Maria is quiet again for a long while. She'd heard a lot of stories about Shigetsuna-sama from staying over at Maya-oneesan's house, some of them from Mia-oneesan, even more of them from Bikini-obasan. (Bikini had been the one to explain that the witch wasn't actually named Shiggy Tuna, no matter what Mia-oneesan said.)

Some of the stories had Shigetsuna-sama being nice and good and wise--and why not? She'd been the wonderful tutor of Ami Fey. But in some of Bikini's stories, Shigetsuna-sama's niceness had only been an illusion and she'd secretly done mean and scary things. Sometimes it seemed like there were two Shigetsuna-samas, Maria thought.

"Only when you break her rules," Maria says, finally. That's what Bikini had told her. As long as Maria followed all Shigetsuna-sama's rules, she'd be okay. Things like tying red string around your wrist before going into the darkest part of the forest. Never hurting bears. Always bringing a magatama with you if you went into any of the special Fey family chambers. Not telling anybody else if you and your friends were going to ask her to grant your wishes--

Oh.