Christian heard a lot of noise coming from the kitchen, as he descended the stairs.

As it turned out, Eric and Val were teaching Sara how to make something fairly elaborate that involved a huge amount of clutter—it looked like part of it might be a close relative of Eric's death-by-chocolate cheesecake, but there were ingredients around that certainly didn't belong together. Sid watched with interest, sprawled on one of the chairs—he liked having things happening, as long as it was restricted to people he felt safe around rather than constant strangers. Or so he'd told Christian. Mark, as near as Christian could determine, had come to the kitchen to find himself a snack, discovered the chaos that presently ruled, and persevered anyway. There just might have been a hint of amusement in his expression, but Christian wasn't masochistic enough to mention that.

Eric greeted Christian cheerfully, and both women echoed it; Sid mrrrped hello, and Christian stopped beside him to pet him.

“You guys look like you're having fun.”

“We're making supper,” Val said. “It'll all need to sit for a while once we're done, so figure about six-ish we can eat.”

“Cool. I'll be there, trust me, that chicken smells wonderful.” And he had no intention of missing out on Eric's chocolate cheesecake. “I just wanted to see if anyone needs me for anything. I finally got that amulet-creation thing worked out, and I'd like to see how many I can create today. And to see if Val’s busy. I’m not a hundred percent sure how good I’m likely to be at teaching something that I only just figured out, but I’m willing to give it a try.”

“Isn’t working magic into newly-created objects rather old-school anyway?” Eric asked. “Smiths embedding it into swords, priests investing energy into holy items that I bet were sometimes more witchy than divine, protective rings and things...?”

Christian nodded. “The research I did suggests that it can be seen as a fairly elementary kind of magic that needs more will and concentration and visualization than direct perception of energy. I should be able to tell whether it’s working and if not, what’s happening instead, so that might help. At the absolute very worst, if it doesn’t work at all and we give up for the moment, I could use extra hands to put things together physically. If that’s more interesting than slicing strawberries, anyway.”

“I’m absolutely there,” Val said. “Just give me a minute to finish this?”

“Sure.”

“What did you decide works best?” Eric asked.

“I was expecting it would be quartz, but for this, it seems like just about anything from the agate family does better. Slightly different results with different varieties. Moss agate and carnelian and lace agate in particular are working really well for me, but the moss agate’s stronger on the health bonuses and the carnelian’s stronger on the protective effects and the lace agate is doing the best anti-parasitic defence. I’m hoping to do pendants that have one bead of each kind, on a copper wire trefoil that keeps them from touching each other directly.”

“At least they’re cheap stones, not precious ones. Did you find enough of those cheap breakaway collars?”

“Fewer than I’d like. And I am just not putting them on leather or silk cords or regular collars. Outdoor cats get caught on things, and I’m not having them get hurt or worse because they’re trapped by a collar I gave them to keep them safer.”

“Hm. I’ll take a look online but I’m not very optimistic. Not many businesses have figured out the potential of the Internet yet. What d’you say I put out word to my family about what you’re doing, and they can look around their respective nearest sources and mail whatever they can find here? For a good cause, they won’t mind. They might even toss in a few less-cheap ones, which would be better for you to offer them for sale.”

“I hate asking for help, y’know.”

“I’ll tell them to add a note about how many pendants they could put to use, and you can send those once you and Val have this down to a science.”

“That sounds pretty reasonable,” Sara said, stirring a bowl of something chocolate-dark. “This is one of your altruistic projects, ultimately, and other people also like helping with things like that. Refusing any kind of help can come across as sort of... arrogant?”

Christian spread his hands. He was already depending on all the people in this kitchen, including the black-furred one, for many things tangible and otherwise. “All right. That would be great, to tell you the truth. But the power’s ultimately in the pendants themselves, so we can get started on those today. I... we could work in the dining room, if you want, but I was thinking of the table in the library. It’s a quiet space for doing anything witchy and I tend to find it’s easier to stay focused there—maybe just associations? It's getting kind of redundant to keep the library hidden at this point. The only thing I'm still a bit worried about is the Fellowship, since they haven't given up yet, and the chance they might go after you.”

“Whoa,” Sara said. “Didn't we cover this already? We're in the house, they have no way of knowing what we know or don't know. I'm living here, for heaven's sake. Any danger we could be in, we're already in. It's been months, and they haven't targeted Val or I specifically.” She smiled wryly. “We just got caught in the blast radius, with the rumours and stuff.”

“Chris, I appreciate the fact that you don't want us in the line of fire between you and people who don't like you,” Val said gently, handing Eric the bowl of cut berries and turning to the sink to wash her hands. “But we already are, and have been for quite a while, and we still choose to be here. If you want to keep things to yourself, that's perfectly fine, you have every right. Just don't do it because you're trying to protect us from some vague undefined potential threat.”

“Some of the books, specific ones, really aren't all that safe,” Christian said. “I'll do something with those ones... put them all in one area, or something. Just please keep in mind, that's where I do most serious magical stuff, so if I'm in there, be extremely careful about interrupting me, 'kay? And I generally do trance-work up in the loft. Getting jolted out of that could be uncomfortable at best, and possibly dangerous.”

Val nodded. “Your space, which you're offering limited access to. Not a problem.”

“I only go in the library at all to tell Chris supper is ready or something if I know he's reading,” Eric reflected. “Or, once, to help welcome a kitsune, but that’s just because I know kitsune better.”

“I never said you couldn't,” Christian said.

“I know.”

“All done,” Val said, “and yours to command. I think Eric and Sara can finish the cheesecake without me, and otherwise it’s just cleaning up.”

“I don't mind cleaning up even if I do it alone,” Eric said, looking at Sara.

“I'll help,” Mark said, his tone absolutely neutral.

Sara wavered, then shook her head. “I'm really curious, but you can show me later. I don't want to keep you from doing what you were planning to do. I'll stay here and help. Learning to make cheesecake is a lot more my speed.”

Christian nodded. “Sure, and thanks—I'll be happier knowing the ferals are just a bit safer.”

He led Val to the den, and showed her the panel of shelving that could swing towards them when a hidden switch in the next panel was triggered. Beyond, stairs led upwards.

“There's a second door from the upstairs hall, too,” Christian said. “It’s safer to have two ways out. Well, go, already.” He shooed her up the stairs, far enough that he could pull the door closed.

Val's eyes went very wide as she looked around. “Oh my. I didn't realize you meant quite so big a library.”

Christian turned his attention to sorting through the materials he’d dumped in a heap on the long table, bags of gemstone beads in three colours, copper jewellery wire, tools, the small collection of collars he’d managed to acquire so far. “I'm not actually trying to be patronizing, and I'm sorry if that's how it sounds.”

“At moments. But then, you had your family teaching you stuff all your life that Sara and I didn't know existed until recently, and you have senses and abilities we don't. And you are, after all, trying your best to figure out how to assimilate new information and include me, without much concrete detail to work with on how to do that, and very obligingly putting up with my questions and with inviting your back yard juno to talk to me and all. So I'll forgive you for being protective, and I'm patiently waiting for you to get over the patronizing bit.”

“Sorry. I'll try harder not to do it. Honestly. Can't promise instant success, but I'll do my best.”

“Good enough for me. This whole place really is a beautiful design.”

“Look under the rug.”

Curiously, she obeyed, and laughed when she saw the pentagram inlaid in the lighter wood of the floor. “Yep, extremely well designed.”

“My dad's family have been witches for a lot of generations. When they built the house, they had a pretty good idea what they'd need.”

“Your mom's family?”

“At least as long, but Scottish witches tend to do things a bit differently. It's more the get-outside, invoke-the-four-quarters kind of thing I've been doing with you so far. Dad's family wandered all over the Mediterranean and Near East before they got up to western and northern Europe, so there's a major mix of traditions to go with the genetic mix. Since I learned both, I use whatever I need at a given time.”

“I'm going to be the rest of my life learning this stuff.” She didn't sound like she found the idea distressing.

Christian laughed. “Me too. Maybe between us, we can figure it all out.”

Val regarded him thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled. “Maybe we can. So, let’s get to work, shall we? Otherwise I’m going to want to start wandering around and looking at books and I don’t know which ones I should avoid.”

“It’s too bad this kind of needs a table, otherwise we could go up in the loft. That’s usually where I do anything involving meditating or trances or anything, and it’s a comfy place to read. The stairs are right there if you want to take a look.”

She did go up to look around, but came back down after only a moment. “That’s a lot of green stuff and a very pretty fountain, at the far end. I can see why it would be a good place. And working in here kind of draws a line between the outside everyday world, and time to concentrate for real, hm?”

“I think that’s a lot of it, yeah.”

She dropped into the chair across from him and picked up the amulet he’d made earlier. He’d added the three beads to the outer points of a simple three-armed design created entirely by a few twists of the copper wire. “They need to not touch?”

“Ideally. Close together is fine. And obviously they need a way to fasten to a collar.”

“Hm. I think there might be a better way to do that. I’ve been messing around casually with making jewellery from the beads at the shop for as long as I’ve been working there.”

“I am absolutely open to thoughts on the construction details. That’s not something I have much experience with.”

“Right. Give me a minute to test this, but I think we can still do them quickly and make them look pretty besides. And while I do that, you can tell me the theoretical side of adding magic to them.”