Table of Contents

Previously: Teri tried to convince everyone she’s legit…

Gervyn vaulted onto his horse with a fierce urgency, his determined gaze fixed on the horizon. The muscles in his arms flexed as he seized the reins, his dark blond hair whipping with the sudden movement. A shadow lingered in his eyes, a flicker of anger that had become familiar to all who knew him. The horse shifted, sensing the crackling energy that surrounded its rider, a blend of tension and restrained power. Gervyn’s jaw was set, his posture predatory, embodying the young warrior he had become—who had already seen too much and yet was driven by the forces of revenge that flowed through him like blood. As the horse snorted and pawed the ground, Gervyn leaned forward, urging it into motion, as though the very earth needed to be conquered to match the tumult within him. His sisters were in danger, and he had to save them.

~ Allisar Fireborn Chronicles, Book 3: Blazing Heart

“What is going on here?” Doctor Dourwin shouted over the mayhem, which had quickly grown to include his three minions, the castle guards, and even Lady Elisandar, who was tugging on a small child’s leg trying to drag them out of the mess. Everyone was too busy knocking into furniture to pay attention to him.

:PLAY TIME!: Theo stood up and then hurtled off the bed, landing on the back of one of the guards who screeched in terror. Then everyone was trying to extricate themselves, avoid getting kicked, and staying as far away from Theo as possible all at the same time.

Except the kids, who ignored everyone else and kept wrestling each other like their lives depended on it.

Teri watched them in fascination. These were not the Allisar children, at least not all of them, as they were the wrong ages. Maybe the eldest was Gervyn? But technically, he was the youngest of the four, so who were the other three?

Theo was bouncing around, barking and having the time of his life. One of the kids made a break to scramble for the door but got nabbed by a guard, who went down with a loud shriek when she kneed him in the balls.

A good, classic defensive move that Teri approved of on principle, but she figured the Keystone Cops routine had gone on long enough.

“STOP!” She hollered, sitting up in the bed as best she could.

Gratifyingly, everyone stopped immediately. Less gratifyingly, they all looked at her with undisguised terror.

Right. She was Lady Bonarae Greyrage, the Venomous Whip of Luttiron. A few of them (all of them?) probably thought they were going to be flogged to death at any second.

(It had happened a few times in the book series, before Lady Greyrage herself was murdered to loud fandom acclaim.)

She cleared her throat.

“Everyone please stand up like civilized people,” she said, trying to sound…haughty? Arrogant? Maybe like her old boss, the one who had been a micromanaging, self-righteous jackass. She kind of hated how easy it was.

They all sorted themselves out, and one of the kids at least helped Lady Elisandar back into her chair.

“Guards, step aside. Doctor Dourwin, make some room.” She flapped a hand at his minions, who quickly shuffled to stand by the wall.

She finally turned to the children, who had lined up, more or less, by height. Three boys and a girl, she reckoned by their clothes, with the eldest boy in his mid-teens, the middle boy and girl maybe ten or so, and the youngest probably around eight.

If she was at the start of the book series as she suspected, Gervyn was the fifteen-year-old and also a seething morass of rage. He was not one to believe that his evil stepmother suddenly got a personality improvement.

With a sigh, she looked at him, trying to keep her face blank. “What is going on?”

He bowed very low. “I am sorry, Milady, I take full responsibility—”

“It’s my fault!” The youngest boy yelled and leapt forward to bow down on his knees, forehead pressing into the floor. The other three grabbed for him, all talking over each other.

“Gervyn Allisar! Get up!” Lady Elisandar said, the words snapping with sharp displeasure as she wrestled herself back out of her upholstered chair.

The youngest glanced over at her. “Uhm.”

She hobbled over and grabbed the back of his coat, pulling him up. “I said, get up!” She shook him with more arm strength than Teri had expected, but the boy seemed unsurprised as he flopped a little in her hold.

But the eldest, the one whom Teri thought was Gervyn, did not respond.

Things clicked into place as she looked at the kids more carefully. The eldest boy had dark blond hair, was thin and lanky, and not fully grown into his height but promising to be very tall. The two middle kids were both curly-haired brunettes with dark brown eyes, and they looked alike. Too much alike. Despite their different outfits, and the one dressed like a boy wearing her hair braided back, it was clear they looked exactly alike. So that was Robern and the twins Vycette (in a dress) and Aurguth (in breeches). Which meant the youngest was…

“Gervyn Allisar! I’m talking to you!” Lady Elisandar shook him again.

He was too young. Too young. At the start of the series, he was a disgruntled teenager with too much power and not enough control, a great mage on the cusp of meeting his destiny or die trying.

Technically, he was not an adult when the series started, but he definitely wasn’t a tiny little child.

“Oh no,” Teri said with a gasp as the truth slammed into her. Her damn brain had thrown her into some kind of bizarre canon divergence, but all she knew was the actual canon. The only fanfics she had ever read that started with the kids that young also usually featured an extra-early, extra-grisly death for Bonarae Greyrage. Fans hated her that much.

Then she noticed that everyone had stopped again, and were staring at her with various ranges of fear.

Except for Gervyn, of course, who was looking around but not, surprisingly, trying to escape Lady Elisandar’s hold. He was a kid, but Lady Elisandar couldn’t have that much strength, Teri thought. Surely he could twist right out of her hands if he wanted to.

After a moment of everyone holding their breath, waiting for Lady Greyrage’s legendary temper, Gervyn stepped forward, which meant he dragged Lady Elisandar along because she was not letting go. Teri had to respect that.

But in another surprise, he was not making for the door.

“Lady Greyrage, it’s my fault! Don’t listen to Robern!”

Robern went pale but still managed to slap his brother’s shoulder. “Gervyn! Shut up!”

“Everyone shut up.” Teri spoke softly as she slowly twisted to sit on the edge of the bed. It was not a great idea for her right leg, which immediately began throbbing. Doctor Dourwin tutted at her but at least dragged over a heavy foot stool and helped her prop her leg up. Everyone watched with morbid fascination, although on the kids and the minions it was spiced up with wary apprehension. Teri realized that this was probably the first time anyone in Luttiron had ever seen Lady Greyrage injured.

When her leg was settled and pain dropped back down a bit, she rolled her shoulders and tried to sit up straight and proper like her parents had beat into her for church. It had some effect, as the minions all sorted themselves out by age and Lady Elisandar shifted into a submissive posture. Although she did not let go of Gervyn, Teri noticed.

“Why would I blame Robern for a void howler attack?” She asked, looking at Gervyn.

“Oh. Uhmmmm…you wouldn’t?” He said hopefully. She narrowed her eyes and everyone but Gervyn and Aurguth stepped back nervously.

“Do you not remember what happened?” Robern asked diffidently.

Doctor Dourwin opened his mouth but Teri spoke up quickly, and loudly. “No, I do not. It is not uncommon for people to not remember traumatic accidents if they were badly injured, as I was.”

She noticed the doctor studying her carefully as she spoke, and realized too late that she was acting way too smart for being Lady Greyrage.

:She was not that dumb.:

:How do you know?: She asked Theo while Robern and his siblings all carried on a silent conversation via eyebrows and shoulder shrugs.

:You listened to the audiobooks all the time in the car,: Theo said with a resigned and slightly judgmental air.

:I can’t believe my dog is judging my commuting cope. Get back on the bed, you are making the minions nervous.:

He barked, making everyone even more nervous, before jumping up on the bed, spinning around three times, and flopping down next to her, radiating annoyance.

Well, everyone except Gervyn and Aurguth, of course. She sighed and waved her hand around.

“I will never remember what happened, so someone needs to speak up.”

Gervyn opened his mouth but Robern not-so-subtly kicked him in the ankle, making the younger boy yelp and stumble, although Lady Elisandar still refused to let go of his tunic. Teri was impressed.

Robern stepped forward, and Teri noticed that he strategically placed himself between her and his siblings. It was the bravest thing she could ever remember him doing before his tragic life was cut short at the start of book one.

“It’s all my fault, Lady Greyrage,” he said, bowing low.

“Is it, now?” She glanced at Gervyn, who at least was smart enough to keep his face turned down, eyes focused on the carpet. Vycette and Aurguth mirrored his pose, hands clasped demurely in front of them. They all looked humble and contrite, and Teri wasn’t buying that on BOGO.

“I promised them a picnic, and made excuses to their tutors to get out of classes. I lied to them, claiming I had received your permission to do so. My siblings are blameless!”

The grumbling from Gervyn and Vycette was telling Teri otherwise, but she let Robern keep digging the hole deeper.

“I led them out into the woods. I didn’t know a void howler had been reported by the river, I swear it!”

Teri thought back to what she knew of void howler lore. They drank umbruus, the spiritual force closely associated with children because of how close they were to the line between birth and death. Not Robern, who was well into puberty, but the younger ones who had not crossed the adolescent line yet and were filled with umbruus would be a strong lure.

“You attracted the void howler, and I was tracking it. The fight did not go well,” she added with a sharp punctuation, motioning towards her leg. The twins and Robern all paled, which reminded Teri that the kids had been there to see their stepmother nearly die.

Or actually die, and get replaced with Teri.

If any of it was real, which it wasn’t, she reminded herself.

:No, it really happened! I was there!:

“Theo, please stop talking,” she groaned, rubbing her temples. When she looked up everyone was bowing low. “What?”

Robern cleared his throat. “The Most Honorable Familiar saved your life. We are indebted to you, Most Honorable Familiar.”

:Aaaiiii the puppies are so cute!: Theo got up and bounced on his feet, causing the bed to shake.

“Ow. Fine, get down, you’re hurting my leg!” She pointed at the floor. He jumped to the floor and pranced up to Robern, who looked awed to have a dog slobbering on him.

:Good boy! You are a good boy!: Theo said while yipping at Robern.

“He’s saying that you are a good boy, and you should scratch behind his ears,” Teri said with a sigh.

“Oh!” Robern smiled brightly and started petting Theo, who wiggled with excitement. That got a reaction from the other kids, but one of jealousy as they looked at Theo with their older brother.

Lady Elisandar tutted loudly. “You planned to sneak back and hope no one asked too many questions, didn’t you?” She said to no one in particular, but all the kids, including Robern, flinched. She rolled her eyes. “Your father will flog you for the harm your prank caused milady.”

“It was my idea!” Gervyn yelled, spooking Theo, who scuttled backwards. The flock of doctors kept to the side but also kept their eyes nervously on Theo. Gervyn looked a little wild-eyed himself as Robern told him to shut up and tried pushing him back behind their sisters.

Clearly, it had been Gervyn’s idea, and Robern was trying to protect his younger brother from a severe corporal punishment at the hands of their brutal father.

:It’s The Incident,: Teri thought with a flair of panic.

:The what?: Theo hopped back up on the bed.

:It’s part of Gervyn’ backstory! It’s when everything changed for Gervyn, because Robern was nearly killed during a punishment, and his health never recovered. It lead to his death in the first book. Something about a hunt going wrong…she was not severely injured, though. I could not stand up right now much less whip someone. So already I’ve changed things—:

“Your father will flog you until you can’t even walk!” Lady Elisandar shrilled.

:Or maybe not,: she added.

Fuckin’ Chad had never explained exactly what happened or what Robern was punished for, outside of the meager details that Teri had explained to Theo: a severe punishment gone awry due to Lady Greyrage’s cruelty and fury. Robern’s later ill health was blamed on the injuries he sustained, which had also shattered his magical abilities. The shining, beloved heir to Allisar was broken beyond repair and died horribly because he was not able to protect himself when the siblings went on the run.

More importantly, it was a turning point in young Gervyn’s life, the moment when his youthful innocence was crushed and he vowed revenge on his father and step-mother. It was a time he rarely talked about, even with his sisters. Fandom speculation was that Fuckin’ Chad kept the details about Robern’s punishment a bit mysterious on purpose, but Teri would lay money on the fact he just forgot about it as the story progressed.

The situation she was in might not be The Incident, but it lined up.

According to the plot, then, Teri would have to get up and whip a kid nearly to death. Or ask the vicious and cruel Lord Ferdiff Allisar to do it for her.

:NO!: Theo barked. :NO HURTING THE PUPPIES!: He growled, and Teri absently reached out to rub his head and calm him down while the doctor and Lady Elisandar took two careful steps back from her bedside.

:No,: she agreed. :No hurting the puppies.:

Her brain had concocted a perfect “fix-it” scenario, maybe as a way to keep her mentally engaged while comatose. That made as much sense as anything else, she thought, as she spun out ways to actually fix things without getting her character accused of being possessed by a demon or something.

Sometimes she hated her brain.

Subscribe now

NEXT: Ota Enters the Chat

Thank you for reading! 🎊 I’d love your comments and feedback! ☕

Find KimBoo: Notes • Bluesky • Tumblr • Facebook • House of York

Support my dog! 🐶: Ko-fi • PayPal

Transmigrated Teri is an ongoing isekai/portal fantasy series about Teri Graves, an embittered middle-age GenX office lady who gets into a massive car accident and wakes up in the world of the fantasy series she loves to hate, The Allisar Fireborn Chronicles. She knows the characters, she knows the plot, and she knows that its all a massive coma dream…except for how nothing is as it should be. Worse? She woke up in the body of the doomed evil stepmother! She escaped a pandemic for this?

Table of Contents

Previously: “Reborn as the evil stepmother doomed to die!!!!”…

Lady Arnee Elisandar shuffled into the chamber, her hunched frame stooped beneath the weight of years that bent her back but never bowed her spirit. Her wizened face, withered and etched like an ancient relic, once cherubic, now sagged beneath cascades of wrinkles and nearly transparent skin. Her beady, watery eyes gleamed with the curiosity of the perpetually meddlesome, darting around the room with practiced vigilance. Short in stature and plump in the way of the well-fed elder nobility, she scuttled next to Lady Greyrage, clucking softly, her voice a faint rasp. To others, she was a nuisance; to Greyrage, strangely irreplaceable.

~ Allisar Fireborn Chronicles, Book 1: Embers of Destiny

While her thoughts tumbled through her head and Lady Elisandar continued fussing over her, Teri tried to grab onto a plan of action. Any plan of action would do. She stared up at the bed’s ostentatious canopy, which was thick, gathered burgundy silk. It seemed like such an odd detail for a coma-dream to have. Not to mention the talking dog.

:I am not a dream dog!:

“You mentioned that already,” Teri mumbled.

Theo finally turned around, then padded across the bed to flop down next to her.

:Then stop thinking it. I’m your familiar!:

She paused, then tried thinking at him instead of talking. :You’re Mom’s dog.:

:Which mom?: He sounded confused.

:Mom. You know, the deranged person living in my house who hates me?: She frowned. :How many mothers do you think I have?:

:The one there, and the one here!:

:Wait, you know about Lady Greyrage’s mother?:

He nodded his head.

:How?:

:Because I live here!:

That could only make sense in a coma-dream, Teri decided, and dropped the subject. Theo looked at her in confusion for a moment, before his shallow mind cleared and he flopped down again completely.

Which was fine with her.

She had watched enough isekai anime to know that playing the “amnesia trope” card was her best short-term solution, but losing “her” memory would not entirely explain a complete change in personality. She needed a better excuse, and she needed it to be one that she could play out for the long-term if necessary. Who knew how long she’d be in a coma, or what her subconscious would do if she didn’t play along? She’d seen Inception too, after all.

She lay still and closed her eyes, drifting back through pages and pages of the book series and everything she knew about Lady Greyrage, who was not a character she had ever put much thought into before. Like most fans, she hated her, but not to the point of obsessiveness. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much for her to remember, because Fuckin’ Chad had simply never brought up much of her back story. Either he didn’t care or was holding out on purpose. With him, it was always a crapshoot.

What was definitively canon was that Lady Greyrage had been born weak in magic and subsequently developed a major, psychotic chip on her shoulder about it. Collectively, the fandom assumed it was the reason she hated the Allisar children in her care, since they were all fairly powerful in their own ways—especially, of course, Gervyn. Her hatred of familiars was just an offshoot of it. Or so everyone assumed.

While she eventually became powerful enough to be dangerous, when she was a girl she had never been expected to amount to anything more than a moderately powerful witch, with some control over the external magic she connected with. There were a few obscure references in the series to a disastrous shadow hunt in her youth that somehow resulted in her powers being damaged by a void howler, although naturally Fuckin’ Chad never actually explained it... Teri’s thoughts came to a screeching halt.

One of her favorite fanfics had speculated about that event and mixed up some other lore to suggest that Lady Greyrage’s still nascent powers had somehow been made discordant by the foul magic that had commanded the void howler demon she had been hunting. The fanfic writer’s premise was that the discordance had never been properly balanced, leading to her becoming a warped and cruel adult. Teri realized it might just be her way out of her current predicament... at least in regards to tricking her own brain.

“Lady Elisandar,” she said, looking thoughtfully at the canopy again while she tried to pull her ideas together into a coherent plan. “I find that the doctor is right, there are some lapses in my memory. You said it was a void howler we were hunting?”

“Yes, so I was told.”

“And it grabbed ahold of me. By my leg, I presume?” She flexed her right foot, feeling the pain radiate up her leg harshly enough to make her wince.

“Yes, Milady. Until your familiar appeared to fight it off, the demon had the upper hand.” She shuddered dramatically. “Ser Brorwyn said that if your familiar had not joined the fray, you would have likely lost your leg, if not your life.” Her voice trembled a little.

“I doubt it. Void howlers are not blood-eaters, for all that they are related to wolverines.” She squinted, trying to recall anything she had read in the bestiary section of Robern’s Library, a.k.a. the long-running fan wiki. She had been part of the ad hoc emergency team to move it to wikia when geocities was being shut down in 2009, and her obsessive meticulousness about it had earned her no friends, but it meant that she spent months in her happy place: neck deep in AFC lore.

“That is true,” Lady Elisandar said, looking perplexed.

Her plan started to take shape.

:Oh! A game?: Theo lifted his head.

:What?:

:We are going to play tricksies! Like when Mother pretends to throw the ball but doesn’t!:

:Don’t you hate that?: Teri looked over at him.

:I do! I HATE it! Argh!: He barked in annoyance. :But it makes her laugh. That! Makes me happy!:

:Yeah, sounds like Mom.: Teri nodded, turning her mind back to her just-maybe-possible plan. As the idea of what she would need to do started to form in her head, the door swung open and Doctor Dourwin entered, trailing three other bearded men in ostentatious burgundy and pink robes. It looked like an ad hoc meeting of Pretentious-Dudes-R-Us.

“Ah. Milady. Lady Greyrage.” The doctor bowed shallowly and then popped back up, giving Theo a subtle side-eye. “I have brought my colleagues.” He held out an arm, and Teri got the impression that he was getting ready to list off names, ranks, and credentials. She had been to one too many university conferences in life to have to deal with that bullshit in death...or coma, whatever, didn’t matter.

“No,” she said loudly and held up her hand in a “stop now” motion. His mouth clacked shut.

Lady Elisandar was no longer able to hold back her excitement and plucked at the doctor’s sleeve. “Milady remembers!”

He gave the elderly woman a tight smile and gestured to one of his minions to lead her back to the overly-upholstered chair.

“Is that so, Milady?”

Teri reached down to find her most annoying white-lady-speaking-to-the-manager attitude, which wasn’t very far down given the circumstances.

“I remember who I am. I remember where I come from. I remember experiences of my youth, and I remember Lady Elisandar.”

There was a pleased murmuring from her audience.

“But I do not know where I am, who you are, or what year of our emperor’s reign it is.” Which, after all, was true enough. She could tell that the body she currently had was younger than she was, but that was about all. Were they at the start of the book series? Later? Earlier? Not that it would make much difference in the long run, but she wanted to know.

She waved a hand at Lady Elisandar, who had started crying loudly again.

“She looks much older than I expected, which is why I did not recognize her at first.”

This time, the murmuring was dismayed.

Doctor Dourwin, though, was not one of the ones murmuring. He studied her with a critical eye before folding his hands in front of himself.

:This is exciting! What if he doesn’t believe you?:

:Theo, please just lay down and shut up for a minute.:

:Rude!: He spun in place for a moment and flopped back down in a huff. Everyone by the bed flinched, but continued to ignore him.

“And before you ask, no, I do not remember how I got into this situation at all. Lady Elisandar mentioned that I was on a shadow hunt for a void howler?”

Doctor Dourwin’s face turned sour like curdled milk. “Indeed.” He rolled his shoulders.

She just stared back at him, hoping she looked imperious and demanding, and not constipated.

“What imperial year do you last remember?” he asked.

Well, she knew she had forgotten something. She gnawed at her cheek for a moment, trying to do math and figure out when Lady Greyrage was actually about thirteen. There was a reason she wasn’t in the accounting or financial aid departments.

The first novel started in the 250th year of Nikodosis’s reign, when Gervyn was fifteen, and Lady Greyrage was assumed to be thirty-five. She was killed by Rustad two years later when she was about thirty-seven? Or thereabouts. She subtracted thirty-seven from 252, but that was confusing, so she thought about subtracting thirty-five from 250, no, twenty-five from fifty was twenty-five, plus ten? Minus ten?

:228! You were thirteen in 228!: Theo grumbled at her.

“Two hundred and twenty eight? Nine?” She did not have any problem looking confused and just hoped her dog--who was a dog--was good at math.

Lady Elisandar paused in her crying jag long enough to gasp loudly.

“That is a while ago. You would have been about...a girl.” Doctor Dourwin apparently was as good at math as Teri was.

“Thirteen! She was thirteen! It was when!” Lady Elisandar cut herself off and covered her mouth with a handkerchief, eyes wide.

“When, what?” He glanced over at her.

“When her courses started,” Lady Elisandar said through the material. “They started early due to her fight with a void howler!”

Everyone looked shocked by the revelation.

Bingo, Teri thought with triumph. Her plan was coming together.

:It’s not a plan, it’s a badly thrown ball.:

:Close enough!: She glared at Theo. :I have to tell them something or they will think I’m possessed!: She was not looking to get burned at the stake, even in a coma dream.

“You are not behaving like a thirteen-year-old maiden,” Doctor Dourwin said critically.

“When I woke up, I somehow knew that I was not that same girl. I’m just saying that is where my memories get cut off.” She huffed and resettled the bedcovers around her. “It’s like being in two places at once,” she offered, which was not a lie, at least.

“Hmm,” he said cryptically, eyeing her.

:He’s not catching the ball.:

:I know that!: She pointed at him. :Stop distracting me.:

The damn dog actually rolled his eyes at her.

Doctor Dourwin and his minions watched the byplay with interest, so she straightened up and focused back on the matter at hand: making headcanon her reality.

“Do you remember anything about your current life?” Dourwin finally asked.

It was a valid question, but she debated what to say. She did not remember anything about Lady Greyrage being injured on a shadow hunt while mistress of Luttiron Castle, but it hardly mattered to the inciting incident of Robern finally dying, which provoked Gervyn’s rebellion against his father.

So many terrible fathers in the Allisar Fireborn Chronicles, she mused. Not that mother figures got off much better.

No, ignorance was her best bet.

“Things look familiar, but I don’t know why. I know I am not actually thirteen years old. I can tell we are not in my rooms back in Zyphyrehon, but I am not expecting my mother to visit me.”

Everyone, including Theo and Lady Elisandar, cringed.

“Indeed,” Doctor Dourwin said after clearing his throat.

“But I’m also sure I have never borne a child.” She put a hand over her abdomen like a delicate Victorian heroine insisting she wasn’t with child. Which she knew full well Lady Greyrage had not, since her infertility was yet another contributing factor to her hatred of her stepchildren. “Yet, you mentioned children earlier.”

He opened his mouth to respond, at which point the large, heavy door to the room burst open as several of the aforementioned children tumbled in, yelling loudly and tangled up together like a ball of knotted rope, with two castle guards trying to yank them apart.

Subscribe now

NEXT: The Wildings Appear

Thank you for reading! 🎊 I’d love your comments and feedback! ☕

Find KimBoo: Notes • Bluesky • Tumblr • Facebook • House of York

Support my dog! 🐶: Ko-fi • PayPal