Lady-in-Waiting-to-Be

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 108601

So Fred wasn't quite gone yet. Hardly surprising, but Belboz wasn't worried. There was no reason to worry about him getting out of this. He was Hannah. He'd stay that way.

Belboz snapped his fingers, casting a temporary spell of obedience, which ought to wear off in a couple hours or so. "Take my hand, Hannah," he said, and the girl immediately complied. She blinked, realizing what had happened, and tears began to shine in her eyes. "I forbid you from crying," Belboz said firmly, and Hannah blinked the tears out of her eyes, but immediately stopped producing them.

Fred was holding on for dear life, as every one of his brand new, magically supplied instincts clawed at his old self, trying to destroy him. Belboz took him to be introduced to all of Jastina's ladies-in-waiting, and he recognized one of them as the woman he had once considered taking as a wife. Fortunately, as it turned out, she would not be his adoptive mother; no part of this was comfortable or welcome, but that just might have driven him over the edge.

His--her--new designated mother, Pearl, seemed kind and pleasant, and probably was completely unaware of the true identity of "Hannah." She showed her new daughter the dresses she'd picked out for her, and Fred, despite herself, absolutely loved them all. She couldn't stop from twirling every time she tried a new one on, and gasping every time Pearl revealed the next one. After choosing a dress to wear to dinner, she stuffed herself full in the grand hall. By the end of it, Fred was completely and totally convinced that she was going to love it here. But the knowledge that that conviction had been magically forced on her was still there, threatening to drive her mad.

She made fast friends with the daughters of the other ladies-in-waiting, and even Queen Jastina herself absolutely adored her. She spent her days learning embroidery and etiquette and ballroom dancing, and her nights weeping at the loss of all her self-control. Whenever she saw a knight, she came very close to sobbing. And yet there was no desire in her for anything to change. She had no wish to be a knight, to go back to her old life. It was so much simpler now, so much nicer.

  1. After one week, the court magician took Pearl aside and said that he detected a lot of negative energy in her new daughter, and offered to help remove it.
  2. After one month of this, Fred, on the brink of madness, ran away.
  3. Several months later, Belboz showed up for "Hannah's" tenth birthday to give her a "gift."
  4. After three years, Pearl adopted another daughter--with the help of Belboz.
  5. After about five years, Fred was faced with the task of telling her mother she had no interest in marriage.

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