The Teacher

Airing the Grounds

Finn reached along the lines of magic that bound the house. She couldn't remember when she had ever worked with the magic this much before. Not the magic that made the house what it was. As some of the lines seemed to fight against her - atrophy beginning to set in - she realized that perhaps being as utilitarian as she had been had not been the best way. For all that she still saw it as the only way she could have moved on, that didn't make it the best way.

Lines attached to fireplaces suddenly warmed up, and for a moment Finn thought she was rustier than she'd first thought at moving the lines, until she heard Uriel and Gloria muttering and the heat left them. Gloria must have noticed that she could see how her own magic would work with the house and for a moment Finn wondered what that would look like. Then she carried on. This couldn't have been a simple exercise, there was simply too much that had been left for too long. 

It would knock her on her ass for another full day, but the house needed to be aired out entirely. Finn started adding rooms. Bathrooms had pipes that needed to run long enough to knock out the dust and rust that had accumulated in them before they shut off. Closets full of outdated clothes suddenly got big enough that air from windows could pass through and move things. Three garages, one barn, two rooms that were full of radio's and board games, a room full of divination tools - carefully lit so the crystal ball didn't light anything on fire when the windows were opened - a medieval laundry room, a sauna. Everything opened up, air crept and then swept through the rooms as Finn opened them up. Some needed a bit of force from her, others seemed to leap open until the house sprawled along the table.

The lumber mill had indeed been removed from the house but not destroyed, something that would have taken more magic than initially building it would have taken, and Finn frowned at the poor mending job that had been done on the magic in that area. She pursed her lips, eyes still closed, and mended the magic. For a moment she thought she should really read about the mill, should find out what had happened that it was removed, but that wasn't her job anymore and she was beginning to get tired. The Lumber storage room had originally been on the other side of the mill from the rest of the house and the lines had never been reconnected when the mill was taken away. That alone would have been reason enough for the house to be hesitant to allow Gloria access to the area, but the entire lumber mill seemed to have an abundance of memories as well. Finn realized she would have to personally go through those Chronicles at some point.

She opened her eyes, the world spinning and taking too long to come into focus again, and looked to Uriel and Gloria. Gloria was staring at her as though she'd grown a second head - she looked out the corner of her eye to make sure she hadn't - and Uriel was examining the house in great detail with a look of fascination and appreciation.

"I'm not sure I've ever seen it all laid out like this." Uriel said as he peered into a closet. "But I remember this ancestor of yours Finn, she had a tendency to hoard shoes."

"What the hell." Gloria said, drawing Uriels concerned glance and Finn's watchful gaze. "Who can see this?" She ran to the window and Finn frowned, confused. "That was some video game logic physics. You have to pack it all back in. No one can see us like that."

"I put us in a secluded valley in Canada, no one can see us." said Finn. Gloria was now peeking out the window in the room. 

"I thought you said it wouldn't affect the house?"

"I wasn't manipulating the model, I was controlling the house. It needed to be aired out, so I opened up every room there is. The downside to this, is that getting to the lumber yard is going to be a bit of a walk." Finn stood up and stretched, feeling like she'd been sitting for days in the same position. "So let's get a move on."

Uriel, for whatever reason, decided to walk with them and he and Gloria spent the entire walk opening every door and looking into the rooms. Most of them they just looked and walked away from, but there was a few that caught one or both of their attentions. 

"You have a Church?" Gloria squealed from one.

"Just because I don't walk that path doesn't mean no one in my family ever has." Finn called over her shoulder, but she neither slowed nor stopped.

"Finn, why do you have a crematorium? I did a quick check, it would still pass all inspections in most countries." Uriel asked quietly. 

"Black plague." Finn said simply. "One of my ancestors alive at the time was a time scryer, so it doesn't surprise me that it would still meet today's legal standards."

"What's a time scryer?" Gloria asked as she glanced into yet another room decorated archaically.

"You know what it is to scry?"

"Spy magically?" Gloria said, although based on her tone Finn was pretty sure that she had lost interest already. There were a lot of doors now.

"Right, so most people that can scry can look at locations or at people. Very rarely one is born that can scry a little differently. One of the ways they can do it differently is by looking at a specific place in time." Finn stopped when Gloria let out a squeal and called Uriel in.

"This whole room is just jigsaw puzzles!! Tell me you like them too?"

"I do!"

Finn made it past four more doors before Uriel and Gloria came running out of the room. There were no more interesting rooms from long dead hoarders on the way to the lumber yard. Finn stopped with her hand on the handle to the heavy wooden door that would open to the yard.

"You need to be warned. I'm not sure what, but something very bad happened here. The yard is going to look exactly how it looked the last time it was opened up, so if there were bits and pieces of people then, its' still going to be a bloody mess. Feel free to come back in here while I deal with whatever is out there."

"You'll need help no matter what the mess is." Gloria said quietly. "I haven't said anything because I don't know how to say it without it sounding bad in my own head, nevermind yours, but you've been slowing down the entire walk."

"I thought she was just giving us time to look in the rooms." Uriel said. Finn heard the lie, but said nothing. Uriel would have known better. She was tired, and this could very well be more than she could handle on her own right now. She opened the door.