"Got it."

She studies the floor for a moment herself, then beckons to Yvette. "If you could have a seat right there, facing the window?"

"Certainly." She sits where told. "This is really orderly instead of the usual mess, and I'm kind of geeking out about it, and will have approximately ten thousand questions for you later."

Liesel grins.

She puts a white glass bishop in front of Yvette, a king on her right, a queen on her left, a knight behind her, all together forming a square. Then she puts a red glass queen to the right of the white king, a red glass king to the left of the white queen, and the four rooks form the outer square.

"I look forward to it," says Chris. She's laying out tumbled stones along the lines of the floor in between the chess pieces. When she's finished, she steps into the diagram and hands Yvette a medium-sized river pebble. "Hold this, please. It's the focus stone."

The pebble is... fortresslike, in a way strongly reminiscent of the house, and of Chris herself.

She holds the pebble, of course. While peering at it in fascination. She's starting to see the logic here, and wow it's so much tidier than the complicated hybridized reach-arounds she usually has to do.

Chris smiles.

She sits down in a space in the diagram in front of Yvette.

"And now I'm going to talk to the rock in mediocre Old English alliterative verse for a while, and you will see interesting mystical visions, and afterward you will be as protected as I can make you on short notice."

Yvette snickers.

"Sounds good. Liesel mentioned it's about how my presence interacts with the metaphor, should I aggressively try to be as myself as possible, or just leave it all to you?"

"For the most part, what you actually do doesn't matter very much as long as you stay put," she says. "But there could be minor benefits from being extremely yourself, so feel free. Ready?"

She takes a deep breath, tries to summon up the Essence of Yvette from the corners of her subconscious, and then nods.

"Ready."

Chris talks to the rock.

The mystical vision begins deep underground, in the glow of magma. Then up, up through the roots of mountains, over long ages as the land reshapes itself in its slow dance, until the stone emerges at last into the light...

A tower wall takes shape around the outer square of the diagram, built of grey stone blocks, translucent but somehow still intensely solid. A pair of translucent figures, both strongly resembling Liesel, appear standing over the red king and queen, facing inward toward Yvette; the red queen has a silver sword, and the king a golden crown.

And then Yvette's metaphors join the show.

In front of her, floating above the bishop, a book. To her left, above the queen, a pen. To her right, above the king, a castle, standing tall and strong and bustling with activity, with guards on the parapets and wagons trundling in and out of the open gates. Her knight's metaphor is behind her, so she can't see it.

Chris keeps talking, barely hesitating, weaving all these things into a narrative. The inside of the tower becomes a library, full of books, with Liesel as king and queen standing guard while Yvette sits in front of an open book, a pen set on one side of it ready to write, a knife on the other side ready to defend her from intruders. The walls are still solid stone, imbued with the strength of mountains. Nobody's burning this place down anytime soon.

After a few more stanzas of description, Chris thanks the rock and ends the spell. The visions fade.

"Bishop as book, queen as pen, king as castle, and knight as knife," she says. "Interesting assortment you have there."

... Yvette laughs.

"Thank you," she says. "Knight as knife. Well. My more knightly tendencies did involve surprising people with knives."

"And you've got a strong general protection now. Hostile magic will fail unless it can smash its way through, which most things can't; you will tend to be extremely difficult to physically harm, although I can't say exactly how the difficulty will manifest and it's not a guarantee against any particular kind of possible attack."

She nods.

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

"You're welcome."

"Well. I'll go grab everything from home, then. I shouldn't be too long; I'll be back by sunrise."

"We'll be here to let you in."

"Thank you," she says with a smile, and then off she goes.

Home is right where she left it, and no sister in sight. What about Zeke and Miles?

She passes them on the way there, actually!

"Oh hey, what's up?"

Don't be weird. Don't be weird. Don't be weird.

Also: don't reveal enough information that Zeke could be killed for it. She would rather he didn't get killed.

"Hey. Went shopping for magic supplies, then decided to go for a walk, because I've been locked in my house for three days straight."

He laughs. "Yeah good plan. Anyway we're done celebrating and Miles would rather stay in your house than my crypt, no accounting for taste, that cool with you?"

Oh god Zeke, why do you so casually confront her with subjects she is not prepared to handle. Is it just a superpower? Her sister got super strength and you got 'able to accidentally stumble headfirst over every awkward subject Yvette is not prepared to handle'?

Okay. Okay. How would she handle this without a soul?

"For now, yeah, but I'll be annoyed if he leaves dishes in the sink," she says, deadpan. And she'd probably say something about him earning his keep but oh god no she can't do that right now nope nope nope.

"I would never," says Miles primly. Then he laughs. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

And he takes the brown paper bag with several plastic tubs of blood in it from Zeke.

"That's me outta here, then. See you!"

He waves and turns back down the path.

"Bye," she replies, waving back.

She - looks at Miles. And then she looks away from Miles.

"C'mon," she says, because she's always better at not being weird when she just focuses on being clever and silly, "my fridge is in danger of mutiny if we don't fill it soon."

"Can't have that!"

Into her cottage they go. Into the fridge goes the blood.