Okay, I will spare the audience more of Gwen’s musings over whether or not she is evil because there is more of that to come later in the story. Instead, I will offer another background story which is where her debate about being evil or not begins. It takes place just after she turns 17 and is in the form of a letter to Jalik. He would go away to do architecture things because he was slightly famous, and so Gwen would write to him on occasion.
Dear Jalik,
Today was a disaster. All I did was go to the general store with Aaron (this is Gwen’s second oldest brother and not the cleric), and now the whole town wants me to leave. When we entered the store a voice drawled, “Well, look whose here, the witch and her toad. Come to set the store on fire?” We looked over, and there was Lance. I think I’ve mentioned him a few times as someone who is always contrary. He constantly calls Aaron a toad because Aaron is short. One day, I’ll turn Lance into a toad.
I thought of how you say to ignore the townspeople when they’re rude to me, so that was my plan. But Aaron isn’t one to let a thing drop, so he said, “We wouldn’t set fire to the store with you in it. The smell of burnt Lance would set the whole town vomiting.”
“Your one to talk, toad boy,” said Lance. “I could smell you before you opened the door.”
“Let’s just go, Aaron,” I said quickly. “We can come back later.”
“Why don’t you go to my place,” said Lance looking at me. “As I see it, Tad just handled you wrong. When I’m done with you, you’ll be beggin’ for more.”
Aaron swung a fist at Lance, but Lance caught his fist, and jerked Aaron’s arm behind his back.
“Let go of my brother!” I yelled.
“Not until you give me a kiss,” said Lance with a grin.
“Don’t do it Gwen,” said Aaron. “He’s weak. This doesn’t hurt.” At that, Lance jerked Aaron’s arm hard. He turned white, but didn’t cry out. Suddenly I became completely calm. I looked right at Lance and said, “You’ll let go of Aaron now.” Later, Aaron told me that my whole aura glowed purple along with my eyes. Lance looked confused for a moment. Then he let go of Aaron and said “Of course. I’m so sorry. Can I do anything else for you, Gwendolynn?”
Inwardly shocked and elated, I said, “Yes, you can collect these things on my list and carry them to the house for us.” Immediately, Lance took the list from me and started collecting up all the things. The shopkeeper looked relieved and surprised. I knew the story would travel fast and probably not favorably about me. Aaron said he was no worse for wear, and the three of us walked back to the farm. I should’ve dismissed Lance after he had put everything away for us, but then I made him clean the chicken coop for me. Aaron and I laughed after he left to clean the coop, and then Aaron started asking me questions about the power. He’s always been interested in the mechanics of my magic. He wanted to know if I could call off the charm, and I said that I thought I could, but I was going to have to clean the chicken coop tomorrow, so I wasn’t going to call it off. Then he told me to charm him so he could see how it worked and what it felt like. I did and he became all dopey like Lance. I called it off because it was unnatural to see Aaron look that way, whereas it was a great improvement to Lance. When Aaron became himself again, he said that I should probably send Lance home when he was done in the chicken coop, because he was probably going to be really upset when he came to.
We were laughing and carrying on in the kitchen when mother came in. When she found out what was going on, her mouth grew thin as a pin. She made me send Lance home right away and then lectured both of us on the sanctity of people’s minds and that controlling their actions was an invasion of this. She was livid. Aaron was told that he shouldn’t have allowed me to make Lance clean the chicken coop and hadn’t both of us grown up beyond the age of 12. She made us go out and finish the job Lance had started. In the end, we decided it had been worth it because Lance is such a jerk, and managed to have a good time cleaning the coop together.
Father insisted that everything would blow over soon, but it didn’t. Lance was so mad after he came to that he stormed into our house later that day. It took my father and all my brother’s to get him off our land. The rest of the town was worried about being forced to do things against their wills and maybe I had, after all, lured Tad to the shed with the intent of burning him up. I could never set somebody intentionally on fire! But was it really that bad to control Lance for a little bit? I mean, he would’ve broken Aaron’s nose or given him a black eye. It’s not like I intended to control him forever. Will you be home soon to set the town straight?
All my Best,
Gwen
