A Legacy of Evil: The Law of Hospitality (Patreon)

 Vasilisa's Doll worked on the door, pale hands stroking gently along the side as the lock clicked and she entered. I was a bit distracted to really see how she did it, as Baba Yaga kept swearing up a storm in several languages I didn't know and one which I was reasonably sure was Mermish. Or she could have just been angry, who knows? I certainly didn't because having a migraine the size of my ego was starting to get incredibly painful and the moment I thought that, the screaming stopped. I felt a sense of acute anger, pointed and bitter still despite it and then something else I was sure I wasn't meant to feel.

Regret and pride, at the sight of the doll. The moment that thought flicked across my mind, Baba Yaga slammed shut the barriers between us and retreated back like a tortoise, and I knew nothing more. Louhi would be staring at the hut, cautiously despite it being opened before she finally spoke.

"You first."

"That's not very chivalrous." I replied back dryly and she scowled and spoke. "You're holding Baba Yaga. If there are traps, she'll get hit too so it'll be in her best interest to let you know."

"What a cynical and entirely understandable method, headmistress." I said before bowing sardonically as I turned and walked in. My hand reached out and gently patted the doll on her head in thanks and as I walked in, my first thought and impression of the hut was... Just how messy it was.

The doll waddled past, grabbing a broom as she began to sweep and I put it out of my mind as I stared at the following.

Unlike the majority of modern wizarding huts and tents, the interior was as large as the outside suggested. Dried herbs dangled from strings on one side of the hut, above a dusty looking table meant for potion making if the small cauldron and various collection of clay jars sealed with wax was any indication. Bird cages dangled from the ceiling itself, a collection of them and all of them empty with nothing but bones now when I took a peek.

There was a chest in the corner, currently locked and my eyes were drawn to the blackened outline of a person before it, making a mental note to check for curses later there. A single bed was set next to a small closet, currently being aired by the doll who seemed grimly determined to make a good work of it and finally, a firepit in the middle where a more, classical witches cauldron laid. As I looked around, Louhi spoke up.

"When we first captured the hut, the Russian ministry took control and began sending their best curse breakers. We lost ten of them, the first four at the front door were devoured by some kind of swarm. Then another was flash burned when he tried to examine the chest. They tried to remove the central cauldron and it sucked the water out of his body. After that, they considered destroying the hut but fire, spell-nothing seemed to work."

"So, they brought it here?" I said incredulously and Louhi spoke defensively. "My school is well protected and as I said, they didn't want it close to Baba Yaga. So I chained it and sunk it into the lake, where it has been ever since."

"Did they ever find out how it operated?" I asked and she shook her head. "No. The Riders refuse to share as well, despite my blood ties to her. They simply say the Hut follows those who understand it."

"That reminds me, how did you-oh, excuse me." I stepped out of the way as the doll waddled past, an enormous pile of old laundry that must have been here for god knows how long, as with easy familiarity she opened up a cupboard and began dragging out a laundry bucket among other, old fashioned tools for cleaning. I stared briefly, nonplussed before back to Louhi as I continued.

"How did you get the allegiance of the Riders?"

Louhi was quiet. Her eyes glanced away before she finally huffed out and spoke. "I didn't. It was a deception."

I blinked, not expecting that in the least as Louhi continued. "Thatch, my house elf came to me one day and told me he had the Riders. We were being pushed by the Ministry at the time, due to the actions of the nomaj government. They were threatening to ransack our school if we didn't turn over censored materials and the Riders were a godsend."

My eyebrow raised and in my head, Baba Yaga spoke with a snicker.

"Mother always prepares, for every eventuality." 

"How did Thatch get them?" I asked and Louhi shrugged helplessly.

"I asked! He couldn't answer me. He could only say it was meant to be. When he began to hurt himself, I stopped. I did consider it was perhaps Baba Yaga herself, but at that point she had been locked away and trapped in the vault. Powerful defenses overlaid would prevent anyone from speaking with her."

"Except for one, vagabond traveler." I said lightly and she scowled, nationalistic pride pricked as she spoke.

"Well, you're just stupidly powerful. Short of Albus Dumbledore, we were prepared for anything."

I looked thoughtful for a moment. In the background, the sound of the doll scrubbing away echoed in the hut before I looked back and forth.

".... So, you say that the curse breakers were all slain when they tried to break in?"

"The unlucky ones." Louhi replied and I nodded once, before walking to the cauldron. An immense, cast-iron looking monstrosity that any Russian peasant might have owned for food and sundry. Big enough to ride in, certainly far too big for conventional potion brewing, especially with the smaller cauldron on the table I saw earlier.  

On either side of the handle were chicken heads, the beaks holding the metal wire that would keep it suspended as the bottom boasted chicken feet, clawed and keeping it aloft as cold ashes were underneath.

".... I think I have an idea." Louhi looked at me with some disbelief as she spoke. "In a few minutes, you think you've learned more of how to defeat the defenses than the Russian Ministry and myself? Pray tell."

"I got us through the door, didn't I?" I said casually as I took out my wand and.... Proceeded to transfigure a poker in the corner to a broom and dustpan as I began to clean around the firepit.

Louhi stared, her eyes incredulous as she spoke. "Is this really the time?"

"It's always a good time to clean." I remarked aloud as I hummed to myself. As I did so, I also began to speak, my voice falling into somewhat of a lecturing tone.

"Baba Yaga and her legend was indeed a fearsome one, but she was also known to help people who proved themselves."

"Yes, I know. She was sadistic that way." Louhi said hotly as she added. "As a girl, I was abandoned to my own devices before the steps of an orphanage in Petrograd. When I discovered my heritage from her during the war, her first reaction was to laugh in my face at how I had 'clawed up from my old station'. I tried to hex her, she almost killed me for it. Rest assured, if there's anything in a hags heart, it certainly isn't parental love nor a wish to help. Only the desire of a child, contemplating if tearing wings off a fly might prove a diversion for the afternoon."

She shook her head and continued. "We're wasting time. Use your wand at least!"

"I can't." I replied as I added. "The entire thing is predisposed to ancient rules of hospitality, or so I think."

Louhi paused, her expression unseen as I had my back to her, before she finally growled.

"Explain."

"Look at the doll." I replied, and Louhi stared. The doll had finished the laundry, and was making a game attempt at slowly dragging the bucket out to the front door as I continued.

"The doll knows what's going on and how dangerous this place is. And her first action is to clean. We're guests in the dancing hut and guests, if they were seeking help and aid from Baba Yaga must prove themselves as such! So, I'm going to follow her lead."

Louhi was silent. A few moments later, she sighed out angrily and moved to the bucket, picking it up as she spoke to the doll more gently. "Let me do it."

I smiled, despite myself and we continued to work.

======

"That is two hours I'll never get back. I hope this works." Louhi replied and I nodded in turn. "Me too." The place looked far nicer now and despite everything, I felt a touch of satisfaction. It looked actually livable and the air was nicer too, no longer as musty or damp as before. I felt a tug on my pants leg, glanced to the side and noted the doll staring up at me expectantly.

"Yes dear?" I asked, and the doll pointed to the cauldron and proceeded to make a stirring motion.

Louhi was immediately attentive as she spoke. "A potion? Of course! A unique one, maybe by drinking it or splashing it somewhere, we'll find a secret door! Here!" She produced a quill and some paper, handing it over to the doll who took it and scribbled rapidly.

As she handed it over, Louhi snatched it and read... Her expression suddenly stony as I asked. "... What's wrong?"

Louhi scowled and turned the paper over wordlessly, letting me look as I peered closer and read aloud.

"Beef, cabbages, beets, olive oil, black pepper-wait. A borscht recipe?"

"A waste of time." Said Louhi with a scowl as she tossed the paper over her shoulder. "This is obviously a practical joke. Something to amuse the old hag, for anyone who would have come this way. Koschei is currently engulfing Moscow in a blizzard, my Ministry needs help and I'm here... Cleaning up after the hag, while she laughs. Whenever you're ready to actually do real work, I'll be in my office. Hopefully, some of the families hadn't pledged loyalty to the Deathless just yet."

She turned and stormed out, the doll trying to grab the paper and backpedaling as Louhi stepped on it and was gone.

The expression of the doll was unchanging, but there was a forlorn expression as she picked it up and stared up in my direction. I knelt, took the paper and began reading again. No clues, nothing I could glean from a first look. It was for all intents and purposes, an old family recipe for borscht. It was about as unmagical as you could get, as I pondered for a moment and then finally spoke aloud.

"Thatch. I don't believe your mistress yet rescinded the order to help me."

There was a crack and the old house elf was suddenly there, scowling as he spoke sourly.

"Tricky master survived. A shame." He then said more respectfully to the doll. "Hellos to you as well."

The doll gave a curtsy and I smiled to myself at the sight as I spoke. "So, I was right. You're more than familiar with this place."

"Dunno what master be speaking of." Thatch replied, turning away as I rose up and began to speak.

"Louhi is good enough and all, but she's limited by the cultural shackles of her people. She inherited a house elf, but the truth is, you've been serving for a long, long time for her bloodline. I had wondered at the time, but your survival despite handing the message over to Koschei confirmed it for me, more so now."

"Master loves the sound of his own voice, da? He does indeed." Grunted Thatch as I continued, a bit serpentine now as a touch of the original Voldemort found its way on the tip of my tongue.

"Koschei knew you, enough to let you be. So does the doll. And while Louhi was correct that the Russian vault would have stymied wizards... It does nothing against House Elf magic, does it?"

Thatch trembled. The doll cocked her head, worried and then raised her hands in a parody of alarm as Thatch began to bang his head against the floor, as she ran over to stop him.

I watched on, as Thatch growled and pushed her off. "Get off me woman! Thatch is fine! Thatch will not betray the Mistress!"

"Which one is that I wonder?" I mused aloud and Baba Yaga finally spoke.

"Tell him that the time is now to prepare our guests for supper."

I did so without hesitation and the effect it had on Thatch and the doll was immediate. The doll began to clap rapidly, bouncing on her heels and Thatch stared up in amazement and awe, before he actually began to cry.

"Mistress! Is you! Oh, happy day for Thatch! Wizard, give me that list!" He snatched the list of ingredients, vanishing with a crack. The doll hiked up her skirts, running with a clatter back and forth as she began to prepare a table for cooking.

As they worked, I spoke to Baba Yaga.

"I was told that Hag's were degraded Norns. Weavers and recorders of fate. I also knew that Louhi was a seer-a part of her bloodline from you. Knowing that, as well as the rest my conclusion was that you wanted some of this to happen. And prepared accordingly."

"Clever little snake. Salazar would have been amused to know you." Came her reply as she added. "But what will you do now? My release is a matter of time and the more you act to awaken my Hut, the closer I come to my rebirth like the firebird itself. What will you do then?"

And with a cackle, she went silent.

If I had any misgivings, I hid it well enough. Angst over choices later.

I had food to help prepare.