Potato bread turned into a surprisingly acceptable option. Several dwarves over the next month asked for the recipe they used. The satyrs happily took it home, complaining their own struggles with wheat, rye, and barley.

Now that she was thinking about it, Kaitlyn was hearing a lot more about the challenges of the people who visited. The elves always came in and asked to take a bath because the heat had been terrible. When Hyacinth came to visit she was worried about the aspen trees they lived around. Apparently many of them were not flowering, and the bees were struggling, honey being a valuable form of sweetness for the elves.

Satyrs basically stopped showing up and the few who did were practically beggars. Kaitlyn couldn’t help herself, anyone who came and looked too hungry she would pull out a clay jar and send them home with more broth. This kept the brownies and Fapallo quite busy as the summer faded into autumn. Fapallo was having to range further and further to find prey, and the brownies were using their own powers to empower the broth.

Faires, like bees, tended to survive on nectar from flowers. This meant more and more were being found sick or even dead. Kaitlyn now had several who were downright living in her garden because it was the healthiest place around. This was not ideal to the young witch, the little people were more pests than anything.

The average fairy stood about six inches tall. Master Garthis told her there were some places where fairies tended bees like humans tended sheep. That wasn’t true of the fairies in this forest. They were hunters and gatherers. They would gladly hunt bees, including Kaitlyn’s hives. During that summer, as fairies grew hungry and desperate, Kaitlyn had to take measures to protect her bees and garden from the fairies.

Just to complicate the problem, the silver elves saw the wild fairy as a “clan” under their protection. The first time Kaitlyn caught a fairy and threatened it, the little creature came right back with Hyacinth who tried to explain it to Kaitlyn.

“I don’t care!” Kaitlyn said, “HE broke my peace by killing my bees.”

“Kaitlyn…” Hyacinth said placatingly, “Please, we have an ancient pact to protect their rights to hunt within the bounds of the trees.”

“YOUR trees,” Kaitlyn huffed.

“I will send out messages where I can to tell them to respect your land, but I can’t make them stop,” Hyacinth said. “I am honor-bound to guard their right to hunt. If your bees leave your clearing, they are considered to be in the forest. The fairies have the right to hunt them…”

“Then tell them that any who are caught within my fence poaching my bees will be dealt with,” Kaitlyn ground. “I will put them in my cellar for three days with only water.”

“We would starve!” the little fairy who had brought Hyacthin to his cause cried out.

Kaitlyn frowned, that wasn’t her intention, but she needed a punishment they would respect. Hyacthin frowned and said, “Fairies must eat frequently, at least three or four times a day. They need almost constant access to food.”

“How can I punish the ones who kill my bees then?” Kaitlyn said, “You seem to be telling me I have to just give them whatever they want.”

“This is our forest!” the little fairy man cried angrily.

Kaitlyn scowled at him and said, “And I didn’t ask to live here. But this is my land and I will not tolerate thieves.”

“We aren’t thieves!” the fairy yelled at her.

“You killed MY bees in MY garden! You made a little fire and were roasting them using MY plants!” Kaitlyn yelled back, making the fairy hide behind Hyacinth and hiss at her like a cat.

“Ok, both of you,” Hyacinth said, “We need to find an accord you can both accept.”

Kailtyn crossed her arms and glared at them both. Hyacinth rubbed her nose in thought and said, “What about this, you grow some flowers which they can eat from and anyone caught eating anything else in your garden you can punish as you see fit.”

The witch frowned and finally said, “Fine. Bring me the flowers you want me to grow and I’ll plant them and make sure they are constantly blooming. You also have to give me your shed wing scales.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The fairy frowned and said, “Why?”

“They are an ingredient in several potions,” Kaitlyn said, “The book I have talks about trapping a fairy in a bird cage and taking clippings, so I suspect you know some mages don’t treat your species kindly.”

“Hence we try not to interact too much with you big folk,” the fairy grumbled.

Hyacinth frowned at the fairy and said, “It’s more than a fair exchange. Kaitlyn helps you out by using her magic to help you get some food and you give her some of your wing scales when you shed.”

“I’ll pass along the word,” the fairy grumbled.

He did. It wasn’t long until Kaitlyn had a strand of flowers all along the fence of her garden. She spent part of her morning every day for weeks using her magic to encourage the flowers to bloom with new blossoms. In turn, she placed a jar outside and by the end of the week it had several layers of the tiny scales within the bottom of the jar.

The problem was that the fairies loved to also play tricks on anyone approaching the hut. Kaitlyn wished she could set up an anti-fairy magical spell, but when she asked Master Garthis about it he went on a long lecture about the complexity of trying to setup a ward that specific. Like an enchantment on a cup, the spell would only follow simple instructions and then it would follow them precisely.

“I’d be more than willing to never have another fairy on my land,” Kaitlyn pronounced.

“Perhaps, but with those wing scales you can create some much more powerful potions,” Master Garthis said, “and they are not always this bad. This summer is unusual and they are not usually even willing to come this close to a human’s habitation.”

“Why is that?” Kaitlyn said, “You mentioned that before it was strange they were willing to be near me at all.”

“It is,” Master Garthis said, “Most humans never even see fairies. I’m sure some of it has to do with the tendency of humans to hunt literally anything, but it’s more than that. My father once told me that those humans call fae, including fairies, hate humans because of the way humans impact mana in the world.”

“Doesn’t all life impact mana?” Kaitlyn asked.

“To a degree,” Master Garthis said. “As you know, mana flows around, but humans, dragons, merfolk, and…. oh a handful of others have an outsized impact.”

“I don’t understand,” Kaitlyn admitted after a minute, “What do you mean?”

Master Garthis ran his fingers through his beard. Kaitlyn stood up while he thought and went to help some of the patrons in the tavern. When she returned, his eyes caught on her cloth for wiping tables. Master Garthis practically snatched it and held it between his hands, “Picture this as mana.”

Kaitlyn blinked and said, “What? But mana…”

“Just stick with me,” Master Garthis said, “put that spoon on here.”

Kaitlyn picked up a wooden spoon and set it on the cloth. Master Garthis said, “Now, put that knife next to it.”

Kaitlyn did. The metal knife put obvious strain on the cloth and dragged it downward. Master Garthis grinned as he said, “If the knife is a human and the spoon is an elf, you saw the impact the elf made. Despite them being similar in a lot of ways, they are made of different material.”

“But humans and dragons are vastly different,” Kaitlyn said.

“Dragons are a weird exception to a generalization Master Horton of Pilnora noted several hundred years ago,” Master Garthis said, “Master Horton noted that creatures with a high use of magic in their nature - like fairies and fae or dryads have the lowest impact on mana where species with low magical talent like humans and merfolk have a larger impact. And then there are dragons who are innately magical and every dragon has the capacity to become a mage in their own right. They also have a massive impact on mana in an area.”

“Does anyone know why we have more impact?” Kaitlyn asked.

“I met a mage about sixty years ago who was working on an experiment where he was trying to figure it out,” Master Garthis said, “He was about thirty years into it.”

“What was he doing?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Something about an island where he was draining off the mana to only encourage non-mages to live and see how they still impact mana flows,” Master Garthis said. “Master Toldro and I argued that his interference by draining away the mana corrupts the results, but he insisted it will provide valuable insights in another few hundred years.”

Kaitlyn stared at her master and said, “How will he know the results if it’s hundreds of years?”

“Ah, we haven’t discussed this,” Master Garthis said, “I’m sure you’ve noticed that magical creatures live long lives. Mana extends youth, extends life. It isn’t unusual for mages to live six or eight hundred years. And those are pure-human mages. I’m already at six hundred and expect to have at least another five or six centuries.”

“My grandmother was using magic, but she didn’t live longer,” Kaitlyn said.

Master Garthis frowned and said, “Most women don’t start using their magic until they are past child bearing years, which means they lose out on decades of mana building. They also rarely have any formal training. Many of the exercises I taught you are designed to help draw more mana that an accidental use would employ. And I imagine she lived longer than most people in your town, am I right?”

“Yes, she was in her nineties when she passed away,” Kaitlyn agreed.

“It isn’t a big increase at first,” Master Garthis said, “If you only ever did you mage hands and growing spells you would probably live well into another century, but until you begin drawing larger spells, you won’t do more than double your life span.”

Kaitlyn was still processing when Master Garthis cleared his throat and said, “Back to your lesson today. I want you to begin looking at more complicated spells. I’m going to teach you a true warding spell.”