Mmm... I don't know.

Agatha's upbringing might well have been quite strict and she might well have carried that forward, but I don't think you can necessarily ascribe that to a given time period. Harsh starting environments exist in any time period, as do more pleasant ones.

I think her attitude might have more to do with the fact that she's a resident of the Darkrealms universe. It's a dark place, that's not very kind to the "Unseen". Agatha is the head witch in a harsh, cruel world that would be just as happy to see her hide (and the hides of her children and grandchildren) drying on the barn door. She's lived with intolerance and with both general and specific cruelties visited upon her and hers, most of her life (or so I gather from what I can glean about her past).

I think ... she has a brutal, survivor mentality. She fought her way to the top of the heap, and she probably thinks most of her grandchildren are too soft to have much chance to survive without protection. From how we've seen her interact (say, with Mr McC for example) I think she does actually enjoy being powerful and dispensing what she sees has justice. But I also think her approach to her own descendants may be a kind of "tough love" "it's for their own good" kind of thing.

Maybe I'm reading too much into what we've seen of her so far. As I commented in earlier chapters, I was hoping we'd learn a lot more about what makes her tick in this story.

With regard to the transformation, circumstances do usually conspire to keep the transformee in their new gender. It's certainly not a universal truth, but it is a truism of these kinds of stories. I wouldn't put it past EoF to turn that on its head and do something different, but we'll have to wait and see on that. In absence of further evidence to the contrary, I think it's pretty unlikely that Kelly will be transformed back.

There are a number of elements that might have an impact on that:

The first element is that Kelly is clearly developing the ability to perceive and work with magic. Kelly doesn't go and look at the book during his/her second trip to the basement. Had she done so, I suspect she would have been surprised to discover that the book she had previously thought of as "blank" was now filled with words. She's seen magical auras while others have been casting spells (as Maggie Finson pointed out). Kelly's affinity for magic may well impact his/her ability to turn back into a boy. The "magic" she's developing (as a girl) may not want to go back into the "bottle" of boyhood, and may resist attempts to turn Kelly back into a boy.

The second is Agatha herself. My guess is that Agatha will probably be under the impression that "more witches is good," and "daughters are more useful to the clan than dead-weight sons". I'm only guessing when I say that, but it seems a reasonable assumption based on what we've seen from Agatha. If Agatha is really as brutally, coldly survival oriented as I've speculated, then she MIGHT refuse to transform (or rather, help transform) Kelly back on that basis. In other words, if (when) Agatha realizes that Kelly is developing magical ability she may feel compelled to conscript Kelly into what she sees as a brutal fight for survival. My guess is that even if Agatha doesn't decide to force the issue, she'll still be deeply unsympathetic if Kelly tries to resist magical training once Agatha learns that Kelly is capable of it.

The third issue is Mary. Whatever spell was cast on Kelly, it's Mary who has to undo it. That (according to what EoF has told us) is how magic works in this universe. Agatha knows what spell Mary was attempting to cast. Agatha CLAIMS she knows what Mary did wrong. We don't know if that's actually correct. We don't know what Mary actually did. Mary may actually be incapable of following the trail of her own work and undoing what she did the first time, even with Agatha's help.

The fourth issue is Mary again. As the old rhyme goes: "Mary, Mary, quite contrary". Mary has a contrary, malicious streak. It's possible that even if she can fix the problem she's created, she may decide (for some as yet unrevealed reason) to be obstinate, and not fix it. At least, not within the confines of the story.

The fifth issue is Mary yet a third time. As I said above, by the rules of the universe, Mary is the one who has to undo the spell she cast, no one else can. What happens if Mary mysteriously isn't available to cast the spell?

The sixth issue is Sophie. We don't know who or what she is, but she certainly seems to have an unrevealed agenda. I don't recall if she has a particular scent, she might, and Kelly might simply have been unaware of it. But even if Sophie doesn't have a distinctive "were" scent, she still seems to attract attention the way one of the weres would, and she seems to be able to eat like one. She might be a red herring, but within the scope of the narrative, that seems unlikely. She might have a direct impact on Kelly's gender, or she might have a more subtle, indirect influence. Either way, I think there's more going on than we've seen so far, and I'm not convinced she doesn't have malice as a hidden motive.

Finally, EoF might well decide to turn the entire genre on it's head, and actually turn Kelly back into a boy. I tend to think that won't happen, but I will point out that "Stuck" wasn't used as a header tag for this story. EoF was pretty explicit about the fact that Tracy was indeed "stuck" as a girl in For the Fairest, both in the tagging on the story, and in replies he made to comments on the story. That's not necessarily conclusive but it does fuel my personal speculations.

My guess would be that Kelly will spend most of this particular story as a girl (as a result of various circumstances). At the END of the story, a solution will be found which will allow Kelly to turn back into a boy. However, during the story, Kelly will have become acclimated to magic, and will have begun to learn how to use it. So ... Kelly will be faced with a choice: Remain a girl, and retain the ability to practice magic, or turn back into a boy and have the ability to practice magic go dormant again. Thus, Kelly won't be "stuck" but will have to make a choice. (And we'll have to wait until the end of the story to see what that choice will end up being).

As for the emotional issue having repercussions, I simply meant I expect Kelly to be yelled at by his/her grandmother. I expected more of an emotional/social interaction following that action by Kelly.