Kandrad does not understand what Damjen is doing, and proceeds to scoop the soup with his flow into his mouth.

And then take the soup out of his mouth with his flow because it's too hot, then start moving the air around it to cool it down. The mouthful of soup floats in the air as a spinning ball.

Damjen winces. He really should teach Kandrad the concept of cutlery or table manners. It can wait, though.

And, after a few minutes, she returns. When they're done eating, she can show them to their room.

They finish quickly. Damjen only took a little, and Kandrad eats very, very quickly.

After turning to confirm with Kandrad, Damjen says, "Thank you for waiting. We are done now."

She leads them out of the kitchen and through a series of winding hallways. The furnishings and decor, while locally coherent, change from one section of hallway to another with no apparent logic, and no hallway takes a straight course for very long. Some do have windows, but it is too dark to see outside by mundane sight (Damjen can see the foliage). By far the most common source of light are wall-mounted lanterns, a bright, steady flame enclosed by glass and metal, the same as the rooms they saw before.

"I did not create this place, so much as I found something that was already here and altered it, repurposed it, tamed it, into my refuge. That thing is most often called the Eternal House. It's quite dangerous, most of all because it's extremely difficult to navigate. Things move around when you aren't looking at them. When I formed my refuge out of a part of the house, I exerted my power over it to make it safer, more predictable, more hospitable. But even here, the house has a will of its own, though it is benign. I tell you all of this to explain why the rooms and halls of the refuge are always changing. The rooms nearest the great hall are mostly stable, but the further we travel, the less consistent it will become. There are tricks you can learn to navigate—certain patterns or types of decor that tend to lead you somewhere stable—but for the most part people navigate by wandering the halls with their destination firmly in mind. This will usually get you where you want to go without too much delay. Do not expect to always, or even usually, take the same path between any two places, but you are unlikely to get lost. The same technique can be used to seek out specific types of room, if for instance you want to find a bathroom, or a room with a closet full of clothes you might wear. You could do this yourself to find a room to claim, though it would be challenging to satisfy specific requirements like an abundance of houseplants, for instance. My assistance will make this task simpler."

Wow. This place is a spatial abomination. He can tell what directions they've been moving towards and how many steps they've taken, and he feels they ought to have curved back to a previous location at some points. It's so upsetting.

Damjen's spatial intuition is weaker than Kandrad's, but he has nonzero knowledge about architecture and interior design. Enough to know that this isn't laid out like any normal house.

"Thank you for your guidance. The clothes...the clothes are unowned and we can just claim them? I would not want to inadvertently take someone else's clothes.

Since a claimed room does not disappear" don't think too hard about the eldritch plane's mechanics "could I obtain plants from elsewhere and put them in a claimed room? Are all places in your refuge indoors?" He can see greenery through the window, so perhaps one could open one and go through? Or would that put you outside the safety of the refuge and be, presumably, torn apart and consumed by horrors?

"Clothes, and all other objects, in temporary rooms and other spaces, are unowned and you can take whatever you want. It's one of the main ways people get material things they want. Permanent, private spaces—that is, rooms that have been claimed—do not have mechanical locks, but you would not be able to open the door to enter them without the owner's permission. You are able to freely enter common spaces, and it is sometimes acceptable to take things from them depending on the specifics. I believe the only common space that regularly contains unworn clothes is the headquarters of the Refugee Fashionable Society. They have a large collection of clothing they harvested from temporary rooms in the house, which makes it easier to find specific items of clothing you're looking for. I believe you're free to take anything that isn't stored at one of the workbenches, although I'd advise seeking assistance from one of the society's members—they know how the collection is organized."

"You can obtain plants from elsewhere and put them in a claimed room. They might not be species you're familiar with, however. I can advise you how to care for them if need be."

"Not all of the refuge is indoors, no. The house is also capable of creating pseudo-outdoor spaces we call gardens, and everything I've said about rooms also applies to them. The temporary ones usually aren't very large, but we also have several permanent gardens that are much larger."

Kandrad immediately wants to go claim a garden but that would separate him from Damjen since he thinks he doesn't like the outdoors type. Also he seems very tired and he should go to sleep.

Damjen likes the outdoors. He just doesn't want to have to sleep on the ground or go camping. He's interested in nature watching, not survivalism.

Also, he really likes the sound of this Refugee Fashionable Society. Truly, he has found his own people.

"Thank you, I will keep that in mind. Is it possible to attach rooms together? That is to say, create doors that connect two rooms deterministically? Or do all non-hallway rooms necessarily only have a single door which leads into hallways?"

"It's possible, yes. Some people claim and inhabit suites of rooms. In most other cases, it would require my assistance. It is also common for rooms to have multiple doors, although where those doorways lead is usually not persistent."

That's great. He can ask to connect a garden to Damjen's room later, once he's claimed one.

"If we wish to ask for your assistance, how would we call upon you? Are there times or circumstances where calling upon you would be displeasing?"

"My attention is functionally unlimited, and I do not sleep. You can find me by the hearth in the great hall, or you can call out for me anywhere in the refuge, and I will hear you. I do not hear everything in the refuge, to be clear. What you expect and desire to be private, will be private, I will not be aware of it."

They've been walking for several minutes.

"We're in the right place, now, to find a room that meets your specifications. It will take me a few more minutes to find one."

As they continue walking, several of the doors along their path crack open of their own accord.

Kandrad flinches and stops walking when the doors start to open. He'll use the autonomic sensing technique and draw out his flow to encompass the entire hallway, tying it to his breath. He'll be able to tell if any more open, or if anything at all moves within that space. It manifests as a barely perceptible rhythmic breeze.

Wow. Unlimited attention and no need to sleep. Okay, he can see now why trying to mindread her would have disintegrated his brain.

Damjen stops when Kandrad does.

"Is that normal?"

"Yes, I'm the one opening them. I need to do so, to check what's inside. The rooms don't exactly exist until their doors are opened."

"I see. Thank you for checking them for us."

Kandrad will unstop and continue walking to wherever the Hearthkeeper will bring them, but he'll maintain the technique.

"To claim a room, you form an intention to do so, and either spend some time there—several hours, at least—or leave your things there, or both. It isn't always reliable on the margins, but if the claim succeeds, the room will persist and the refuge will recognize it as yours, denying entry to anyone else without your permission. In this case, I'll set it up so either of you can give that permission. If both of you sleep in your room, that should be more than enough time to claim it. If, in the future, you leave your things in a room that doesn't persist, whether through a failed attempt to claim it or by accident, I can retrieve them for you. Does all that make sense?"

"That makes sense. How does bestowing permission work? Can permission be rescinded?

As for the claim, will there be a sensible indication when the claim has taken? Will we know? Or do we have to find out whether it has taken experimentally?"

"If you clearly form an intention for a specific person to be allowed to enter a specific one of the rooms you've claimed—suites are generally treated as a single room for this purpose—either for a specific period of time, or indefinitely, they will be able to open the door and enter that room during the specified period of time. You may then rescind that permission at any time, as may Kandrad in this case. If you want to get complicated with conditionals, you'll need my assistance. Unfortunately, there is no clear signal when the claim has taken. The house in many ways does not like to be predictable, and past a certain point it is no longer worth the effort on my part to make it more predictable."

"Ah, here we are."

She leads them into a large room with two beds, a large closet, two chests of drawers, a couch, a few armchairs, and short table. One of the long walls has windows from floor to ceiling, to several feet into the ceiling. The area near that wall is full of potted plants, some mounted on wrought iron platforms, some hanging from the ceiling on hooks. There's a curtain to keep the sleeping area dark, and opposite the window-wall, a door leading to a bathroom.

"Will this do?"

"It looks wonderful. Thank you very much. I am very grateful."

Are the plants...normal? That is to say, do they have any spiritual energy?