Following a thread of magic was not a simple thing. Especially not one which kept attacking her until she was sure she was bleeding to death. Mentally, she grew exhausted. She wanted to let go. She wanted to rest. She knew either would be fatal now.

The house fought her. The house tried to trap her as she moved along the thread of magic. It tried to turn the thread invisible. But Kaitlyn also was learning about the witch who cast the spell.

The spell was thick with writing. The witch wrote of centuries of living. Eating the hearts and souls of children to stay young. There was a recipe for a potion, though not what the potion did. It called for the hoof trimmings from a unicorn with “hair of death.” Kaitlyn sank to her knees when she saw that, and shivered for a long time.

The house seemed full of corridors as she followed the thread. She would have sworn she walked miles. Her eyes unfocused on the house but seeing a large ballroom, or a greenhouse of broken glass, bedrooms upon bedrooms with beds both massive and humble. She stumbled when she would have sworn she walked right through a fireplace larger than she stood tall, the roar of the fire burning her skin.

The witch had grand plans, but not the power to fulfill them. Kaitlyn wondered how she ended up mired here in the forest with the kind of power she had once possessed to create this curse.

“Of course she thought this place was actually a palace and she some kind of queen,” Kaitlyn muttered darkly. “Dirty, awful worm of a woman. Telling the house to eat people to grow in power…. disgusting.”

Kaitlyn would swear later she had to step over corpses more than once. Her legs trembled from the exertion as she climbed what felt like flights and flights of stairs.

She stumbled and stopped when she found something like a knot in the thread, two ways to go. Reading the threads carefully, she saw one tied to the house itself, the other led to a darkness. Kaitlyn held the knot in both hands and considered everything she had been taught.

Magic had to have sources. This house had a curse which was tied to it and to something else. That something else was written in a language Kaitlyn couldn’t understand, the characters swirling and pulsing against the thread. The house’s thread was short and frayed.

The house growled audibly around her. She could almost hear the spell telling her it wanted to eat people. She couldn’t let it do that. She could feel through the magic that she had to stop the house or it would eat everyone. It might even eat her.

The house had been dying when she came here. As she fed it magic, she had somehow been strengthening this knot. She blinked when she saw a thread from herself to the frayed house. Everything fed into this knot. But she didn’t know what to do with it.

If she cut the frayed end of the house, would it all collapse? Would she be left screaming in pain from the curse the unicorn had put on her? If she cut that dark thread… actually she didn’t care much about that one. If that was the cost to get that out of her house, she would just have to pay it. That thread… whatever it was… was evil.

She had no doubts what she wanted, but she didn’t know how to accomplish it. She finally decided to take a simple and direct approach to this particular problem. It was a thread. She just needed to cut it away.

She cast a pair of scissors and snipped that dark thread instantly. She didn’t understand it, but she knew she did not want it on her house a moment longer. There was a scream, almost a howl as the thread disappeared away from the knot. Kaitlyn now could look more closely at the remaining two threads.

She almost laughed at how simple this knot was. She didn’t know what would happen if she untied it though. She carefully held it in her hand and touched the thread she had followed here, the curse which allowed the house to absorb power by eating people. She began working apart the knot.

The last of the dark strand fell to the floor and singed Kaitlyn’s left foot, but she was so engrossed in the feel of the magic of the knot she barely noticed. Pain had been building across her entire body. Her hands were bleeding, but she didn’t notice. She began gasping for breaths with her pain. Still her fingers pulled at the threads.

When the curse came loose it was like Kaitlyn was struck. She went flying and crashed against the wall. Part of the roof collapsed in and the entire house tilted to one side. Kaitlyn sat, her hands bleeding on her lap and staring up at the sky.

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“How many times am I going to feel like this?” she muttered as she eyes fluttered closed.

When Kaitlyn awoke, Master Garthis, Hyacinth, Haytham, Javorora, and Cilvic were all in the room. She looked again and saw Fapallo acting as a seat for Javorora and Cilvic, his head practically hidden by Kaitlyn’s bed. She groaned and everyone looked at her.

“You’re awake!” Javorora nearly jumped on the bed. Fapallo’s head appeared beside Kaitlyn’s shoulder as he looked at her and whistled a happy little phrase Kaitlyn wasn’t sure translated well but came to something like, “You bring light to my darkness.”

“How…” Kaitlyn found her voice croaked when she tried to speak.

“Four days,” Master Garthis said, “You nearly drained your own magic completely, and when combined with the shock of the pain from your own curse… Javorora may have worked a minor miracle keeping you alive.”

Kaitlyn looked at the little dryad and whispered, “Thank you.”

Javorora sobbed and threw her arms around Kaitlyn’s neck. Kaitlyn lifted an arm, heavy in bandages, and tried to hug her friend. Javorora weapt against her and said, “Don’t do this to me! I couldn’t bear to lose you again!”

Master Garthis gave the dryad a minute and then said, “Let’s help her sit up Javorora, we have more news for her and I want to let her eat a little.”

Hyacinth stepped forward when Kaitlyn was propped up and said, “I owe you an apology Lady Kaitlyn. I abused your hospitality by attacking a guest on your lands. I will pay you recompense for that breach in your trust.”

Haytham stepped forward and said, “I was sent and we have negotiated with Master Garthis, who stood on thine behalf. Thine home and three miles in each direction shall be considered your lands and neutral within the forest. With thine permission, we shall plant something to denote the zone to all creatures and spread this news through the forest.”

“What?” Kaitlyn looked at Master Garthis.

“You were unconscious, I thought it best if I negotiated on your behalf,” her master said.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Master Garthis said. “Mistress Hyacinth said you stepped into the doorway of the house and were swallowed by darkness, the house itself shrouded. When I arrived you were unconscious and bleeding from the wounds on your arms again.”

Kaitlyn glanced at her bandaged arms. Hyacinth said, “There were awful noises too. Like a terrible beast growling and prowling through the house.”

“There isn’t much ‘through’ this house,” Javorora commented, “though I would swear this room is bigger now.”

Master Garthis looked at the dryad and said, “I am not sure you are the best judge of size of rooms, yours change on command.”

Javorora shrugged and returned to the table where she clearly was using some of Kaitlyn’s reeds to weave a basket. Kaitlyn looked at her little friend and couldn’t help but agree a little. How else would a ten-foot dragon kin, two elves, two humans, a brownie and a dryad all fit? Somehow there were also two new chairs in the room and a small table next to her bed.

“I think…” Kaitlyn tried to sift through her memories of what happened, “the witch tied something to the house. A curse or a spell and it allowed the house to… eat people to get more magic. It wanted to eat Hyacinth and the dark elf.”

Haytham frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”

“The witch who used to live here put a lot of spells on this house,” Master Garthis said, “So many and so layered they are extremely hard to even begin to identify. How could you identify this spell?”

“It basically used all the magic I’ve been given the house for the past year,” Kaitlyn said. “I think. It’s kind of a guess. There was also an evil thread in the spell, I didn’t follow that one I just cut it off. I didn’t want it anywhere near me.”

“I’m sorry, a what?” Master Garthis asked.

“Evil,” Javorora piped up, “she said it was evil.”

“There is no such thing as an evil threads of magic,” Master Garthis said, “there are evil outcomes and evil intentions, but the magic itself is not evil.”

Kaitlyn didn’t reply instantly, but then said, “This one looked pretty evil to me.”

“Go on, so you cut this so-called evil magic,” Master Garthis said.

“Then I untied the spell to eat people from the house,” Kaitlyn said. “I think it…. something blew up?”

“It sounded like it from outside,” Hyacinth said. “and then most of the roof collapsed. I thought you dead when I found you, but you were just bleeding all over the place and then this dryad showed up and kind of took over. A few hours after you collapsed, the roof rebuilt itself.”

“I think the house took the rabbits,” Javorora said softly, “I couldn’t find them.”

“The house couldn’t have taken the rabbits’ minute magic without that spell which Kaitlyn untied,” Master Garthis said, “unless the witch had that spell duplicated for some reason, but I can’t see why she would do that. I suspect they escaped when the roof collapsed.”

Kaitlyn touched her stomach and winced, yes she had more injuries. She sighed and said, “So what is this… deal that got negotiated.”

“Cilvic is coming here to stay,” Master Garthis said, “he will help you take care of any elves who come through. Your hut and three miles in every direction is a declared neutral territory which each side agrees they will defend from any who attempt to break your neutrality. In turn, you will allow them to meet under your patronage protection if they need to negotiate further. Which they do. Regularly. Their war is ongoing and consistently needs to negotiate the release of prisoners.”

Both elves glared at the other and Kaitlyn nodded. She then said, “And…?”

“That is all, you are neutral territory and they will continue to pay to use your land for any rest and recuperation,” Master Garthis said.

“Thank you master,” Kaitlyn said.

“I still can’t believe your master is Master Garthis,” Hyacinth said.

“I was also intrigued when he arrived,” Haytham said, “I do not believe thee told me that.”

“Should I have told you?” Kaitlyn looked surprised. “Does it matter?”

“Of course it does, his father is king of the autumn fae court,” Javorora said from the side.