An invitation is a limited promise made by a householder to a guest and the House. It determines not only the right to cross the threshold, but also the extent to which the House must tolerate, notice, and protect the person who has entered. An invitation does not replace induction: a person may receive shelter and a place at the table without gaining access to the name, the circles, or the House’s memory.
The Householder’s Promise
By extending an invitation, the householder assumes responsibility for the person within the stated time and space. The guest, in turn, is expected to observe the established boundaries: not to enter closed rooms, not to touch the line’s possessions, and not to claim as their own knowledge what they hear beyond the walls.
"I don't know what the collators would call a week divided between two roofs. I know what I could promise: your bed would remain ready until you told us to put it to other use."
— Plaice at the Seventh Opening, Chapter 9
In houses with a weakened line, an invitation is sometimes extended by two people: the householder names the guest, and a senior witness repeats the term. Such a word is thought to be easier to distinguish from casual courtesy.
Forms and Boundaries
An invitation at the threshold allows someone to wait by the entrance and does not make the visitor a guest in the full sense. An invitation under the roof opens the living rooms and the common table. Admission to the outer circle permits a person to see part of the household order; access to the inner circle requires a separate decision and is almost never implied by itself.
A boundary may be set by time, room, event, or errand: “until dawn,” “while the child is ill,” or “only as far as the North Stair.” The more precise the condition, the less the House completes it from its own memory. That is why old householders avoid invitations such as “stay as long as necessary”: the House and the guest may understand differently who needs what.
Withdrawal and Error
A proper invitation ends explicitly: the guest takes their leave, the householder acknowledges the departure, and the threshold remains open for a short while. If people simply stop expecting someone, the promise may remain in the House as an unsettled obligation. Hence the custom of checking the empty room the following day and clearing away the place prepared for the guest.
An invitation is considered mistaken if it was extended without the right to speak on behalf of the House, concealed a danger, or contradicted the Right of the Threshold. The consequences vary: the House may fail to notice the guest, mistake them for a former resident, or, conversely, hold them longer than promised. In serious cases, the invitation has to be dismantled like a faulty induction, but this does not turn one into the other: what is repaired is not the path inward, but the broken promise.