Lucky Rabbit

Breakfast was a subdued affair. Eleanor was gone, and Isidor wouldn’t look at or speak to anyone, even when asked to pass the butter. Geraldine and Abbington both attempted to keep the conversation going, mostly going over what Thaniel had missed in class, but they kept trailing off, leaving morose silences filled by the sound of other students talking around them.

As plates of uneaten waffles were taken away, a server bent down to whisper in Thaniel’s ear. They looked more than a little uncertain about their message, which was explained when Thaniel peered under the table to tell Pandy, “Mr. Blackwood wants to see Miss Haupe after breakfast.”

Indeed, when Pandy hopped out – dodging a few pairs of oblivious feet as she did so – she saw that Augustus was looking in her direction, his brows lifted in inquiry. She nodded, he smiled, and Thaniel sighed as he took his bookbag off the back of his chair.

“I’ll see you after class,” he told Pandy, walking away with his shoulders slumped. She winced. Thaniel needed her right now. Maybe she should…

But Geraldine took Thaniel’s hand, while Abbington patted his shoulder, and the boy straightened, shooting grateful glances at his friends. Yes, there was that. Thaniel had more than just Pandy now, and while she missed him coming to her for everything, she also knew this was much, much better for him. Right?

As everyone filtered out, Pandy hopped after Augustus, who headed up the back stairs to his office. Once inside, he gestured to the chair where she usually sat and went to his own desk. Apparently they were being formal today. Which was fine. Fine. It wasn’t like she’d expected anything else anyway.

Once Pandy settled her fluffy cotton tail into the seat, she looked at Augustus expectantly. He stared back. They gazed at each other until he gave a snort and dropped his face into his hand. He muttered something that sounded like, “I should have known I couldn’t do this,” then raised his head and said, “I plan to introduce Miss Haupe to the staff and students this evening at dinner. I’ll have you come in during dessert. We’ll tell everyone what you’ll be doing, and I’ll inform them you’ll begin on Monday.”

Monday? So soon? That was better than, say, tomorrow, but Pandy felt a flutter in her gut at the thought. Unlike Ms. Wellington, no one had any expectations for Miss Haupe, so Pandy could just be… Pandy. Which probably meant she’d be fired within a week, but at least her new boss would probably be nicer about it than the ones who came before him.

She nodded, started to get down, then realized that she actually had something for him. she thought, and she was already moving toward the desk as the notifications scrolled past her eyes.

Shifting Faces successful.

Seven more uses remain before level nine.

04:30:00 remaining today.

Whoops, that was right. She actually hadn’t used the spell that morning. She hadn’t had anything to tell Thaniel, and with Isidor being so strange, she didn’t feel comfortable shifting in front of him. Well, at least Augustus still counted as a game character, so she didn’t have to use Corruption Points. Now that she knew other Dark elementals could steal her points – though maybe that was just how elemental damage worked? – she suddenly found herself even more protective of them.

“I found this last night,” Pandy said, though the ‘night’ was a bit muffled, because she’d forgotten she’d had the strange little doll in her mouth when she put it in her Inventory. Spitting it out, she grimaced against the tingling of her lips and tongue, and put the doll on Augustus’s desk. He froze, staring at the creepy-cute little thing.

“Where?” he finally managed, then raised his eyes to Pandy. There was a very different kind of intensity there than she’d seen last night, and she took an involuntary step back.

“I… Thaniel wanted to talk to Geraldine, so we, um, snuck down to her room,” she said, leaving out all of the awkward hidden passage bits. She would definitely tell him, because it might be a security problem or something, but maybe not just right now. Not while he was staring at her with gray eyes that had darkened to charcoal.

He pointed to the doll. “This was in Geraldine’s room?”

She nodded. “I mean, it was under Eleanor’s bed, or what used to be her bed, because of course she wasn’t there, but since she and Geri share – shared – a room, that means it was in Geraldine’s room, too, so-”

He leaned forward, though he didn’t touch the harmless-looking little doll. “Where under her bed? In the bed itself? Tucked into a corner?”

“Under a floorboard,” she told him, and he raised a finger, his eyes shifting up and to the left.

“Nimien, let me know if anyone gets close to Geraldine Reedsley’s room. Zephra?” The small twister appeared by his ear, a soft breeze plucking at his hair. “Fetch the Dragon, please,” he told her, and she gave a distinctly unhappy twirl before vanishing again.

Turning back to Pandy, Augustus obviously saw her expression, because his own softened. He reached for her hand, holding it gently as he said, “You didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m guessing you have no idea what that is.”

He released her hand, which was now tingling in a much more pleasant way than her mouth, and pointed at the doll. Pandy shook her head, and Augustus sighed. “That’s not even a matter of your different, ah, background,” he said. “Few people would recognize it, even here, but I very much blame myself for failing to explain at least one part of it sooner.”

He maintained a wary distance between himself and the doll as he pointed to the stiff white cloth that served as a sort of dress covering the soft body. There were no armholes, so it was just a simple sheath, and it looked exactly like something a young child might make for one of their toys.

“You’ve seen this twice before, actually,” he told her. “Once in the old library, and once in Ms. Wellington’s drawer, atop that folder of coded documents. It’s called Aetherbane, and it functions a bit like the fabric of the pouch containing the portraits of students with Dark magic. That is called kivit, and it blocks Dark magic. This blocks all magic, though it’s particularly effective against Air. A strong enough Air elemental can break through, but there aren’t very many-”

The door opened and Professor Beeswick entered without knocking. His usual expression of detached amusement faded the moment his eyes fell on the doll. “Again?” he bit out, teeth gnashing in a very disturbing display.

Augustus nodded. “This was found beneath Princess Eleanor’s bed. Under a floorboard.”

The dragon’s pale eyes shot up. “Will it be enough?”

The chancellor hesitated, gnawing at the corner of his mouth. “Maybe. If there are others.”

“You think there will be.”

Augustus nodded. “I do.”

This bewildering conversation apparently complete, Professor Beeswick removed a larger bag that seemed to be made of kivit, or at least had the same rough, nubby look, and dropped it over the little doll. He used the bag to pick up the whole thing without touching it and left the room without further ado, leaving Augustus to close the door behind him.

Augustus sighed, running his hand through his hair, throwing his sleek coif into disarray. Not that Pandy minded, because she actually preferred this look on him, but usually when he was in his chancellor persona, he tried to stay tidy and respectable. He gave her a look, then turned his back on the office and threw open the door to his private rooms, gesturing for her to follow as he entered.

To Pandy’s surprise, the room was no longer all but bare. Three comfortable chairs sat there, facing each other, and a painting of Falconet hung on the wall behind them. There was even a vase on the table, with a few many-petaled flowers rather unceremoniously crammed into it.

Augustus crossed to one of the chairs – the only one that had a slight dip in the cushions – and hesitated. His cheeks were flushed as he said, “Do you like it? You said it didn’t look like anyone lived here, and you were right, so…” He trailed off as Pandy stared at him.

Augustus had bought furniture for her. Well, not for her, because Pandy didn’t have anyplace to put furniture, other than Avington House, which was already bursting at the seams with potentially possessed pianos, pillows, and porcelain. Augustus had bought furniture for himself, purely to make Pandy happy. And it did, but not because of the furniture. Because he cared enough to try. The fact that it looked a bit like someone had bought random items at a hotel decor closeout only made it all the more adorable.

Pandy crossed the room and sat in a plush pink paisley parlor chair. Augustus looked relieved, and sat down in his own chair, which was covered in a green tapestry that didn’t go with Pandy’s paisley in color or style.

“Aetherbane is a controlled substance,” he began, relaxing as he settled into teacher mode. “It can be useful in situations when magic may cause potentially dangerous interactions, or when we need to control the type of magic being infused into an object or potion. Unfortunately, it’s also incredibly dangerous. It’s one of the few things that can actually injure or even kill an elemental, and it can cause a mage to lose control of their magic. For this reason, it’s made only by certain people, to be used only by those who provide an excellent reason, and agree to governmental supervision.”

He sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I told you about the magicless, and how they are almost as outcast as Dark mages. They’re also the only people who can make Aetherbane and touch it without harm. They bring no magic of their own to the process of manufacturing the weave, and have no magic to be disrupted.

“Its use means there’s at least one magicless involved in all of this, because every piece of Aetherbane legally produced must have a maker’s mark on it. This didn’t, and neither did any we’ve seen recently. Before today, the Aetherbane was introduced by either someone entering through a breach in our defenses or one of the spies we already knew about. We assumed the former was a magicless, but one who was probably sent in for this specific purpose, then left.”

Slumping slightly, puffed out a beleaguered breath and said, “However, this one was in Eleanor’s room, which is protected by wards, elementals, and guards. It should have been one of two places in the school that she was completely safe. A magicless might still be behind it, but there’s also another option.”

Before he could move on, Pandy raised her hand as if she really was a student. “But how can you tell if someone is magicless, or if they just have a very small amount of magic?”

He shrugged, one corner of his mouth ticking up in a half-smile. “Using an essence stone works most of the time, but there are a few people with so little magic that even the stones can’t detect it. The most certain way is to see what happens when they touch Aetherbane. Unfortunately, having people touch something that can cause them significant pain and even damage whatever magic they do have isn’t exactly a viable option.”

“But I can touch it,” Pandy pointed out. It had made her mouth feel a bit funny, but otherwise she hadn’t noticed any problems.

He grimaced. “That’s because, as far as I can tell, you’re what we call Bound.”

Bound. She’d heard the word used like that before. When? Healer Sinnett had said it, hadn’t he? “The Bound was freed.” She didn’t realize she said it aloud until Augustus made a small sound of protest, and when she focused on him again, she saw that he looked… not angry, exactly, but definitely not happy.

“A Bound is what happens when a certain type of Dark elemental inhabits a… a body whose original occupant no longer needs it,” he said with obvious reluctance.

A dead body, he meant. Like the rabbit whose corpse Pandy currently, what, haunted? Possessed? And she was certain she knew what kind of Dark elemental he meant, though he hadn’t said it outright.

Augustus hurried on. “Your, ah, unique situation has dramatically changed the way you behave from what we might normally expect of a Bound. But one thing Bound can do is handle Aetherbane, because while the elemental inside the physical body is magic, the body itself… isn’t. It is, effectively, magicless.”

Pandy wasn’t going to dwell on the fact that her maybe-boyfriend had just implied she was some kind of zombie. Nope, definitely not. “So rather than looking for a magicless, you may have to find one of these Bound?” She tilted her head. “That shouldn’t be too hard. I mean, don’t they, you know, crave brains, or lose bits in their soup? Or,” she straightened, brightening, “I could probably find them! I can tell when someone has Dark magic, so I should be able to-”

“No,” he said, not a single ounce of give in his voice. “If you can tell they’re Bound, I have no doubt they could do the same for you. If they manage to get that information back to their elementalist, you could be in a kind of danger I can’t protect you from.”

“Oh,” she said, slumping back down.

He watched her for a second, then relaxed back into his own chair. “I mean it, Pandora. If you sense anything odd again, I want you to tell me immediately. And no, there are few obvious outward signs that a creature is Bound, at least not until they begin to,” he drew in a breath, “decay.”

Ick! Instinctively, Pandy looked down at her own arm, as if it might have begun to d… d… the ‘d’ word, just in the time since she shifted. Of course, her brown skin was as perfect as ever, and she knew if she removed her necklace, Alexandra Wellington’s pale, freckled arm would be just as fresh. Would her rabbit form eventually begin to break down, though? In fact, hadn’t Keros implied as much? Only magic held her body – or bodies – together, after all.

“The biggest tell of a Bound is that an elemental is not, in fact, a human. If a young elemental takes a physical body, their speech and actions are unnatural,” Augustus said. “An older elemental, however, the kind that has been around humans for years or even lifetimes, can take the place of a human so smoothly that we’d never even notice until… the other signs began, which can take weeks or months, thanks to the elemental’s magic.”

“So this Bound could be anyone,” Pandy said, realization flooding her.

He nodded. “They have to know enough about the person they replaced that they recognize friends, family, and coworkers, and can speak naturally with them. But with the resources of the Shadow Exchange, that’s child’s play.” He began to tick people off on his fingers. “I’m certain you, Beeswick, I, Kaden, Eleanor, and the queen are all exactly as we seem to be. Otherwise, it could be anyone.”

Pandy shook her head. “Not any of the children. Except maybe Suzanne, I suppose, but I’ve been around all of them enough to be sure there’s no trace of Dark magic on the others. Other than Thaniel, maybe, but he’s definitely not one of those either. Mr. and Mrs. Farrier and the Reedsleys, too.” Well, except for Clara, who had been acting exactly like a ‘young’ elemental in a strange new body.

“Could one of these Bound use a different kind of magic? The body’s magic, maybe?” she asked carefully. “Not Dark. Like… Light magic? To, um, heal someone?”

Augustus instantly shook his head. “As I said, the elemental is magic, but the body is magicless. The only element they could use is their own.” He chuckled slightly. “Except for you, of course. So far, I’ve seen you use Dark and Fire, but what you told me of your System certainly implies you can use any element, so long as you have a spell for it.”

So, if a Dark elemental – say, a certain missing Demon Queen – was inhabiting Clara’s body, maybe it, too, had some form of System, which allowed it to use Light magic? Except that every time Pandy tried that, the spell became corrupted and ended up Dark anyway. So if she couldn’t do it, why could Clara? No, that was just too big a leap, even for one of Pandy’s Situations. Besides, if Clara was using Keros’s magic, the god would have noticed. Wouldn’t he?

“So what are we going to do?” she asked, realizing she’d let the silence stretch on too long.

“We aren’t going to do anything,” he told her. “You’re going to come to dinner and be introduced, and I’m going to reach out to the queen, let her know things may be even worse than we feared.” His face grew grim. “If we find more of these poppets, we’ll have to accept that we may have any number of Bound within the school and the palace itself. Magicless are simply too rare to be behind everything, and we have provisions in place within the palace to catch them, anyway.”

Then why didn’t you use those ‘provisions’ here, too? she wondered, but the answer was undoubtedly once again that it required some incredibly rare or expensive item that couldn’t be spared, even to protect the princess and the other students. Besides, they had students with Dark magic, why not magicless as well? Not that any ‘provisions’ would have been necessary if not for the Shadow Exchange. Really, she was getting tired of them, and Gacha Love wasn’t even close to starting yet.

She started to stand, but stopped halfway through, hovering over the surprisingly comfortable cushion like a yoga master. “What’s a poppet?”

Augustus was already on his feet, but he paused and said, “What?”

“A poppet,” Pandy said. “You explained about the Aetherbane, but not the doll itself. I thought that meant it didn’t matter, but you gave it a name. A poppet. What is it?”

He smiled wryly. “A poppet is a doll made using hair, blood, or other personal objects. It can be used to track someone, or, as it likely was used in this case, to suggest things to them. It starts as something small and easy, like an urge to take a walk on a beautiful day, then escalates to something slightly less innocuous, like trusting someone you might not otherwise have trusted. In the worst cases, the person may begin acting entirely out of character, or even do something like attack another person, or walk into the sea.”

Remembering the delicious smell of the thing, Pandy said, “And it’s Dark magic.”

“Very,” he agreed.

Pandy frowned. “But why was it wrapped in Aetherbane? Wouldn’t that keep it from working?”

Augustus shook his head. “Not that kind. It’s a double weave – Aetherbane on one side, and normal cloth on the other. Magic can go out, but not in. It made the doll undetectable to all but physical sight.”

Pandy nodded, then shifted back to a Bound rabbit, and hopped from the room. She had a lot to think about, and a lot to tell Keros.