I woke the next morning to find a dusk fox sprawled across my feet, and a purple fairy curled up in the fur on her back. Granted, I couldn't really blame Sparkle. Penny did have very soft and luxurious fur.

And I was very glad to see them getting along that well. I'd been a little bit worried that Sparkle might've been jealous of the newcomer...and maybe still a bit uncertain about Penny's motives.

Seeing Sparkle curled up asleep on Penny's back relieved both concerns.

As I sat up, Penny shifted her head towards me and opened one eye. She smiled slightly and moved her shoulders a little, waking Sparkle, who sat up and yawned.

"Good morning," I said softly. "Did you both sleep well?"

Sparkle flitted up and was suddenly human-sized at the foot of the bed, stretching and yawning. "Yuh huh!"

"Better than I ever have," Penny said softly, rising to all fours and stretching like a cat. She looked around the room, then settled and turned her attention to me, adding shyly, "I've never felt safe like this before."

Sparkle ruffled her ears gently. "Well you're completely safe in Oakwood Hall. Right Caley?"

"That's right, Sparkle," I said firmly, disentangling myself from the blanket and rising.

I made an executive decision to give myself a day off from exercise and stress to just relax and unwind...I'd just spent the better part of a week reinforcing the Hall's defenses after nearly dying, after all. I was due a bit of a break.

After a hot shower of decadent length - which Sparkle found boring and Penny found fascinating (another magical creature who kept herself clean with magic...perhaps I could learn how...) - I had a leisurely breakfast. I had just decided to spend some time in the garden, which would also give me a chance to introduce Penny to Dara, when there was a distinctly doorbell-style chime.

I looked around in confusion. "Where did that come from?"

Ken and Sparkle both pointed to a new and very high-tech looking screen/panel thingy on the wall beside the kitchen door. I blinked at it, rose, and walked over. On the screen was a view of the front gates, and a man standing beyond them by the street.

He was tall, dressed in a neatly pressed and rather old-fashioned brown suit. His hair was snowy white and thinning on top, and he had a neatly trimmed full beard.

There was also a wireless phone handset in a charger mounted beside the screen.

"Wadsworth?" I asked the air.

The leader of the Hall's brownies appeared beside me. "My Lady?"

"What's this?"

"Ah! One of several viewing panels for the security cameras at the front gates. It's very clever...touch sensitive..." He pointed to a row of smaller static images down the right side. "Just touch one of the small pictures to change to a different camera. And we finally got those wireless phones set up."

"Clever." I touched one and switched to another camera that was mounted somewhere behind the man, then back to the front view. "And cool. Any idea who that is?"

Wadsworth shook his head. "Never seen him before."

"Ken?" I asked.

"Sorry, Caley," Ken said. "I have no idea either."

"Anybody?" I asked hopefully.

Sparkle landed on my shoulder and made a negative sound.

"I know him," Penny said softly from behind us. "Or at least, I know him by sight."

We all turned to face her where she was sitting by the chair I'd just left. She wasn't looking at us or the screen, but was staring at the floor.

"Who's this, then?" Wadsworth asked, breaking the brief silence.

"Oh!" I felt my cheeks heat up. "Wadsworth, this is Penumbra...Penny for short. My new...companion. Penny, this is Wadsworth, leader of the Hall's clan of brownies."

Penny looked up and smiled slightly. "You really are sheltering quite a lot of clans here."

"Gathering strays seems to run in the family," I said. "So who is this man?" I gestured to the screen.

"A friend of my former master's," Penny said softly. "Not as...bad. But very proud, very arrogant."

And probably very dangerous, I thought. The look Ken gave me said the same thing.

The screen beside the door chimed again, and we all turned to see the man stepping back from the gates.

"Well," I said, "at least I have a doorbell now." I scrutinized the panel, then touched a button on it labeled 'talk.' "Hello? Can I help you?" I released the talk button.

The man on the screen looked up at the nearest camera - the one I happened to have it set to - and smiled warmly as he touched something out of my line of sight. Undoubtedly the intercom Doyle Winterbourne had told me about.

"Yes, good morning!" The man said cheerfully in an almost stereotypical upper-class British accent, his voice a bit tinny as it came through the security panel's small speaker. "My name is Edwyn Cuthbert. I'm looking for Miss Caitlyn Reid. Have I come to the correct address?"

"As if he didn't know," Ken snorted.

"I don't trust this guy already," Sparkle huffed.

"Sparkle is right," Penny said urgently. "You cannot trust this man."

"It's nice to hear some proper paranoia," Wadsworth said dryly, but he was smiling at the same time.

"Who said I was going to trust him?" I asked wryly, reaching for the talk button again and leaning towards the screen a little. "Speaking."

On the little screen, Cuthbert beamed at the intercom as he touched it again. "Lovely. Miss Reid, I am here representing the International Consortium of Organized Arcana."

I raised an eyebrow and waited.

"Perhaps I could come in for a few minutes?" He continued. "We could sit down and have a talk."

The resulting hash of negatives from my friends translated to a rather emphatic 'no' in my mind. I touched the talk button. "With all due respect, Mr. Cuthbert, I don't know that you are who you claim to be. You'll have to forgive me if I'm not feeling particularly amenable to letting people into the grounds right now...I just had my gates replaced because of the last person I said no to."

On the little screen, Cuthbert looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I see...well...this is a most awkward way to have a conversation, but -"

"I'm willing to come out and talk to you," I said, interrupting him. "I'll be out momentarily."

I released the talk button and watched him for a reaction. He looked mildly annoyed, but quickly composed himself to wait by the gates, glancing around uneasily.

"Wadsworth," I said, "Ken, on monitor duty, please. If he does anything untoward, call the police and Ariana." They both nodded and headed for the new security office as I continued, "Sparkle, Penny, with me, but hidden."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Almost before I finished speaking, Sparkle had shrunk down and attached to the Master Key, and Penny had vanished into my shadow. Now that I knew how, I could sense them close to me, and was comforted by the feeling.

Then I headed for the front door.

A brownie I didn't recognize (which wasn't hard, since I'd only actually been introduced to Wadsworth), intercepted me, hurrying over. "My Lady!" He called. "My Lady, wait!"

I paused before opening the door and looked down at him with a smile. "Can I help you?"

Breathless, he bowed, and then held up what looked at first glance like a flesh-colored hearing aid. "If you'll put this in your right ear, My Lady, we'll be able to communicate with you directly and hear everything you say and that's said around you. We also enchanted it to be invisible while it's in your ear." He beamed up at me. "That was my idea."

I took it from him and smiled. "An excellent idea, thank you very much."

His skin darkened in a blush and he lowered his eyes, mumbling something about how I didn't need to thank him before scurrying back to the security room. I chuckled and carefully inserted the device in my right ear. It fit more comfortably than any pair of earbuds I'd ever used, at least.

Penny, now in her human form, melted out of my shadow and walked around me slowly, nodding. "He was right. If I hadn't seen it, I would never have known it was there. A clever stratagem."

I smiled at her. "The Hall's brownies are indeed very clever," I agreed, confident that the praise would reach them. "Shall we?"

Penny nodded and melted back into my shadow, her voice reaching my ear as she vanished. "Let's."

As I closed the front door behind me and started up the drive, Ken's voice spoke in my right ear, just a bit tinny. "Testing. Can you hear me, Caley?"

I smiled. "I hear you just fine, Ken. How about you?"

"Loud and clear," Ken confirmed. "It's not as good as being able to go out there with you, but it makes me feel a lot better."

"Me too," I said fervently. "Me too."

"For what it's worth," Ken said, "the security cameras along the wall don't show any vehicles. Mr. Cuthbert either walked here, teleported in, or arrived by some other extradimensional means."

"Is that actually a thing?" I asked. Then gave my head a little shake. "Of course it is. The doors in the house enable that sort of travel."

"Quite," Ken sounded amused. "However, for most people it's much more difficult and energy-intensive. We'll start you on teleportation theory in another month or two, I think."

"Lovely," I murmured.

"Now," Ken said, and I could almost hear his smile, "it would probably be best if you didn't arrive at the gates appearing to talk to yourself."

I snorted a little laugh.

Edwyn Cuthbert was waiting for me on the other side of the front gates as I walked up leisurely. "Good morning, Mr. Cuthbert. Sorry to keep you waiting."

He smiled politely through the gates at me. "It's lovely to meet you at last, Miss Reid. Are we going to have this conversation with cold metal bars between us?" He sounded genuinely regretful and had a look of gentle sorrow on his face.

"I'm afraid so, Mr. Cuthbert," I said politely. "I've had an exciting week, and you haven't told me why you're here."

"Ah," he said uncomfortably. "No, I haven't. Well...it's rather embarrassing, actually. You see, one of our most accomplished and prestigious wizards, very much a leader in our community, volunteered to make contact with you and invite you to become a member. When I last spoke with him, he said he'd failed to make contact with you on two occasions, and was about to try again. That was a little over a week ago..."

He paused and I waited, trying to look politely curious. After all, it was possible he was talking about someone else.

When I didn't offer anything, Cuthbert cleared his throat uneasily. "Ah...his name was Bellinus von Einhardt - "

"You won't find him here," I interrupted him coldly.

"Careful," Ken's voice murmured in my right ear.

"He did indeed 'make contact' with me on two previous occasions," I said to Cuthbert. "Both times he tried to cast mind control spells on me, and the second time he came close to physically assaulting me. Fortunately, the local police and several concerned citizens intervened.

"He then," I continued, not giving Cuthbert a chance to get a word in edgewise, "assaulted my home's wards, and had a colleague summon a giant boar to smash down my front gates. Finally, he physically and magically assaulted me at my own front door, while demanding entry to my home." I gave Cuthbert what I hoped was a politely cold smile. "He was...repelled."

Cuthbert was silent for a moment, his genial front gone. Instead, his eyes were fixed on me with a cold, calculating look.

"I see," he said finally. "Do you know where he is now?"

"I do not," I said flatly, taking refuge behind a technical truth. I didn't actually know what Emrys had done with his remains, or what the final disposition of his soul - assuming he'd still had one - might have been. "I did make it abundantly clear that he wasn't welcome here," I added.

Cuthbert pursed his lips and looked at the ground for a moment, then returned his attention to me. The genial old man mask was back. "Well, I fear I cannot speak for - or believe - such behavior from him. When I find him, I will have to discuss the matter with him. In the meantime, the ICOA would very much like to have you as a member - "

"Me?" I asked, interrupting him again. "Or do you just want access to Oakwood Hall the way your colleague did. Will you or another member of the ICOA be battering down my defenses next?"

He was silent for a moment again, then regrouped and tried again. "I can see you've gotten a bad first impression of the ICOA. We work very hard to keep the magical world safely separated from the mundane world, and while access to the resources represented by Oakwood Hall would be very much appreciated - "

"No," I said firmly. His lips pressed together when I interrupted him this time, and the muscles of his jaw moved beneath his beard. He probably wasn't used to being interrupted. Or denied.

"We can offer you a great deal in return," he said calmly, trying again. "Membership in the ICOA would be very beneficial for a vulnerable young sorceress just starting out in the world."

That sounded like a threat, and he must have realized it, because cleared his throat and changed tack. "What I mean is, we would be glad to help reinforce and improve your magical defenses, find you suitable teachers, and would offer you access to our resources as well."

Though he hadn't pursued the subject, I was sure that the 'disappearance' of his colleague Bellinus von Einhardt concerned him...or, at the very least, stung his professional pride. And I was less than thrilled by the fact that he seemed as interested as von Einhardt had to get access to the Hall.

My membership, I felt certain, was of value less to the ICOA than access to Oakwood Hall. Which had, undoubtedly, been long denied them.

I felt more than heard the almost inaudible growl that came from Penny. She was evidently getting as tired of Cutbhert's rhetoric as I was.

Penny...

"Mr. Cuthbert," I said, putting a smile back on, "there is, perhaps, one thing you could do to convince me to discuss membership in your organization. A gesture of goodwill to offset the extremely poor first impression von Einhardt made, if you will."

"And that is?" he asked hopefully, though the politeness in his voice sounded strained.

"Release all of the dusk foxes your members keep as pets," I said bluntly. "I have reason to believe that their clan were under my family's protection, and that they were taken and kept by force. If that were the case, I would consider their continued enslavement a personal insult. Release them, and we can talk."

"Well played," Ken's voice murmured in my ear.

Cuthbert's face took on the carefully blank sort of look I'd come to recognize on students who'd just been caught out not having done the prep for a class. After a long moment, he said in a strained tone, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Penny?" I said.

Penny, in her natural form, slunk out of the shadows...on the outside of the wall, not far from where Cuthbert was standing. She bared her fangs at him and bristled her fur dramatically.

He eyed her for a long moment, clearly recognizing her, then looked back at me. "This is not a negotiation," he said.

"Then we have nothing to talk about," I said. "You seem entirely unconcerned that the first person from the ICOA to make contact with me tried first to take control of my mind, and then to kill me. That plus the fact that the ICOA enslaves, through the use of magic, sentient beings..." I shook my head. "Mr. Cuthbert, those two things tell me everything I need to know about you and your organization. I want no part of it. Good day."

I turned and started back up the drive. Penny emerged from my shadow to pad along beside me a moment later, her head up. "I very much appreciate the attempt, Caley."

"It's just my first try," I said, reaching down to ruffle her ears gently. "We'll figure something out. Is he still there, Ken?"

"No, he just teleported away," Ken reported. "That was very nicely done, Caley. Your mother and father would both have been proud of the way you handled that."

"Thank you," I said, smiling. "Tell me, am I exaggerating my family's claim on the dusk foxes?"

"I don't think so..." Ken said uncertainly. Then he added, "That might be a good question for Margrave, actually."

"I believe I'll give him a call."

Ken met me at the door, wireless phone in hand. He offered it to me. "I have Margrave on the line."

I laughed. "Thank you, Ken." I took the phone and put it to my ear. "Margrave?"

"Miss Reid," Margrave's gentle voice said warmly, "it is always a pleasure to hear from you. How may Summers & Winters serve you today?"

"Do you happen to know anything about a clan of dusk foxes that used to serve my family?" I asked, bending down to gently stroke Penny's ears.

Sparkle hopped off the Master Key and grew to human size, sitting down on the floor to pet Penny too.

"I do seem to recall mention of a vassal agreement involving the Reid family and a clan of dusk foxes, but it was some time ago…" Margrave said thoughtfully. "May I have a couple of days to review our records before answering any further questions on the subject?"

I smiled. "Of course, Margrave. Thank you very much."

"Any time at all, Miss Reid. Is there anything else today?"

"Nothing comes to mind," I said.

"Then I will speak to you as soon as I have more information," Margrave said, then added, "Oh! May I congratulate you on your formation of a new clan of fairies? Word of the Fairy Clan of Oakwood Hall reached us this very morning."

I found myself blushing. "Thank you."

"You're making quite a splash in Faerie," Margrave said, sounding amused. "I wouldn't be surprised if you had emissaries from the Courts reaching out to you before long. If I may, I would advise you to be wary of making any deals with them, but the friendship of both Courts, as well as the Wildfae, would be of great value to you."

"I will take that under advisement," I said, "and I greatly appreciate the advice."

"As always, Miss Reid, I am at your service," Margrave said with genuine warmth in his voice. "I will contact you as soon as I have the information you have requested."