Lucky Rabbit

If Isidor’s reaction to Pandy’s transformation had been underwhelming, the looks on Thaniel and Augustus’s faces more than made up for it. Thaniel hung back for a moment, taking in the dress and the makeup, before running over to gingerly embrace Pandy. She hugged him back, not really caring if she crumpled her dress, and he relaxed into her, smiling up as he said, “You’re really pretty!”

“Indeed you are,” Augustus murmured from behind him, and Pandy looked up, seeing that the chancellor had approached while she was distracted. Isidor was still in the carriage, but Pandy had wanted to greet Thaniel and Augustus properly… and see their reactions. The look in Augustus’s eyes was all that she could have asked for, and Pandy felt her face grow hot.

“I… you.. too?” she stammered, seeing that while Thaniel was in a relatively wrinkle and stain-free Falconet uniform, Augustus was wearing something akin to a tuxedo. It wasn’t quite, since the jacket was shorter and the cut wasn’t right, but it perfectly emphasized his broad shoulders and trim waist, reminding Pandy that while he was technically a school administrator, he’d been a professional sorcerer-hunter not that long ago.

Augustus’s lips twitched. “I’m pretty?” She nodded, because he was, and the twitch became a laugh as he ushered her and Thaniel back into the waiting carriage. The chancellor nodded to Sir Bailey, who flicked a tiny salute back at him, and they were off.

Thaniel was thrilled to see Isidor, though he, like Eleanor, started off a bit uncomfortable with this older version of their friend. But soon enough, he was regaling the other boy with stories of everything he was ‘missing’, and Isidor actually seemed interested, even going so far as to ask about mutual acquaintances, like Matilda and Suzanne.

Pandy hadn’t had much opportunity to do more than see the two third-years from a distance since the Fall Festival, but it sounded like Suzanne was much the same as always. She continued to be mildly ostracized, but never seemed to notice, though Thaniel was distinctly peeved on her behalf. Matilda, on the other hand, had become noticeably more withdrawn, and some of her old friends seemed to be drifting away. There were often spaces at her table during meals, something that made Thaniel frown in consternation.

Pandy and Augustus exchanged glances over the boy’s head, and Pandy, for one, was a little bit relieved to hear about Matilda’s problem. Not that she wanted the girl to lose her friends, but if she was, it meant she was probably following through on her promise to stop using her magic to influence people. The apparent change in her personality was more worrisome, but it made sense that she’d be less confident now that she had to depend on her own – rather prickly and abrasive – personality to convince people to like her.

As soon as the carriage pulled up at Kestrel, the door opened and Lian climbed in. Thaniel immediately latched onto his brother, repeating many of the same stories he’d just told everyone else, while Lian eyed the other occupants of the carriage thoughtfully. He and Isidor especially kept watching each other from the corners of their eyes, though neither of them seemed quite willing to interrupt Thaniel’s monologue to say anything.

Augustus’s aunts lived in a long, low building Pandy would have called a ranch house if not for its insistence upon being mansion-sized. Unlike the surrounding buildings, it had only one level, but the roof was mostly flat, and Pandy could see what looked like small trees growing out of it. Flowers decorated every available surface, and to Pandy’s surprise, there were not just two, but a whole row of Nora-statues out front, a garland of flowers draped between their open hands, guiding the guests to the front door.

Sir Bailey helped Thaniel down, but the older boys used the handle by the door to step down themselves. Neither Isidor nor Lian was so crass as to hop, but Thaniel obviously wanted to. Augustus stepped down as sedately as the teenagers, then spun and held out his hand for Pandy, bowing slightly as he did so. She felt heat rise in her cheeks, but set her hand in his and, thanks to an excessive number of Agility points, somehow managed not to face-plant on the step she didn’t notice until her foot missed it.

A butler opened the door to Augustus’s knock – a surprisingly young man who somehow still had all the dignity of middle-age about him – and ushered them into a sitting room. “The ladies will join you soon,” he murmured, and closed the door behind him.

Thaniel stared around, his face enraptured. “Is this a house like Bu- Eurydice’s? Is it smart? Was that man an elemental?”

Pandy winced. She’d been trying to make sure he didn’t feel left out, so every night she told him what she’d done in the time they’d been apart – without mentioning anything too private or secret, of course. She hadn’t really thought about the fact that he might well think that Avington house was normal in some way. Any way, really.

Augustus chuckled. “Very few houses are like Lady Eurydice’s,” he told the boy, sitting in one of the terribly comfortable-looking chairs that actually made Pandy want to sit just so she could remind her posterior what it felt like not to be jabbed or poked by springs.

“Only the oldest of noble families have one of those houses,” Lian said, sitting on a chaise lounge and patting the cushion beside him. Thaniel readily joined him as his brother continued. “It takes an extremely powerful elemental to weave the magic that makes the house function, as well as a kind of contract that’s no longer legal. You know that no contract is allowed to bind an elemental beyond the death of its original contractor, do you not?” That was actually news to Pandy, but Thaniel nodded. She really needed to pay more attention in his classes, if she ever had the time to go to any of them with him again.

Lian wasn’t done. “The magic is also bound to a single family line.” He was watching Pandy now, Killian-eyes cold and assessing. “While there were originally thirty noble estates with elementals contracted to them, now only ten remain. In fact, before a few weeks ago, most people would have said that number was nine. When the main line of the original contractor ends – say, if an heir dies without children of their own, or if the family’s magic simply becomes too weak to control it – the contracted elemental,” he opened his fingers as if releasing a bird or butterfly into the air, “disappears.”

“That’s right. What an intelligent young man,” Lady Frances’s crisp voice made Thaniel and Pandy jump and turn toward the door, though none of the others seemed surprised, which really wasn’t fair. Augustus’s aunt gave Lian an approving smile as she escorted her wife into the room. Lady Arabelle’s face was pale, and Pandy sent her a Minor Heal as soon as the woman was close enough.

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Lady Arabelle for 12 HP.

One hundred forty-four uses remain before level 25.

Absently, Pandy went ahead and healed everyone else as the two ladies sat in what were obviously their usual chairs. Lady Frances spoke, watching Pandy with those gray eyes that were so disconcertingly similar to Augustus’s.

“Killian is quite correct,” she told them. “It was generally believed that Avington House was – to put it bluntly – dead. The former Lord Avington claimed he could still control the house, but no one had seen evidence of it in, ah, quite some time. It was quite a surprise to everyone then, when Lady Eurydice moved in, and it became clear that things were indeed returning to life. In fact, many people are fascinated by this unknown cousin who was somehow able to perform this miracle.”

The ‘miracle’ might in fact be exactly that – a result of Keros’s magic allowing Pandy to use Faithful Foundation. An idea that was supported by the title of the book in which Nox and Nyssa’s names appeared, and which allowed Pandy to return them to what she assumed was their original condition. Though saying she ‘controlled’ them was quite a stretch.

Lady Arabelle had remained silent through this speech, just sipping the tea that her wife, as usual, had pulled out of the depths of her skirts. Pandy was a bit surprised that Lady Frances hadn’t allowed a maid or the butler to do it just this once, but, like Augustus, she did seem to revel in doing the unexpected – or at least witnessing it.

“I fear,” the smaller of the two old ladies murmured, a gentle smile playing around her mouth, “that Lady Eurydice will soon find herself inundated by invitations to all of the most exclusive parties.” Mirthful eyes caught Pandy’s and twinkled at her. “It really was quite audacious of Augustus to snatch you out from under the noses of all the eligible bachelors who might be interested in marrying into a family with such… unexpected riches.”

This was absolutely not a conversation Pandy was prepared for. In fact, she’d pretty much expected to spend the evening discussing the weather and maybe something specific to the nobility, like fancy hats or very small dogs. Possibly very small dogs wearing fancy hats, which seemed like a reasonably ridiculous thing for rich people to talk about.

Everyone was looking at her now, and she abruptly realized they actually expected her to say something. She looked at Thaniel, who could usually be counted on to fill any silence he happened upon, but for once he was just staring at her, too.

“I like cats,” she blurted. “More than dogs. And hats. Cats in hats are cute. Not that I’ve ever had a cat. Or a dog. They weren’t allowed at-” She snapped her mouth closed, bit her lip, cast Minor Heal, hopefully before it started to bleed, and mumbled, “Augustus is nice, too.”

The corners of Augustus’s mouth were doing that thing again, where they couldn’t seem to decide if they were going up or down. Finally he fluttered his lashes over laughing eyes and said, “I look good in hats as well. Or so I’ve been told.”

Before Pandy could decide whether or not it was worth it to shift to a rabbit right there and make a break for it, Lady Frances rolled her eyes and snapped, “You look good in everything, Augustus. It’s enough to make an old woman weep. I honestly never thought I’d live to see the day you settled down.”

Lady Arabelle smiled and patted her wife on the hand. “I told you that he was just waiting for the right person, Frannie. Now,” she turned her head, looking toward the door just as it opened, revealing the young-old butler again, “I believe it’s time to eat.”

Somehow, Pandy made it down the hall to the dining room, which was less than a quarter the size of the one at Avington House. As napkins were settled into laps and drinks poured, Lady Arabelle pointed out the crown molding, and from there the conversation shifted to architectural and decorative styles from the past two hundred years, which Pandy had an excellent excuse not to participate in, since she was ‘not from around here’.

Once or twice the conversation drifted toward where, in fact, she was from, but Augustus neatly distracted whichever aunt had brought it up, and the meal passed about as pleasantly as an Extremely Awkward Potential Future Family meal could possibly go. The weather was, in fact, mentioned several times, and Pandy learned that the first snow usually fell about halfway between the Fall Festival and Midwinter, which meant she had about three weeks to get warmer clothes for Isidor and Thaniel.

It wasn’t until a delicious melon ice had been served, eaten, and cleared away that the conversation drifted back in a direction Pandy was distinctly uncomfortable with. Lady Arabelle had been having a surprisingly animated conversation with Thaniel, with whom she had met during chore time the previous Thursday, and Thaniel blurted out, “I’m going to live with Eurydice in her new house. She said I could.”

All eyes turned to Pandy, and Lady Frances said, “Oh, really?” in a way that meant, ‘do tell me more’ and Thaniel obliged.

“She has enough bedrooms for me, and Izzy, and Geri, and Bing, and Tempest can come inside the house whenever she wants, just like everybody else,” he told his new friend earnestly. “But I can’t go yet because I have to have permission.” At this point his gaze came to rest on Augustus, and everyone else’s eyes followed like they were watching a wild pop fly from a professional ping-pong player and couldn’t wait to see where it landed.

Augustus had been watching Pandy, and seemed to be taken quite off guard when he found himself the center of attention. Pandy surreptitiously made a ‘don’t do it!’ sign with her hands as Lady Arabelle said, “How is it that your ward expects to move in with Lady Eurydice, Augustus? Is there something that we should know?”

Thaniel opened his mouth, probably to remind them that it wasn’t just him, but all of his friends who were supposed to live there, but Augustus overrode him, saying, “Why Aunt, I’m certain you understand that that’s a conversation between me and my- Between me and Lady Eurydice.”

Lady Frances’s eyebrows shot up toward her hairline, but it was Lian who spoke. Looking from Augustus to Pandy, and then to his precious little brother, the Villain said, “Of course, in any circumstance where Thaniel moved into Avington House, I’m certain I would be equally welcome,” and his cold voice dared Pandy or Augustus to contradict him.

Pandy would have loved to do exactly that, or better yet, bang her head onto the table until she was transported an hour back in time so she could become suddenly, violently ill and avoid this event altogether. Since neither of those was actually an option, she said, “Of course,” in a voice that almost entirely didn’t sound like she was terrified of being murdered in her bed by an irate teenager with Hormones. Though, did Lian have hormones? He certainly hadn’t ever seemed interested in anyone in Gacha Love, no matter how much the fan community liked to ship him with-

“We’ll have to discuss it,” Augustus said, and Pandy almost breathed a sigh of relief before he finished, “as a family.”

Augh! Defeated, Pandy slumped forward, her head hitting the table with a thunk loud enough to rattle the china.