Brownie-Spell: Fantasy

The scald across her hand made me wince, even as I smoothed butter over it and wrapped it in a clean rag. "You must be more careful, understand?" I said, watching her face to make sure that she did. She didn't. She frowned, and said, half-whining, "I was careful, I didn't do anything, it just--" I raised my hand to interrupt her. "No. I said, you must be *careful*. You have not been. You have been saying bad things about the state of the kitchen. You lied to the sweep boy about one of the other kitchen maids. You have slacked off from your duties many times." She stared at me, her jaw dropping, her stupid cow eyes open. "That doesn't work in a house with a brownie-spell on it. If you slack, if you--"

Inspiration: "scald"
Story Potential: Medium? --High.
Notes: I like the idea of a brownie-spell, whether a true brownie is involved or not, something that inflicts harm on those who would be less than dutiful. I also find it interesting, the idea of extrapolating this out to a wider society. Aw heck. I'll say it is high potential.