Iliana could only nod, then followed him down the stairs and into the kitchen. She gasped in astonishment at what she saw. An enormous wood-burning stove jutted out from the wall where the fireplace had been. Kel walked up to it and threw another log into it and closed the little door.

“Well, what do you think?” he asked. Iliana found her voice again after a moment.

“How did you do all this?”

“Magic,” he said simply, shrugging his shoulders. “And,” he added, walking to the door that used to lead to the backyard. “It’s now a room filled with wood. You’ll never run out.” He opened the door and she looked inside. Logs were packed tight right up to the doorframe.

“Thank you,” Iliana said. She was indeed grateful that it would be much warmer in the house due to his efforts.

“It was nothing,” he said modestly. An awkward silence filled the space between them when suddenly her stomach rumbled loudly. Iliana realized she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast that morning. Or yesterday morning. She realized she had no idea which day it was, but then did time really matter in a separate pocket of reality? She pushed these thoughts away.

I might go crazy trying to reason out all this nonsense. She had to focus on what was real, or at least what was in front of her. Like her growling stomach.

“Well, seems I need to eat something,” she said.

“Everything that was in your kitchen before should be there now,” Kel said, and she was glad to know she wouldn’t have to go hungry here. “Although I am curious to know why not everything was replicated.”

“My mother’s room is also different. Ampty, actually.”

“Really? Well, that just makes me more curious.” Another moment of silence passed between them. “Well, um, I should get going,” Kel said, passing her awkwardly as he made his way to the front door.

“Oh… Kel?” He stopped, waiting for her to say more. “Wouldn’t you like to stay for lunch?” Iliana offered, not quite sure what prompted her to do so, besides the fear of being left alone.

“No, sorry,” Kel said, turning around to give her an apologetic nod of the head. “I have much to do.”

“Oh… alright.” Iliana wondered what could keep him occupied in this place. Perhaps one of the doors held a multitude of activities to do as well. Kel continued to the front door, but turned back again to her before he went out.

“I think it would be best if you didn’t wander around the castle without me,” he said. Iliana remembered all the turns they had taken to get to the hall of doors and back, and all the corridors looked exactly the same. No, she didn’t want to get lost, either.

“I won’t. I’ll stay right here.” He seemed to relax a bit after she said that. Then he frowned again.

“Iliana… I know this doesn’t make a lot of sense to you. And you’re probably scared, or at least confused. But I will make a promise to you, that you will be safe here. And I will make sure that you are returned to your real home as soon as the Agreement will allow it.” He finally met her gaze again, and she found herself believing his words, but not by some magic spell that emanated from his eyes. No, his eyes showed a depth of understanding and sincerity like she couldn’t remember ever seeing before.

“I will hold you to that promise, Kel.” He nodded solemnly, then opened the door, and closed it firmly behind him. 

Iliana sighed, then set to work making lunch for herself. As Kel had said, all of things she’d stowed away in the cupboards before were still there, thankfully. After eating a honey and peanut butter sandwich, she found herself itching to do… something. But what could she do? She could knit or sew something. But eventually she would run out of things to do. She sat down at the table after washing the dishes she had used, staring at the new wood-burning stove. It was creepy in there, all alone. She had only ever been alone in her house on Saturdays when she cleaned, but Dray had been with her for the last four Saturdays. She shook her head, not wanting to think about Dray. Staring at the leaping flames through the glass, her eyes started to feel heavy. The flames were mesmerizing, and somehow comforting. She slowly fell asleep in her chair.

Bump bump bump. Iliana started awake. Then she moaned. She had fallen asleep in one of the hard chairs in the kitchen. Her whole body ached, and there was a nasty crick in her neck. What was that noise? She looked out the window on the far side of the room, but it was foggy and she couldn’t tell how light it was. She looked around and saw the giant wood-burning stove. She moaned again. For a second there, everything had been as it was supposed to be. But ow she remembered all that had happened before.

Iliana got up and looked inside the stove. One hot coal blazed inside. She opened the back door and got a couple logs. Instantly after she closed the little door the logs caught fire. Magic, she thought. Bump bump bump. She looked up at the sound, having forgotten that there was someone at the door. Her heart began to race. She hoped it was Kel, and not the demon. But what if it was some other person? She had a hard time believing that it could only be the three of them in this giant castle.

“Who is it?” she called down the hallway.

“It’s me, Kel.” Came the answer, his voice muffled by the door between them. She relaxed slightly, and began walking toward the door.

“You can come in,” she said.

“I can’t,” Kel called from the other side of the door. Iliana walked up to the door, but found that the lock had not been turned when Kel had left before.

“It’s not locked,” she said, puzzled.

“It’s part of the Agreement. I can’t come in unless you let me in.”

“But you came in earlier..?”

“It takes a while for the Agreement to work itself out. Now, can you open the door please?”

“Oh, sure.” Iliana opened the door and Kel stepped inside. She still couldn’t believe that the man before her was not Dray. He looked exactly the same, except for his eyes, and of course how he left his hair down.

“So, um… what have you been doing for the last five hours?” Iliana rubbed her stiff neck.

“I fell asleep in a chair. There’s not much to do here. Not that I’m complaining,” she said quickly.

“Hmm…” he thought for a little while, then seemed to have landed on an idea. “I got it. But it’ll have to wait ‘til tomorrow. I just came to see how you were doing.”

“What do you mean it will have to wait ‘til tomorrow?”

“It’s getting late now, so you should try to go back to sleep. I have a feeling you’ll want to stay for a while.”

“Stay where?”

“You’ll find out. Tomorrow.” He flashed an amused smile, as if he knew that he was driving her crazy not telling her, then he opened the door again. “See you in the morning,” he said. Then he was gone again.

Iliana looked at the clock in the hallway. It was getting late, but she wasn’t very tired because of her nap. So she decided to play around with the new stove. Iliana found that no matter where she was in the house, it was just the right temperature. She also found that no matter how much wood she put in it didn’t get any hotter. Only when she opened the little door did all the heat come out from the pile of burning logs she had stuffed into it.

Finally, after making herself another honey and peanut butter sandwich, she got tired again and went to bed. Like the demon man had said, she didn’t have any nightmares that night. At least there was one thing she could be grateful for.