Secret Novel Chapter 27: The Morning After (Patreon)

Slowly Madeline pulled herself from the strange dream she was having. Her head felt woozy even before she opened her eyes. Placing a hand on her aching head, she pushed the sheets off of her and sat up in her bed. Blinking slowly her vision came back and it was different. Her eyes went wide as she looked around her room. All the colors were more vibrant than she could ever remember, and the detail of every little thing was so clear to her. It was as if she had been looking through misted glass her whole life and now someone finally took the glass away. There was more to it though. When she focused on the flowers in her ceiling that gave her light, she could see an almost imperceivable clear white mist that floated and swayed around each flower. It was so barely visible and if she didn’t focus she would not have see it, but right now with her focus solely on the flowers she could. Standing up she reached as high as she could, which wasn’t enough to reach the ceiling and saw the mist sway and react to her hand as it got closer. When she reached out with her magic, which was also a barely visible mist, she watched them meld together, causing the flowers to glow brighter and brighter. It was beautiful.

A clinking of a teacup being set down on a saucer drew the attention of her ears first. They instantly swirled to face the door where the sound had come from the other side. It still surprised her just how good her new hearing was. Then fear took hold in Madeline’s chest. There was someone in her home. Then she suddenly realized she was in her bedroom. Not only that, she was in a nightgown. She didn’t remember going to bed. She didn’t even remember going back into her home after…

The sound came again, and Madeline focused on it. Madeline crept to the door as silently as she could, which she found she was far better at now with her new hearing. She was thankful to Eda as when she pulled open the door its hinges were silent like the mages and their carriages. Peering out she noticed that the door to the study was just ever so slightly open. Slowly the witch snuck her way over, making sure that whoever was inside wouldn’t spy her through the crack. Her ears were giving their full attention to what was going on inside, and heard what must have been a page flipping in a book. Her heart pounding, Madeline quietly peered into her study and found a somehow more vibrant slate blue beyonder sitting in Eda’s chair. In two of his hands he held one book, another book in a third, and the last hand was bringing a cup of tea, by the smell of it, to his lips. Then his eyes glanced up at Madeline and she couldn’t help but jump.

“Finally awake are we, little witch?”

The amusement in his voice was clear, and everything came crashing back to Madeline. The ritual, Victor appearing, him almost killing her, properly gendering her, not accepting her virginity, putting her through what might have been the worst pain of her life before passing out. There was something different about Victor, though. Slowly she opened the door, forgetting she was in just a night gown. What was different about him? Then it clicked, his right eye was green now, not red like it had been the night before. Green exactly like her eyes, though his was slitted like before. Then she realized she had a beyonder’s eye, and curiosity got the better of her.

She could hear him chuckle as she ran to the bathroom. Pushing her way in, she went straight to the mirror and gazed at her reflection. Her right eye was no longer green like it once was. It was a bright, vibrant, and slightly glowing red. Not only that, her pupil was no longer round but slitted like Victor’s. It was wide, however, as she gawked at her new non-human feature. Overall the only noticeably normal part of her head was her hair, mouth, and left eye… It felt upsetting if she was honest, but then again, her ears and nose looked cute. They looked cute and helped her look more androgynous. Her bright green eyes were already attention drawing, but now with mixed eyes she couldn’t look away. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. Her face and head were unique now. No longer the face of a man that wasn’t her. She was making her face her own. She chose these, well the ears and nose were still accidental but she still did it. She made this face with her rituals and potions. She was making herself a woman like no other. She was making herself herself.

Madeline wiped away a few tears that fell as she came to the realization that she was becoming her true self, fully human or not. Now though, she needed to deal with the visitor in her home. Stepping back out into the kitchen area, something else that she had missed caught her attention. There was a new door in her home. One opposite the bathroom door. Confused, Madeline walked over and pushed it open to find another bedroom. It was decently sized, maybe not as large as her bedroom, and was fully furnished. There was one thing, however, that really threw her through a loop. There was a window, which wasn’t odd to have, but the window was on the wall the room shared with the study. The window didn’t look into the study, it looked out into her garden.

“How?” Madeline asked no one. She almost went to try and figure it out, like she tried with the door when the home was still a hovel. She stopped herself though. She knew how the window worked. Magic. Like everything else in her home. She did check out the closet and chest of draws she found some cloaks and plain basic clothing, which was a little surprising considering her room had a mass amount of beautiful and wonderful clothes. Then Madeline suddenly remembered that Eda left a list of quirks and one of them was that the home added rooms as it saw fit. So maybe the home had added a guest bedroom because she did now have a guest who might be in need of it. Her guest… Victor. She had just ran out on him, and should probably go back. Quickly she made her way to the study where she found him in the same position. Something about it irked her, but she couldn’t tell what.

The beyonder looked back up at her from one of the books. “Oh, I thought you had gone to change, but I guess not.”

“Why would I change?” Madeline said, looking down at herself. She was still wearing the clothes she had on la— She was in a nightgown. A nightgown that, though it wasn’t shear, was still showing a male guest quite a lot. With her face turning bright red, the young woman rushed out hearing the beyonder laugh harder than he had before. Slamming her bedroom door shut, she covered her face in embarrassment. He had seen her in just a nightgown, and though he wasn’t someone she found appealing given he wasn’t human, he was still a man. Then she had another realization. She wasn’t awake to change and put herself to bed. Victor had done all that. “Oh goddess, why…”

Eventually still very flushed, Madeline walked back into the study in some new clothes.

“And there she is,” the beyonder chuckled.

Madeline looked at him seriously, even if she was still blushing. There really was something about him being in this room that she didn’t like. “You changed my clothes?”

“I thought you wouldn’t mind given that this isn’t your true body yet,” he said with a shrug and a smile on his face.

“And put me to bed?”

“Well,” the smile turned to a smirk, “It wasn’t the first time I had to put a woman to bed after a fun night.” Madeline honestly couldn’t get much redder, but Victor still spoke before she could respond. “Is this really what the mages think of me? They don’t even appear to realize we aren’t actually demons, and they have so many things backwards.” He looked at what she could now tell was one of the mage’s books with what could only be described as disgust. “Yours is far better.” He held up one of her books. “But it is horribly outdated. So much house drama has changed quite a few things.”

Finally she realized what problem she had with Victor being in her study. He was in Eda’s chair. She didn’t even sit in Eda’s chair. It felt wrong. “Would… Would you not sit in that chair?” she asked without thinking.

The beyonder looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “I am your guest, little witch. It would be rather rude to not offer a chair to sit in.”

“N-no. I mean would you just not sit in that chair. Would you sit in the other one?” She paused. Was it really okay for her to be talking to him like this? “Please.”

He looked at her with a curious expression, but after a second he did stand up. Both surprisingly and not surprisingly the ceiling was still tall enough that he could stand at the full eight feet without worry. With more grace than she thought he should have considering he didn’t break eye contact, Victor moved and placed himself in the other chair. “Better?”

“Yes, thank you.” She truly did feel much better with him out of Eda’s chair. Though that did bring up another problem. Where should she sit? Eda’s chair was the only other one, unless she pulled the less plush chair from the desk all the way on the other side of the room. Would it be okay for her to sit in Eda’s chair? She was the new caretaker of this home and Garden so maybe it was the right chair for her to sit in. It would probably still feel strange, but it would be better than Victor sitting in it. “So are you just going to be here now?” Madeline wasn’t sure what she really meant by that. She was just a little thrown off by having someone in her house. Even back in Lexford she wasn’t one to host anything, especially after her mom passed. She was always the guest somewhere, never the other way around.

“Tired of me already, little witch?” He teased.

“No. I just…” She honestly didn’t know what to say, so she just added, “Never mind.” Before anything else could be said by either party, Madeline’s stomach gave a long hard growl. The beyonder seemed amused by the sound and it for some reason didn’t help with her blushing face. She hadn’t eaten last night because she was so nervous about the ritual. She had barely eaten anything for lunch for the same reason. Deciding food was the right thing to focus on instead of this new house guest, Madeline turned to go to the kitchen. She stopped herself, however. “Um, do… Do you eat?” Her question was genuine. Though she had done as much studying as she could, there was still so much she didn’t know about his kind. One of those things being eating.

He tilted his head to the side and looked at her quizzically. There was still a smile on his face. “I can and do. Though most of the time it is more for the pleasure of it than a need to sustain myself. However, I am quite happy with the tea, thank you.” He held up his cup again, and Madeline spotted a pot on the table between the chairs. Well that answered that.

Giving him an acknowledging nod, Madeline left and went about getting herself something to eat. Madeline wasn’t one for meal prep in advance as she often enjoyed doing all the gathering in her garden. The breakfasts she made were often pretty simple if it was anything but fruit from her Garden. She had found a few cook books in her study, but had yet to actually use them, finding her magical studies a little more pressing than fancy meals. Now though, maybe she should spend some time reading over the cookbook. She had done so much in terms of magic and taking a step back might not be the worst idea. She no longer had any time constraints. The solstice was over and she had her eye. She knew how to make her potions for her body, there really wasn’t anything pressing. Hell, the cookbook might teach her how to make bread with the wheat she had in the garden, that would be nice. Now if only she could get a cow or a goat for cheese…

As she went about gathering things for a meal, Madeline could occasionally see Victor look at her through the window. Yes, that was something new she had discovered not too long ago. If you opened the window it could then be seen from the outside. It was nice to know that her guest wasn’t snooping around her home. Then again he had a whole night to do that while she was asleep. Did he sleep? The home had made a whole new bedroom for him. That was another question to ask him. Eventually. When she came back into the home, she held off on asking. In fact she went straight to prepping her breakfast.

As Madeline was cutting the potatoes a voice from right behind her said, “That’s a rather nice knife.”

In response the witch screamed in fright as the knife slipped and sliced open a couple of fingers. “Shit!” Dropping the knife from her now shaking hand, Madeline rushed around her kitchen to find the right herbs she needed. She fully ignored the beyonder that caused this. She wasn’t ready to look at a man whose appearance was admittedly quite instinctively scary. Scrounging around for the right herbs, Madeline did her best not to bleed all over the place. Finally finding the right combination, she wrapped them around her filleted fingers and pushed as much magic into it as she could. Thankfully she was fast enough to get the herbs before her brain processed the pain of the cuts, but the healing stung like a bitch.

“Did I scare you?” Victor asked with mild curiosity.

“Fuck, yes…” Madeline hadn’t realized she was panting with her heart pounding in her ears. She hadn’t heard him come up behind her at all even with her ears.

The beyonder appeared to think for a moment, before his form shifted. He lost the second set of arms, his legs became plantigrade like her own bringing his height down to just a few inches above her own. Even his horns shrunk to a smaller size. “Better?”

Madeline blankly stared at him. “How did you do that?”

“What? Shapeshifting? Well, it's quite simple really. Our forms are already quite malleable to begin with and once you spend a good number of decade, centuries maybe, practicing it becomes quite easy.” She continued to stare at him. It was strange to now see him like this, but it did feel better. She might even consider him handsome now that he wasn’t too obviously non-human. The blue skin and horns were still off putting but not as much as she thought they might be. “As I asked, better?”

“Yes,” she admitted. The stinging in her hand was starting to go away so she pulled off the blood soaked herbs to find that her fingers were healed now. There was only the tiniest hint of a scar from the cut, but she knew there was a potion she could use to get rid of it if she really wanted. Satisfied, Victor picked up her mother’s knife that still had her blood on it. Madeline sighed when she saw the potato also had her blood on it. She would need to go grab another.

“The previous owner left you a very nice knife.” He studied the knife, before sniffing the blood. Then he gave it a taste and Madeline shivered.

“It’s my knife,” she corrected him. “It was my mom’s… Father gave it to her as a gift one year on her birthday.” Memories of her mom using her favorite knife to make her and her sister wonderful meals flashed through her mind. They were such warm memories, and Madeline felt another urge to get better at cooking. Maybe she could make food like her mom used to.

He looked at the knife with deeper interest as something seemed to click in his mind. “This is—” He cut himself off as his eyes glanced back up at her. His expression softened. “So your parents gave it to you?”

“No… Mom passed last winter.”

“And your father?”

The smile that had come to her face from the pleasant memories was wiped away with the thought of her father. “He ran away from his mess and us when I was still young.”

“He ran away and left you and your mother?” Victor now looked genuinely curious, but also hurt as if the thought of someone doing that hurt him.

Was she really going to do this? Was she going to talk about all this with a beyonder? He didn’t seem to ask in offense, but just genuinely trying to understand and learn about her. “And my sister.”

“You have a sister outside of the Maze? I’m a little surprised that you’re not trying to get back to her.”

The flat expression on Madeline’s face hardened. “My sister is in the Maze. She was the offering before me…”

There was a little confusion on Victor’s face before a look of realization came over him. “She’s a mage?” Again the word sounded like it tasted foul in his mouth. Madeline was even sure she heard a small growl in his throat.

Madeline didn’t meet his gaze. She looked down at the blood splattered potato. “Yes. Almost killed me even. Though I’m not sure if she was really trying to or just to scare me.”

“I am sorry.”

The thoughts and feelings around Flora started to spiral in Madeline’s mind. She barely registered what Victor had said. “She called me a man. Called me a freak.” She felt tears well up in her eyes. “She even called me by my given name…” She looked at her healed fingers and saw the tears fall into her hand. “She helped me find my name. She was the first person to call me by it…” Reaching up she wiped the tears from her eyes. “Why would she do that…” The last sentence came out as barely a whisper. Even her ears could barely pick it up. Though she had thought about Marcus quite a lot since that day, even if not recently, Madeline did her best to not think about Flora. It hurt too much. More than Marcus. And how her feelings towards her sister had changed hurt, too.

“Mages are horrid things.” There definitely was a growl in the beyonder’s voice.

Madeline nodded. “She isn’t… She isn’t my sister anymore.” She finally said it. Something that she had been feeling for a long time now, but something she didn’t want to admit to herself. Something she didn’t want to face. “The Mages took the kind and gentle woman she was from me… They took the last of my family…”

There was a long moment of silence as Madeline stood there wiping tears from her face before Victor said. “I am so sorry, Madeline.” There was no growl in his voice anymore. It was gentle and soft, a whisper even though with Madeline’s new ears it didn’t feel like it. She looked up at him finally, and she could see the hurt on his face. She could hear it in his voice, and she could see it in his eyes that weren’t looking quite at her. She felt like she could almost see the very memory he was clearly experiencing. “Mages are disgusting.”

“Beyonders don’t like mages?” she asked, taking another wipe of her face.

“Some of my kin like them and will work with them. They’re all fools if you ask me.” He looked at her knife and twirled it in his hand. “My family despises those pathetic excuses for magic users.”

When he didn’t explain, Madeline found herself asking, “Why?”

Victor pondered for a moment. “One of my younger siblings is also of switched hearts.”

“That can happen to beyonders?” Madeline asked, genuinely surprised.

“Of course.” His eyes finally turned back to hers. “No one chooses how they’re born. My sibling found that ze is neither male nor female, and ze made zir body to fit that.” Madeline hadn’t imagined that someone could be neither male nor female, but she couldn’t deny the possibility. If she was a woman in a man's body, why couldn’t someone be neither in one? She had also never heard pronouns like that before, and she wondered if they were from Victor’s actual language. A set of pronouns that reflected someone who wasn’t a he or she. “When ze was younger ze was summoned by mages, and when I say summoned I do not mean like how you called kindly upon me and I answered. They forced zim into the summons. They trapped zim, chained zim.” The growing anger in Victor’s voice was clear. “The mages used zim. Abused zim, and even more so because ze was not part of their binary idea of gender. We didn’t know what happened to zim…” Now there was sorrow in his voice. “Family is very important for my kind, and losing our sibling was… It was heartbreaking.”

Victor paused. “Eventually the mages made a mistake. My sibling was able to break the chains they bound zim in and escape. Ze also managed to kill quite a number of mages as ze did.” There was that wicked smile that Madeline had seen on his face last night when he thought she was a mage ready to be killed. “Ze came back to us after so long, and we rejoiced. We did not forget, however. We will never forget how they treated my sibling, and we will never forgive.”

Madeline looked up at Victor with sympathy while he looked away again as if in thought. She didn’t know what to say to that. She felt horrible for what happened to Victor’s sibling, and she now felt a deeper connection with the beyonder. A connection… She hadn’t had one of those since Fernaldo.

“I’m sorry for what happened to your sibling,” she said with all the honesty in her heart. “And I am happy ze was able to make zir way back to you.” She hoped she had used the pronouns right.

Victor looked back at her and she could see the connection and understanding in his eyes. “Thank you, little witch Madeline.”