Lucky Rabbit

The answer was, apparently, that they didn’t. Instead, Pandy shifted back to her rabbit form and went to visit the library. There, she explained to a very unsympathetic dragon everything that had happened, and he promised to retrieve the necessary medication, though not without some grumbling about impetuous humans getting exactly what they deserved. There was relief beneath the irritation, though, so Pandy hopped back to Augustus.

“But I only have a bit over an hour left on Shifting Faces,” she told him, pacing back and forth across his bedroom. “I can’t stay here, and Thaniel will be looking for me.” The breakfast bell had rung while she was in the library, and she felt a rising uneasiness at the thought that Thaniel would be worrying about her, even if he wasn’t panicking yet.

“Then it’s time for Ms. Wellington to disappear,” Augustus said tiredly. There were dark circles beneath his eyes again, though the glasses he’d retrieved from somewhere disguised them a little bit. He’d also managed to comb his hair back into something close to its usual neat style, though it still looked a bit greasy.

“Won’t that cause problems, though?” she asked, stopping so she could look at him properly. “I’m… She’s supposed to be maybe, possibly exposed to this virus, which is very contagious, and-”

“And you can’t be here every time Mistress Rose returns,” he said with a small smile. “I’m rather surprised she didn’t come to check on us while you were speaking to Beeswick. She must be putting together some truly vile potion for me, to be taking so long.”

All Pandy cared about was that the doctor was making something that would actually help him. Pandy’s Mana was still climbing with glacial slowness, but Augustus didn’t seem to be recovering. To her, that indicated that whatever she’d been able to do wasn’t working – or, more optimistically, wasn’t needed as much, and now it was a matter of fighting the ‘illness’ caused by the venom. At this point, Pandy wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Mistress Rose was having a chat with Healer Sinnett, sharing information about this mysterious sickness and what treatments had already been tried.

Pandy’s gaze flicked from his pale, exhausted face to the door behind her. “I don’t want to just leave you.”

His smile grew a bit larger. “Your spell is still in place, is it not? And it functions over some distance?” She nodded, and he sighed softly, laying back and closing his eyes. “Then you’re doing all you can, and the sooner Ms. Wellington vanishes, the better. We don’t want to chance Mistress Rose catching you mid-rabbit.” He opened one eye, frowning. “So long as you’re certain you can’t or won’t become ill?”

Performing a rapid internal audit, Pandy determined that she still felt fine. Not a single sniffle, and when she tested her forehead against the inside of her wrist, her skin still felt cool. Too cool, in fact, which she attributed to her status as a member of the not-entirely-living. “I’m… I don’t think I can get sick at all. Because of, um, what I am.”

Closing the open eye, he nodded. “Then off you go. I’m going to take a nap. It seems like a very pleasant pastime, and one of which I’ve rarely taken advantage.”

Pandy very much doubted he was the napping type, but she knew a dismissal when she heard one. With one last glance and a final attempt at using Minor Heal on him – which failed again – she ducked out, passing through the main room and into the office, where she was just opening the double doors when she heard the door to the hall click.

Quickly, Pandy turned the knob, ducking out onto the landing as she thought, She barely even noticed when her clothing didn’t collapse around her, instead vanishing… somewhere, presumably her inventory, without her telling it to. Instead, she was focused on the sound of footsteps entering the office, then passing through into the chancellor’s apartment. There the sound halted, and a frustrated growl rose instead.

The quiet steps became angry stomping as Mistress Rose called, “Ms. Wellington! I told you not to enter-” Her voice broke off, and Pandy could almost hear the other woman’s fury melt into confusion. Pandy pushed the door open a bit more with her nose, staring back into the office. The healer left the door to the apartment wide open, so Pandy could not only hear, but see as Mistress Rose reemerged, first peering into the bathroom and then under the table and chair, as if Pandy might be hiding under the furniture, waiting to leap out at her. Which actually wasn’t that far off, had she only known.

Reentering the bedroom, Mistress Rose managed to modulate her tone as she said, “Where did that… Ms. Wellington go? I distinctly told her to remain here. She’s risking-”

A cough that sounded only slightly exaggerated to Pandy’s ears answered her, then, “What? She told me that the position wasn’t at all what she was promised, then went back out into the parlor. She sounded quite upset, but,” Augustus coughed again, this time ending on a bit of a wheeze, “I fell asleep. You mean she’s gone?”

When Mistress Rose answered, she sounded further away, so she must have moved closer to the bed. There were some rustling sounds, and she said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with that woman. You need to rest and heal. I’ve brought you some potions that should at least ease the symptoms. I’m going to set up an alchemical flame on the table, and get an effusion started. We’ll need to keep your bedroom door closed, so it has the greatest effect. Now, drink this, and-”

Satisfied that Augustus was being cared for, Pandy hopped down the stairs, keeping an eye on her Mana as she moved further away from the chancellor. Going to the library hadn’t affected it, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that it could suddenly begin to drop, leaving her no choice but to begin using Corruption Points or allow the venom to take its course. Worse, it could return to normal, which might well mean that Augustus had… he had… that she couldn’t help him any more.

She used another moment of Shifting Faces to open the door into the dining hall, where she made her way to Thaniel, tickling his ankle with her whiskers so he yelped, then leaned down and scooped her up. Both of them basked in the comfort of the hug that followed, until Ms. Davenport reminded Thaniel rather sharply that pets were to remain beneath the table during meals. After that, he set Pandy on his lap, where she snuggled in and thought about what had happened over the last several hours.

First and foremost, of course, it was obvious that Ms. Wellington’s cover was well and truly blown. The Shadow Exchange had obviously intended for her to die when she set off the trap on their little gift, unless placing poison needles on their communiques was standard practice. Augustus seemed to have some experience with them, however, and he’d still been caught by surprise, so she didn’t think they poisoned their operatives on a daily basis, though bi-weekly wasn’t out of the question.

But then there was the message inside the box. Why bother putting anything in except something that said, ‘Ha! We killed you, you big fake!’ if they were really certain that Pandy wasn’t Ms. Wellington? Instead, they’d gone to the effort of writing out a note in a cipher no one except a Shadow could reasonably have been expected to decode. Add to that the fact that the Boss had orders for what to do if and when ‘Ms. Wellington’ showed up – those instructions being to kill her – and someone was really covering all their bases.

If the poison failed, then Pandy had to translate the message, and then make it to the meeting place, where she would be killed. That meant that whether Ms. Wellington was a fake or not, whether she was working on her own or had help, anything she did other than not opening the box at all led to her death. Which made Pandy suspect that there was some mechanism in place to get rid of her even if she stayed here at Falconet, which in turn meant Augustus was right that Ms. Wellington needed to vanish immediately and thoroughly. It would be good to root out whoever was working for the Exchange inside the school, but nothing was worth putting Thaniel, Eleanor, or any of the other students at risk.

It made Pandy sad that she couldn’t use the only human shape she had, but surely she could sneak off sometimes, if only to have a few precious moments to use the miracles that were thumbs. Besides, she only had thirty-three more uses – which translated to thirty-three more days – before she reached level ten, and found out if the System was only teasing her about being able to take another shape at that point.

That brought her back to the Changelog her new System was so determined she read, and Pandy very, very nearly went ahead and read it. If it weren’t for the fact that breakfast would be over soon, and Thaniel would want to leave, she would have. She didn’t want to get partway through and have to stop, though, so she reluctantly abandoned the idea.

Instead, she pondered what had been going on in the dark underground port, wondering if there were any clues there that might help Augustus. She was certain she hadn’t imagined that other voice, the one belonging to whoever hired the Boss. If the Boss really was just a gang leader, then he wasn’t actually part of the Shadow Exchange, and he probably didn’t know much more than he’d told her.

For that matter, the Exchange themselves might not know anything more, other than the fact that one of their Shadows had been killed or compromised. Gacha Love had been explicit that the Exchange was just a group of unscrupulous ‘fixers’. Someone needed something done, and had enough money to afford whatever the Exchange decided to charge, and they would do it. They helped Killian, and then, when either Edgar or Clara paid them, or Prince Kaden threatened them, they stopped. They would even turn on their former clients if Edgar paid them enough.

Which brought her to a question that a group of conspiracy theorists often raised on the Gacha Love message boards. While most people – Pandy included – brushed away the fact that Killian was able to hire the Shadow Exchange in the first place, these players believed that someone else was bankrolling him. But in the end, it was still a game, and some convenient hand-waving, especially over such a minor detail, was expected. Certainly Killian only had a minor title, and there was no indication that his family was particularly wealthy, but it was simple enough to say that he’d mortgaged the family estate or used magic to do something unscrupulous in order to get the money.

But now, with the reality of the story all around her, Pandy had to wonder if those players were right. Someone was already pulling the strings that would lead up to Killian’s murder spree and an invading demon army. But who, and, more importantly, how could Pandy help stop it? If Lian became corrupted, there was no way Clara would ever fall for him, and besides, it would make Thaniel really, really sad if his brother went evil.

Pandy needed answers, but as far as she could tell, she was the only one who could possibly find them. Obviously Augustus, Professor Beeswick, and whoever else was working with them had failed to prevent everything that happened in Gacha Love, and even though Pandy was here now to tell them what would happen then, that didn’t actually solve the problem. If it really was just Killian going off his rocker because of his brother’s death, well, then everything should be fine as long as Thaniel was alive, but Pandy had a terrible feeling it wasn’t going to be that simple.

And she couldn’t forget about the missing goddess. A goddess who was barely mentioned in the game, even though she was an ever-present current in the real world. Pandy couldn’t help but feel like Ismara’s absence was inextricably tied to all of this, but if the enemy was able to silence a goddess, what chance did Pandy have to change anything? Honestly, should she even try? After all, if everything went as it should, in less than four years, Clara and her chosen love would save the world, just as they were meant to. All Pandy had to do was keep Thaniel safe, then sit back and let the story play out.

The bell rang, and Thaniel started, the hand that had been stroking Pandy coming to a stop on her head. He pushed his chair back so he could look down at her, a broad smile causing his dimples to spring to life in those adorable round cheeks. “What should we do today, Bunny?” he asked eagerly.

But Pandy knew what she had to do. She needed to go back to the Rabbit’s Den. There had to be something there – a clue, something only she would know was important, with her knowledge of what was to come. Because Pandy wasn’t just here, in this world, because an incompetent god dropped her here. Ismara had known Pandy would come, and the dreams she’d sent, her last communication with her faithful, said Pandy was supposed to help stop whatever was coming.

All of which meant that Ismara was probably about as competent as Keros, because Pandy was no one’s idea of a savior. But she was very, very good at messing things up, and it was about time to throw a bunny-wrench in the works.