Keeper: Chapter 41

Chapter 41.


Jamie made sure the basement door was both shut and locked before heading up to the upper floors. The lock was just the kind that was turned at the doorknob and required no key. Jamie frowned a little at it. Somehow a key seemed more secure than just a lock on the door knob. Something in him wanted to lock the door and hide the key in a deep drawer. He thought about it as he hung up his jacket, tucked the flashlight back under the sink and went upstairs. The basement hadn’t felt, for lack of a better term, bad. It wasn’t like a house of horrors that claimed it’s victims. The only fear he felt was the thought of not being able to get out. The basement had been insistent when he was in there and disappointed when he left.



‘I wonder if Alexander felt the same way?’ he thought to himself as he entered the hidden floor and made his way carefully to Storage room three. Jamie thought of the way he had been almost compelled to speak his thoughts aloud and wondered if there was something live voice activated magic. He thought of the smoke thing that the High Talbot battled in Albe’s room and how it reacted to his voice and presence.



‘So that would be a yes,’ he thought. ‘Although admittedly it doesn’t’ take much encouragement to get me to talk aloud to myself.’ Once in the storeroom Jamie skirted the boxes, still wondering how many of them had come from the first house. With the image of the fire in his mind and reflected in the mirror he was quite surprised that anything could have survived the destruction. Jamie reached the shelves with the journals and chose the one with the same date as House’s construction on it. With a start he realized that that was also Alexander’s first journal.



“I shouldn’t be surprised,” he said aloud. “Everyone said the old Keeper died in the fire.” Jamie thought of the past week and his first days as keeper and wondered if Alexander had been so constrained in his memories and confused about what his new job entailed even as he watched the House being built and magic being poured into the foundations.



“If tradition held, he would have been as confused as I would be,” Jamie thought, wondering how he would react to seeing a sentient house being built by fairytale creatures. He shook his head and decided to take Alexander’s journal into the library to read. After all he wasn’t just scanning pages this time but actually reading more than just events pertaining to Lune Mertos.



“Might as well be comfortable for that.” Jamie went up to the library an found a fire buring in the grate, chasing back the October chill. As he settled himself he heard footsteps behind him and found Del holding a small tea tray.



“Heard you leave the basement and thought you might need something to warm you up,” he said setting the tray on the side table.



“Del, did you feel anything odd in the basement?”



“Odd?” Del asked his face looking like he was suppressing a laugh. “I went into the basement with Burr to assist in removing death magic. I think odd would be about expected.”



“Were there any traces of death magic left when you were done?”



“No,” Del said firmly, all traces of his amusement fading. “Burr removed everything. There wasn’t a trace of anything left. After I left him with you for a restorative tea I checked the basement again to make sure we had removed every trace and that there was nothing in there that made it feel...unwholesome, if you will.”



“And when you checked then did you find any sort of magic traces down there?”



“Nothing that wasn’t tied to the House.” Del frowned as though he weren’t really sure what Jamie was asking.



“So nothing compelling you to speak out loud or wanting you to stay in the basement?”

“No nothing at all of that sort,” Del answered. “Was that what you felt?”



“Yes,” Jamie said. “It didn’t feel ...unwholesome, just disappointed that I was leaving.”



“Well now,” Del sat back and thought about it. “I can check again and see if you’d like.”



“Would you mind?” Jamie asked, feeling a little silly about the request. “And just so I know you are okay and out of the basement could you come back up here after.”



“I’ll do that don’t you worry,” Del said, amusement at Jamie’s concern dancing in his eyes.



“Thanks.” Jamie told him. Del left, no doubt to investigate the basement and Jamie felt a little tense as he opened Alexander’s first journal to the first entry as Keeper and began to read. In less time than he would have thought reasonable, Del returned to the library. Del was frowning.



“What’s wrong,” Jamie asked.



“Did you do anything to the basement door?” Del asked.



“I locked it with the little turn lock under the door knob.”



“Anything else?”



“No,” Jamie said puzzled, “What else would I have done?”



“I don’t know but the door won’t open. The lock turns as easy as you please but the door will not open.”



“Well I suppose that answers the question about there being magic in the basement.”



“I suppose so,” Del replied looking a little nonplussed. “And I suppose it must be some sort of Keeper related magic as well. Like the kind that keeps me off that floor you were talking about. The one that needs a proper cleaning.” Jamie smiled at the response, remembering that Del’s first question about a hidden floor was how it got cleaned.



“Speaking of,” Jamie asked, remembering the very clean basement. “Did you clean the basement when you went in there with Burr?”



“No,” Del replied. “It was clean already.”



“Huh,” Jamie replied. He frowned. “When the first house was destroyed, do you remember if it was just the Keeper who died there?”



“It wasn’t,” Del said, his chest puffed with pride. “When the Keeper died his Housekeeper died with him refusing to abandon him to the flames.”



“I see,” Jamie said aloud. “I wonder if that has anything to do with it.”



“Do with what?”



“Why it is so clean.”



“I can’t see why that would matter,” Del said. Jamie shrugged.



“It probably doesn’t but as I have no clue how magic of any sort works it is the only guess I have.” Jamie sighed. “I don’s suppose they have a magic for dummies book anywhere?”



“I would suspect not as most clans and houses have their own special brand they practice.”



“That would make it easy to trace should it go wrong I suppose.”



“Which would be one of the jobs of the High Talbot,” Del told him.



“Well maybe Alexander has some insights,” Jamie replied holding up the book. “Us befuddled humans ought to stick together.”



“I’ll leave you to it then,” Del said with a smile. “If anyone knows how Keeper magic works it would be another Keeper. Humans would know best about human magic.”



“Human magic?” Jamie asked. Del paused in the doorway.



“Its rare,” he said with a shrug. “Always was, even before humans started killing anyone they suspected of having it.” He shrugged again. “It tended to be unpredictable and rarely helpful from what I understand but it’s been so long since any of it surfaced that I doubt anyone could tell you much about it that wasn’t just superstition.”



“Superstition?”



“Of course,” Del said with a laugh. “Fairies and goblins may be a part of human superstition but human magic are a part of ours. A fair trade I suppose. Except for the fact that fairies and goblins still exist.”



“Makes sense I suppose,” Jamie said, wondering if there were any books about it in Albe’s library. Del left and Jamie shook off wondering to dive into Alexander’s journal. The distractions quickly faded as he read Alexander’s words and thoughts.



“Apparently I am not the only one who struggled,” Jamie mused as he read. Somehow feeling that his ancestor was as confused as he was at first made him feel somewhat comforted. “Especially since he eventually got his head together enough to make the Field guide.” The day began to wear thin as Jamie read on and he absently reached up to turn on the side lamp for more light. The tea grew cold and the fire died to ash. Eventually his eyes began to blur from too long staring at the looped handwriting of his forebearer. Jamie leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes to process what he had learned.



Apparently Alexander had had similar problems as he had in the basement although his reaction to it seemed to be stronger. Alexander felt the pull to stay in the basement and the urge to speak aloud as though it would give something leave to begin but he had also felt pins and needles all over his body as though his limbs were trying to wake up from falling asleep. Jamie tapped the cover of the journal in thought, wondering if the power in the basement had simply weakened over time.



“No one else could feel it but the Keeper,” Jamie muttered to himself. In addition to the housekeeper who, like Del was a brownie, Alexander had a rather large family living with him. Neither his wife nor children could sense anything of what he felt in the basement.



“Perhaps Del is right and it is magic tied to the Keeper.” While it was interesting to think about Jamie shifted his thoughts back to the house itself. The first house had not been the first house but the house that the keeper at the time had built. Apparently the older house had not been much and had been relegated to the status of an outbuilding. The Keeper at the time, also a Fulton, had built the house with the aide of friends and family. He had been quite elderly when it was destroyed and everyone seemed to believe that when he died, the hose simply went with him. Alexander had tried looking for further details but had always come to a dead end and the unshakable belief that no one would ever try to destroy the Keeper of the Crossroads.



“As I have several attempts under my belt at this point I think that foul play is an option,” Jamie muttered, thinking of the watchers in the woods. Were they merely watching or were they doing something? Jamie walked to the desk and picked up the journal he had begun. Even though he felt like he was treading old ground, he still jotted down what he had learned in the hopes that seeing all the facts lines up would present him with some sort of pattern. In addition to noting his findings about Alexander and what destroyed the older house, Jamie also noted a new and somewhat surprising fact. House had not been created sentient but had developed the ability to communicate with the Keeper over time. A thought occurred to him.



“House?” he asked looking up from his notes.



“Yes Keeper.”



“The older house that was destroyed and used as part of your foundation,” he began carefully choosing his words. “Was that house able to speak to the Keeper who lived there the way you are speaking to me?”



“Yes Keeper,” House replied, sounding as if he should have known that.



‘Gotta wonder when the talking house thinks you have gone crazy,’ he thought. Out loud he thanked the house and let it fall back into doing whatever it did when he wasn’t talking to it.



“I wonder if what I feel is the former House trying to communicate with the present Keeper,” he wondered, jotting his thought down even as he said it. “Alexander wouldn’t have known that as House didn’t start talking to its keepers until his son took the role of Keeper. Maybe if I take Del with me as a safety net I could actually talk to the older house. Now that is something to think about.”