Lucky Rabbit

Isidor was sneaky. Much sneakier than Pandy would have given him credit for, in fact. Even inside the bubble of her shield, she could barely hear his footsteps, and he darted from one hiding place to the next with barely any hesitation. Each time they approached one of the knights, Isidor would stop, flattening himself against a wall, or sinking down to the ground, watching the metallic gray figures for a minute or more, before moving again, often in entirely unexpected directions.

“They work in twos or threes,” he murmured when Pandy twitched after he seemed to be headed straight for one of the armor-clad figures. “If you see one, there’s another, invisible one, nearby. But if you know the kinds of places they like to hide, you can-”

He broke off, body practically quivering with tension as a knight stepped out of a gap between two broken walls. The knight nodded to the one Pandy had seen, who nodded back and stepped into the same spot, leaving the now-visible knight to resume searching through the debris. A long, soft exhale released a little of the taut expectancy in Isidor’s arms, and after another minute, he moved on.

For all of his caution, however, the boy seemed in his element. He was steady, certain, eyes flicking from place to place with some sense of awareness driven by experience. Even though the knights moved in what seemed to Pandy to be unpredictable ways, Isidor was never taken by surprise. Except once.

As they rounded a low wall – with Isidor performing an admirably graceful duck-walk in order to remain hidden behind it – they came upon a group of four knights, all gathered in a knot, neatly blocking the exit, which was a surprisingly normal-looking opening onto a moonlit street. Isidor started to pull back, then froze, staring at the four figures. As far as Pandy could tell, they were identical to all of the others, until one shifted and something that looked like a half-cape, draped from one shoulder to the opposite hip, came into view. With the desaturated look of the world through the shield, Pandy couldn’t tell what color it was, but guessed it was a cool shade, like blue or green.

“Master,” Isidor whispered, then glanced down at Pandy, cheeks darkening. Obviously, Isidor’s ‘friend’ was also the man he called Master, and someone important among the Knights of the Royal Eagle. That in turn meant that he was a noble, since the knights were all elementalists from the noble houses. That was part of why they so closely maintained their anonymity. If a knight had to arrest another noble, they didn’t want that noble to attempt to use a personal relationship to manipulate them, or risk someone taking revenge on their house or family.

Pandy met Isidor’s somewhat defiant gaze, and gave her version of a bunny shrug, awkwardly lifting the whole front half of her body like a mini push-up. She really didn’t care, other than having a vague sense of relief that there wasn’t some other unknown Master out there receiving information about her. Augustus seemed to have a good relationship with the knights, which meant they didn’t actually scare her much, though she definitely didn’t want to get the chancellor caught up in another of her messes.

Speaking of the chancellor, Pandy’s Mana had returned in leaps and bounds over the past thirty or forty minutes, while Isidor made his slow way through the cavern. The good news was that she no longer felt like she needed to use her Corruption Points, even though Isidor was right there, and she could technically use Mana instead. The bad news was that she had no idea why her Mana seemed to be recovering either normally or almost normally, and that made her very unhappy.

Lifting a paw, Pandy pointed toward the cluster of knights, just as two of them snapped salutes and left, with one vanishing midstep as they headed directly toward Isidor and Pandy. Isidor spun on his heel, pressing his back against the wall, his heart pounding against Pandy’s side. He breathed in long, slow breaths, chest barely moving, making almost no sound. This made Pandy realize that she was panting, so she simply stopped breathing until the visible knight moved past them. They couldn’t see the other figure, of course, but a single nearby pebble rolled over for no reason, and a few seconds later, a faint footprint appeared in the dust coating the cobblestones a bit further along.

In her head, Pandy counted to thirty, then sixty, then one hundred, before Isidor finally shifted enough to lift his head above the wall. He stared in silence for a few more slow breaths, then edged back the way they’d come, circling the wall in the other direction. When he came to a stop again, he was hiding in the deepest shadow, just before the bright lights placed around the exit would reveal him.

“Drop the spell,” he whispered, “then put it back up when I start to move. Can you do that?”

Pandy stared at him. He wanted to be visible? Then she glanced at the two remaining figures, and realized that one figure had its back to them. The only one who could see them was Isidor’s Master. she thought, and the world returned to stark clarity, revealing that the knight’s cape was a deep, forest green.

Isidor lifted a hand, extending it out into the light, before flicking his fingers once. The knight’s helmet turned slightly, watching as Isidor gestured a few more times. The featureless helmet tilted forward in a minute shift, and the man reached out to grasp his companion’s upper arm as he pointed deeper into the cavern. They took two steps forward, unblocking the opening, and Isidor moved.

Pandy thought, as they emerged into the light. But the colors around them didn’t fade, and the sound of the other knight’s voice, asking what the first had seen, didn’t disappear.

Shield of Darkness failed.

Requires darkness.

Who knew?

Pandy certainly hadn’t, since the spell’s information hadn’t told her. What good was it, then? But Isidor was now past the knights, out into the street, which was lit only by a lamp over the door of a warehouse looming out of the night sky ahead. Pandy tried Shield of Darkness again, and this time it succeeded, at a cost of twenty Mana. The light dimmed, stars fading to steady pinpricks of light, and the faint sounds of a lascivious frog all but disappeared.

Only when they were past all signs of movement did Isidor finally relax, straightening from a sneaky-crouch to a normal stride, which gained confidence with each footstep. Two blocks went by in a literal blur before he looked down and said, “How are you getting back to Falconet?”

Pandy shrugged again. Honestly, she’d planned to fly, but she didn’t think it was worth shifting to human form just to tell him. Unlike the Rabbit’s Den, she was certain she could identify the school from above, and it was large enough that as long as she ended up in the right general area, she should be able to find it. Worst case scenario, she might have to land, wait until after six, and hire a carriage to take her the remaining distance. Looking up at Isidor, she tried wriggling her nose in an interrogative fashion, and the usually taciturn boy actually snickered.

Shifting Pandy to his other arm, Isidor reached into Tempest’s pocket and took out the tortoise. He murmured something to her, then pulled the front of his belt away from his body, opening a small pocket sewn in between the two strips of leather. Taking out a piece of some unidentifiable green matter, he offered it to the turtle, who snapped it up eagerly. Her eyes began to glow, and then Isidor placed her on the ground as she started to swell up, looking like nothing so much as an overinflated mylar balloon in a vaguely turtlish shape.

At first she just seemed to be reflecting light, and then it started spitting off of her in sparks, until a cloud of electricity encircled a creature that was barely recognizable as the palm-sized tortoise Isidor carried with him everywhere. Her ‘shell’ was easily three feet long, almost as wide, and her beak was now large enough to snap Pandy up in a single bite.

Isidor started toward the turtle, who backed up, her mouth opening, though Pandy couldn’t hear whatever sound she might have made. Isidor stared at her in bewilderment, then realization. “Cancel your hiding spell,” he told Pandy, and she did, though not without some concern. Tempest really didn’t look happy, and that beak was much more powerful than it had seemed when it was only about half an inch wide.

To Pandy’s great relief, as soon as the shield fell – allowing Tempest’s angry hiss to reach their ears – the tortoise drew her head back, closing her mouth. The now-red eyes still watched Pandy with suspicion, but she allowed Isidor to approach. He laid his hand on the tortoise’s back, and his light-weight shirt snapped and crackled with static, while his hair rose up to stand out around his head. The scent of ozone filled the air.

The boy looked almost embarrassed, avoiding Pandy’s eyes as he tried to put her onto Tempest’s back. The tortoise’s long neck snapped around, jaws closing far too close to Pandy’s dangling paws, and Isidor jumped backward, the electricity discharging from his hair and clothes in a snap and a flash of light.

“I… think you’re going to have to get back on your own, after all,” the boy said rather sheepishly, running his hand through his hair. Now Pandy understood why it always looked so wild. When your element was electricity, you probably either shaved or got used to permanent bedhead.

Deciding this was a good enough reason to use some of her remaining people-time, Pandy cast Shifting Faces once more, and smiled at Isidor, even as Tempest moved between them, making an odd almost-growl deep in her chest. Pandy took the hint and stepped back until the tortoise relaxed and closed her mouth again.

“Will you make it back in time?” she asked, gesturing to Tempest. “Turtles aren’t known for moving quickly. I can hire a carriage-”

Isidor actually grinned, saying, “We’ll make it. And there aren’t any carriage drivers out at this time of night. Not in this area, anyway.” He hesitated, glancing at Tempest, then offered, “You can follow us if you don’t know the way. You’ll have to keep up, though.”

Pandy almost laughed at the mental image of the boy, perched atop his tortoise, somehow outpacing her as a rabbit. It was like the old fable, except that this hare would never get tired and take a nap. “You won’t lose me,” she assured him, and Tempest tilted her head, beak opening to release a soft, amused hiss.

“I’ll see you at school, then,” he told her, swinging a leg over Tempest. His hair and clothes rippled and rose again, tiny pops sounding as sparks leapt into the quiet night surrounding them. Then he was gone, leaving a faint, visible afterimage leading to the tail end of the tortoise as she rounded the corner ahead.

Pandy let out a yelp, releasing Shifting Faces and using Hop to leap to the top of a nearby building. Scampering to the far edge of the roof, she was just in time to see Tempest disappear down the street. It seemed that even if Isidor’s offer to let Pandy follow them had been genuine, the tortoise had no interest in helping Pandy.

That was all right, though, because Pandy had a surprise of her own for the speedy tortoise. Leaping from the roof, she thought, and felt her flesh tear apart, releasing the bloody white appendages, which flapped awkwardly for a moment before settling into a rhythmic beat.

-18 LF

Wings of Glory successful.

Wings of Glory has reached level 3.

Pandy debated casting Minor Heal to repair the damage, but decided against it. It really didn’t hurt that much, and she wanted to save the rest of her Corruption Points until she knew what was going on with Augustus. She’d realized that it was possible Innate Magic simply had some kind of time limit, and she might have exceeded it. If so, she needed to get back to Augustus as soon as possible. She was certain they’d already weakened the venom, and it sounded like it took several hours to a few days to kill someone anyway, so she should have time. Oh please, let her have time…

Pandy flew on, following the faint streak of a magical lightning tortoise as she raced through the dark and silent city.