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?
Previously: Teri tried to convince everyone she’s totally normal...
The tension in the chamber crackled like a storm barely contained, with Lady Greyrage at its tempestuous center. Her eyes, sharp and unyielding, bore down on Gervyn, who met her glare with a defiant flicker of teenage insolence. “You’re a disgrace,” she spat, her voice as bitter as the accusations she hurled. Gervyn’s bravado faltered under her onslaught, but he refused to look away, silently taunting her with his indomitable spirit. Ota, ever the peacemaker, interjected with soothing words, attempting to temper the arc of her fury. “Come now, dear sister-in-law, surely we can find softer voices,” he pleaded, layering charm over his own unease. But Lady Greyrage dismissed him with a sneer, her wrath undiminished.
~ Allisar Fireborn Chronicles, Book 1: Embers of Destiny
The following days were the monotony that Teri had originally expected: sleepy, boring, and vaguely painful. “Vaguely” was because whatever was in the little paper packets the minions delivered at regular intervals made her feel both loopy and disconnected from the pain radiating up her leg.
When she was ten, she had broken her arm rollerskating into a ditch, but it had been more of a minor bone fracture than a complete break, and she had once nearly been hospitalized with strep throat, but neither experience came close to the level of pain she was fighting off. She figured the adrenaline high she had when she first woke up had covered a lot of sins, because she could not imagine scooting around the way she had that first day.
She had been told that the pain medicine would stifle her magic, which was fine with Teri, since she wasn’t sure what magic felt like or how to use it. There was a kind of golden energy running through her nerves sometimes, a pleasant, syrupy sensation that was more like the one time she had microdosed on psychedelic mushrooms and saw ghosts moving in the ceiling. Which, when she thought about it, was probably as good an analogy to “magic” as she could come up with.
The result was a week of sitting around, sleeping, being fed and watered like a delicate orchid, and otherwise being bored out of her mind. Theo mostly slept through it all, grumbling that she was being noisy whenever she cried out in pain.
:I am not above thwacking you with a rolled up newspaper.: She tried to mentally do it, imagining smacking him upside his head.
:Lies! Anyway you canceled the newspaper subscription when your mother started hoarding everything.: He yawned in her face, circled around, and fell back asleep with a loud snore.
The kids did not reappear, which was probably a wise political move on their part, so the only people she saw regularly were Lady Elisandar and a young woman who was presumably one of Lady Greyrage’s ladies-in-waiting, named Lady Sariat. Teri had no memory of a character by that name and wondered why she had made her up. It wasn’t as if Fuckin’ Chad had not stuffed his books with literally hundreds of named and mostly inconsequential characters along the way. But no, clearly that wasn’t enough for Teri, who had made up a new one out of whole cloth.
At least the girl was quiet, spending most of her time brewing tea and shepherding Lady Elisandar around.
Unfortunately, the other person she saw regularly was not ever the least bit quiet. Lord Ota had decided that his sister-in-law needed to know all the latest developments regarding both the spring festival ball he was planning and local gossip, neither of which Teri gave a damn about.
He pranced into the room, as always dressed to the nines under layers of heavily embroidered silk in enough colors to put a bird of paradise to shame. He fluttered a bit, looking over Lady Sariat’s shoulder as she laid out snacks and (un-medicated) tea for him, then touring around the room as if he had never seen it before. Which was what he did every single time he visited.
“The florist says blue tripwillows are out of season, and I cannot have them for the boughs over the doorways,” he said mournfully, flapping his fan as he gazed out one of the tall windows to the yard beyond. Teri had not even been mobile enough to get to a window yet, so had no clue what he was staring at.
“I don’t know what tripwillows are and I honestly don’t care,” Teri said with a heavy sigh. It was not the first time she had said something similar, from “I don’t know what the Deamark Clan would prefer as snacks and I honestly don’t care,” to “I don’t know who the Lord Master Jeweler’s third daughter is courting and I honestly don’t care.” Ota took it all in stride, but Theo kept vibrating with disappointment at her lack of participation.
“You should! Tripwillows symbolize fertility and strength!” He turned baleful eyes her way.
“Because they bloom in late winter, you spurious boy!” Lady Elisandar stomped her cane on the ground. “You should know by now when they bloom!” The “by now” was heavily accented, and made Ota shield his face with his fan. Teri wondered what that was about.
:Everyone is upset that he hasn’t found a good bitch yet.:
:Wife! Not bitch! Human women are not bitches!: Teri tried not to laugh, because it hurt her ribs too much.
:You called Nancy a bitch all the time.:
:That’s different. She’s my sister-in-law.:
:Humans make no sense,: Theo sighed and jumped off the bed, trotting out the door. Lady Sariat scuttled out of his way with a slightly anxious expression, and Ota kept himself pressed up against the window ledge until even the tippy-tappy of Theo’s claws on the wooden floors had petered off.
“I told you, Theo is harmless.”
“He ate a void howler,” Ota stressed, pointing his fan toward the doorway.
“You’re not a void howler, are you? No? Then you’re fine.” She grumbled and tried to straighten up a bit more. Lady Sariat was there in an instant, shoving pillows around like a professional nurse. Teri thought maybe she was a mental representation of an actual nurse tending to her in real life. It made sense, anyway.
Ota finally came over and collapsed dramatically into the upholstered chair next to Lady Elisandar. He paused and gave Teri the most intelligently curious look she had ever seen on him.
“You truly don’t remember anything about your life here in Luttiron, do you?”
It was less a genuine question than an actual statement of fact.
Teri rubbed her eyes. “Has this been an interrogation this whole time? Five days of quizzing me on random things?”
“Not intentionally.” He shrugged apologetically, his eyes gone wide and vacuous. “Why would I do that? I was just talking about things you used to know.”
Doubtful, because Teri could not imagine that Lady Greyrage herself cared about tripwillow flowers (whatever they were) or the jeweler’s third daughter. On the other hand, Ota was generally too useless to actually interrogate anyone other than florists and tailors. She refrained from rolling her eyes, but her response was cut off by Doctor Dourwin himself appearing in the doorway. Lady Elisandar looked up from her embroidery suspiciously.
He bowed to Ota, then to Teri.
“I believe it is time to start rehabilitation exercises.” He did not sound excited about it himself, which Teri took to mean that whatever he had in mind was going to be a world of pain for her. The rather minor physical therapy she got after her broken arm had been agonizing. She was not looking forward to whatever her brain had come up with to torture her.
Why couldn’t she have imagined taking a long tropical sabbatical at a Tahitian resort? She loved the Allisar Fireborn Chronicles, but they were hardly a great vacation spot. On the other hand, if she wanted to grab the kids and escape Luttiron completely in order to have some fun, she needed her leg to be working.
She gave the doctor a fierce glare worthy of Lady Greyrage herself, and was pleased to see that he almost flinched.
“I assume this will be painful.”
He nodded grimly. “It will not be painless, milady.” He glanced over at her ladies in waiting. “I feel that it would be best not to have an audience for it.”
Lady Elisandar opened her mouth to protest, but Teri slashed her hand through the air. “Acceptable,” she said imperiously, and pointed at the door. “Close it on your way out.”
“Gooddayseeyoutomorrow!” Ota did a speed run out of the room, his fan batting at his face.
“That boy has no stomach for violence,” Lady Elisandar muttered loudly with disapproval, but she gathered her things and handed them to Lady Sariat as they walked out and closed the door.
It was just as painful as expected, and by the end of it, she was sweating and gasping for breath. Her suspicion that the golden syrupy feeling was “magic” was confirmed when he pressed a glowing hand to her thigh and she actually felt her muscles strengthening through the warm sensation. Doctor Dourwin brewed the medical tea on the tea tray that Lady Sariat had left behind and when he handed the cup to Teri, she slugged it and passed out before he had left the room.
The next few days were a blur of pain as she worked her muscles again.
By the end of her second week in coma-dreamland-Luttiron Castle, she felt well enough to try to walk, despite the lingering pain in her right thigh. Doctor Dourwin refused to say anything directly, but Teri suspected that they were not going to get much more progress in her healing. It was not canon-compliant in any way, shape, or form but Lady Greyrage was going to have a limp for the rest of her life (or until Teri woke up from her coma). The Ladies Elisandar and Sariat were despondent over it, but Theo took it with equanimity and a possibly snide comment about “hopping bitches” that Teri just did not want to ask for clarification about.
When she asked Dr. Dourwin about trying to walk, though, he nixed the idea, saying she was not ready yet.
“The pain would be extraordinary, milady,” he said with a slight and possibly insincere bow.
“Yes, but can my leg hold it?”
He pursed his lips.
“I just want to know how far along I am!” She stabbed at the air in front of her with her pointer finger, as if jabbing him in the chest. He automatically backed up a step.
“The break has mended well, but your leg muscles and tendons are still recovering.”
“Thank you for your honesty,” she said piously, and waited for him to leave.
Once again, as soon as he left, Ota and her ladies in waiting swooped in.
“You would not believe what they’re saying about Duchess Oritan’s debut at the capital!” Ota said breathlessly, fanning himself. Lady Elisandar looked Teri over critically, then went and sat down with prejudice, pulling out her embroidery in order to better ignore everyone. Lady Sariat stood a little behind Ota and had her face scrunched up unhappily. Teri assumed whatever the gossip was about, it was sordid.
“I don’t care. Come here.” She waved at him imperiously.
He froze in a half-seated position over the chair he had claimed for himself. “Eh?”
“Come here, you useless fan flapper.”
Lady Sariat mouthed the words “fan flapper,” but then busied herself with fussing over Lady Elisandar.
He approached her cautiously, which Teri understood well. No one wanted to be within slapping distance of Lady Greyrage.
“I need your help. Get over here,” she said, pointing to a spot next to the bed.
He scooted over and stood there, still eyeing her warily. Theo raised his head, glanced between them, and went back to sleep.
“Okay, here we go.” She flipped the covers off and pivoted slowly to the edge of the bed, mentally pushing back the pain that flared up nearly everywhere.
“Milady!” Lady Elisandar said sharply, then smacked Lady Sariat. “Go help her!”
Teri hissed as she slowly shifted her bad leg off the bed, her leg muscles flexing around the still-healing bone. Ota reached out as if to brace her, but then pulled his hands back.
“Give me your hand!” She snapped at him, grabbing for it. He nodded and let her grab his hand. His expression was uncertain, but his grip was surprisingly strong.
“Milady, is this wise?” Lady Sariat said, hovering nearby, hands out as if to catch Teri if she tumbled off the bed.
“Definitely not, but I’m tired of sitting around in this damn bed like a lump.” Teri took a deep breath, planted her good foot on the floor, and pulled on Ota’s hand to leverage herself up. “Oh, okay, I think this is working!”
She did not have a plan, other than to try to hobble over to the window. Even that bit of freedom felt exhilarating.
Ota smiled nervously at her as she loosened her hold on him to swing her bad leg forward with a hop, and in the next moment both her strength and her balance gave out. She screamed in pain as she fell to the side, her head crashing into the solid wood of the bed. Pain enveloped her brain, and then everything started to fade. She just made out Lady Sarait screaming and Ota looking panicked.
Theo’s head appeared over the side of the bed just as her brain started shutting down. At least, she thought, she was finally dying for real.
:You’re not going anywhere, though.: Theo’s words, disappointed and soft, were the last thought she had.
NEXT: What If?
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