CHAPTER#50

Tink spent her evening and the following morning in the Vault. When she came up for breakfast, she was muttering under her breath, her face and arms covered in soot. Between inhaling her eggos, she mumbled something about a magical item that had blown up in her face and had gone back down to the basement wearing a thick apron and heavy gloves. The Vault was eventually declared repaired before Tink flopped down on Mike's bed and slept for nearly fourteen hours straight.

He expected to have another dream about the game board, but it never came. Cecilia still hadn't returned, but Sofia assured him that many death myths claimed a personal escort could take time, especially when they were troublesome spirits that didn't want to go.

Somehow, it didn't help him feel better. He used his nervous energy to help Reggie transform the servant's quarters into a sitting room. They had both agreed it would be more pleasant than storming into the throne room whenever they wanted to talk. To his credit, Reggie had some of the rats participate in cleaning up, and they even gave Beth an old, beat up dollhouse meant to be a temporary replacement for Jenny.

The doll hadn't moved since they returned, but Beth assured him that Jenny's weird little outburst had worn her out. He was happy to hear that the two of them were at least talking and that the grumpy ghost was okay. He cleaned up the dollhouse and Beth convinced Jenny to accept it until Tink could build her a better one.

Ratu had taken the gem to the Labyrinth for study and hadn't been seen since. Utilizing the fairy messaging system, she informed him that the emerald had her thoroughly stumped. The magic it contained wasn't easily cataloged and she couldn't get it to replicate the effect of animating furniture.

Another day passed without answers or Cecilia. Mike turned the sundial the next morning, ignoring the figure in white who watched him from the sidewalk. They were able to repair damage to the first floor and Jenny's new dollhouse was rebuilt and waiting for her. The rats agreed to avoid the front room, not as a punishment, but because everyone feared Jenny would kill one on sight.

Sitting at the large table in the dining room, Mike was busy clicking through websites on his laptop. He had sent out final emails this morning to his few remaining clients with references for other webmasters he recommended. He had thought to hold onto some semblance of his old life, but he had come to terms with the fact that he found no joy in working for others, nor did he have the time. He had ordered replacement plates and silverware for what the poltergeists had broken and had gotten some new furniture for the front room. Tink, Sofia, and Abella had worked to repair the table, but it still had several large cracks where it had broken apart.

Beth sat across from him, her nose buried in one of the Harry Potter novels. An abandoned crumpet was on the paper plate in front of her and she stirred occasionally at a large cup of tea.

The sound of scrambling claws announced Reggie's arrival. For whatever reason, he had started showing up for meals. At first, Mike had found the rat's continued presence annoying. However, after a couple of days, he realized that Reggie was a lot like he was. The rat had only been a mouthpiece for so many years that he had had no confidence or hopes of advancing his lot. Now, however, he had been given a chance to shine by the very people who would be his enemies and seemed determined to develop that relationship.

"Lord Mike. Lady Beth." He had to sit in a booster seat Tink had built for him, his paws folded politely.

"Good morning," Beth told him, then slid over her crumpet. Reggie broke off a piece and stuffed it in his mouth.

"How's the kingdom?" Mike pushed over the rest of his omelet. Sofia was still sore about the mess they had made of the Library, so he and Beth had started sneaking him her cooking.

"We are doing well. We have rebuilt part of the warrens and moved our living quarters around. Now that we can move around, we were offered refuge down in portions of the Labyrinth.

"Really? Ratu was okay with that?"

The Rat King nodded. "We have built a series of portals through the maze that allow us to check her traps for her. She also had us build her some shortcuts through the Labyrinth so that she could get here faster. Sir Asterion was not a fan of this, but she placated him with something called... time off?"

When Reggie said time off, Mike caught Beth grinning.

"He doesn't have to be in the Labyrinth all the time anymore," she explained. "He's been allowed to come up and visit the garden. We actually had a nice walk in the greenhouse yesterday. We found a great little waterfall and had some lunch there."

"Yeah. There are a couple good ones there." A chuckle escaped his lips. He hadn't really thought of the greenhouse as a place to go for a pleasant walk. Since he was on permanent house arrest, it was likely that he would be doing that fairly soon. "Actually, Reggie, the greenhouse might not be a bad place for your people to look for potential homes. I don't know how big it is, but other than a few extremely dangerous plants, nothing else lives there." At least, that was what Zel had told him.

"We prefer our comforts to be made of wood. Unless you are offering to build us homes, we will stick with our current domiciles."

"Of course." He drank some more coffee and contemplated his computer screen. He felt like he had a million other things he should be doing right now and couldn't focus on any of them as a result. He excused himself from the table and wandered the house, peeking into random rooms.