“Um, wh-what, where--?!” I stammer, looking around the study. “Who--?!”

“Easy there, Angel! It’s okay, you’re safe,” the woman assures me, reaching out a hand onto mine and squeezing it gently. The simple act surprisingly does a lot to calm me. Or I guess maybe not so surprisingly since it, as well as everything else going on, likely involves magic. “My name is Beatrice, as you’ve likely gathered by now.”

“Great-Grandma Beatrice?” I look her up and down, taking in her significantly more youthful form than how she looked when I last saw her. “Is that really you?”

She giggles and nods. “Yes dear, it’s most definitely me. How I look now is about how I looked back when I first helped out Margaret Rose with her family curse.”

“Right,” I reply, looking around the room we’re in again. “What is this place? Where are we?”

Beatrice grimaces a little and looks around sadly. “Well, that’d take a bit to explain. To keep it simple, let’s just say this is an… illusion of sorts.”

“Illusion? So none of this is real?” It’s hard to believe that the warmth I feel and the softness of the chair I’m in aren’t actually happening. 

She shakes her head. “Well, sort of. It only exists in both your mind and the enchantment I cast on the Rose family history.”

A large part of me feels like I should be freaking out or more appalled by this information, but instead all I feel is calm. I also oddly trust everything she’s telling me, for some reason. “Are you manipulating my emotions?”

“Not exactly. I’m calming you with a small amount of magic to help soften the blow of all of this, but otherwise everything you feel is yours.”

I nod. “This is all so weird.” I look toward her and study my great-grandmother’s altered appearance. Or I guess accurate appearance from when she was younger. “Are you an illusion too? Are you actually here and alive?”

Beatrice sighs, sadness crossing her expression. “Well yes, but also no. I am not the same Beatrice you know.” 

“What do you mean?”

Her eyes gleam a little and she stares forward, almost as if she’s looking right through me. “A long time ago, when the Beatrice you know was still just a young sorceress, she met a woman.”

“Margaret Rose,” I whisper.

Beatrice nods. “Yes, that was her. You see, her family had once made a wish before she was born that their family line would only ever give rise to men. It was a wish made with an ancient sort of being, the kind any seasoned scholar of the magical arts would know never to meddle with.”

“What sort of being was it?”

“Some would call it a demon. Others, a djinn. In truth it was a creature of incredible power with malicious intentions. Especially toward humans.”

“Why would they make a deal with such a creature?” I asked with a scowl. “Especially one so… sexist.”

Beatrice’s eyes refocus to the present and she looks at me with a knowing grin. “Oh it most certainly was, of that there is no doubt. But back then, especially in the eyes of the Rose ancestors, men were viewed as the superior sex. They owned property, possessed power, and had every opportunity to be themselves.”

I shudder. “I know some of that from what I’ve learned of history…”

“It was far worse in reality, believe me. The Rose family knew this all too well, and they knew that being a wealthy family line that gave rise only to men would ensure their power and wealth would remain strong for generations to come.”

 I cross my arms angrily. “That’s so stupid.”

Beatrice laughs. “Oh it absolutely was! It was idiotic, sexist, unfair, and most of all completely and utterly false. Men are no better than women.” She sighed. “But this was the 19th century, and equality of the sexes was still just a pipe dream.”

I nod in agreement. “Yeah. But, what does this have to do with the family curse?”

“Don’t you see, Angel? The wish they made is the family curse.”

I tilt my head curiously, my mind trying to connect the dots. “But… they didn’t give birth to only men? Blake is a girl, and so is the rest of her family line. That’s the whole point of their curse. I mean, sure, they’re all trans, and I mean I guess people might have thought they were, but--”

“Ah, you’re getting ahead of yourself dear,” Beatrice interrupts, patting my arm. “Let me finish the story.”

I slouch into the chair, my arms still crossed. “Okay…”

“Now then,” she leans back into her chair and continues, “The being they bargained with knew well what their intentions were. But it was clever, and cruel. It seemingly granted their wish, but in reality it did as you deduced and made their family line one of trans women instead. And all of that started with Margaret. She was the first to be born after the wish had been made, and she suffered as a product of the era she was born into.”

“What do you--” I start, but then my eyes widen. “Oh. Oh no! They didn’t have hormones or anything back then!”

Beatrice nods sadly. “Exactly. She was not only forced to go through a puberty that made her incredibly dysphoric, but she had no means of doing anything to address her pain. Not only that, but she was forced by her family and societal pressure to live a life that brought her nothing but misery. She desperately wished for some sort of freedom to be herself.”

“And then she met you?”

Beatrice nods. “Yes. Well, she met the Beatrice you know.”

“You keep saying that. What do you mean by that?”

“I--” she starts to reply, then pauses. “I’ll get to that. Please, let me finish. It’s important that you hear what I have to say.”

I sigh and nod. “Okay, fine. Please continue.”

“Thank you. I promise I’ll let you ask questions at the end.” Beatrice then sits up straight in her chair and once again her eyes glaze as she takes on that expression of looking through me. “In her despair, Margaret eventually succumbed to desperation and started spending her family fortune searching for a solution to her gender dysphoria. But she was met only with ridicule and shame. Eventually she was cast out from her family in disgrace. She traveled alone for a time and almost ended it all, until she was stumbled upon and saved by Beatrice. Beatrice listened to her story and deduced immediately what had happened. The being, quite obviously, had cursed her family instead.

Margaret begged Beatrice to free her from the curse, but such a thing was beyond her power. Beings such as the one that inflicted this upon her family line were ancient and powerful, and she was young and not nearly powerful enough to undo such a thing. Still, she did what she could. She treated Margaret with herbs and remedies for a time that helped ease her pain while she researched what she could do. And for a while it helped.

Still, it was no permanent solution. Eventually Margaret couldn’t stand waiting any longer and begged Beatrice to do something. By a stroke of luck, Beatrice found something she was able to do. She might not be able to remove the curse, but she could add onto and modify it. Using a great deal of magic, she was able to add on a caveat that would allow those cursed to transform their bodies into ones that fit their true selves upon--”

“Wait, I’m sorry, but why do they have to kiss women?” I interrupt. “What if they aren’t into girls?”

Beatrice tilts her head curiously. “Women? Whatever do you mean?”

“Well, the curse! You made it so that Blake and her family would transform upon kissing girls. Which works for Blake because she’s into girls, but what if one of them wasn’t?”

Beatrice looks at me blankly for a moment, then bursts into a fit of giggles. “Oh my, oh Angel! I’m so sorry, but they’re entirely mistaken!”

“They are?”

“Yes, you see, all they have to do is kiss someone they love, regardless of the gender of that person.” She giggles some more, covering her mouth with her hand. “I don’t know where they got the idea that they had to kiss just women! It’s the magic from the act of love that causes the transformation, after all, and the curse itself manipulates situations so that only someone for whom love exists between them will kiss them.” Beatrice frowns. “Have they truly believed that women were the ones they had to kiss for all this time?”

“I, um. I think so? It’s what Blake told me at any rate.” I sigh and lean back into the chair, shaking my head. “I guess that also explains why Blake had so much trouble getting a girl to kiss her for so long, if the real requirement was love. Wow, is Blake going to be surprised and embarrassed when I tell her all of this.” 

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll let her know for you.”

My eyes widen. “You are?!”

“Absolutely. I’m talking to Terra as well.”

“Wow. You must be crazy powerful!”

Beatrice suddenly frowns, her gaze sinking toward the ground. “Well, to be honest, this kind of spell was one of the last few powerful things I ever did. Changing the curse to have such a caveat drained me immensely, and I never fully recovered. It’s a miracle this recording spell has managed to last this long at all.”

“Recording?” I pause, realization dawning on me. “You’re… not really my grandmother, are you?”

Beatrice looks back up at me with a sad, guilty smile. “No, no I’m not. The real Beatrice, your grandmother, left me here in case one of her descendants ever stumbled back across the Rose family and this book.”

“So, what does that make you then? A magic spell?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“What happens to you after we finish talking?”

“Well, with my purpose fulfilled, the spell will end and my energies will return to the universe, like all spells do when they are complete.”

Suddenly my vision gets cloudy, and I reach up to wipe away tears. “O-oh.” 

“Oh, Angel…” Beatrice says quietly. She gets off her chair and pulls me into a hug. I hug her back tightly, more tears streaming down my face.

Why am I crying? This isn’t even actually my great-grandmother. I never even got to know my real grandma that well. She died when I was pretty young. Yet, seeing her here, talking to her, learning all of this, there’s so much I want to know, so much I wish I could say. It seems unfair to have her back and learn so much just for her to go away again. 

“I never learned this about you at all before now,” I sniffle, wiping more tears out of my eyes. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“I died before I could. I wanted to, but my years were catching up to me, even quicker towards the end. Normally we sorceresses live long lives, but I always knew mine would be shorter after how much I was drained modifying Margaret’s curse.”

I nod. “You loved Margaret, didn’t you? That’s why you did all of this for her.”

Beatrice is silent for a moment, then she nods back. “I did, yes. I felt so much empathy for her and the curse she’d been burdened with.” Beatrice sighs softly. “She was a strong woman, and so bright and cheerful whenever she wasn’t bogged down by the pain of her curse. I just wanted to make her happy like that always.”

“Why didn’t you two get together then?”

Beatrice’s expression saddens. “We tried to make it work. But in the end she wanted to start a family, something I wasn’t able to provide for her, so we ended up going our separate ways.”

“There wasn’t a magic way to…?”

“There are, but I was too drained to do any of them. And I didn’t know of any other magic users we could turn to.” Beatrice then smiles. “But you won’t have to worry about that. You’re full of potential, Angel, and I’m sure you’ll be able to pick up from where I left off and finish what I started.”

I blink. “What do you mean?”

Beatrice reaches beneath my chair and picks up a large book, placing it on my lap. It looks like a plain tome of some sort, but somehow I’m able to feel there’s much more to it than that. “Inside here is the sum of all the research I did over the course of my life. All the spells I discovered, both ones I could cast and ones I was never quite able to get the hang of. There’s also all of my notes on Margaret’s curse and my theories on how it could somehow be broken.” She places her hand on mind and squeezes it. “I want you to have it, Angel. I want you to take up my mantle as the next sorceress in our line and find a way to save the Rose family from their curse.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I won’t force this on you. But I can feel your potential. I believe in you. I know you can do this, if that’s what you wish.”

My fingers trace across the tome. It’s heavy, but in a comforting way. In a way I can almost feel something inside myself stirring just from holding it. Could this be the secret to what I’ve been searching for? A way to change myself and Terra like how Blake changed? Removing Blake’s family curse would be amazing too. Not to mention all the help I could possibly do for people. It’s a huge and scary responsibility though. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to succeed where grandma Beatrice failed. But I have to try. I want to try.

Plus, come on, it’s magic! How could I possibly say no to that?

“Okay. I’ll do it.” I look up at Beatrice, who looks relieved. “I’ll finish what you started and be the next sorceress in our family.”

Beatrice pulls me into a hug. “Thank you Angel. I know you’ll be a wonderful sorceress.”

I hug her back. Then a thought crosses my mind. “Oh, um, I guess I should probably tell you I’m trans too by the way.”

Beatrice laughs. “Oh don’t worry hunny, I already knew that. I could see your aura from the moment you were born and I always knew you were my granddaughter.” 

Tears blur my vision again. “Y-you did?”

“Of course. I know everything the real Beatrice knew right up until she died, and she was always ready to accept you the moment you realized it too.” She squeezes me tighter. “I’m glad I was able to let you know for her.”

I squeeze her back. I don’t want this hug to end. “I love you, Grandma.”

“I love you too, Angel.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes slowly open. I feel groggy, but slowly I realize I’m back in the attic staring at the ceiling. I hear Blake and Terra groan, signaling to me that they’re waking back up too. I’m not going to get up with them just yet. I wipe some tears from my eyes. It might not have been for that long, or even with the real her, but I’m glad I got to have that moment with my grandma. 

“Angel? You okay?” Blake asks, putting her hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Was that real?” Terra asks. “With Beatrice in that room?”

“It was.” I sit up with both of them finally, only to feel something heavy slid down onto my lap. I look and see the same tome from my talk with Beatrice. “It’s… real? And it’s here?!”

“What is?” Terra looks over at me and the book. “Wait, what’s that?”

I turn to face both of them. “It’s a book containing all of my grandma’s knowledge and spells and research! She gave it to me so I could carry on her work and be the next sorceress in our family!”

Blake’s eyes widen. “Wait, so then, does that mean you’re going to try to--?”

“Yes!” I lean over and kiss her. “I most definitely am.”

“Oh Angel!” Blake pulls me into a hug. “I love you so much!”

“I love you too,” I hug her back with a giggle. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it or where to even start though.”

“Learning how to actually use magic is probably a good start,” Terra says with a smirk. “Oh, wait, can I learn too? Or is this like a you-only kind of thing?”

“Um, I mean, I dunno, I suppose we can try? Couldn’t hurt.” Another giggle escapes my lips. “Maybe you both can be my apprentices!”

“Some teacher you’ll be, learning everything at the same time we will!” Blake laughs. Terra and I laugh with her, our giggles echoing in the attic.

After all the angst and sadness I’ve felt for the last few months, it finally feels like I have a way to move forward. A goal to work towards. Everything feels possible. I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I’ll keep trying until I succeed at this. I’ll change Terra, I’ll change myself. And someday, I’ll even lift Blake’s curse. How, I’m not really sure. But I’ll find a way, I just know it!

Who’d have thought I’d be transitioning into a magical girl?!

FinallyFeminine

And that's all folks! I'm working on an epilogue, but for now that's the story! I hope you've enjoyed reading it! I hope to write more stories similar to this in the future, hopefully without going on hiatus for a long time.  If you're interested in reading those, feel free to give me a follow!

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