Lucky Rabbit

The carriage that was waiting for them had a golden eagle emblazoned on both doors. Cloudmanes pranced in place in front of it, their blue fur and white, misty manes perfectly accentuated by the enameled blue of the carriage. Knights of the Royal Eagle were stationed all around, hands on their swords, helmets turning as they scanned the area. There were still a few other carriages further up the drive, no doubt lookie-loos or, more charitably, parents who hadn’t gotten here before the knights told everyone else to stay back.

“Sir,” a knight said, opening the carriage door for Augustus. This knight was taller than almost any of the others, able to peer over the top of the carriage so he could see the other side. His size was enough to make Pandy wonder if this might be Dorian’s father, Sir Griffin. The man was a bit of a blowhard, bragging about his family’s unbroken line of Knights of the Royal Eagle when he met Clara, and Pandy had always gotten the impression he wasn’t a particularly nice man, though Gacha Love had never explicitly stated that. In any case, this probably wasn’t him at all. There had to be other knights who were just as massive, right?

“Thank you,” Augustus murmured, stopping at the base of the steps to hold his hand out. It took Pandy far too long to realize he was waiting to help her up, and she could feel her face burning as she slipped her hand into his. This wasn’t the first time he’d done this, but she’d never felt the weight of so many unseen eyes burning into her as the chancellor placed his hand on her lower back, gently stabilizing and supporting her as she climbed up into the carriage.

Once they were seated on the blue-velvet cushions, the tall knight closed the door. Pandy noticed there were no windows, and Augustus noticed her noticing. With just a hint of his usual twinkle, he said, “Not only are windows a weakness, but you wouldn’t want to see what’s about to happen. It’s extremely… disorienting.”

When the carriage began moving, it was so smooth that Pandy barely even noticed. Then they bounced ever so slightly, and her internal organs tried to fall out of her toes. She must have made a sound, because Augustus reached toward his cache pocket, grimaced, and instead shifted to the side so he could remove a neatly folded piece of cloth from a compartment at the edge of his seat.

Handing it to her, he said, “If you need to vomit, use this. Believe it or not, you do get used to the sensation. Some people even claim to enjoy it.”

Was that the same way some people enjoyed roller coasters and hanging upside down while moving at fifty miles per hour? But as they went on, the feeling did fade, and Pandy finally said, “Are we flying?”

He tilted his head. “In a way. The Cloudmanes are flying. The carriage is being pulled behind them. There’s some very complex magic involved, actually. The carriage constantly wants to fall, or tilt, or even stay in the air for a bit longer when the Cloudmanes begin to descend. I learned a bit about it in school, then more after I… accepted my position, but if I’d ever even considered becoming an enchanter, the idea that lives depended upon me perfectly performing the same fiddly spells day after day would have convinced me otherwise.”

He shook his head ruefully before eyeing Pandy. “How much time do you have left on your, ah, appearance today? It’s nearly ten, and I have no doubt we’ll be answering questions for much of the rest of the day.”

Pandy checked Shifting Faces and grimaced. “Two hours and thirty-seven… no, thirty-six minutes. I can save a bit by changing n-”

“No,” he said, his eyes flicking toward the door. “I’ll try to get us into a private interview before your time is up, but hold on as long as you can. If you have to,” he paused meaningfully, and Pandy nodded her understanding, “grab onto me and pretend to faint. That should allow me to take you to the infirmary, where fewer people will see.”

Interesting that Augustus also seemed to be wary of the Knights, even though he should be able to trust them implicitly, and Pandy knew at least some of them were aware she could change shapes. Sir Bailey had implied that she’d worked with Augustus when he was hunting rogue Dark mages, so maybe he had a team he knew and trusted, but that didn’t include every single person who wore the armor?

In the end, that was all the conversation they had time for, because what went up had to come down. This time she felt like her pancreas was attempting to escape through her sinuses, but thankfully she was still dead enough that she didn’t need the cloth bag. One of the surprisingly plentiful advantages of being mildly dead was not having to worry that the man she had a crush on would have to hold back her nonexistent hair while she heaved up her toenails.

Just a bit more than five minutes after the carriage started moving, it came to a halt again, rocking gently before the door was opened by the same knight who had closed it at Falconet. Unless, of course, Bonus-Size really was standard for Knights of the Royal Eagle.

Again, Augustus held Pandy’s hand and eased her from the carriage, but this time she barely noticed. They were at the palace. The palace. From Gacha Love. The same palace where Clara and Kaden danced the night away, where Clara attended Kaden’s coronation, where Kaden introduced Clara to his mother, and where – if the player didn’t have a great deal of money or Pandy’s incredible luck with gacha rolls – Bastian and Clara attended Kaden’s state funeral.

Unlike when Clara was here with Kaden, there weren’t servants lined up to welcome them. Instead, there were a few very tense-looking palace guards, as well as several Knights of the Royal Eagle, who were probably just as tense but conveniently covered in anonymizing armor. The carriage rolled off as soon as they exited, wheels all but silent on the smooth surface of the road. Two more Knights fell in with Augustus and Pandy, bracketing them as they walked through the front gate.

As Pandy knew from the game, there was a courtyard beyond the gate which everyone except the royal family had to walk through. Only they could ride a horse or carriage directly to a secret landing pad within the palace. The courtyard was lined with lovely frescos, statues, and plants, but none of the beauty concealed the guards pacing the walls overhead or the knights who lingered beside sculptures and in alcoves. Pandy was certain there were more she couldn’t see as well, because Kaden told Clara so the first time they visited.

The path through the courtyard was deliberately long, and Augustus held Pandy’s hand as they walked every step of it. She wondered if he could sense her tension, even though she focused on continuing to breathe and act as normal as she could. No one shouted, “Bound!” and jumped on her with a sanctified blade – and she wondered why she’d never heard of those before Professor Beeswick used one that morning – so they arrived at the next gate entirely unhindered.

This gate didn’t actually lead into the palace either, though the short clip showing Clara advancing toward the building with her chosen love interest didn’t focus on the next area. Instead, it showed the palace itself as it appeared from what seemed to be empty space, fog first rolling back from the steps, then slowly revealing the building itself.

The effect in real life was even more awe-inspiring than in the game. Faintly sweet-smelling vapor swirled around Pandy and Augustus’s feet, splitting to each side of them in diaphanous waves like the Red Sea parting. What had appeared to be a clear blue sky disappeared into clouds, then spat out a pearlescent pink palace punctuated with pale pillars that seemed entirely superfluous. The glossy marble stairs led to wide pink double doors that bore the golden eagle symbol, one wing on each side of the dividing line.

As they climbed the steps, which were definitely more numerous than Pandy expected, the doors swung silently open. It was possible there were actual Knights of the Royal Eagle assigned to open the heavy doors, but somehow it seemed more likely that it was entirely magical. Pandy wondered if that was a trick peculiar to the palace or if Avington House could do it, too.

These idle musings vanished as she took in the interior of the building, which was strange and yet familiar in that deja vu kind of way. The style of the decor and the pale pink walls were tantalizingly familiar from Gacha Love, yet the game had never shown Clara progressing through this vaulted entryway or down the halls through which a palace guard led Augustus and Pandy.

Beside her, Augustus looked entirely unperturbed, his feet steady and eyes forward. He acted like he knew the way, which he probably did, though he remained a polite three paces behind their guide. They saw no one else, which struck Pandy as very odd, because surely this place had to be filled with servants and functionaries, even if all of the nobles were currently wherever they were going. After a few turns, the emptiness actually began to feel a bit creepy, causing Pandy’s fingers to tighten involuntarily on Augustus’s, which still gripped hers. His squeezed reassuringly back, though he didn’t take his eyes off the hall ahead.

Only two Knights were visible when they arrived at elaborate doors that had to be at least eight feet high. Their helmets turned as the guard bowed and stepped aside, allowing Pandy and Augustus to approach the doors, which had been featured in the event where Kaden introduced Clara to his mother, as well as the one after Clara and her primary love interest chased Killian away, when Clara was rewarded for her bravery.

Augustus paused as the doors opened, inclining his head slightly as he gestured for Pandy to precede him. “You outrank me, my lady,” he murmured. Her eyes went wide and she probably looked exactly like the frightened rabbit she felt like, but he just gave her a reassuring smile and held his small bow.

Turning, Pandy faced into the enormous throne room. Oddly, the first thought that came to mind, as it had more than once when she played Gacha Love, was that it must take an absolutely ridiculous amount of wood to heat this place. Of course, Fire magic was a thing, and that was undoubtedly what they actually used, but as someone who often couldn’t afford to heat her own home and had to depend upon the heat from the apartments all around her, she couldn’t get over how expensive maintaining this whole place had to be. Even now that she knew there was even more magic involved than she’d believed, she just couldn’t shake the feeling.

Something about the ridiculousness of the thought allowed her to keep walking even as a great voice came from nowhere, filling the room with crystal clear words. “Her Ladyship, Eurydice Haupe, the Countess of Avington.”

Countess? This was the first Pandy was hearing about that. Had Clara been a Countess when she took over Avington house? That sounded very ostentatious for the Avingtons, who were, at best, a poor noble family that had all but died out and whose last surviving scion had been reduced to living in the carriage house while tricking the unworldly into paying him for the privilege of being murdered.

A murmur rose from the gathered crowd, which was really… really… big. The room was wide and long, as well as having a high, vaulted ceiling, and it was chock full of people, many of whom looked like they’d thrown themselves together in a bit of a hurry. Gentlemen wore crooked ties, ladies’ hats were slightly askew, and several women had those hats perched atop much less elaborate hairstyles than seemed appropriate, as if they’d been prepared for a leisurely morning in, with maybe some light gardening, when they got word that they needed to head to court for a good gossip-fest.

Pandy was so busy trying not to look like she was about to need that vomit bag after all that she barely noticed when Augustus began moving forward as well. Only when the voice sounded again did she jerk back to herself, barely managing not to whip around to stare at him. “His Lordship, Augustus Blackwood, the Baron of Thornfield and Chancellor of Falconet.”

Augustus had a real title, too? Why had Pandy thought that Lord and Lady were the sum total of this nobility business? He was usually just called Mister, maybe because of the rule that people at school weren’t supposed to use outside titles or rank? Was everything a lie? What about the potatoes? Were potatoes actually potatoes, or were they yams or apples or Starchroot? But no, Thaniel and the others had definitely called them potatoes when working on their-

She looked up, and saw the Queen. There was no doubt that was what she was, either. A heavy golden crown sat on Louisa’s brow, glittering gems sparkling from every part of it, sending scattered rainbows dancing over her surroundings. Her rich cloak was draped just so over her throne, and her skirts spread out in crisp folds before her. She sat with perfectly straight posture, her expression neutral and her blue eyes inscrutable. To her right stood Kaden, dressed just as regally, though his crown was only a circlet with smaller, inset gems.

Pandy’s gaze slid over mother and son, refusing to linger in spite of the fact that she once again felt that she’d been thrown directly into a scene from Gacha Love. Kaden’s face was still boyishly soft, and Louisa’s dress was pink, rather than blue, but otherwise Pandy had seen this exact moment dozens of times before. And there, behind and to the left of the queen, stood the man from her vision, the one Keros had pointed out in picture after picture. He stared straight at Pandy, a sneer twisting his heavy lips.