Lady Ember waved a hand at the far wall of the chamber. "Look over there," she said, "tell me, what do you see?"
Edward rolled his eyes, annoyed, but he did so. "Hunting trophies," he said, "A shield, with my family arms. The family sword. For pity's sake, Lady Ember, I'm the Prince of Thornhollow, what would you EXPECT to see?"
"You'd be surprised," Lady Ember said, "You'd agree with me, then, that this is the bedroom of a young man?"
"Obviously."
"Then you'd be sorely mistaken." Lady Ember rose to her feet, and for the first time, Edward noticed that she was taller than him. Had she always been taller than him? "The nature of my role as Imperial Magician allows my power, to some extent, to affect the entirety of Vale, especially when I can call upon the blessing of the empress herself. That power is dependent on my doing what is in the empire's best interests, such that my magic and the people are intertwined."
"Which means what, exactly?"
"Which means that as long as it is the best interest of the empire, I can do almost anything to the people that live here. I can cast an entire city into an eternal sleep. I can turn a forest into a desert. I can make the Silver River flow uphill. Compared to that, it's almost trivial to convince the entire empire of something utterly absurd. For example, that it is normal for a young man to wear pants, or wield a sword, or take pleasure in hunting."
She waved her hand, and suddenly a strange wind blew through the chamber, lifting up Edward's gown. Wait, GOWN?! He looked down. His armor was gone, and he was once again wearing that beautiful pink gown Princess Elizabeth had worn. He looked to the far wall of the chamber. The sword and shield and hunting trophies were all gone. In their place was a golden harp and a floor-length mirror that showed him in all his glory. Even as he watched, his hair grew and weaved itself into braids, and his face softened. Makeup seemed to appear from nowhere. He whirled on Lady Ember again, keenly aware of just how huge she was in comparison to him.
"What..." he said, in a voice that had clearly never aged past puberty, "what's going on?!"
"I am breaking my spell," Lady Ember said, "and I am revealing to you the world as it truly is."
She turned away, and shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said, "it was never meant to last this long. There wasn't supposed to be enough time for a boy to be born and grow up, all believing that it was somehow fit and proper for him to be living like a woman."
"Well, if living like a woman isn't 'fit and proper', how about changing me back?"
Lady Ember sat down again, and sighed. "Don't you understand?" she said, "I HAVE changed you back. The world you grew up in was a lie. In reality, it is women who are strong and courageous, and men are beautiful and nurturing. It is women who fight, hunt, and build, and men who cook, clean, and care for their children. I didn't turn you into a 'womanly man', Your Highness. You were BORN one. What you are now is what being a man IS. It was only my spell that ever made things seem otherwise, and when you kissed Princess Elizabeth, that spell was broken, and the world was returned to normal."
Edward shook his head. "But that's..."
"Ridiculous?" Lady Ember asked, "I have my reasons, believe it or not. Allow me to explain."