Chapter 29: Chapter 29 Ladies Night

There was a strange thing happening every few weeks. Somehow both Hyacinth and Haytham kept ending up at the tavern because their patrol routes had them doing so. Kaitlyn, Javorora, and Hyacinth always had tea together and Kaitlyn saved her mead experiment until Hyacinth came to share with her two friends the first taste.

“To Kaitlyn’s magical mixture,” Javorora said.

“But it isn’t magical,” Hyacinth said.

“Yes it is,” Javorora replied, “she used magic to make it. That makes it a magical mixture.”

“If she uses a spoon to stir her stew, does that make it a spoon stew?” Hyacinth asked.

“No, because there is no such thing as a spoon stew,” Javorora held out her cup, “Accept my toast or make your own.”

“Very well,” Hyacinth said and lifted her glass, “I shall toast to trying something new.”

Kaitlyn smiled at her friends and said, “Personally, I shall toast to friends. Even when those friends are sometimes ridiculous with each other.”

“You know we only argue because we like each other,” Hyacinth said smelling the mead.

“Yes,” Kaitlyn said, “Now let’s drink.”

They each lifted her cup and then took a sip. Javorora grinned and said, “That isn’t half bad.”

“Half bad? It is good,” Hyacinth said.

“Whew, it’s got a kick behind it too,” Javorora said, waving a hand in front of her face to fan it, “I dare each of you to drink three cups and walk a straight line.”

“Oh my,” Kaitlyn said as she felt the heat begin to rise to her cheeks with another sip. “You are right, this is strong.”

“It’s lovely,” Hyacinth said.

The three of them giggled at the same time and began their second cups. Javorora passed out at the table. Hyacinth poked the drunk dryad’s cheek and then poured a third cup, “Well, can she sleep in your bed?”

“I’d love that,” Kaitlyn sighed, “It would be like having a little sister. Who is like three hundred years old.”

“I think,” Hyacinth said, “she’s only about a hundred and fifty.”

Kaitlyn giggled again, unable to stop herself. She gulped back the end of the second cup and poured a third. Hyacinth held out her cup and Kaitlyn poured her one as well. They were partway through their third cups when Haytham arrived.

“Look, it is the man who I shall marry when my mother dies,” Hyacinth said.

“What?” both Kaitlyn and Haytham looked surprised by this statement.

“I shall marry him and cement the bonds between our people,” Hyacinth declared, “Your sister will be queen and I will be queen and it will be an alliance of love and trust for the first time between our people.”

“Thou art drunk,” Haytham said in surprise.

“Kaitlyn has learned,” Hyacinth grinned, “and it is delicious. You should try some.”

“How much have thee had?” Haytham said.

“Two cups,” Kaitlyn said.

“I am halfway through my third,” Hyacinth declared, then downed it all in a rush and laughed, “And now we can say three cups whole.”

“And it has gotten thee this drunk?” Haytham eyed the drink suspiciously.

“It is very strong,” Kaitlyn said and then giggled, but she couldn’t explain what was funny. She didn’t exactly know.

Haytham took only a small sip and widened his eyes, “This might be as strong as the moonshine the dwarves make. That stuff can light on fire.”

“Oh! let’s see if this does!” Kaitlyn said, trying to cast her fire spell. Haytham quickly stopped her saying, “Maybe when thee aren’t drunk. I am not sure we want to test the fireproof spells this house might or might not have.”

“Oh poof,” Kaitlyn said but sat back. “Oh! You should try the bread I make with this yeast too, it’s yummy.”

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“Oh yes!” Hyacinth said and started to stand, but wobbled. Haytham said, “Do you need help my lady?”

“No,” Hyacinth said, then said, “Maybe. But we should take Javorora inside too. Can you carry her?”

Haytham easily hefted the little dryad and all four of them entered the room. Kaitlyn went to the table and then stopped and said, “Was there always a door there?”

Hyacinth looked at the wall beside the fireplace, there was definitely a door. Haytham put Javorora on the bed and came over, putting his hand on his long knife and saying, “Let me open it first and see if it is dangerous.”

Kaitlyn shook her head and said, “The house can’t eat people anymore.”

She stepped forward and pushed open the door. For a moment she felt a sense of vertigo, she leaned on the doorframe and stared at the room inside. It was a very short hallway, two more doors on either side. At the end of the hall was a window, the window she would have sworn used to exist next to the fireplace.

The door on the left turned into a bedroom, the bedding entirely rotting and cobwebs covering every surface like sheets of white. The door on the right turned into a real kitchen. An oven built into a large fireplace, a table twice the size of the one in the main room, and a water pump right in the room.

Kaitlyn returned to the room she had lived in for a year and sank on to her current bed. She tilted her head at the two elves, and said, “Did my house… grow new rooms? Or am I too drunk?”

“Ummm,” Hyacinth said, “I would swear that door wasn’t there before.”

“I think thee should call thine master,” Haytham said, crossing his arms on his chest.

Kaitlyn pulled out her mirror and had to try twice to concentrate well enough to activate the mirror’s spell. A brownie Kaitlyn hadn’t seen before noticed her and went to fetch Master Garthis, carrying a message that she wasn’t in danger, but she was worried.

Haytham had to explain, as Hyacinth had curled up on the bed and was snoring with Javorora. Kaitlyn couldn’t talk without the mirror flickering in and out, and she was beginning to develop a headache from trying to hold the mirror’s magic. She only heard, “I will come first thing in the morning. Sleep Kaitlyn.”

“I will stand guard,” Haytham said.

“Fapallo will,” Kaitlyn muttered and snuggled her two best friends on the bed.

The next morning Haytham was sitting next to the hearth, talking softly to Fapallo, who lay with his nose pointed at the door. Kaitlyn was the first to stir and she half-stumbled outside to the well, drinking the cold water with relish. Her mouth felt like it was filled with dry cotton and her eyes filled with sand.

Master Garthis was just arriving and said, “Now, I am confused. What did Haytham mean you found new rooms in your house?”

“A door,” Kaitlyn said. “Come inside and see.”

He stood a long time just inside the house and stared at the new door. He said, “And you went through?”

“Haytham, Hyacinth and I,” Kaitlyn nodded. “There’s a real bedroom and a real kitchen.”

“Show me,” Master Garthis said firmly. Kaitlyn led the way and stopped in the bedroom, it was now cleaned of all the cobwebs and rotting items. The large bedframe stood almost gleaming, dark red and ready for a mattress and drapes.

“Yesterday it was…. filthy,” Kaitlyn said.

“The cleaning spell must have come through,” Master Garthis stepped into the room and went to the window and looked outside. He even opened the window and poked his head out, “Go outside and wave to me.”

Kaitlyn went outside and his head was looking out the window next to the front door. She stared at him and said, “How…. is this possible?”

“More new magic,” he muttered and popped back inside.

Kaitlyn went inside and looked sharply at her master, “Master Garthis, this is more than just new magic, isn’t it.”

“It is…. this is magic like I’ve only seen the greatest fae kings master,” Master Garthis said, “those which are demi-gods in their own domain have this kind of mastery of spatial manipulation.”

“Spatial manipulation?” Haytham asked.

“This house, outside it looks like a hut, but inside it has more space than should exist,” Master Garthis explained. “My father can do this kind of magic in the autumn realm. I’ve seen the queen of summer make a palace within an acorn, but it isn’t something they can do outside their realm. How did this witch manage this outside a fae realm? How did she manage the kind of powers it required?”

“Is there more?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Probably,” Master Garthis said, “but what triggered it? What caused it to show you these rooms now?”

“I need a real bedroom if my tavern will thrive?” Kaitlyn offered. “Now we can move the bed and work spaces out of here and set this up as a better tavern space. Then I can start real cooking too. Wait, where is the cellar door?”

As she had thought of cooking, she had instinctively looked to the hatch for the cellar, but it was gone. The floor was whole. They all went to the kitchen and immediately found a cellar entrance near the corner, with Kaitlyn’s ladder already in place. This room had also cleaned itself and now a bright fire crackled in the fireplace to welcome Kaitlyn.

Master Garthis helped Kaitlyn move the potion table into the kitchen. It took Fapallo, Haytham, and Master Garthis together to move her bed into the bedroom, since there was no mattress or drapes for the larger bed. They left the loom and spinning wheel in the main room. Kaitlyn talked to Cilvic about building new tables and chairs for the inside space as well.

“Ok, here is my theory,” Master Garthis said when Kaitlyn brought him tea in the front garden. She sat down and listened. “The witch who lived here knew or understood something of spatial manipulation which alludes all but the most powerful fae and only in their own realm. Somehow she tied that sort of magic directly into her own house.”

“So there is more?” Kaitlyn prompted.

“Probably. My question is which rooms might show next?” Master Garthis said, “What is the criteria for unlocking a specific room?”

“What she needs,” Cilvic said from behind the wizard. “The house is still getting fed magic regularly by the mistress, and as it learns her needs it will unlock what she needs. Or what it thinks she needs.”

Master Garthis scratched his beard, “Or it is undoing in the order the witch had to lock rooms away because her magic was failing. I suspect it is just working backwards, unlocking them as it can.”

Kaitlyn frowned, she didn’t want a palace. She didn’t need a palace and she certainly didn’t want people to think she was anything other than a witch with a tavern. She looked to the mage and the brownie and finally decided she would have to claim the house for her own. She wanted to guide what rooms it gave her, not some mysterious need or whatever stupid set of rooms the witch who had lived here used to maintain.