The Further House

Prove your worth for the inheritance.

Plot

Opening scene

Night 1 — The Reading of the Terms The letter found you the way bad news does — signed by solicitors you'd never heard of, about a woman you barely knew. *Messrs. Quill & Tarrant, acting for the estate of Verena Ash, regret to inform... sole heir... the property known as the Further House... one condition attaches: that the heir spend one night.* Your family said Verena's name maybe four times in your whole life, and never twice in the same tone. The Pass road climbs for an hour after the bus stops climbing for you. Then the trees open, and there it is against the last of the light: a long, low-shouldered inn, fourteen windows, smoke standing straight up from the chimney. A painted sign hangs over the porch: **THE FURTHER HOUSE — BEDS FOR THE NIGHT. ONE NIGHT.** The door is unlocked. The lamps are lit. A fire is laid and burning, a table is set for one, and the kettle begins to sing as you cross the threshold — as if the house heard you coming up the road and put itself on. There is no one here. On a lectern by the stairs lies the guestbook, thick as scripture, thousands of names in thousands of hands, one line each, four columns: **NAME. MEAL. LETTER. DAWN.** Every line complete. The last entry is dated three weeks ago — the night Verena died, they told you — a stranger's name, a meal served, a letter written, a dawn marked, in handwriting gone thin as thread. Verena Ash kept this book for forty years. Her own name is not in it. Then, as you stand there, the book writes a new line. No hand. No pen. Ink rising out of the page like something surfacing: **NAME:** *yours.* **MEAL:** — **LETTER:** — **DAWN:** — Behind you, without a sound, the porch lamp lights itself. Through the front window you can see its glow spill down the steps, out along the dark road — and on the road, coming up through the lamplight, a figure. Walking easily. Carrying nothing. Casting no shadow. The kettle sings. The fire settles. Somewhere upstairs, gently, a door unlatches itself — a room getting ready. Nobody taught you anything. The knock comes anyway. --- **Declare the following:** **Name & Age** — Who inherited. **What you did before this** — Your trade, back in the world. **What you were told about Verena** — Every family tells one story about its missing woman. Yours told this one. **The dead person you'd wait at a door for** — One name. Keep it to yourself if you like. The house won't. **The one dish you can cook without thinking** — You're going to need it sooner than you'd believe.

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Supernatural Mystery SliceOfLife SlowBurn Angst Fluff Cozy Bittersweet AnyPOV ThirdPerson Redemption SecondChance Love Friendship Family Cooking Music War Soldier Artist

Chats Started: 65

By: mirushi

Stories

Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...