"So what's the plan?" Nia asked as we neared the campus. "Please tell me we're not just going to let ourselves in the front door?"
Mrs. Brennan replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "I'd rather we used a less-obvious entrance, dear. And perhaps you could give your father some directions, so we aren't parking the mini-van anywhere too conspicuous?"
I suggested, "Maybe park by the Enviro building? Then go in through the emergency exit by that stairwell next to the washrooms?"
My mistress agreed, "That's probably the best choice. From there it's up one floor, then the admin office is just across the hall."
"Then again so is campus security," she added with a frown. "That's literally right next to the admin office."
Mr. Brennan asked, "So where am I going girls? That's the campus right up ahead."
"Take that next left," I told him. "That's Campus Lane. Then take the next right. After we pass the wind turbine you can park wherever looks best."
He thanked me as he made the first turn, then the second one came up just a few moments later. A couple seconds after that we were there, and Mr. Brennan parked the mini-van in the dark under some big trees opposite the windmill. He killed the lights and everything, but left the engine running and the heater on, since it was kind of damp and chilly outside.
Nia gave me a gentle squeeze at that point, before addressing her mother again. "I assume you're going to want Kiki and I to keep campus security busy? Since I don't know how to mess with the computers."
"No dear," the older witch replied. "I'd like you and your pet to remain here in the mini-van with your father. If anyone does come to investigate what you're up to or why you're here, you can send them on their way. Sara and I will take care of things inside."
My mistress frowned, "How will you even know what you're supposed to be doing? And for that matter since when did you know how to do computer hacking?"
Her mother sounded a little condescending again as she responded, "All I'm doing is changing your pet's student records to indicate her true name, and if they've got her image on file I'll correct that too. I'll also change her address to your new apartment, and while I'm there I'll update your unit number in their files as well."
"As for how I know how to do this sort of thing," she added as she opened her door, "I made a point of teaching myself how to interface magic with technology a few years ago, when I worked at the hydroponics farm. Now the three of you sit tight. Sara, come along please."
Rather than open the van's side door Sara just turned herself back into her feline form, then jumped into the front and darted out the passenger door before her mistress closed it. We watched Eabha cross the small parking area, but she quickly disappeared into shadows alongside the back of the main building. Meanwhile Nia and her father and I just waited quietly in the darkened vehicle.
After a minute or two I broke the silence and asked Nia, "Do you know what sort of creature my dad turned into? I don't think he's a beastkin like me, he looked more like an ogre or something. But I don't know if those are real."
She sighed, "I'm sorry cutie, I have no idea what mother did to him."
"I know there are some dangerous magical creatures out there," she added, "But I'm not really familiar with most of them."
Mr. Brennan asked, "Are you saying your dad turned into an actual ogre?"
"I don't really know sir," I replied. "He turned into something, but I'm not sure what. He's still recognizable as my dad, just different."
Nia elaborated, "Mom used a spell on Mr. Moodie to force any hidden supernatural heritage in his blood to manifest. Kind of like what the fairy wine did to Kiki at the crossroads on Friday? But instead of becoming a mousekin like her he got a lot bigger and tougher looking."
"He grew fangs too. Or tusks maybe?" I added.
"How much bigger? Are we talking two meters tall, or three? Or four?" Mr. Brennan asked. "And did he become skinny or gaunt? Or is he more heavy-set?"
My mistress responded, "I'd say between two and a quarter to two and a half meters tall? Like unusually tall, but not impossibly so. And definitely not thin. Muscular, barrel-chest, thick arms and legs. And a bit of a beer-belly."
"He had the beer-belly before," I pointed out. "Maybe it got a little bigger though, along with the rest of him."
"Hmmm," her dad considered. "Your mother will probably be able to say for sure, but based on what you've described and what I remember about Mr. Moodie in general, I'd say it sounds like he's become some sort of fuath. So there may well be some ogre or troll blood in him after all."
I didn't really know what to think of that, and it didn't actually answer my question anyways so I just mumbled a quiet thanks to Mr. Brennan. Then I ended up waiting silently again as Nia and I cuddled together in the back of the van.
It was another ten minutes or so before Mrs. Brennan finally returned. She was carrying her feline familiar in her arms, but neither seemed hurt and she didn't appear to be in any kind of hurry.
"Any trouble?" Nia asked as soon as her mother opened the door and climbed into the van.
Mrs. Brennan closed the passenger door once she was in, then pulled on her seatbelt while Sara hopped into the second-row and changed back to her catgirl form. She even had that same outfit from before re-appear on her again, and I couldn't help feel like she was showing off at that point. Like even Nia couldn't make outfits that wouldn't disappear, and here was her mom's familiar changing forms and conjuring permanent clothing and stuff.
Meanwhile the older woman responded, "No trouble at all. Everything went exactly according to plan. Which I don't mind saying was a welcome change, after our last stop."
"Then let's get out of here," my mistress said, "Because there's still one more thing on the agenda. We're going to have that conversation, and you're going to answer my questions. We can either do that here in the van, or back in my apartment."
Mr. Brennan put the vehicle in gear and turned on the lights as we pulled out of the parking spot, then as soon as we were off-campus he started driving north. We were already heading more or less towards Nia's place but to be sure he glanced at his wife and asked, "Are we going back to our daughter's apartment now?"
She hesitated a moment then suggested, "Perhaps we can have our discussion here, on our way towards Gruffudd's Grove? Then the three of us can return home tonight, and leave the van with Nia to return on Tuesday."
"Fine," my mistress replied. "But you're not going anywhere until you've answered all my questions. So first off, why did we move to the mundane world back in twenty-fourteen? I don't want to believe you were exiled like Mr. Moodie said, but you obviously prefer living in the magical realm. So why spend a decade living with the humans?"
Mrs. Brennan scoffed, "Of course we weren't exiled! That was undoubtedly a lie Seumas Allaway told Mr. Moodie."
"As for why we spent those years living among humans," she continued, "The answer is long and complicated and involves some sensitive matters I'm not supposed to discuss openly."
Before Nia could argue her mother quickly added, "I know you're not in the mood to accept that as an explanation, so I will share some details. However I do ask all of you keep this to yourselves."
Without waiting to see if we all agreed or not she explained, "The short answer is I was doing my civic duty by working for the hydroponics farm. You see, Kenrei's Cove is not self-sufficient. It never has been. Our community has always relied on the import of certain goods from the mundane world. And paying for those supplies requires trade."
"Things were handled differently a century ago, but the past three decades the cove has relied on revenue from the hydroponics farm. And relevant to your question, matters were getting somewhat dire due to changes in the market and poor yields at the farm. As the community's most powerful witch I was asked to do what I could to improve the situation, and that meant moving here so I could work full-time at the facility."
"After three or four years our position had improved slightly, but the biggest windfall came after the federal government legalized cannabis," Mrs. Brennan continued, and that was possibly the last thing I expected to hear her say. "We immediately applied for the appropriate licenses, and a little magic ensured that process went smoothly. I oversaw the farm's conversion, and within another year our hydroponics operation was among the top producers of organic cannabis products in the whole province. Kenrei's Cove has been enjoying the proceeds of that decision ever since."
The older witch added, "As have you. The money that pays for your apartment, your college education and all the other purchases like those we made today comes courtesy of our magical community's mundane business venture."
I could tell from Nia's expression she had no idea about any of that stuff, but it certainly explained why her family moved to the mundane world for those years. It also answered the questions I'd been wondering about earlier, regarding their finances.
And by that point we were already at the north end of town. Mr. Brennan parked the van at the end of the same little street where we'd found it and Sara waiting for us this morning. That felt like ages ago, but then it really had been a very long day.
My mistress finally replied, "Alright, thanks mom for explaining that. What does Kenrei's Cove need the money for though? I mean, they're obviously not importing computers and phones and stuff. So what are they buying, what do they need from the mundane world?"
"Primarily the money goes towards raw materials and building supplies," Mrs. Brennan replied. "Lumber, copper, tin, silver, and so forth. Kenrei's Cove has no mines, and if we only built using locally sourced lumber we'd have quickly run out of trees."
Finally she added, "We also need to import seed and livestock from time to time, and have even resorted to using modern fertilizers on occasion. And of course Gruffudd's Grove needs to maintain a stock of mundane food and drink, which has to come from somewhere."
All that left both Nia and I silent for a bit as it sank in. Some of it made sense, but I found a few things surprising. Like I thought Mrs. Brennan's magic would take care of making the land fertile and stuff. Then again if she was the only witch in town there was probably only so much she could do. Especially if she wasn't even there for a decade, because they had her working here instead.
Eventually Nia responded, "Thank you for explaining all that mom. I had no idea Kenrei's Cove needed to rely on the outside world, I thought it was it's own self-contained little world or something."
"It is," her mother replied. "In the sense that it's a completely encapsulated little reality unto itself. As are all the other similar magical enclaves around the world. But to my knowledge none of them are fully self-sufficient. Either you have the resources but not enough residents to efficiently exploit them, or you if you have enough people to make efficient use of the resources then those resources will likely run out sooner rather than later."
She grimaced as she continued, "The only way to approach true self-sufficiency is to scale everything up far enough that you don't need the outside world anymore. But at that point you've all but duplicated the entire planet, and likely all its woes as well."
"The matter is moot regardless," she added. "The power required to create an enclave that large simply cannot be harnessed. Not without causing irreparable harm to the rest of the world."
That was a frightening thought, that someone could raise enough magic to damage the whole world. Although it's not like humanity hadn't already achieved that through war and stuff.
"Moving on then to my next question," my mistress spoke up again, "What's the deal with you and that fae guy, Seumas Allaway? There's obviously some bad blood between you two."
It was actually Nia's dad who answered that question, "Mr. Allaway turned up about two decades ago as an outsider, and tried to make a home for himself in Kenrei's Cove. It wasn't long though before folks realized he wasn't the sort of person they wanted around."
Mrs. Brennan took over, "He dabbles in magic, but has no real talent for it the way we do. Instead he relies on dark rites for his source of power. He summons infernal entities, then binds and exploits them to do his bidding. And as soon as I uncovered that detail I made sure the rest of the Cove's residents were aware of it as well."
"He's the sort of fae some beastkin tell each other horror stories about," Sara chimed in. The catgirl's ears were folded back as she scowled, "No-one would dare enter into a familiar pact with him because he'd absolutely treat us as disposable."
Hearing that left me feeling worried again, "Is my dad going to be ok? Like Mr. Allaway isn't going to do anything bad to him, is he?"
Mrs. Brennan turned in her seat to look back at me and asked, "You're worried about your father's safety? Even after all the pain and suffering he's caused you?"
"Sure," I nodded. "He's still my dad. And even if he did hurt me, he also raised me and stuff. Like he said when we were there earlier. I never wanted anything bad to happen to him, I just wanted him to leave me and Nia alone."
My mistress gave me another gentle squeeze as she told her mother, "This is how I know Kiki's such a good person. She's not interested in revenge or punishment or any of that stuff. She just wanted her dad to let her live in peace."
"And that brings us to the last and biggest topic we need answers on," she added as her tone got a little harder. "Mother, what exactly did you do to Mr. Moodie? Do you know what kind of heritage you uncovered, or what you turned him into? And for that matter, what were you even thinking?!"
"Is my dad stuck that way forever?" I added nervously. "Or can he be turned back to normal?"
The older witch sighed as she settled into her seat again, with her head against the headrest so she was staring up at the van's dark fabric roof. "As I said, I made some ill-informed decisions based on a misreading of the situation."
"I expected Mr. Moodie's heritage to be either fae or beastkin in origin," she added, although that much was obvious even to me. "Instead it seems there was a fuath in his history somewhere, which in retrospect may explain his cruel and violent disposition. If you want specifics I believe he has become a trow. That is a Gaelic or Celtic form of troll, as opposed to the Scandinavian variety."
After a brief pause she continued, "It may be possible to revert him to his previous form, however that will depend entirely on him. If he's taken to his new body the way Kiki took to hers then it would be much more difficult to change him back. Either way I sincerely doubt a charlatan like Mr. Allaway would have any success, assuming the man was inclined to attempt it in the first place. Unfortunately I am the only one around who might be able to restore Mr. Moodie to his original form."
"Does that mean you'll try?" Nia asked. "If we contact him and make the offer, would you try and fix him?"
Mrs. Brennan sighed once more, but didn't respond right away.
After what felt like a half minute of silence I repeated my earlier question since she never answered that either, "Is my dad going to be ok? Or is he in danger from Mr. Allaway?"
It took a few more seconds before the older woman finally responded, "It's possible Mr. Allaway could take advantage of your father's predicament. I don't know if fuath can become familiars, but if so then that would be the biggest threat. Seumas could manipulate your father into a pact, and as Sara indicated that could prove to be a very unpleasant fate for Mr. Moodie. For that matter, Mr. Allaway having a trow under his control likely wouldn't be very good news for anyone else either."
"Damn it mother," Nia sighed. Then she told me, "Maybe you should call your dad? Or text him? Warn him not to make any promises, and not to enter a pact with anyone. Especially his friend."
I quickly pulled my phone out of my purse and started tapping out a warning message. As I did that I asked, "Can I also ask if he wants to be turned back to normal? Would you do that for him ma'am? Please?"
Mrs. Brennan paused a moment then shook her head, "For him? No. You Kiki are a very kind, gentle, and forgiving soul. I however am not."
"Having said that," she added, "For my daughter and her familiar, the answer is yes. I will try and restore your father's original form if you and Nia wish it, and if he is willing to cooperate."