Disclaimer: I don't own Witch's House or any of the IPs from which my imported characters originate.

Why Cute Witches Should Deal With Outsiders (And Their Lairs)

Extra: An invitation

Beta:

"We got a letter?" Ellen asked, blinking in confusion at her wife as they settled down to breakfast one morning. With her mother and their children off exploring Creation for a while and no guests at the moment, it was just the two of them today.

"Yes," Viola said from across the wrought iron table they were breakfasting at in their garden as she handed a sealed envelope over to her. "Apparently the courier, a Kischur Zelretch Schweinor, handed it over to your stepmother last night. She passed it to Mister Clegane, who handed it to me this morning when I went to check in on the latest batch of puppies."

"My stepmother," Ellen said, hissing in disdain at the mere mention of the hated woman. "Received it?"

"Yes, but she didn't do anything to it. Not that she could. She's bound so tightly by your will, she can't even conceive of meaning us harm." Viola reminded her. "Well, except for being deliberately useless as a guard monster."

"She's not deliberately useless."

"Everyone gets past her!" Viola countered. "I cannot believe with as powerful a banshee you made her that she'd be that ineffective at stopping intruders."

"Any intruders that even make it far enough into the grounds that warrants her confronting them are powerful." Ellen reminded her. "Usually too powerful for her. I made her powerful, but not that powerful. A final insult as it were."

Viola blinked. "I honestly didn't realise that."

Ellen just chuckled. "You can be so dense sometimes, Viola."

Viola blushed prettily at the tease but didn't deny it. She couldn't, not when it had more than a kernel of truth to it. She had struggled to come to terms with not only what she was but also her feelings for Ellen after all. One might be understandable, but both? What more proof of her being adorably dense need there be?

"Okay, that aside." Viola said hastily. "Any idea who this Schweinor person is?"

"No idea." Ellen said with a shake of her head. "Probably a self-important person who thinks their name alone is enough to clue us in on who their master is."

"Think it's Midori trying to circumvent the rules around her punishment and using a proxy?" Viola asked, worrying her lips.

"Why would she need to?" Ellen asked, looking at her wife oddly. "Her punishment is simple house arrest. She's free to communicate with others. She just can't leave her realm or Shiro's."

"Maybe she's plotting an escape?"

"Not likely," Ellen said with a roll of her eyes. "Not only would that be suicidal by getting the Moderators on her tail, she's also a little too busy looking after her kids to even contemplate the idea. And the less said about how such an escape attempt would put her kids at risk the better."

Their friend and fellow member of they Sapphic Circle, Midori, had been put under house arrest by the Moderators, the faction that enforced the rules that governed interactions between their kind, for breaking said rules and threatening to destroy the world of their fellow Outsider Thirteen during the game they played with it a few eons ago. A punishment that Midori and her wife, Shiro, had decided to make use of to finally have kids. Tykes that were adorable little spider-plant monster hybrids that both of their friends just couldn't stop gushing about. There was no way, either of them would risk their children's safety by doing something as silly as trying to engineer an escape for Midori from her house arrest.

"True, but you never know." Viola insisted anyway.

"Since you're tossing out silly ideas, I take it that you haven't read the letter yet?"

"No," Viola said with a nod. "I wanted to share the surprise with you."

Ellen blushed and offered her wife a happy smile. "You're sweet as always, Viola."

"Thank you, Ellen." Viola replied, smiling back with a happy grin of her own. "Shall we open it?"

"Let's," Ellen said with a giggle as she snapped her fingers, causing the envelope to neatly open itself, the letter inside to unfurl itself and for it to float into the air between them where they could read it together.

"Kaleidoscope wants to invite us to a gathering!?" Viola asked with a gasp as she finished reading the letter.

Ellen could only nod, equally shocked. Kaleidoscope was a Hermit. One of their kind who rarely interacted with other Outsiders and were powerful enough in their own right to get away with doing so. Their race, such as it was, was a cutthroat lot, one needed strength to survive the predators in their midst who were only all too happy to hunt down those weaker than themselves and drain them of their power, strengthening themselves in the process. As such, most Outsiders joined one Faction or another for the purposes of mutual defense if nothing else, though common interests were another strong motivating factor for doing so. But some of their kind were just powerful enough that they managed to go it alone and such beings were known to the rest of them as the Hermits. All of which tended to combine their prodigious strength with an equally strong reclusiveness.

And now one of that Faction was bucking that antisocial tendency to reach out to them!? It was unprecedented!

"Well, she did participate in Being X's little ant farm, as he likes to call it, recently. Perhaps she's decided to be more sociable?" Viola suggested after a moment and the shock of the invitation faded.

"Maybe," Ellen agreed. "But whatever her reasons, should we go?"

"A chance to visit with a Hermit? Do you know the wonders that'll do for our reputation? What do you think?"

Ellen nodded. "I'll draft a positive reply and let you look at it later?"

"Yes," Viola agreed with a nod. "But for now, I think breakfast has been sitting and waiting for us long enough. Let's not disappoint the Butcher and tuck in, shall we?"

"Yes, dear." Ellen said with a giggle as she nevertheless obeyed and together with Viola began eating the delicious breakfast that their demon cook had prepared for them.

Hi!

Been a while hasn't it?

Well, this extra is actually a hook I wrote up to help promote my latest fic, Outsider Holy Grail War, since one of the inhabitants from this fic's version of the Witch's House is a major character in it. I'm sure you can already guess what my new fic is about from the name alone. ;) So if it sparks your interest, I'd appreciate it if you give it a chance.

As I wrote it though, I realised that it also works, though not as well, as a hook for a couple of my other works in my broader Outsiderverse (of which this fic has always been a part): The Council of Thirteen and The Chronicles of Reincarnations. Both of them cover events mentioned in this little oneshot, so if you want to see some elaboration on the things mentioned you might want to give them a read.

Hope to see you in some of my other fics! Ta ta!