Lucky Rabbit

Getting down the winding stairs from the office to the hidden lab with the Excessively Large book was a bit of a challenge. As Pandy had suspected, it was a little tight for her, but she made it, and soon found herself standing in the darkness at the bottom of the steps.

“No time like the present,” Pandy muttered, casting Spark before reaching for the closest jar. The bit inside was thankfully unidentifiable, and she intentionally didn’t read the label. She didn’t want to know what – or who – she was about to feed to the book.

Somewhat to her surprise, it worked. She’d half expected that only the Avington House book could actually accept physical donations, as it were, but Faithful Foundation was just as greedy. Better yet, she didn’t have to decant the squidgy thing, since jar, unidentified liquid, and… occupant all vanished together the moment the page touched the glass.

The following half hour was incredibly satisfying. It took far too long to get to each and every container, but by the time she was done, not only were the shelves and cabinets empty of anything but dust, but Nyssa’s condition had reached ninety-eight point six percent, and according to Pandy’s – admittedly iffy – calculations, it would only take eleven days to give the Apparition the fifty-five hundred Mana she still needed to reach one hundred percent. Not quite completely back to whatever she was meant to be, but close enough Pandy actually considered chopping off her own finger or toe in order to finish. But no, that just wasn’t going to happen, especially since she had a bad feeling feeding her own bits to the book might just make it hungrier.

Unfortunately, since Pandy’s first goal was to fix the Apparition who at least claimed she knew how to cook, that meant Nox was still sitting at thirty-nine percent complete. The good news was that once Nyssa was fully repaired, Pandy could start working on Nox, which should only take, um… a very, very long time. Definitely longer than the eight months Aglaea gave Pandy before her unlife came to an end. Yep.

With a sigh, Pandy closed the book and dropped it, as usual rather entertained by the way it poofed out of existence before it hit the floor. She’d long since learned to take her amusements where she could find them, and disappearing books were funny.

Oddly, once she was done, the space actually felt smaller than it had before. Without objects to break up her line of sight, she could see from the stairs to the rather forlorn-looking desk sitting next to the coffins. Which were still a bit of a mystery, actually. The third one held the mortal remains of General Preston Avington, complete with a necklace Pandy apparently wasn’t allowed to sell. But what was inside the other two? Clara couldn’t interact with them in Gacha Love, so Pandy had no idea.

Now that she wasn’t surrounded by chemicals and things she didn’t want to look at, Pandy cast a few more Sparks, well away from the remaining furniture. She’d tried putting one of the shelves into the book, since she needed building materials more than storage, but it hadn’t worked. She could come down here and clear the space before the next time she did some repairs.

Actually, this space might be a good place to finally train up her skills a bit more. She could probably cast anything except Air of Superiority and Scorching Sonata without risking anything worse than minor damage, and thanks to the Avington House book, even that shouldn’t be much of an issue. Well, unless she managed to blow out the wall into the rest of the house, thus revealing her super secret lair, which would be sad.

While she was thinking, Pandy had slowly worked her way over to the other coffins, trying to look like she was just examining her surroundings, and totally not planning to open one of them. Yes, nothing here but us… She reached for the lid of the first coffin, practically throwing it open in her haste to get it done before Nox could turn up. It bumped against the second coffin, making a hollow sound and revealing absolutely nothing.

Leaning forward, Pandy looked all around the interior of the coffin. She’d only been to one funeral before, when the grandparent of one of her foster families passed away – thankfully not due to anything related to Pandy’s cosmically bad luck – but she was certain that the coffin had been lined in fabric, with a little pillow to make the deceased more comfortable. General Avington’s coffin had no such thing, and neither did this, making her wonder if the people in this world didn’t do that, or if whoever brought the General’s corpse down here just didn’t care enough to give him a satin-lined resting place.

In any case, this coffin was empty even of dust. It was the simplest of the three, and the smallest, standing only a little taller than Pandy herself. Had it been meant for a woman? Or perhaps someone who hadn’t yet reached their full adult height? She shivered a bit at the thought, glad that it was definitely too large for a child.

It seemed extra creepy to leave the thing open, even though it was clearly unoccupied, so Pandy reached over and grabbed the fallen lid. It was only as she went to put it in place that she realized it had cracked in half, splitting neatly along the grain of the wood. In a bit of a panic, Pandy grabbed the other half and tried fitting them back together, but as soon as she released them, they just fell to each side with a clatter.

“It’s all right, my lady,” a warm voice said from behind her. “It’s not needed any more.”

Whirling, Pandy instinctively held up the half of a lid she’d just picked up off the floor. Her Spark illuminated the face of a woman who was almost, but not entirely, familiar. She was a bit shorter than Pandy, pleasantly soft, with a sweet round face and red cheeks. Her hair was silvery gray and pulled back in a soft bun with a cute little lacy cap tucked over it. She wore a black dress covered in a white apron, and her entirely solid feet were clad in sensible shoes.

Peering over her makeshift shield, Pandy finally said, “Nyssa?”

Dark eyes twinkling, the Apparition – she was still an Apparition, wasn’t she? – gave a small curtsey. “The very same.” Looking around the lab, she sobered. “I’m glad they were finally released, though not that they went to save me. I was meant to protect them, not the other way around.”

Lowering the half-lid, Pandy cleared her throat awkwardly. “You know… what happened here?”

Nyssa tilted her head. “Some of it. I haven’t been myself in a very long time. I remember bits and pieces of the last hundred years or so, but much has been lost, as well.”

With a sudden surge of excitement, Pandy said, “But you remember before that? Back when General Avington was alive?”

Smile lines appeared around Nyssa’s eyes as she nodded. “Of course. Those were the good times. The times when we served our family, and were respected and cared for in return.”

Yes! Maybe Pandy could figure out what she’d missed by not listening to ‘General Avington’ without having to admit to Nox that she hadn’t been paying attention. “Do you, ah, happen to know where things went wrong? I mean, There was something about someone named Gilbert, or Gil-”

Nyssa’s face clouded. “Giles. The first Lord Avington’s grandson. A good man, but not… not a strong leader. He spoiled his children, and none of them were capable of wielding-”

She broke off, glancing up as a shadow passed through the ceiling above them. None of the light from Spark touched this new darkness, which coalesced into a particularly stern-looking Nox. He was as not-quite-human as ever, though Pandy thought there was something like happiness or relief on his face when he glanced back at Nyssa.

“That is not a tale to be told lightly, Nyssa,” he told his fellow Apparition. “She hasn’t yet proven she is worthy.”

This made Pandy drop the broken coffin lid, which clattered to the ground as she rested her fists on her hips, glaring at the cryptic elemental. “You keep saying that, but you won’t explain what you expect from me. What do I have to do to become the ‘real’ heir? M. Piers… I mean, the last Avington, um, heir, acknowledged me. I can use the books, and even Queen Louisa said I’m the real Lady Avington now. What else is there?”

Nyssa opened her mouth, but Nox shifted so his slightly diaphanous form completely blocked her. “This is not your task,” he said, not looking away from Pandy, but also clearly not speaking to her.

Silence followed, but eventually a hand reached up and patted Nox’s arm as Nyssa stepped out from behind him. Smiling at Pandy apologetically, she said, “I’m sorry, my lady, but he’s right. Lord Avington gave us each our own roles to play, and mine,” she chuckled, “is making sure the princess and that little Dragon learn how to bake a proper cookie. I’m terribly sorry about the oven, by the way. I wasn’t myself.”

Pandy perked up, letting her hands fall to her sides. “So you actually can cook?”

“Oh my, yes,” Nyssa said, sounding matter-of-fact rather than prideful, as if stating that the sun rose and set each day. “Queen Nora herself said my strawberry and cream cake was the best she’d ever had. She liked it so much that I named it after her: Nora’s Cake.”

After the Terrible Tea and Carcinogenic Cookies, Pandy couldn’t quite bring herself to take Nyssa’s word for it, but she was willing to give the Apparition another shot. “So if I bring back some ingredients, you can make something for the kids?”

Nyssa looked thoughtful. “It would be a bit of a challenge without a stove or oven, but I believe I can manage it now.” She smiled, giving a little shimmy, as if to show off the complete solidity of her form, along with the natural way her clothing moved.

“All right,” Pandy told her, sticking out her hand. The Apparition stared at it, then at Pandy, before finally putting her fingers in Pandy’s. Pandy shook, and Nyssa looked startled, but didn’t fight it as Pandy said, “If you can, make a list of the things I need to buy, and when I go shopping on Friday, I’ll get everything I can.”

Nyssa retrieved her fingers, which had been cool but firm, and curtseyed. “As you like, my lady. Now, I’ll go make sure your brother and Princess Eleanor have everything they need.”

She started to turn away, but Pandy took a step after her, saying, “Ah, you know he’s not really my brother, right? And, um, you can’t call Eleanor by her real name if anyone is around.”

This time Nyssa definitely twinkled at her. “I know. And lady, you’ve claimed Isidor as family. The house knows, and thus, so do we.” With that, she abandoned her corporeal appearance and rose back up through the ceiling, leaving Pandy alone with Nox.

Pandy stared at the undamaged plaster overhead before turning back to the larger Apparition with a sigh. “Okay, so, um I didn’t actually listen to y- I mean, General Avington when he was telling me about the history of the house, or the family, or whatever it was. I meant to, really, but someone else was talking to me, and Thaniel was in trouble, though I didn’t know it yet. Oh, but you don’t know Thaniel yet, because he can’t come here while Eleanor is living here, but also as long as you’re counting family, he’s definitely family too, so-”

Nox released air from… somewhere. It sounded more like a low moan than a sigh, but Pandy was fairly certain it was meant to fulfill the same function. His chest-area even rose and fell as he did it. “I know,” he said, “so let me begin again. Once more, and only because you restored Nyssa. She was… sadly diminished.”

Wait, he was actually going to tell her what she’d missed? And without even arguing or getting mad at her? Pandy nodded vigorously, settling in to listen.