys in your family into girls, yeah.” Terra furrows her brow and looks over the writing again. “The curse is just worded so interestingly. There’s something… off about it, like I’m not seeing the whole picture, I think.”

Blake tilts her head. “What do you mean?”

“Mmm, I don’t know exactly,” Terra replies, shaking her head. She hands the book back over to Blake. “What about that album there?”

Blake lifts it up and puts it in between the three of us. “It just says ‘Rose Family Photo Album’. Maybe it has pictures of my family going back some generations?”

“Let’s take a look and see!” Terra flips open the album and starts sifting through the pages. Sure enough it’s covered top to bottom in photos, presumably of Blake’s ancestors.

The photos go back through the years, starting out in really old black and white photographs, but then slowly transitioning to better quality and more colors as the decades pass. I don’t recognize any of the people in them, although I can see some slight similarities to Blake. 

“You sure have a lot of pretty women in your family, Blake,” Terra comments as she looks over the photos, casually flipping through pages without really waiting for us to catch up. “In fact, I barely see any men in here, and all of them look more like the fathers of further kids in your family line rather than direct descendants.”

“I guess that lines up with the curse then,” Blake mutters softly, curiously looking over her family. “I know families stretch back decades, but it’s so weird seeing all of these people that I’m related to.”

I nod and pat her shoulder. “Yeah, I can imagine.” As Terra flips through the pages, I notice something odd. There aren’t any young photos of anyone in here. Most of them are adults, or at the youngest mid to late teens. And aside from the fathers, it really is all women. Some of the women even look really close, and possibly… together?

“Blake. I think all the photos in here are of your ancestors after they transformed. And I think some of them are lesbians too, like you are.”

“Yeah, I think so too, “ Terra agrees. She points out this older black and white photo of two women holding hands, both of them in flapper-style dresses. “Like these two here are definitely gay.”

Blake eyes the photo suspiciously. “Are you sure? All they’re doing is holding hands. They could just be friends or something.”

Terra gives Blake possibly one of the most exasperated looks I’ve ever seen her give someone. “Come on, Blake, really? ‘Just friends’? That is some serious ‘Sappho and her friends’ historical description bullshit right there.”

Blake and I look at Terra with confused expressions. “‘Sappho and her friends’? What do you mean?”

Terra then facepalms, being literally the first person I’ve ever seen actually do that in my life. “Just, ugh, and you both call yourselves lesbians. I’ll explain later.” She points again at the same photo forcibly. “Just trust me when I say that these two women are 100% gay.”

“Alright, if you say so,” I reply with a shrug. 

“Still,” Blake muses, looking over some more photos, “if these are really all after they transformed, it would explain all the women. It’s honestly probably a good thing there aren’t any photos of them from when they were boys.” Blake shivers. “I know I don’t really like seeing old photos of me.”

“I mean technically they were never boys,” Terra says plainly, flipping a few more pages. 

Blake raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean? The family curse says--”

“Yeah yeah, that any boy in your line will turn into a girl upon kissing a girl.” Terra looks up from the book at Blake. “But if all the ‘boys’ in your line were just like you and your mom, then that’d mean they’re all trans girls too. Which would mean they were always girls.”

Blake raises her finger, but then hesitates before saying anything. She lowers her hand and sighs. “Yeah, right, that’s true. How do we know they’re all trans like me and my mom, though?”

“Well, look at how happy they all are.” Terra points at this one picture that has color in it, of a girl cuddling with a man, presumably her husband or boyfriend, on some sort of park bench. It looks like it’s from the 40s or 50s. “She definitely doesn’t seem to hate being a woman, let alone being together with a man as one.” Terra flips through a few more pages and points at another couple, this one two girls instead. Unlike the last photo, these two are hugging each other and smiling, their noses touching. It looks like it’s from the 60s based on the clothes they’re wearing. “This family member of yours seems really happy with her girlfriend too.” 

Blake look at the photo and frowns. “I think that’s my grandma, back when she was younger. But she’s with my grandfather! I never heard of her having another woman as a lover before! There’s just her, and Grandpa Nick, and then sometimes we’d see her friend… Susie…”

Terra smirks triumphantly as Blake trails off. “Yeah, there you go with that ‘friend’ thing again. Looks to me like your grandma might be bi, and possibly polyamorous.” 

“Poly-what?”

“You know, someone who has multiple partners? As opposed to monogamous?”

“Oh.” Blake leans back onto her hands, looking sad. “I can’t believe I never noticed. Or that they never told me.”

I pat Blake’s back. “Well, that kind of stuff is pretty taboo. She might not have wanted to complicate things or didn’t think you were ready to know yet.” 

“Yeah,” Blake sighs, leaning against me. I wrap my arm around her back and hold her gently. “Can we look at the other book now? I think I’ve had enough of looking at old photos for the moment.”

“Sure.” Terra closes up the album and I open up the family history book. I flip through a couple of pages, reading them slowly. “This looks like… some sort of record? It seems to be information about the lives of your family members. There’s a chapter for every one of them. Including you!”

Blake’s eyes widen. “Me?! What’s it say about me??” she asks excitedly.

I turn over to that chapter, which happens to be in the back of the book, and start reading. “Looks like an account of your early childhood, mostly a summary.” My breath catches. “Now it’s talking about what you and I have been doing since you came out to me. It’s… how does it know all these details?!” 

Blake takes the book from me and looks it over. Her face goes pale. “This is everything! From the attempts to get a date, to us confessing to each other, to my time before coming back to school. It even has what’s happened over the last few days.”

“How does it know all of this?!?”

“Magic,” Terra comments with a shrug. “If the lock was magic, and the chest is magic, and Blake’s curse is obviously magic, then this book must also be magically keeping track of your life.”

Blake shakes her head. “No way, that’s so weird! And creepy! Who would make a book like this? Where’d it even come from?”

Terra takes the book from Blake and flips through some pages, reading intensely. “Says here the book was originally given to a Margaret Rose. Who also happens to be the first entry in here.”

“That must be my great-great-great-grandfather,” Blake whispers.

“You mean grandmother,” Terra corrects her, flipping through to that chapter. 

“Yeah, right, sorry.” Blake shakes her head. “Ugh! I don’t understand why this is so hard for me to wrap my head around. It just seems crazy to think my whole family line is full of trans girls like me.”

I pull Blake into a hug. “Yeah, that’s pretty crazy for sure, babe.”

Terra looks over the book and tilts her head. “This is weird. All that’s here is those words of Blake’s family’s curse.”

I look over at Terra, confused. “What?

Terra hands me the book. “See for yourself.”

I look over the book, leaning it so Blake and Terra can see the page. Sure enough I can see exactly what Terra was talking about. On an otherwise blank page rests the same words of the family curse that we’d heard before:

No woman shall ever lie with a man from your line. 

Ne'er shall any of your descendants be fathers.

“Why is this here?” Blake asks. “Isn’t this supposed to be the chapter about my great-great-great-grandmother?”

I open my mouth to say a response, but find the words caught in my throat. The letters on the page started to fade, the ink sinking into the paper. Black spreads across the page from the words, enveloping everything, before suddenly coalescing into shapes. Letters. Words.

The spell has been cast. Though our family remains cursed, the sorceress’ magic has given me a way to circumvent it and cure the terrible pain that has ailed me for all of my life. I tried it out myself, kissing the woman who sacrificed so much in order to help me, and sure enough once I had done so did my body change! No longer am I trapped in a prison of my own flesh. My body is my own! I’m finally able to be the woman I’ve always dreamed of being! 

And it’s all thanks to her. 

I fear I’ll never truly be able to repay her for what she’s done for me. Nay, not just I, but my entire family line. Though my descendants shall still bear the same terrible curse that was inflicted upon me, no longer will any have to suffer as I have. 

However. For the sake of secrecy and protection, I have decided to hide the true nature of my family’s curse from any further descendants. It’ll be better this way. I don’t want her to be found out. This magic must be kept secret and protected. I’d rather the children I have someday, and their children, and their children’s children and so forth, have only the hope that she’s given us. 

Though we shall have this book to keep family records in, and another to track photographs of our line, I’ve requested that both she and I remain absent from them. Well, aside from a foreword that I have written myself. In it I’ll detail my version of the family curse, and our new cure with which to fix it. 

Though none of my line will ever read this, I do hope they appreciate what I have done for us all. What she has done for us. 

Finally and forever,

Margaret

P.S. 

   If you can read this, then you are my descendant. Although Margaret may have wished this to remain hidden for her family’s sake, I do not wish the same for my own. Somehow you have come entwined with the Rose line and brought our families together once more. I know not why this has happened, but I can only believe that the destiny that once led Margaret to me has led you to her descendants.

   I’m glad you found them. I hope the love that I could not give Margaret, you are able to give to whoever of her line has brought you here. They are deserving of it.

   With great thanks,

Beatrice

Blake and Terra both look at me. “Did those appear--” Blake starts.

“When I touched the page?” I finished. I gulp. “I… I think so.”

Terra crosses her arms and stares at me intently. “So then that must mean that the sorceress, Beatrice, is your…?”

“Ancestor,” I answer.

As soon as I finish uttering that word, the entire notebook starts to glow, lifting out of my hands and into the air. The three of us stare dumbstruck as it glows brighter, the air around us charging up with a prickling, electric sort of energy.

Then, just as I’m about to say something to the others, a great big flash of light consumes my vision. I block my eyes from the glow, squinting them shut in pain. I feel the ground fly away from me and it feels like I’m falling, zooming through space and time towards some destination. How I even know that is beyond me. All I know is that nearly as soon as it starts, it ends, and I find ground beneath my feet once more. 

Slowly I open my eyes and take in the sight of a new room. A warm study, with a crackling fire and soft chairs. I’m sitting in one and across from me is another, with its own occupant. A dark haired woman sits cross-legged, arms across her lap, and she smiles at me.

“Well, it’s about time you showed up.”

FinallyFeminine

Hey y'all! Yesterday was Trans Day of Visibility, and even though this chapter is going up a bit late, I just wanted to spotlight myself for a moment as a trans author. I'm a trans woman and I'm really happy and proud of the bit of success I've had with this story since posting it. All of you who've given me comments have really helped make this last month really awesome and I appreciate your support, encouragement, and general curiosity/intrigue about this story greatly.

We're approaching the end of the story pretty soon here (the next chapter is technically the last, and I'm also working on an epilogue that'll be released at some point), so there's two things I quickly want to get in:
First, I have a twitter that you can follow me at if you'd like (https://twitter.com/FinallyFeminine). I don't post often, but I do try to share and promote other trans authors I know. Also if I get more followers, I think I'll start using it to actually talk about my stories more and give life updates and such.
Second, I'm thinking of possibly setting up a ko-fi, or maybe even a patreon, depending on if anyone would be interested in supporting me or not. I've only ever wrote as a hobby in the past, but writing this story has been quite the journey for me and I've been thinking about publishing it as an e-book even. I'd love to write more stories like this too. Let me know your thoughts in the comments or feel free to DM too!

And uh, that's it! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you look forward to the last chapter and epilogue when they get released. Oh, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!