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“You know what?” Dan smiled at the little girl. “I think I found the fireplace!” He’d always known there was a chimney in the building, and he knew from the tavern’s history that long ago there had been a working hearth. He’d even had the chimney inspected when he made his offer on the place. But when he’d heard what it would cost to open the walls, find the fireplace and make it functional again, he’d dismissed the idea entirely. Especially since it would have meant moving the bar to the other side of the room and rearranging everything. Too costly. He’d filed the thought away so thoroughly he’d forgotten about it.

Except it wasn’t hiding any more. He was definitely looking at a fireplace now. He used his hands to pull off several bigger chunks of plaster, rather than risk damaging the stones with his tools.

The fireplace was a decent size, too. Not so large as to be imposing, but not so small as to lack presence. The fieldstone surround was expertly laid, from what he could tell. There were marks in the stones where there must have been a mantel, once upon a time. He pictured replacing it with a sturdy, weathered beam.

Leni looked at the fireplace too. She seemed to be thinking the same thing as him. Then she looked at Dan.

“That’s the perfect place for a shelf. I think the sphinx would be happy if you kept her up there.” She pointed to the imaginary mantel. “Up on a shelf above a fire? It would be very cozy for her, and she could watch over things. She’d like to live in the heart of the tavern.”

Dan looked at the mantel, and then he looked at Leni. He was certain the child was right. And possibly a genius. She had named the one thing that was missing from the place. As large and shiny as the bar had been, it had just been a bar. A spot to sit and to rest your drink and place your order. It didn’t have the warmth or the character to qualify as the heart of anything.

“All right, Leni,” Dan agreed. “That’s settled then. That’s where the sphinx will live when I’m all done here. You’ll come and visit her, right?”

“I will,” Leni said solemnly. And she sneezed again.

“That’s going to be something if you bring that old fireplace back to life. I can imagine how everyone is going to fight to sit near the fire in the wintertime.” Sara had come to stand beside Leni, and she looked at the fireplace with the same anticipatory excitement she’d had when talking about her own rebuild.

Dan said nothing. He turned back to the wall and used two hands to pull off even more wallboard. It looked like the fieldstone went all the way to the ceiling.

Leni sneezed twice this time.

“Bless you, child.” Granny Luna didn’t knock and she didn’t announce herself when she walked in, but her presence was made known by the disco ball effect of her rhinestone studded shoes.

“This mess won’t do. It won’t do at all!” Granny looked around The Wildernest disapprovingly. She rapped the handle of her feather duster against the floor as she made tutting sounds with her tongue.

“All this dust! So unhealthy! It’ll be the death of us!” she announced dramatically, as she began to wave the feather duster in the air.

“Gran—” Dan said, his voice a warning. He hadn’t asked her for her magic. He could clean up on his own.

“This is not for you, Danny-boy!” Granny Luna was already invoking a spell. The feather duster traced some kind of sigil in the air. She shook it at the ceiling, then the floor, then at all four corners of the space. “Ash to earth and soot to root. What’s green is clean and fair to share. Bring us now some nice clean air!”

Immediately the charm took hold. The remaining ash and soot lifted from the floor twirling and forming into balls. The balls proceeded to fly through the room, spinning and ricocheting off each other and the walls. They grew larger as they collided with every surface, collecting all the dirt, dust and debris. When they were finished, they bounced out the window and vanished, leaving nothing but more of Granny Luna’s sparkles in their wake. The smoky oppressive air, which had been catching in Dan’s throat all morning despite the bandana over his mouth and nose and the open windows, was now clean and fresh, smelling faintly of flowers.

Leni took a deep breath without sneezing.

Luna lowered the duster and smiled at the child. “Much better, don’t you think?” she said, satisfied.

“Thank you, Granny Luna.” Sara breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ve been so worried about all the smoke we’ve been inhaling. It’s terrible for children.”

“Terrible for fairies, too,” Granny Luna agreed. She frowned at Dan. “Even halfling ones. We’re quite prone to asthma attacks!” Then she noticed the fireplace. “Oh, my elderberries!” she exclaimed.

She went still for just a moment, scratching her head the way she sometimes did when she was remembering something.

“I recall this hearth,” she said. “Before this place was a tavern it was a tea house, and the funny old witch who ran it used to do tea leaf readings right here, in front of the fireplace. She had a real knack for rhymes. Electra was her name, I think. She had a most disagreeable orange cat. He was always trying to eat me. Terrible beast. Everyone loved him though. Everyone but us fae folk.”

She ran a hand along the stones, checking for dust.

“You know what you could do, Danny? You could put some sofas in here.” Luna stared dreamily at the fireplace. He could almost see the reflection of an imagined fire in her compelling, crystalline blue gaze. “And maybe some bookshelves on either side. You could set up a little free book exchange too. You trivia nuts are quite obsessed with books, no?”

“Hmmm… we’ll see,” Dan grunted. He reached down for his tools to put them away, but they were already marching themselves back to the pantry.

He turned back to the wall only to find it finished. All the damaged plaster was gone. The stones were polished.

“Granny! I didn’t ask for your help. I don’t need it. You did not have to do any of this.”

Luna watched him with determined patience.

“No, I didn’t. But I’ve gone and done it anyways, haven’t I? Not for you, though. For the sake of the child. And I can’t be risking my health at my age, can I?” She winked overtly at Sara and Leni.