“I like her,” Sally said. “The woman asked all kinds of smart questions about my latest project.” She raised her knitting bag to illustrate the point.
“Your crafts are beautiful. You should ask Iris about selling a few pieces on her site.”
Sally stared at him. “Do you think people would buy them?”
“Absolutely! Handmade knit items are huge.”
“I was planning to make everyone something for Christmas… I never even thought about selling my work.” Sally looked thoughtful. “I don’t care so much about the income. I’m well enough off as it is. But …”
“What?”
“Would it make people happy to buy something I made?”
Eli smiled. “Absolutely. Not everybody has a relative who knits, and there’s something warm and comforting about wrapping up in a scarf that was handcrafted.”
“That settles it,” Sally said firmly. “I’ll talk to Iris later.”
Eli heard the voices in the stairway long before he caught a glimpse of Mira and Iris. Sally probably couldn’t make out the words, and she was working on her scarf again. “If that’s possible, then I think we can move forward,” Mira was saying.
“It’s no trouble. I can clear the room for you.”
“That would be great. I have stuff in storage now, but I’d rather use my bedroom furniture and my own bed.” She glanced around the house. “It looks like there would be room for some of my other decorative items as well, if you’re willing.”
“We can look at everything as a group,” Iris said. “But if there are no objections, I’m fine with it. The house should represent everyone, even the common spaces.”
“I doubt Henry Dale will care,” Eli said.
He wasn’t trying to be mean, but the older man just wasn’t a “pick out curtains” type of person. Sally agreed with an emphatic nod, her fingers moving in hypnotic patterns.
“That’s absolutely right. He’d have strong feelings about the type of kitchen tile we plan to use. Not the pattern.”
Mira glanced between them, seeming confused. “Are we replacing the kitchen tile?”
Sally flashed her a gentle look. “Just an example, dear.”
While Eli sat and picked up his own coffee, Iris went over the house rules, explaining about the condiment fund and general other points of clarity. Mira nodded along, seeming to approve of what she heard. Iris went on, “As for chores, I haven’t come up with a schedule or anything yet. Generally, we pick up after ourselves and wash our own dishes. The washer and dryer is in the basement. I’ll probably pay to have the house deep cleaned once a year, and I just had that done recently.”
“I noticed how clean everything is,” Mira said.
“It’s an old house, so there’s wear and tear—”
“I could help with that,” Mira cut in. “Fact is, I’m a bit short of cash right now because I had to pay for a storage unit. All of my stuff won’t fit here, so I need to keep paying for it, which means I was hoping you might be open to a barter arrangement for the deposit.”
Eli read Iris’s surprise, but she didn’t look annoyed. “I’m listening.”
Mira took a breath. “Damn. It feels strange being able to say this openly, but…I’m a witch. A tech witch, to be exact. And I can do all kinds of cool updates to the house, if you’re willing to accept my services in lieu of cold hard cash.”
Sally dropped her knitting needles, eyes wide. “Do you know Ethel? What about Gladys? No, they’re old, you probably don’t. What about Danica and Clementine? They own Fix-It Witches here in town.”
Mira glanced at Sally, seeming startled. “Actually, I do know them. Well, of them, anyway. We belong to some of the same online forums, and we’ve chatted about various projects over the years. I was hoping—eh, we’re getting off topic here.”
“Are you serious?” Iris asked.
Eli had his own misgivings because if Iris accepted this at face value, Mira might end up living here for free or at least paying only a nominal amount. And it wasn’t that he disagreed on principle—the house did need work. And he himself had thought that a tech witch might be the better option instead of doing deep and messy work in the house walls. Hell, from what he’d heard, tech witches could even transform pipes and wiring without needing to touch the plaster. But Iris also needed money to live on; if she kept taking in people and agreeing to barter, she might end up—
No, it’s her decision. Not yours.
Mira nodded. “Absolutely. For instance, I could make the woodwork look like new. That would be one spell. I could renew the paint in the hallways upstairs. I could restore the gingerbread or revitalize the peeling exterior. Each task would be an additional spell.”
“Doing everything all at once would require too much energy?” Iris guessed.
“Exactly.” Mira paused, as if weighing her next words. “You’re taking this better than I expected. Some people laugh and say I’ve read too many magic academy stories. Others get nervous and stop talking to me.”
“We’re trying not to make it weird,” Eli said.
Iris added, “It must be harrowing to come out with it like this.”
Mira nodded. “A little. There still some risk involved in self-identification, but I wanted you to know before I moved in.”
She must be referring to the proposed legislation that would require a database monitoring all paranormal citizens and the rise of HAPI. Eli had his own fears connected to those issues. He would follow Iris’s lead, however. At this point, only she knew about his double nature.
Sally bounced a little in her chair. “I’ve bothered Ethel and Gladys about this ever since I found out, but they won’t tell me anything. Can I ask you a few questions?”
“Sure,” Mira said warily.
Eli smothered a smile. He also noticed that Henry Dale was lurking in the hallway outside the kitchen beside the china cabinet full of ceramic angels. The old man was interested but refusing to admit he was. Henry Dale’s irascible nature made him endearing rather than annoying. Eli had no idea why he felt that way, but he wanted to look after the old fellow, almost as much as he did Iris.
Sally got started right away. “I don’t understand what a tech witch does, exactly. Danica and Clem seem to fix broken machines mostly. But you’re talking about refreshing paint? How does that work?”
“‘Tech’ makes it sound like it needs to be a gizmo with moving parts for me to impact it. But actually, my magic works on pretty much any nonliving thing. Wood is a bit of a gray area because it was alive, but now it isn’t. So it’s inert if organic. But if you want repair work done on it, that’s the tech side. If you want a witch to take an old cypress board and turn it into a living tree, that’s on the vivimancer side.”
Eli blinked. “Is that even possible?”
“It depends on how much…life is left to the board. And that relates to a lot of esoteric factors that would take me ages to explain.”
Henry Dale stomped out into the open. “What’s this nonsense? You’re all acting like this is real. Don’t be taken in by such baloney.”