This comes after/in time with What If and is a bonus interlude written to Thnidu’s commissioned request for more.

Alone, the house checked her doors — all closed and locked, the kitchen and front doors ready to open at a moment’s notice.

She checked her security, all of the Workings and traps woven around the remains of the front garden and side lanai.  She considered the fence and determined it to be holding firm.

And then… she waited.  Alone, without people of meat and bone yo interact with, the house tended to settle in to a much slower pace — glacial, a former tenant had teased her, but glaciers moved slower, lives longer, than even houses.  

She could focus on a single thought, a single emotion, for hours, days, weeks when alone.

Now, she considered her newest tenant.  She tolerated Jasper, found him a little ridiculous but not unpleasant.

She was finding she was fond of Mélanie.