The court of Quell was bustling as King Tehor was preparing an expedition to go rescue his son. Miggs was going to be the guide, but first she had to undergo a thorough examination by a court sorceress, who just happened to be Lady Kaeda, the shy maiden with spectacles who had already so unmistakably manifested a more-than-intellectual interest in the altered messenger. The messenger sat on a table in the sorceress's laboratory, while Kaeda tried to figure out how she had come into her new form.
"So goddesses on another world changed you from being a monster into this?" Lady Kaeda, delicately spreading the feathers of Miggs's wings and inspecting how they were joined to the body.
"Yes, they changed me into something resembling an angel."
"And you stayed female? Because weren't you male before?"
Miggs didn't like to be reminded of her previous, inferior, gender. "Yes, it's an all-female world. A world of loving women."
Lady Kaeda's glasses were beginning to get a bit fogged. "Women, loving women?" she asked, with an elaborate--and to Miggs, perfectly transparent--pretense of casualness.
"Exactly." Miggs smiled.
"So you. . ."
"Very much so."
"Perhaps we could continue this examination in my bedchamber." whispered the sorceress.
"I thought you would never ask." said the messenger.
++++++
King Tehor wouldn't admit it, but his concern over the prince was starting to be overridden by his excitement at launching a new expedition. In his younger days, he had been a warrior king, but it had been many years since he had left the palace for any reason but to journey to another palace. He had hoped his son would revive the warrior tradition of his family.
"You!" he shouted at one of the servants, "Move those water barrels onto the wagons!" It felt good to be barking orders again. It was also a little reassuring, after the goddesses had humiliated him in his own court.