HORTENSE D. FESTER
Born in the village of
Festeron before the end of the
First Age of
Magic, Hortense D. Fester (it is not known if Fester is her maiden
name) lived with her parents and sisters.
Y’Gael was the eldest of the
three. Hortense was the middle. The youngest and scrawniest, was
Gladys, who later styled herself The Evil One. Like her sisters,
Y'Gael and Gladys, she had a talent to read another person's mind only
when their thoughts were particularly transparent.
Late in
her years, during the
Second Age of Magic, Gladys ushered in the curse
of
Witchville hoping to enslave Festeron, then the entire world. Gladys
saw this almost as a game. Every time she was defeated she tried again.
The Witchville transformation happened frequently throughout the course
of the Second Age of Magic since its beginning in 1157 GUE. As time
progressed, certain rules, agreed upon by the sisters, were set in
place. One of the fundemental principles was that both Y'Gael and
Hortense were forbidden to directly involve themselves in the conflict.
While Hortense originally did not participate in the battles
against Gladys, by the time of
Sneed and
Simon, she had downright
opposed Gladys, by presenting each one with a
Kitchen Wonder to aid in
the battle against The Evil One (both Mr. Sneed and Simon received one
from her).
The
first cursed Witchville night in the career of Simon was the only known
time in which Gladys trespassed specific rules that had been laid down
between the sisters. In reprisal, it was necessary for both Hortense
and Y'Gael to intervene in order to prevent more from being broken.
Magical combat broke out, in which Hortense summoned a perfectly formed
miniature
horse with dark blue wings. The Evil One lost, but when the
sisters relaxed their guard, the Evil One fabricated a colony of huge
snakes that wrapped themselves around them so that their arms were
pinned to their bodies. Before anything could grow worse, the
Honorable
Roger arrived with the
Platypus Guard. The troop rescued the entangled
sisters and carried them out of the room. The two good sisters were not
present to witness Simon's defeat of Gladys, but congratulated him
afterward.
During the reign of Simon the Postman, Hortense was an elderly woman, living at:
3 Festeron Circle
Festeron Village, Festeron H7632WWWT3-2134X
Hortense's relationship to
Phineas T. Fester, founder of Festeron, is unknown.
| SOURCE(S): Wishbringer (novel) |