[Food, Cooperation]

  I portaled to the bookstore, I wanted to give Sparky the gruesome inkwell.

  “How did the practice go and why are you back here? Did something happen?”

  “No nothing happened, well nothing really weird, Michael Brown was actually pleasant to me. I couldn’t believe it and practice went really well. We have one more estate to enclose and Opal is already as fast gathering or possibly even faster than I am.”

  “Then why are you back here, did you forget something?”

  “No I have a present for you, you like the horror genre so you should portal out to the old brown estate and check out the creepy mansion.”

  I handed him the skull and snake inkwell I’d found earlier.

  “Very nice thank you Rose, this will look perfect on my Poe bookshelf. But you found something else, I think and I’d like to have a look at it please.”

  “Not really, I found an old fountain pen, that’s all. There was a weird Tiffany oil lamp that had dragonflies and snakes on it, it was quite beautiful.”

  “No, not that, could I see the pen please?”

  “No, the pen is for me to write my next story with, it’s plain you wouldn’t like it anyway.”

  “In that case you’ll show it to me immediately, apprentice.”

  “Fine, you don’t have to get mad about it. I did just give you a present.”

  “Yet, you still haven’t shown me the plain pen Rose? Why not? Think Rose, why can’t you show me the pen and was anyone else in that house and did they take anything?”

  “Opal and Mossbeard were in the house we were exploring and playing a game.”

  “Give me the pen, and go get Opal and Mossbeard and be back here in five minutes do you understand me?”

  “Fine.” I whipped out my portal wallet but before I could portal away, Sparky ripped it out of my hands.

  “ROSE, give me that pen right NOW!”

  I reluctantly dug into my pocket and handed the pen to Sparky who threw it on his desk in one smooth motion.

  “How do you feel, Rose?”

  “A little freaked out, you are scaring me.”

  “Alright good, go get Mossbeard and Opal, please right away it’s important. Here is your wallet back.”

  I portaled to the tower library, Opal was chatting with Hal.

  “Opal, honey, Sparky wants the two of us and Mossbeard to come to the bookstore right now, do you know where Mossbeard went, sweetie.”

  “Yes, Rose, he said he was hungry, so I think he’s in the dining room.”

  I grabbed her hand and we walked down to the dining room looking for Mossbeard. He was there, with a bowl of gulasch in his hand.

  “Sorry Mossbeard, Sparky needs the three of us back at the store right away.”

  So the three of us portaled back to the store. Sparky was pacing back and forth in front of his desk. The three of us stood in a line before him. He kept pacing then turned to us.

  “Mossbeard, did you take anything out of that house that you didn’t have when you went in?”

  “No, except for the drawing I made when I went in there.”

  “Please put the drawing on my desk.”

  Mossbeard put his drawing on the desk and came back and stood in line.

  “Opal, did you take anything out of that house that you didn’t bring in?”

  “Just a drawing I made, Sparky.”

  “Please put it on my desk.”

  “Yes Sparky” She put her drawing on the desk.

  “Rose, did you take anything out of that house besides the pen and inkwell?”

  “No, but what is this about, you are scaring us.”

  “I’ll ask all three of you again, did any of you take anything else from that house.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  No, Sparky are you going to tell us what this is about?”

  “Enigmatic Parchments, are any of them lying?”

  “No Sparky, they are telling you the truth.”

  “Sparky, why would we be lying to you?”

  “Because you were being compelled to, that’s why. How many times did I have to ask you to see that pen? Five times, finally on the fifth time I compelled you to hand it over. Now apprentices go over and look at my desk and tell me what you see.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  We went over and had a look. I was staring at the two drawings and the inkwell and the pen. It was a nice antique pen. I’ll bet you I could write a really good story with that pen. I don’t know what Sparky’s problem was. But the longer I looked, the pen did seem to have a dim red glow. The inkwell did as well, but it was even dimmer. The drawings didn’t glow but the paper seemed as if it were tinted red.

  “Senior apprentice please report.”

  “Yes, Sparky, all four objects from the house appear to have a reddish magical field, I did not activate my drawing and as far as I know Mossbeard can’t activate drawings so I’d have to guess that the house somehow did that.”

  “Junior apprentice, do you concur with that assessment?”

  “Yes for the pen, and the inkwell, now that I stare at them I do see a very dim reddish glow. As far as the drawing goes, I don’t see the field, but the paper on both drawings does appear to be tinted red.”

  “Senior apprentice, you are correct there is a magical field around all four objects, you are also correct that the house activated that field.”

  “Junior apprentice, what made you go into the house?”

  “Well, by the time I’d finished talking to Michael Brown on his way out, we wouldn’t have enough time to gather sufficient magical energy to enclose the field. Everyone has been working really hard, so I thought it’d be fun to take a break and just have a look around.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “We went inside.”

  “Did you split up?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I thought we could play a game, we could look around the creepy house and whoever found the coolest thing would win.”

  “You bought five estates, have you poked around in any of the other mansions?”

  “No.”

  “So do you understand junior apprentice?”

  “Mossbeard, go out to the gnome colony, talk to whoever is in charge of security, tell them to put that house under quarantine. It should be burned down tomorrow, whoever is in charge of security should make sure that no one goes in nor removes anything from the ashes. After it is destroyed, I will go. No forget that please go to the tower and ask Draco to burn that house to the ground, with dragon fire, right away. I’ll portal out there and teleport away anything that the dragon fire doesn’t destroy. Opal you did nothing wrong, the opposite in fact good job identifying the magical fields around all the objects. You can go back to the tower and have your supper. Rose, you’re with me.”

  “Yes, Sparky.” said Opal before she portaled away.

  “You got it, Sparky.” said Mossbeard then he portaled away too.”

  “So do you understand Rose?”

  “No I really don’t, those things have really weak magical fields, how could they possibly hurt us?”

  “Think about your actions Rose, you bring Opal into a, in your words ‘dark and dreary’ house. Then your first thought is to send her off on her own. Is that something that you think you’d normally do, isn’t your first impulse to shield and protect the girl?”

  “Yes, it is? What did I do Sparky, is she going to be okay?”

  “Yes, she’ll be fine, I was more concerned with you, it had a real grip on you, but now you see it, hopefully. It wasn’t your idea to go into that house, it was that house’s idea. It had a stronger grip on you than them, because they were only drawing, you were in direct contact with the objects. I thought I was going to have to physically take that pen from you. But in the end you gave it up, even if I did have to compel you to do it.”

  “But I still don’t understand, I came in and freely gave you the inkwell.”

  “Yes, because the inkwell didn't spark your imagination. When you picked up the pen you had some kind of fantasy. What was it?”

  “I thought about sitting in the backroom of the bookstore, using that pen to write my next novel and it’d be the best novel I’d ever written all because I used that pen.”

  I turned to look at the pen, but it was gone.

  “Where did it go, Sparky?”

  “I got rid of it Rose, just forget it. It wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know. Next time you get a great idea and you are not writing a novel, before you act on that idea. Just take a second to think, how did I ever come up with that idea? And if you can’t answer that question, think about it again and don’t act on that idea until you understand where that thought came from. That way no one can ever dictate your actions except you.”

  “I put Opal at risk, I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it Rose, come on, let’s go make sure that place is burnt to ash.”

  We portaled to the Ferraro estate and walked over to the Brown estate. The house was fully engulfed in flames but Draco kept diving down at it and dousing it again and again with dragon fire. He couldn’t have been here much more than five minutes but the house looked as if it wouldn’t last another five, the roof was already gone and a minute after we arrived one of the side walls fell into the pyre, a little over a minute or two later the front wall collapsed. Five minutes later the back wall and last side wall collapsed at the same time.

  Draco took two more diving passes at this place setting the very ash on fire. Then he circled once and landed beside us.

  “I can’t believe, I never noticed this place before, I must have flown over it five or six times a day when we were at war. Good job noticing how evil it was, Rose.”

  “I didn’t notice and what’s worse I dragged Opal in there, we were in there for an hour playing around, Draco. It’s all my fault.”

  “It’s not your fault, it’s whatever awful people who were living there’s fault. You didn’t make it evil and Opal’s fine, more than fine she’s having her favorite vanilla ice cream loaded with cherries. If an hour in there turned her evil she’d have been eating raw liver or something equally disgusting, not vanilla ice cream. Plus you learned a valuable lesson, who felt compelled to go in?”

  “I did.”

  “Good now you’ll know the signs the next time someone or something tries to compel you.”

  I shuddered. I didn’t want to cry. No, I wasn't going to cry. I wasn't going to think about that house. I’d always had a vague feeling about these hills, I thought I was just annoyed that a bunch of rich people who profited off of the town didn’t pay any taxes. Maybe instead I’d felt this place, but that didn’t account for going blithely while dragging Opal into evil. I wanted to cry.

  “Draco, Sparky thank you for protecting us from this, but I have to go, I have to talk to Paula, to make something good happen today.”

  I portaled to the bakery. The kitchen was empty, Paula was probably already gone. I did a Locate:Paula Becker spell.

  Paula Becker is located in Madd Maggies Magical Bakery.

  “Paula are you here, I have a favor to ask you?”

  “I’m out in the store, Rose.”

  I left the kitchen and went out into the store where Paula was rearranging the baked goods in the glass display cases.

  “Paula, I have a favor I want to ask you, I know you were planning on opening your new store out by the farms, but would you consider opening a store out by the winery instead?”

  “Sure, I’ll do it if you give me ten trillion dollars.”