Lucky Rabbit

Pandy just wanted to flee – leave this place and the horrible things she’d found here behind. But she couldn’t. For one thing, the simulacrum and the fake-Thaniel’s-blood sachet were back in Bryan’s rooms. For another, Bryan was back in Bryan’s rooms. Knowing what she did, could she leave him here while a potentially wild Bound rampaged through the halls? Nope. If she did, she’d never be able to look Thaniel or Lian in the eyes again, which would be very awkward.

Briefly, she debated turning back into Ms. Wellington and just bashing through the walls, but for one thing, she didn’t actually know which way she needed to go without her fluff-trail, and for another, that would definitely aggro the whole house. She didn’t yet hear shouting or screaming, so she scampered along, wiggling and sniffing and gathering every chunk of fur she found, which took up her last Inventory slot, but it was probably worth it because she didn’t want to leave any part of herself here.

When she found the hole in the back of the bookshelf – identifiable by shape even before she ran through it – she burst into Wellington-form even as she leaped into the room. Pulling off her necklace, she ran toward the bedroom and threw open the door.

“That’s it, time to go,” she said, trying to be brisk and matter-of-fact about it, rather than sounding like she was quaking in her adorable boots.

Bryan sat up in his bed, looking wide awake, and she suspected he’d been waiting for her to return, rather than trying to sleep. He was probably going to regret that, because she didn’t think he’d be getting any real rest anytime soon. “What do you mean?” he asked, looking from her to the lump in the bed he’d so carefully selected for his son. “I can’t-”

“You can and you will,” she told him, trying to sound like she meant it. Which she did, but not quite in the kind of way she wanted him to think. “Grab anything you need, and let’s go.”

He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it, and said, “Can you keep my sons safe?”

Pandy would die before she let anyone hurt Thaniel or, yes, Lian, and it was turning out that she was very, very hard to kill, so she said, “Yes,” while adding a mental caveat that if things went awry, Augustus could protect them, even if he had to ship them out of the country to do it. Now she just had to tell him she’d made the promise on his behalf.

Bryan’s hesitation lasted only another few seconds, during which she could almost see him making mental calculations. Then he nodded and sprang into motion, his expression determined and his shoulders straight for once. Crossing to the chest of drawers, he pulled on a pair of pants underneath his nightgown, then tugged the garment over his head and put on a shirt, which he just tucked into his pants. After slipping his bare feet into his shoes, he went to the bookshelf, removing the paintings of himself and Grace. Settling it securely inside his shirt, he turned back to Pandy and tapped his head. “That’s it. I can recreate anything else. We should destroy-”

The shouts Pandy had been waiting for started. They were fairly distant, several rooms away at least, but there was no mistaking the panic in them. Someone screamed, followed by a loud crashing noise. Bryan looked in that direction, his face pale but his eyes bright.

“I think the destroying will take care of itself,” Pandy told him, and he nodded.

“We’ll have to get past the Bound at the door,” he told her, sounding suddenly more confident. “Can you take control of them?”

That was an option? But no, Pandy had already come up with another idea. Well, technically Professor Beeswick had come up with it, and Pandy had dismissed it as being far too dramatic, but now she was rethinking her position on the matter. Tossing aside the covers on the simulacrum, she picked up the sachet half-hidden beneath it. She was out of Inventory space, but she needed to-

“Here,” she said, thrusting it at Bryan. He might as well be useful. “And can you carry this?” She handed him the simulacrum, belatedly remembering how much it resembled a no-longer-living Thaniel when she saw him flinch.

His arms around the simulacrum’s body were gentle but his voice rough as he said, “Can’t you put it back wherever you got it?”

She grimaced. “No room. Look-”

They both turned as someone banged on a door that was very close by, either in the main room of the suite or across the hall. Any ambiguity fled as a voice shouted, “Conroy! Come on! The damned house is filled with Bound, and they’re not listening to anyone!”

They? As in, more than one? Oops. Pandy thought about a Demon, first trapped in a stone, then in a body that was entirely unnatural to it, thrashing around in a room absolutely packed with corpses and more Demon-stones. What were the odds that the elemental in Ms. Wellington’s body had broken more of the crystals, intentionally or otherwise?

Pretty good, actually, and with Pandy’s luck, almost certain. And given how many bodies were jammed in there, she’d bet real money that a number of the released Demons also became trapped but masterless Bound. And why were Demons stuck when other Dark elementals could escape the confines of their fleshy form, given the opportunity? That was a question for another time.

Quickly, Pandy swapped the Eurydice necklace in her hand for one from her Inventory, which Augustus had provided on rather short notice, and which was apparently single-use only but also Very Expensive. She’d been cautioned not to use it unless absolutely necessary, but absolute necessity was banging on the door, and it sounded a lot like Leo.

Once she put this necklace on, she would have only twenty minutes before its magic ran out, but that should be plenty. Plenty. Craning her neck back, she stared up, trying to remember how many floors the building had. Two, she thought, though it had been Very Dark when she arrived, so there might be a third floor that hadn’t had any lights on. This world – or this country – seemed to prefer only one or two story buildings, though, so it should be safe enough.

Raising her hand, she pointed at the innocent white ceiling and channeled her inner Magical Girl. “Air of Superiority!”

Air of Superiority successful.

Two uses remain before level 3.

Now we’re talking!

A cyclone burst from Pandy’s hand with a surprisingly loud roar, slamming into the ceiling to tear away the plaster and splinter the sturdy boards that held the house together. Bryan cried out, and Pandy glanced over at him, seeing that he had a number of red marks forming on his body, where he’d been struck by flying debris. She did too, but thanks to Pain Tolerance, she’d been able to ignore it, knowing she’d heal herself when this was over.

Bryan Conroy had no such reassurance, and he looked panicked as he crouched around the simulacrum of his son, protecting the inanimate but very convincing thing with his own body. It was vaguely possible that she hadn’t completely thought this through.

As the wind began to die down, a secondary bang could be heard coming from the other room, making her and Bryan jump. “Bryan! I’m coming in! How did one of the-”

Pandy pulled the new necklace over her head just before the door to the bedroom crashed open. She lunged for Bryan, scooping him up into her arms in much the same way Bryan himself held the simulacrum. As she did, she saw that her new shape had skin even paler than Ms. Wellington’s, though it was unmarked with the freckles she secretly loved. Her arm was covered in some lightweight white fabric, and when she looked down, she saw that she appeared to have on a white dress. Blonde hair whipped around her shoulders, blown by the final lingering traces of Air of Superiority.

she thought, staring into the shocked eyes of Leo, the Dark mage whose elemental had tried to eat her-as-Thaniel only a few hours earlier.

Shield of Darkness successful.

Four uses remain before level 14.

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Bryan Conroy for 16 HP.

Wings of Glory failed.

You’re still on the ground, you know.

Argh! That was true. Always before, she’d jumped – or fallen – before using the spell. It would have been nice to know she couldn’t start from the ground before the very moment where she actually needed to do so, though.

Leo’s surprise had worn off by now, and he scowled as Bryan flickered into near-invisibility in the still-dark bedroom. Pointing at Pandy, Leo said, “Stop her!” Blackness billowed from…his sleeve? Was he really keeping his elemental tucked up his sleeve? Why? Was it just for moments like this one? If so, Pandy had to give him kudos for his dedication to presenting the most villainous front possible.

Unfortunately, Pandy’s arms were occupied, and while she also held some darkness, she thought Thaniel would be Very Unhappy to discover that she’d used his father as a melee weapon, even if she healed Bryan afterwards. She was going to have to do something she didn’t really want to do, but she was pretty thoroughly committed at this point, and her time as a blonde was rapidly draining away.

“Innate Magic! Scorching Sonata!” Pandy shouted, feeling the absurdity of it even as she pictured flames engulfing the elemental rushing toward her while avoiding the man behind it. Pandy wasn’t ready to be a killer yet, even in self-defense. Or Bryan-defense.

Innate Magic successful.

Three hundred eighty-eight uses remain before level 24.

Scorching Sonata successful.

Three uses remain before level 5.

The flames did almost exactly what Pandy had imagined, focusing on the splotch of shadow that had been headed straight for her, then splitting to either side of Leo. Unfortunately, Pandy hadn’t taken into account the fact that large blasts of fire were very hot, and even magical fire used oxygen when given the opportunity. Leo howled in pain, blisters rising on his skin, then choked as the air became too hot or too thin to breathe. He stumbled backwards, into the main room, as the wall and doorframe behind him burst into less-magical flames.

In Pandy’s arms, Bryan convulsed, though the fire and heat had been directed away from them. Some of the flames in front of her were dying down, darkness lying at the heart of the suppression. The elemental hadn’t been destroyed by her spell, though it had been slowed and hopefully weakened. Crouching, Pandy thought, and blasted up, through the hole she’d made overhead.

Whatever the room above had contained, all that was left were scattered pieces of wood with shredded cloth tangled in them. Thankfully, Pandy didn’t see anybody – or any bodies – though she only got a glimpse before her back and shoulders struck the next ceiling. Whether or not it had been weakened by Air of Superiority, the force of her Hop was enough to allow her to break through, though at the cost of several bright red numbers that flickered across her field of vision.

-17 LF

-9 LF

-8 LF

she thought as she wobbled in mid-air, most of the force of her Hop absorbed by breaking through the ceiling. She started to fall back down toward the fiery and jagged holes she’d left behind, but kicked fiercely against a protruding board, rolling into what looked like a low attic space. Unlike in her old world, it wasn’t filled with fiberglass insulation, so that was nice, but it still wasn’t a comfortable experience, and she sent Bryan another Minor Heal as she straightened. His Shield of Darkness had disappeared, so he’d definitely taken some damage, but hopefully not too much.

“I’m sorry,” she told him, trying to sound as sincere as possible while also looking around for a way out. She didn’t really relish the idea of using her body or her magic to make another hole, even though it was undoubtedly the easiest and fastest way to get it done.

Bryan gasped, still clutching the false-Thaniel as he sat up. Pandy had released him as soon as they skidded to a halt, but the low ceiling above them was rife with the sharp ends of nails, so she couldn’t stand straight, much less carry him as well.

“It’s…all right,” he said, though he didn’t sound convinced. Looking down at the form he held, he took in its somewhat tattered appearance and flinched. After tracing a finger over a cut in the ‘flesh’ of its cheek, he turned to look at Pandy, taking in the now-dirty white dress and long blonde hair. “Is this what you really look like?”

She shook her head. “I don’t even know what I really look like anymore.” She was surprised to hear the truth in her own voice as the words emerged. She wasn’t Bunny, wasn’t Ms. Wellington, wasn’t Eurydice, but she also didn’t entirely feel like the noodle-limbed, perpetually underfed and nervous Pandora S. Boxx, either. Would she ever be herself? Had she ever been herself?

“There,” she said, pointing at a faint gleam of light coming from her right. “What’s that?”

“A vent?” He grimaced. “I’m not exactly an expert in architecture or construction.”

No, but Pandy had spent two full days fetching tools and hauling supplies for a construction crew, and she thought he was right. She duck-walked along a rafter, peering up through the narrow slats of the inset square. Tiny dots of light in the darkness resolved themselves into stars, and Pandy turned to Bryan, holding out her hand. “Bring, uh, that,” she nodded toward the simulacrum, “and let’s get out of here.”

As he started to move, the sound of tearing metal came from above her, and she slowly tilted her head back, finding herself staring at not one, but two billowing masses of darkness rushing through the hole where the vent had been a moment before.