The Truth Will Out

“That should do it.” Jeppeline announced.

“How do you feel, Hannah? Can you speak about what happened to you?” Henry asked concern evident in his voice as he knelt next to Fred and took her hand.

Fred slowly nodded yes. Somehow, she instinctively knew that it had worked, and that she was free, for the first time in 15 years, to finally speak to someone other than that accursed necromancer as her true self. But she hesitated – she was concerned that they wouldn’t believe her, and was especially worried about Henry’s reaction.

“Henry…” Fred began gently. “Perhaps it would be best if I spoke to Jeppeline alone first. Could you give us some privacy and wait outside?”

Henry stiffened, rising to his feet, but not releasing Fred’s hand. “No, Hannah. Whatever has happened to you, I deserve to know the truth, or as much of it as you know of it.”

Fred sighed heavily, as Jeppeline stood off to the side, observing. Fred decided that she could hold back no longer. She didn’t know when or even if there’d be another chance to explain her situation to someone who might actually be able to help. “You may want to sit down, this is going to be quite a shock…”

What followed was an unvarnished account of the truth as Fred knew it – Her origins as a male knight, the quest to the Dragon’s caves, and the encounter with the necromancer Belboz, who had transformed ‘him’ into a ‘her’ in the form of a fifteen year old girl, and then trapped Fred’s mind within, with the personality of 'Hannah' seemingly created by the mage out of nothingness, and put in control of her transformed body. How Fred had been perpetually aware and experienced everything Hannah did, but with no control over her actions.

She continued, telling of Belboz’s curse that she was supposed to have died during childbirth in her twelfth pregnancy, but when that did not happen, how the wizard had visited her immediately after, only to taunt that her life would continue on as it had been. Then of his last appearance, at the 7 months’ mark of her current pregnancy, where he’d laid the most recent of his enchantments, which had put Fred’s mind into the driver’s seat of her body for the first time, and also had ‘paused’ her current pregnancy and bound her not to speak of any of the spells that had been worked on her (the last of which Jeppeline had just removed)

During the telling of the story, Jeppeline seemed fascinated and at times closed her eyes to concentrate, perhaps sensing out the various enchantments as Fred tallied them off. Henry, on the other hand, reacted with a mixture of disbelief, anger and disgus.

“This cannot be! Hannah, please, this isn’t true. Tell me it’s not true! Your mind is that of a man? A knight? Has our whole life together been a lie?!” Henry bellowed incredulously. Fred held out his hands in a futile attempt to calm him. He wasn’t taking the news well, which she’d rather expected would be the case. But she was growing frustrated as well by his reaction “I couldn’t do anything about that, as I said I had no control for fifteen years, it was Hannah – and even when I was put back in control of this body two months ago, I was still enchanted against telling you, until just now!”

Henry’s face seemed to go pale with realization – he’d noticed something had been off with Hannah, a shift in his wife’s personality about two months ago – about the time Fred had begun to insist on sleeping apart from him. It hadn’t dawned on him until now that that was also the approximate time her pregnancy had stopped advancing. He slumped down into an empty chair at the table and held his head in his hands for a moment. Then his eyes snapped open. “Then what about Hannah? Where is my wife?! Can you bring her back?” This last question was directed at the sorceress, and not at Fred.

“I…don’t know.” Fred admitted, but then steeled herself. “But if she still exists somehow, and is able to return, what would you have me do?” Henry said nothing in response, but his icy glare made it obvious that he cared not a whit what would happen to Fred’s mind, if it meant getting his Hannah back. Jeppeline, at this point came to stand between them holding her arms up to keep them apart.

“Please, calm down, the both of you.” She gave Fred a pitying look. “I can sense all of the magics at work clearly now, now that you’ve told me what to look for. I’ve got to hand it to you, I don’t think I’ve ever come across anyone so ensorcelled in all my years of study.”

“I assure you, I’m not at all honored to have that distinction." Fred said bitterly. "Also, all your years of study? How old are you, anyway?”

“Older than I look, not that it matters much. I’m not familiar with this Belboz character, but I abhor magic users who abuse their gifts, as this one seems to have done. Clearly, no one deserves to be toyed with as you have. Still, the fact remains we’re dealing with some very strong and well-worked enchantments here.”

“Well, what can you do about them?” Fred asked.

Jeppeline crossed her arms and seemed to think for a moment. “I should be able to remove the spell keeping your pregnancy from advancing. It ought to resume its normal course; or at least I think it should.

”Wonderful.” Fred groaned. “Anything else?”

”I’m afraid I can’t restore your original form. It’s simply been too long for a spell of reversal to work. Only the wizard who cast the original enchantment could do so at this point. In theory, a sufficiently powerful mage could give you a new male form, but I don't do transfigurations, and even if I did, I wouldn’t do so whilst you are pregnant, as that would end the life of an innocent.”

“But what about Hannah?” Henry asked again. “Can you bring her back?!”

Jeppeline sighed. ”I'm not sure. Magically constructed personalities are tricky things, as they’re usually used to suppress an existing personality. This duology that Belboz created, with Fred having been aware the entire time, essentially living within a body he had no control over, is very rare. I've never seen it in practice. Still, a magical construct that's lived independently for this long should be quite durable. Let me see…”

1. Jeppeline can detect the presence of another personality within Fred’s mind. It appears to be awake and aware of all the happenings, as just as Fred’s persona had been previously.
2. Jeppeline can detect the presence of another personality within Fred’s mind. It appears to be dormant, and probably has been since Belboz returned control to Fred.
3. Jeppeline can’t detect anything of Hannah, she’s simply gone or buried so deeply that she can't be reached.

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