106. Enquired

Kelly and Keira did such a good job keeping me distracted through the weekend that it took me all day Monday to recover. Now it was early Wednesday morning and I was up before my girlfriends for a change. I'd received some worrying news yesterday afternoon, and I needed to follow-up in person.

I got dressed and had a coffee, then with about ten minutes to go before the sunrise I made my way out through the kitchen door, across the backyard and down into the ravine. I got to the little glade right on time.

It took me a few seconds to find the right spot, then I cast the spell and pushed out through the veil.

A moment later I emerged into some woods overlooking a large pond. The sun was higher up in the sky here, I was a couple thousand kilometres east of home.

Some three or four hundred meters south-east on the other side of the trees was a high-school that would be full of students in another hour or two. My destination however was about four kilometres to the south-west, and I focused on that as I cast the teleport spell. A moment later I appeared in a bright spacious kitchen.

"Good morning Lady Tegan, I have fresh coffee ready for you if you'd like? Susan will be with us in a moment. She's just finishing getting dressed."

Kaitlyn was standing next to the counter where a large coffee machine had just finished filling the pot. She was wearing a knee-length navy blue pleated skirt and a white blouse, and she had some cute black shoes on. As usual her make-up was subtle but attractive, and her long bright red hair was neatly brushed and styled.

In the two and a half years since I'd transformed her she'd grown a little, but she was still smaller than me. She was seventeen now and she stood almost exactly five feet tall. And while she had filled in slightly, she remained rather slim and petite.

As usual she was polite and formal with me, despite my telling her countless times she didn't need to use my title when addressing me. Not on Earth anyways, and she wasn't likely to ever return to Otherworld.

"Good morning Kaitlyn," I replied as I moved to the large sturdy kitchen table. "Some coffee would be wonderful thanks."

She bowed her head slightly, "Of course Lady Tegan."

I slipped my jacket off and draped it over the back of a chair, then had a seat. A few moments later Kaitlyn set the mug down in front of me, she already knew how I liked it.

"Would you like to join us for breakfast Lady Tegan?" she asked. "I'll be making bacon, scrambled eggs, and home-fries."

I nodded, "Thank you Kaitlyn, that sounds nice."

She bowed her head again and got to work. I watched as she set three frying pans on the gas range and got out the food from the large fridge. She put an apron on over her clothes and soon the air filled with the smell of bacon frying.

Sue finally joined us in the kitchen. She smiled when she saw me, "Hello Tegan, it's lovely to see you again!"

I stood up and gave her a hug, "Nice to see you too."

She got herself some coffee then sat down at the table across from me. Sue was dressed casual, like myself. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and had sneakers on her feet. Instead of a t-shirt her top was a little nicer, more like a blouse. I was just in skinny jeans, running shoes, and a t-shirt.

After a sip of coffee Sue asked "So what brings out out here in such a rush Tegan? Not that we aren't happy to see you of course, but I gather this isn't just a social call? You were very cryptic last night on the phone."

I glanced at Kaitlyn then looked back at Susan and sighed. "No, it's not a social call. I heard something yesterday which was a little troubling. It sounds like someone may have used magic at Kaitlyn's high-school recently?"

Sue took a sip of her coffee then asked, "How in the world would you hear something like that?"

The kid was still working on breakfast, she had her back to us but of course she was listening in on the conversation. She spoke up before I could, "Lady Tegan has someone spying on us. She doesn't trust me and wants to keep an eye on me."

"Tegan is that true?" Sue demanded with an angry frown. "Are you really spying on Katie and I?"

"No! I mean, they're not spying on you. I mean they're not..." I sighed, then tried to explain. "Look, Kaitlyn has a lot of enemies. I have enemies. I was worried that someone might come after you because of your relationship to me. Or someone might go after Kaitlyn and you, because of her past. So I asked one of the people who works for my mother to just sort of keep an eye on things out this way? Just incase anything suspicious came up."

Sue continued frowning at me as she shook her head, "I can't believe you'd have spies keeping tabs on us."

I sighed again "Look I'm sorry that upsets you, but I did it to try and keep you two safe ok?"

"Anyways," I added, "I didn't come out here to argue about that. I came to find out what's going on at the high-school."

Kaitlyn set out plates and cutlery for the three of us, then she loaded up a big toaster with bread before she returned to the stove to check on the food.

Sue rolled her eyes "I could have told you last night on the phone Tegan, and saved you a trip if you'd bothered to ask. No need for all this cloak and dagger nonsense."

My eyebrows crept up as I stared at her. "You know about something going on at the school? I thought I was going to have to interrogate Kaitlyn, or go and check the place out myself to find out if there was a fae or half-fae there getting up to something."

Sue just smiled and shook her head, "Katie's best friend had a problem and I gave Katie permission to help her out."

I looked from her to Kaitlyn then back to Sue again. "You what?"

"Tracey Meyers was going to out Claire," Kaitlyn said calmly as she started setting the food out on the table. There was a plate of bacon, a bowl of scrambled eggs, and another bowl of home-fries.

I frowned, "Who's Claire? Is she your girlfriend?"

Kaitlyn stated in a somewhat forceful tone, "Claire and I are just good friends."

Susan sighed, "Claire's parents are homophobic arseholes Tegan. If they thought their daughter was gay they'd kick her out of the house."

"And Tracey was going to out Claire, which would get her kicked out." There was some anger in Kaitlyn's tone as she said that. "So I put a geas on Tracey to make sure she wouldn't. It's harmless, and it was to help keep Claire safe."

Kaitlyn set out a plate full of buttered toast and got a glass of orange juice for herself, then finally took her seat next to Susan.

"Help yourself Tegan," Sue said as she took a couple slices of toast and a scoop of eggs.

I looked back and forth between them, then sighed and loaded a little of everything onto my plate. Kaitlyn waited until both Susan and I had all we wanted before she served herself.

As the three of us started to eat I asked Sue, "And you knew about this? You ok'ed it?"

"Yes Tegan," Sue replied as she ate. "Katie said she couldn't do anything about Claire's parents, which would have been my first choice. Just have them stop being judgemental arses so Claire wouldn't have to hide that part of herself from them. Unfortunately that was beyond what Katie's capable of."

After a moment she looked at me, "Actually since you're here Tegan, that's something you could do isn't it?"

I stared at her in shock and shook my head, "Absolutely not!"

"Lady Tegan is very much opposed to using mind magic," Kaitlyn told Sue. Then she added, "Maybe next time her girlfriends visit we could ask Lady Keira to do it? She's less strict about that sort of thing."

I glared at the kid, "You are not asking Keira to do your dirty work! Though I doubt she'd do it anyways, you know neither her or Kelly like you very much."

"I know," Kaitlyn replied calmly. "But it wouldn't be for me, it would be for Claire."

Susan added, "Claire's a good kid, Tegan. And she's been a very good friend for Kaitlyn. If she ever did get kicked out I'd welcome her to stay with us. The only reason I haven't already invited her to come live here is it's expensive raising teen girls. And it'll be hard enough paying for Kaitlyn's university, there's no way I could afford to send both of them."

Kaitlyn sighed and glanced at Sue, "I already told you I don't want to go to university. I'd rather stay here and help you."

"I know Katie but we've talked about this," Susan replied. "You're a bright girl and you can so much better than working in the hospitality industry. Get a degree, learn something valuable. Even if you do come back afterwards to work with me here, at least you'll have an education and skills to fall back on if anything ever happened to the business in the future."

Neither Kaitlyn or I had much to eat, and Sue finished her breakfast quickly too. The kid got up and started clearing the table while Susan and I had some more coffee.

Susan looked at me and said, "If you won't do anything to help Claire with her parents, then I don't see any problem with what Katie did. She's protecting her friend, and she didn't do anything harmful. She just made sure a bully wouldn't get Claire kicked out of her home."

I sighed and shook my head. I didn't like it, but I couldn't really find anything wrong with it. It sounded like the sort of thing I'd do myself if I were in Kaitlyn's place.

The kid was starting to wash the dishes as I asked her "Kaitlyn? Does Claire know what you did? Does she know you used magic?"

"Yes Lady Tegan," she replied. "That's how we met. Claire is a witch. I introduced myself in hopes we could collaborate in our magical studies. I offered to share my vast knowledge of spells and magic, if she would share her techniques for raising and focusing magical energies."

I stared at her for a few seconds, and I may have facepalmed. Finally I half-demanded, "So you're teaching fae magic to a human teenager?"

"I am exchanging knowledge with a friend and colleague," Kaitlyn replied. She added, "We both swore oaths to keep each others' secrets. She will not divulge or distribute what I teach her, and I will not share what she has taught me."

I finally slumped back in my chair and rubbed my forehead. Finally I asked, "Wait is she really a witch? Are witches real?"

Kaitlyn finished with the dishes and replied "She is not the kind of witch I originally thought. But she is a witch, and she is my friend."

Sue spoke up, "And now Katie has to get going Tegan. We don't want her to be late for school.

I asked, "One last question. How'd you get the power to put a geas on someone?"

Kaitlyn reached up and pulled a necklace out from under her blouse. There were a half dozen pieces of amethyst hanging from it. It reminded me of the necklace Kelly had me wear that fateful night almost six years ago, except rather than just one crystal the kid had six of them.

"Since I am no longer able to raise sufficient power on my own, I have learned some alternative methods of charging crystals. I can tap into their stored power when necessary."

"Great," I sighed. I switched on my sight and my magical sense.

To my relief the crystals she was carrying were all very weakly charged. I'd worried she had enough power on her to start transforming people, but from what I could see she had nowhere near that, even if she used all six at once. I was also happy to note her aura didn't show any evidence that she was getting worse. It was still mostly pink, with some streaks of purple here and there. There was still a black core underneath, and I figured that would never go away. It hadn't grown at all since I last saw her though, which was enough to set my mind at ease.

"Katie, why don't you invite Claire over for dinner tonight?" Sue suggested. "Tegan might like to meet your friend, and perhaps that'll help set her mind at ease knowing you were just looking out for Claire's best interests."

"Ok Maddie," Kaitlyn smiled. She bowed her head to me, "See you later Lady Tegan, I have to get to school now."

I just nodded and watched as she pulled on a jacket, grabbed her little backpack then hurried out the door.

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