Ildri managed to collect Keziah and eat breakfast before Missus White hunted her down.

"Come this way, Ildri," Missus White said with an unpleasant expression. The housekeeper generally ignored Ildri or treated Ildri as a piece of furniture. However today Ildri seemed to be in the spotlight of Missus White's disapproving attention. It was not an improvement.

Ildri was not certain what it was exactly that Missus White was so angry about. It could be the parrot that was riding on Ildri's shoulder. It might have been that Missus White felt that Ildri was getting beyond her rightful place and a small part of Ildri could not help but agree with that idea. She was not anyone special, not a lady like Lord Wildwood's wife nor wonderfully talented like Maxine. She was just Ildri of Wildwood, an orphan.

Ildri shrugged. If Lord Wildwood wanted Ildri to do something she would do it, regardless of how the stern housekeeper felt about the situation.

They arrived at a door that Ildri had not been in. It was not in the guest rooms nor was it in the servant's quarters but rather somewhere between the two.

Missus White pushed open the door. "Lord Wildwood ordered that you are to have these rooms," she intoned as if she thought it was a seriously poor idea.

Ildri looked around. The main room was far bigger than her old room had been, and there were two doors leading out.

"Really?" The words rushed out in a breath.

Missus White gave her an imperious look and continued talking. "This door leads to your new bedchamber and a garderobe. This second shall be your workroom. You are to inform me if there is anything that you need. You will still be paid on the same days as you were previously but you will now report directly to Lord Wildwood regarding your tasks."

"Really?" Ildri repeated, feeling quite overwhelmed.

Missus White's eyes narrowed and her lips drew in until it looked like her features were being sucked backwards into her face. Ildri stuttered, "I'm sorry, it's just so... overwhelming, I guess, I don't mean to..."

"You will find some money to use for supplies in a small locked chest in your workroom." She thrust out several keys towards Ildri. Ildri took them, feeling bemused.

"The largest locks your main door, the smallest unlocks the chest and the other two are for the other rooms. Do not lose them or their replacements shall come out of your pay."

Ildri nodded.

"As always, do not disturb me with questions unless it is of dire urgency. I have much to do and no time for pointless frivolity."

"Yes, Missus White."

Missus White nodded curtly and exited without another word.

* * * * *

"Can you believe this?" Ildri asked the bird perched on her shoulder as the door swung shut behind the housekeeper.

"Bloody lady," Keziah replied.

"You need to stop saying bloody."

"Bloody? Bloody blood."

Ildri opened the door to the bedroom and sat down on the bed. She supposed that she would have to go and gather all her possessions from her old room. The castle had many extra rooms but they would probably want it vacated in case they needed it. She really did not feel like doing it, though. She leaned back onto the bed. It could wait a few minutes.

Ildri looked at Keziah who had fluttered to the edge of the bed. "Will you listen to me if you become my familiar?" she wondered.

"Pretty lady," Keziah said.

"Stupid merchant should have taught you yes and no."

"Stupid merchant." Keziah walked across the bed and looked down at Ildri.

"Fine. You'll be my familiar. Lord Wildwood thinks it will be fine. But I really don't know how to do this."

"Fine," repeated Keziah.

"You say that now. But you'll be bound to me until one of us dies, or something. I don't really know how it works. And what if I mess it up somehow?" She let out a sound of frustration. "I'm just going to do it."

Ildri seized the threads of magic that she could somehow feel and tied them together in the fashion that Maxine had explained. It had sounded so simple at the time and now Ildri was left to figure out what to do with the frayed bundle that she was magically holding.

She concentrated hard and finished turning and unraveling the bundle. And she was done.

She wondered if it was supposed to feel different. She felt like she had before, didn't she?

Keziah whistled what sounded like a song and Ildri was certain that at least Keziah was content. Could she have a better understanding of what was going on in the bird's mind?

"Bloody stupid," Keziah whistled happily.

Since Ildri was stuck with the bird it was time to start teaching her how to behave. "Listen, Keziah. You can't keep saying that. No bloody, no stupid."

"No," agreed Keziah, clearly with no idea what Ildri was talking about.

Ildri sighed. "I'm going to go and move my stuff. You stay here, Keziah."

"No!" Keziah shrieked as she propelled herself through the air to land on Ildri's shoulder.

"You're the familiar, I'm the witch. You're supposed to do as I say."

"No!" Keziah replied. It was like dealing with a naughty toddler, except worse, if it was fair to compare the bird to how Matt had been.

"Fine. Come with me then. But you need to start doing as I say, Keziah."

"Keziah," she agreed.

* * * * *

Ildri moved everything into her new rooms. The task was complicated by the possessive squacking bird on her shoulder. Keziah seemed to have decided that Ildri was her personal property and nothing and no one was allowed within arm's reach. Afterwards they visited the kitchen to get a bite to eat. Keziah seemed to like chef, probably because she associated chef with food, and she also did not seem to have as much problem with the children as she did with adults. Keziah seemed to be learning to enjoy their bouncing energy. She still did not let any of them near her, however. Only Ildri was special enough for that.

Ildri enjoyed one day in her new position with relative peace. She set up her rooms and marveled at how much larger it was. It was surreal, how could she have ended up in this spot?

She supposed that it was because Lord Wildwood was such a good man. He was very kind to her. She wondered what sort of potions he would want her to make. She was fairly certain that Lord Wildwood would not be interested in Dredil's hair tonic.

Ildri decided that perhaps Lord Wildwood might find the covering smoke that Ty employed useful. The first thing that she would need was ingredients, so she and Keziah walked in the woods and collected various plants and herbs for that particular potion and for others that Ildri could remember. Then she spent the rest of the day brewing potions that she had the ingredients for simple potions such as smoke juice and ignition potion, only taking breaks for meals. She was exhausted by the time she fell into bed and Keziah flew into her cage. Ildri did not bother to shut the cage, there was no way that Keziah would leave her, even if Ildri commanded her to.

Perhaps she had misunderstood the bond between familiar and witch. She had thought that the witch would be the one in charge, but Keziah did not seem to understand it that way. Ildri seemed destined to do exactly what the bird wanted when Keziah wanted it.

Ildri fell asleep and spent the night having her mind assaulted by possessive birds with blood dipped tails.

* * * * *

"No!" Ildri cried. "She's harmless, really! Leave her alone. Keziah, stop biting them and show them how harmless you are!"

"Good bloody morning!" Keziah said cheerfully as she bit one of her captors.

"And stop saying bloody!" Ildri snapped foggily.

"Good bloody morning," Keziah said again and dimly Ildri realized she had just been dreaming. And Keziah was really talking.

"Good morning, Keziah," Ildri said as she opened one bleary eye. "I didn't sleep well. And stop saying 'bloody', please. No bloody. No. You're giving me nightmares."

"Bloody nightmares," Keziah said with what Ildri almost felt was empathy.

"Did you sleep poorly, too?" she asked.

"No bloody sleep."

"Do you understand anything I'm saying?" she wondered out loud as she looked at the bird.

"Keziah bloody want food," announced Keziah.

Ildri rolled her eyes. "Let's go get something to eat, then."

* * * * *

Ildri and Keziah were in the kitchen very shortly.

"Here you go," chef said as she gave them their respective meals.

"Thank you, chef," Ildri said. "Keziah, say thank you."

"Bloody."

Chef laughed. "I can see that you have control of your pet."

"She's my familiar, now." Ildri took another bite.

Chef examined the parrot gobbling down her breakfast. "I thought familiars were something like animal servants for witches."

Ildri let out a deep breath. "Apparently not. At least not in my case. Maybe I'm not strong enough or something. We can eat somewhere else, if we're bothering you."

"I think you're better off here, at least until she stops swearing so much. She's already turned Wildwood upside down. You should hear some of the things that people are saying!"

Ildri forced a smile. "I already have some idea. Lord Wildwood mentioned it. I don't think I want to hear more."

"Probably not," chef agreed. "But all that aside I enjoy seeing you. You were with me every day for many years and then suddenly you were gone, and then gone again. I missed you."

"Sorry about that. I miss being in the kitchen, too."

"Never say that! Visiting should be enough. Your new position is far better, really. Here you weren't going anywhere, unless I got sick, or too old to work, or died. What you're doing now is far more important. Even if you had to become a witch to do it."

Ildri shrugged. "I'm finding that witches and warlocks aren't that different from wizards. There seems to be overlap."

"That's quite interesting."

"What you do with food is almost more like witchery than wizardry, chef."

Chef looked a bit uncomfortable at the thought. "I suppose I can see that, in a way. But be a love and don't share that news with too many others." She smiled, belying her words. "I wonder if that means I could get a cat familiar, to keep the rodents away from the food stores."

Ildri smiled. "I don't think it would need to be your familiar to do that."

Ildri finished her food and pushed herself away from the counter. "Thanks," she said again.

"You're more than welcome," chef said and Ildri exited the room.

Ildri made her way to the library. She looked at Keziah and said in a tone that she hoped sounded stern to the bird, "One bite of a book or scratch on a page and you are never coming with me to the library again. Understand? Books are very expensive. No biting, no mess."

Keziah whistled and looked at Ildri with what Ildri believed to be a very innocent expression in her black eyes. Ildri hoped that she understood.

The library at Wildwood was not well equipped when it came to witchery. There were numerous tomes on every wizardry subject that Ildri could imagine but very little on making brews. She did find a couple of books that identified various plants in the region which might prove helpful. In a very dusty corner there was a slim volume titled Warlock Fortifications that made Ildri excited until she opened it and discovered it was mainly about fortifying oneself against warlock attacks and apparently distributing misinformation about non wizard magic users.