Author's Note: This is pure fiction focused on the Fantasy side of Sci-Fi/Fantasy. For those familiar with most of my other works, you will find this is non-erotic. It is more of a simple romance than anything.
While this story deals with the magical transformation of a person from male to female, that is all it is - a magical transformation. Nothing contained in this story is meant to diminish gender dysphoria or any of the things a transgendered person must endure.
I have been tossing around the idea of turning this into a series of stories centered on one specific character. I do have a sequel to this story in progress which should be finished and published soon, but that sequel is going to bring closure to the fate of the character I may be writing other stories about.
As always, feedback, including ideas, is welcome, either publicly through comments or by sending a message directly to me.
I hope you enjoy.
JT
-- Prologue --
As with so many people around the world, Esmeralda wept. She wept for the lives of those lost, victims of the terrible tragedies of the day. She wept for those lost in the attacks against the World Trade Center. She wept for those lost in the attack on the Pentagon. She wept for those lost in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overtake the hijackers.
And she wept for one person, a baby boy born into the world on this tragic day.
She did not know when in this child's life she would be sent to help, only that she would. That is how The Mirror of the Wronged worked. It revealed to members of The Bound their assignments. The Bound only knew they would be required to help. They never knew exactly when or where The Door would appear, only that it would and it would only be visible to The Wronged.
When and where The Door appeared really didn't matter. It could happen at a time when The Wronged reached the darkest point of their life, or when The Wronged reached a crossroads and needed to make a decision. And The Door always appeared in a location familiar and convenient to The Wronged. None of it mattered to The Bound. The time at which they would be beckoned could happen after 10 days in the life of The Wronged, or it could happen in 10 years. To The Bound, it was almost the blink of an eye.
For over 308 years, ever since being "rescued" during the Salem Witch Trials, Esmeralda had been serving her "sentence" to The Council. She knew not why The Council decided to save her other than the fact they had use of her "talents". More than 200 people had been accused and 20 executed during the trials. Esmeralda managed to not only remain unaccused, and thus avoid a trial and possible execution, but she was also the only one who was actually a witch.
Esmeralda had been "bound" with an invisible chain consisting of 300 links; 200 to represent the more than 200 accused and 100 more for the 20 innocents who were executed during the trials. She knew the innocence of all and she could have spared them. She had proof of their innocence, proof their accusers had fabricated stories of their participation in witchcraft. Saving them would have required her to manifest her own powers, though, and would have come at the expense of her own life, so she disappeared, only to be captured by The Council and sentenced to servitude.
Esmeralda's sentence had been to provide a way for The Wronged to correct the grave mistakes they had been subjected to. With each success, a link was removed from her binding chains. With each failure, a link was added. In the more than 300 years since her sentence began, Esmeralda had successfully helped The Wronged 273 times. She had also failed five times. As such, 32 links still remained. She was getting close to the end of her sentence. But she was getting close to breaking the last link and living out a normal life, stripped of the powers she possessed.
For the first time in her 300 years of servitude, she was unsure of herself. Never had she been given an assignment such as this. Never had the mistake she needed to correct involved The Wronged being born the wrong sex. She had heard of many assignments handled by other members of The Bound involving someone being born a sex that did not match their gender, but those cases were able to be handled by helping The Wronged individual transition.
No, this situation wasn't one where this baby, born this day as the second son to Roger and Evelyn D'Angelo, would grow to experience gender dysphoria realize they were assigned a sex opposite the gender they identified with. This baby would grow to identify as a male and live as a male, but was physically supposed to have been born and identify as female. It was not for Esmeralda to ask how or why this had occurred, only to provide the child with a way to fix what had happened.
It wasn't quite as simple as that, though. While Esmeralda could provide The Wronged with the means to correct the mistake, or to right a wrong, it was still incumbent upon The Wronged to find The Key that would open The Lock. Only when The Lock was opened would Esmeralda's fix be truly be permanent. She never knew what form The Lock or The Key would take, only that they would be there. They could appear in the form of living beings or, as they had in her last assignment, inanimate objects. All she truly knew up until The Door summoned her was the identification of The Wronged and that The Wronged would have 72 hours to fully succeed once the solution she provided was implemented.
"I don't know if I can do this, Lareth," Esmeralda said, finally speaking after receiving her next assignment. "It's one thing to set in motion the events to right a wrong where The Wronged has been forced into an unwanted, pre-arranged marriage, or to right a wrong where The Wronged was wrongfully terminated from a job. But to actually find a way to change a birth sex? Not just surgically change an appearance to match the gender identity, but actually change the birth sex and gender of The Wronged, to alter DNA and internal organs. Why does it appear as though The Council wants to see me fail?"
"The Council desires no such thing, Esmeralda," Lareth shot back. "The Council plays no role in the assignments of The Bound. We merely supervise The Bound, removing or, when necessary, adding links to your binding chains. The Mirror of the Wronged selects the member of The Bound it deems most fit for the assignment." His voice was even, but to Esmeralda it was anything but reassuring.