Lucky Rabbit

Pandy thought, from somewhere she was a little worried might count as Nox’s stomach. She had no idea how long she’d been ‘out’, but it definitely wasn’t a trivial amount of time. It wasn’t a good sign that she was becoming used to these out-of-body experiences, especially since Keros wasn’t around to make sure it didn’t become a more permanent situation.

Dark

Restor

ation

     successful. 

One more

use to le

       vel 3.

Well, that probably wasn’t good. The words were disjointed, floating around in her vision apparently at random. Pandy tried to bat at them with a paw – or maybe a hand? – and the words spun around her wildly.

   k Rest

successful.

use to leve

Dar

oration

l 3.

One more

That was not better. Pandy tried to close her eyes, but it didn’t help. Either she didn’t have eyelids at the moment, or the words were inside of them. She was betting on the former.

All right, so obviously this hadn’t been one of her better ideas. She’d had a few opportunities to feed the house a lot less Life Force at one time. If she wanted to experiment, why hadn’t she done it then? Maybe sometime when it would only take two or three would be good. Just scratch PB + AB into the bathroom wall and then try to fix it. If she’d had a body, she might have giggled at the thought of carving her initials together with those of the boy she liked, but she didn’t have a body, and also she was possibly getting a little loopy. She needed to pull herself together – probably literally.

Okay, think, Pandy. Usually when this happened Keros popped up. Maybe that would work this time, too? Closing her purely metaphorical eyes again, she concentrated, listening and watching for any sign that her missing god might be trying to communicate.

Nothing.

Noth-ump.

thump

Th-thump.

Th-thump-thump.

What was that? Pandy spun in the blackness, feeling a frown she couldn’t actually make. Why was it so familiar?

Th-thump-thump.

Th-thump-thump.

It was a heartbeat. Whose? Hers? The healer back at the Reedsley estate had claimed she had one, though it was slow. This was slow, too, but not unreasonably so. It was more like whoever it belonged to was sleeping, safe and content, their heart creating a whooshing, thudding, percussive melody Pandy had absolutely heard before. It was so familiar. So-

Her eyes shot open and Pandy sat up, gasping in a long breath, almost as if breathing was something she actually needed to do. Instinctively, her hand went to her chest, but there was no steady thud beneath her palm, no flutter of a pulse beneath her fumbling fingers. She was vaguely aware she was sitting on the floor of the bathroom, and water was running into the sink from the gleaming copper faucet, but she ignored that and called up her stats, focusing only on the first part.

Name: Pandy

Race: Human? (Deceased)

Age: 24

LF: 6/7

Mana: 235/929

Deceased.

She was definitely still dead, then. She’d gained another point of Life Force though, and she still wasn’t certain how to feel about that. Without Keros there, she had no idea what the module-thing he’d been talking about was doing, but she had a feeling it was still functioning as intended. But whose intentions were they, and what would happen when it finally reached whatever mysterious total it was heading for? All Pandy knew was that it seemed like the number was growing almost by the day.

“Are you all right, my lady?” Nyssa’s anxious voice interrupted her anxiety spiral, and Pandy felt a cool, wet cloth press against her forehead. Water dripped into her eyes, making her blink, but it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant sensation, so she just wiped it away and took the cloth from the elemental’s hand. Nyssa was very nearly indistinguishable from a human being now, at least so long as she didn’t walk through solid objects or float through the floor.

“I think so,” Pandy said, patting herself down in a more intentional way. All of her limbs seemed to be attached, which was a pleasant surprise. She really had expected to wake up as a pool of goo.

Nyssa sat back on her heels, looking relieved. “I was worried. You wouldn’t wake up.”

Offering what she hoped was a reassuring smile, Pandy managed to climb to her feet by using the toilet to brace herself. For all of her Strength, her legs felt like damp noodles – not weak, exactly, but definitely wibbly around the knees.

“How long was I out?” she asked, looking into the mirror. Eurydice Haupe stared back at her, makeup slightly smeared from Nyssa’s very-helpful wet cloth, but otherwise exactly as expected.

The elemental wrung her hands. They didn’t go twisty this time, which was nice, because that always made Pandy a little uncomfortable. “I’m not sure,” Nyssa said. “Young master Isidor asked if you were done, so I came to check on you.”

Pandy frowned, looking around the luxuriously appointed washroom. “Nox didn’t send you? Where is he?”

Nyssa’s eyes went dark for an instant. “In the office. Waiting.”

Well, that wasn’t ominous. Pandy sighed, looking over at the sink, which was still running. “Is the rest of the plumbing fixed?”

The Apparition smiled broadly. “Yes! It’s so nice to have water again. Now I can clean everything properly. The other bathrooms will need to be repaired, of course, but at least this one is done. The children will be pleased.”

“Not Gloria?” Pandy asked, feeling her mood lighten at the thought of the looks on Eleanor and Isidor’s faces when they were finally able to take baths and use an indoor toilet. She honestly didn’t know exactly what they’d been doing in the meantime, and she didn’t want to. She would just make sure to ask before she dug up any suspiciously fresh mounds of dirt in the yard. Come to think of it, that was probably a good idea when doing anything on the grounds of Avington House. Hopefully Nox and Nyssa knew where the – possibly literal – bodies were buried.

Nyssa flickered briefly. “I’m certain she’ll be pleased as well.”

There was something in her voice… Pandy frowned at the Apparition. “You don’t like her?”

Immediately shaking her head, Nyssa said, “It’s not that at all. She’s just-” She broke off, but Pandy kept staring at her, so finally she said, “It’s not my place to speak, unless my lady orders me to do so.”

Pandy really, really didn’t like this whole aspect of being the head of the Avington family, in name only or otherwise. She’d never been comfortable telling other people what to do, which worked out fine, because no one had ever trusted her with responsibility over anyone else.

But now she had children and elementals who expected her to decide things, and for some reason they all willingly went along with those decisions. Well, except Empress Glory, who took every opportunity to silently let Pandy know she was only doing the thing because she already happened to be doing it anyway. She reminded Pandy of Miss Cupcakes in that, actually.

“Tell me,” Pandy said with a sigh.

“Lady Gloria has asked both Nox and me if we would like to contract with her,” Nyssa said primly, and Pandy felt some tension ease out of her. It was nothing about Eleanor or… Pandy didn’t know what, exactly. But this she could handle.

“Do you want to?” Pandy asked, tilting her head. According to Young Lord Preston’s memories, both Nox and Nyssa had been contracted to him, and he’d used them when he created the spells that ran the house. They’d told her they would disappear if she got rid of them, but that didn’t necessarily mean they couldn’t just switch over to someone or something else. It would be inconvenient if one or both of them decided they preferred the Empress, but Pandy wouldn’t try to force them to stay.

“No!” Nyssa’s eyes grew far too large for her face – literally. For a moment she had huge, black anime eyes, and it was very disconcerting. “It’s extremely rude for a guest to attempt to suborn their host’s elementals,” she told Pandy, sounding almost as disapproving of Pandy’s ignorance as she had of Glory’s breach of manners.

Pandy grimaced apologetically. “I just… I want you to know you’re free to do what you want,” she told the elemental. “I don’t know what contract you originally had with General Avington, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re as much a person as anyone else who lives here. If you can go, and you want to, then I won’t stop you.”

The elemental’s face had returned to what passed as normal, but her gaze flicked past Pandy, landing on something behind her. Pandy turned, seeing that Nox had apparently tired of waiting for her. “Do you want us to go, then?” he asked, somehow sounding even more reserved than usual.

Instantly, Pandy shook her head. “Definitely not.” She tried to put as much certainty into that as she could, because something about the way both elementals were watching her said that her answer was very important to them. Looking from one to the other, she said, “I like having you here. Not only are you really helpful, but… I just like you. Both of you. This house wouldn’t feel right without you.”

Nyssa smiled, and as she did, her face sharpened. Always before it had been at least a little bit blurry around the edges. Pandy had gotten so used to it, she didn’t even think about it any more, but as the elemental finally snapped into focus, there was no doubt that something had changed.

“Then we’ll stay as long as you want us, my lady,” Nyssa said, and Nox nodded agreement. The change in him wasn’t nearly as marked, but there was still a shift in the way he held himself, something a little less guarded in the way his black gaze met Pandy’s.

“And I… am sorry, my lady,” he told her, not quite sounding like the words were being dragged out of him. “Nyssa and I are part of the house, and the house is part of us, but there are times when even we cannot control what the magic does. It’s an old spell, strong and stubborn, and when it is offered power, it will take it.”

That was about as much of an explanation as Pandy could ask for from him, and honestly more than she’d expected. She was the one who’d told the book – or maybe the house – it could take more life than she actually had to give. She shrugged. “It’s all right. I’m fine.” Probably. She wasn’t any deader than she had been before, anyway.

He gave a half-bow, then said, “I came to tell you someone else has arrived. I believe they may be here to replace the stove.”

Pandy perked up. “Really?” Edging around the two elementals who were filling an unreasonable amount of the bathroom, she threw open the door. “How can you tell?”

Muffled voices came from downstairs, and Pandy recognized the clipped tones of Empress Glory’s ‘official tutor’ voice. A deeper voice answered her, but it wasn’t one Pandy recognized. Someone was inside her house. She hurried toward the steps, but paused as the door to the master bedroom opened, and Eleanor’s face peeked out. Another, much more reptilian, face appeared above the girl’s, and Pandy had no idea how she could tell, but she was certain Hazel was about ready to burst with excitement.

A rush of wind filled the hall, blowing the door out of Eleanor’s hands and revealing both girl and dragon just as the little elemental popped into her human-ish shape. She had been perched on Eleanor’s shoulder, and Pandy reached out to catch the tumbling toddler before she could hit the ground. Entirely unperturbed by the close call, the Dragon clutched her duck to her chest and announced, “Me, cook!”

Pandy looked at Eleanor, who shrugged. “Cousin Gloria said I should send you down as soon as you showed up, because you have to sign for everything.”

Uh oh. “Everything?”

The princess nodded enthusiastically. “There’s lots of people here, and they all want to talk to you.”

Just then, the pounding of feet on the steps announced Isidor’s arrival, and when he saw Pandy, undisguised relief filled his expression before exasperation took its place. “There you are! I looked everywhere for you. You need to get downstairs right now.”

He’d looked everywhere? That definitely meant he’d checked the bathroom, and she hadn’t been there. So where had she gone, and how had she come back? Those were questions for future Pandy, though, because right now she needed to go sign for a stove.