He does. It's his mother. He's in his boyhood home. And he's...younger, about the age he was when he killed his father.
Wilhelm doesn't remember eating anything before leaving, but isn't hungry, but he does remember cleaning up after himself. Wilhelm finds himself with his father, out in the forest, hunting. As if this were an activity the two often did together as father and son. "I'm very proud of you, Wilhelm. You're growing into a fine young man."
((So, about ten, then?))
[color=green]"Thank you, Papa," Wilhelm says, still a little confused. He finds himself wondering if they're still in the faerie regio, or a faerie regio anyway, and if he's having to do another story like the faerie were talking about (which he still doesn't understand). And wondering if he's going to have to relive the last twenty-some years of his life.
He finds himself watching his father intently, for any signs that he's not who he seems, that possibly the faerie has already replaced him like he had before.
Nothing seems to be all that different about him, but there's been a lot of time that's passed since he last saw his father. Eventually Wilhelm notices certain things about how the day unfolds, signs that are familiar, because he's likely relived them several times. This is the day Wilhelm killed his father, but it's different. Suddenly Wilhelm senses he has the opportunity to take the shot that kills his father... He hears voices in the distance but cannot see...
"Can a man who was a girl and is now a boy change a family'sfate?"
"Can fate be woven like a tapestry, or is this just a story?"
"The story remains the same, it always does."
"Pull the thread that's tied to his shooting arm. Let the arrow fly."
"I cannot. It is held fast. We may not intervene."
"We can only observe."
"Is this not our story?"
"The story must unfold as it always has."
"The arrow must fly, or we are lost."
"It is our Winter."
As Wilhelm makes the connection, he nocks an arrow, but doesn't draw. He moves closer, quietly ((Dex 2 + Stealth (in natural areas) 3 + Ways of the Forest 3 + die roll of 4 = 12))
[color=green]"Papa...do you still love Mama?" he asks.
He doesn't have the anger that he felt all those years ago when he found out that his father was cheating on his mother, with several different women. But he also loves his mother, and can't allow her to be betrayed like that. Listening to the voices, he doesn't know if he's destined to kill his father, or if he will be able to not loose the arrow. And he's not entirely sure what he wants to do.
"Wilhelm, what are you doing?! What are you talking about?!?" Sensing Wilhelm's seriousness, "Of course I love your mother. My family is very important to me. All I do is to support my family that I love."
[color=green]"What about..." and he names the women that he remembers his father being with, all those years ago.
[color=green]"Are you really Hilprant? Or are you someone, something else?"
"What about them? They are widowed women of the village, widows of friends who died too young. I help them because of my friendship. What are you saying?" He seems very confused by the implication, as if he can't imagine it. What Wilhelm asks next confuses him even more. "I'm you're father, Wilhelm, put down that bow."
((Can Wilhelm tell if he's telling the truth? Per 2 + Folk Ken 0 + die roll of 3 = 5.))
[color=green]"Once upon a time," Wilhelm begins, lowering the bow, [color=green]"there was a little girl, about as old as I am. She loved her parents very much, and was very much the tomboy. She and her father spent much time in the woods, and she grew very proficient in woodsmanship. Especially hunting, she was all but unequalled in her skill with the bow. One day, she spied her father in bed with a woman who was not her mother. She was very angry at this, but said nothing to anyone, not even her parents. Over the next several weeks, she saw the same thing happening again and again, with several different women. The little girl decided that enough was enough, and that something had to be done. The next time she went hunting with her father, he wound up dead, an arrow through his throat. The Vogt decided that it had been an accident, since he knew of no reason for a ten-year-old child to kill her father."
By this point, Wilhelm is in tears. [color=green]"The little girl, a couple of weeks later, left the village she grew up in and lived the rest of her life as a boy and a man, winding up in another village weeks, if not months away, without a family of her own, being alone the rest of her days.
Finally, more than twenty years later, her family found her. It turns out that the man the girl had seen cheating on his wife, the man who wound up dead on the forest floor, wasn't her father after all. Her father had been lured into the faerie lands, and had been replaced by a faerie, a Doppelgänger...that was who the girl had seen in the beds of the other women."
Wilhelm unstrings his bow. [color=green]"I don't want to make the same mistake, Papa. If you tell me that you're not cheating on Mama with those other woman, I believe you. I love you, Papa." He hugs his father, tears pouring down his face, not knowing what's going to happen next.
"I have not been with other women. Some have thrown themselves at me, but my heart belongs to your mother. It has always been so."
As he hugs his father, the scene dissolves and his father is gone from Wilhelm's arms. Surrounding him are the four figures with bluish skin.
"What's done is undone."
"The woman who was a man is now a man."
"Let a man, be a man."
"Only the sister was not cleverer."
"Indeed, we extract our price."
The one who speaks first and last touches Wilhelm's forehead and he falls asleep. When he awakens, he's in the center of the clearing. There are no tracks in the clearing, not even Wilhelm's.
New history for Wilhelm, when Kirstyn was taken as an apprentice, Wilhelm went along with her and was introduced to Silviatos...
((Why am I seeing the Talosians from the Star Trek episode The Menagerie?))
((Is Wilhelm full-grown again? And is it still summer, or is it winter? I'm assuming "Yes" and "Summer."))
Wilhelm looks around, a little confused, and gathers his stuff. He then looks around to try to orient himself and find a way out of there and back to the Rötenbach. ((Per 2 + Hunt (tracking) 4 + Keen Eyes 3 + Ways of the Forest 3 + die roll of 3 = 15.))
Before he sets out, he is going to feel his body, see if the changes he remembers taking place actually did, or if it was just an incredibly realistic dream. He is also, at the first calm stream/pond he comes across (something with a reflective surface), going to look at himself to see if he looks any different.
He is also (because, why not?) call out for Kirstyn to see if she's around, and possibly find out what the prices the strangers mentioned is.
((Is that what Wilhelm remembers, or what the rest of the world remembers?))
Wilhelm's looks are pretty much the same. There is perhaps a hint of masculinity in places where before there was none. His chest is flat, and he has external equipment now[1]. Wilhelm has two sets of memories that seem to overlap, and it can make things confusing for him at times. He remembers being a boy and being a tomboyish girl. He remembers meeting Silviatos after killing her father, and he remembers meeting him when Kirstyn was taken as an apprentice. He remembers being almost captured and brought back here, but the reasons are different, one was because of his father, and the other one was because Kirstyn had ordered it. Both are equally valid memories to Wilhelm.
Calling out for Kirstyn gets him nothing as a response. He easily makes his way back to Rötenbach, and everyone is there. The histories he remembers are one where the entire village was led away and Wilhelm followed the trail, and the other is where Kirstyn led Wilhelm into the regio herself.
Wilhelm is also still a virgin as a man. The reason is his member is bent hard to the left. ((See what I did there?))
((Not really, unless it's another way of saying that Wilhelm is gay. shrug I had always pictured him as being almost asexual, and the reason she was a virgin was because she never had any desire or interest in anyone, male or female, in that way.))
Looks like Wilhelm is going to have an interesting time sometimes trying to figure out which memories are real and which aren't...if either set can be called "real" anymore.
Wilhelm will spend a few days getting caught up on his family and what few friends he had that are still around.
Eventually, he's going to take his leave, he and his apprentice headed for where he last saw Kirstyn all those years ago, on the off chance that she's there and can help him figure out what the froo happened.
((No, he just swerves to the hard left when hard. It was weak, I know. He may still not have interest because it's too difficult...))
Wilhelm makes his way to Dankmar... Which is within a day or two of Rotenbach.
When Wilhelm makes it to Dankmar (assuming he does), he approaches one of the guards and asks to speak with the Merinita maga who lives there, and to let her know that her brother Wilhelm is here to visit.
"You mean Ophedra's filius?" The guard looks Wilhelm up and down, as if trying to remember him. "I remember you, you ran off with that Silvinaxos or something. What are you doing back?"
A small pause, and then he remembers more, "Oh, right, you were her big brother. Sorry, but she's not here anymore. Her mater might know where to find her, though. And, well, I don't want to get her." He looks genuinely displeased about having to tell Ohedra that her filia's brother is here.
"I can put you up in the barracks for a few days, and we'll see what we can find out. And if we can't find anything out, then I'll go to her and ask, but you'll owe me big time for this."
It shouldn't take that long to tell Ophedra that I'm here, unless she's not around, Wilhelm thinks.
[color=green]"It is possible that one of the other magi can help me, then?"
Ophedra is a right nasty piece of work, and Wilhelm remembers how all the covenfolk avoided her. Wilhelm would have, were it not for his sister being her apprentice and all... (See GoTF).
"It's possible, but almost everyone is gone. Grand Tribunal was not too long ago, many of the magi are using the event as an excuse to get away from the covenant and visit magi in other places. Ophedra and Schadrit are both here, I know that. I don't care to deal with either one, but like I said, we'll get this sorted out, you'll just need to be patient. And if you're not, you can stay out in the forest and deal with the bockmen."
Wilhelm suppresses a shudder at the memories of the two magae who remain and of the bockmen. [color=green]"We will stay here, then, until someone is able to see us."
He will let them show him and Patience to where they'll be staying, and doesn't stray very far from the covenant...and that, only during daylight hours.