Lucky Rabbit

Pandy coughed. “Is there any chance we can just pretend I didn’t say that?” The queen didn’t look away, and Pandy sighed. “I didn’t think so.”

Glancing around, she checked to make sure that the room – which was guarded by invisible knights as well as under the magical protection of an Air elemental that was theoretically about as powerful as they got – hadn’t somehow been occupied by spies and lemurs in the last fifteen minutes or so. Speaking of which… She checked her time. More than an hour had flown by, leaving her with about an hour and a half remaining on Shifting Faces. There would be no escape into Bunny-time just yet.

Kaden and Augustus knew this world had been a game to her, and yes, she kept thinking she’d explained everything, because she’d hit all the high points. Girl goes to magic-school, becomes stronger, people start dying, her Small Group buddies – who all just happened to be super-cute boys – help her find ‘Killian the Villian’, said villain gets chased off, a Demon war starts, girl’s father is in danger so she trots off to end the war, game over. Sure, there were some details Pandy hadn’t lingered on, but they were mostly the kinds of things that were never going to happen anyway, since Clara-maybe-Ascyra wasn’t into humans.

Pandy waved her hand airily. “I mean, it doesn’t matter, because nobody’s going to die. And even if someone was, it would probably be Dorian.” Or maybe Bastian, because neither Pandy nor Clara had even met him yet, which was Very Sad, since Pandy really wanted to try his baked goods. By now, he would be experimenting with what would become his signature dish, the Sweet Serenade. Pandy would definitely be willing to be a taste-tester in that kitchen.

“Lady Avington, please explain,” Queen Louisa said, and Pandy obeyed, because that was really the only option when someone used that Tone of Voice at you.

“In my experience, with the possible ways that, um, things could go-” that was better than calling real life and death a game, right? “One of Clara’s Small Group would always die.” She glanced at Louisa, realizing belatedly that she might have just outed Clara by using the girl’s name, but there was no surprise on the queen’s face. Okay, so it was probably all right to assume that Louisa knew enough to make sense of the explanation.

Splaying her fingers, Pandy counted them off. “There’s Kaden of course, as well as Edgar and Dorian. Killian used to be part of their Small Group when they were at Falconet and Kestrel, but he went full hermit-mode when Thaniel died and Bryan went missing, so when they moved to Condor, the chancellor,” she flicked a glance at the chancellor in question, who looked entirely unperturbed by his sudden inclusion in the tale, “put Bastian with them instead. Bastian is a year younger, but he’s super smart, so they bumped him up a year.”

There was a definite get-on-with-it glint in Louisa’s eyes, so Pandy tried to pare it down even more. “When Clara starts, it’s everyone else’s second year, but because she’s a powerful Light elementalist, the school puts her with the best Small Group, which, um, happens to be theirs. She, uh, spends time with them, and,” Pandy shifted uncomfortably in her Very Comfortable chair, “becomes friends with them?”

Yes, friends. That was reasonable, wasn’t it? Ignoring the fact that Clara was a beautiful girl, and the boys were all, well, themselves, Small Group members were supposed to be friends, or at least teammates. With more confidence, Pandy said, “Whoever becomes Clara’s best friend is safe, but their opposite isn’t. That’s Edgar versus Dorian, or Kaden versus Bastian. So if Clara becomes, um, really good friends with Bastian, then when they finally catch Killian in the act of, you know, killing someone, his victim is-”

Her eyes flicked to Kaden, who blanched slightly before trying to pretend he hadn’t. “Anyway,” Pandy hurried on, “that doesn’t absolutely have to happen even in the ga- story. If the rival’s Affection is high enough, then he’s with Clara too, and Killian kills someone else. It just takes a lot of gacha spins and everything going exactly right, so usually it’s easier and cheaper to just-”

Pandy’s words broke off, because of course the easiest thing to do was just let whoever it was get killed. Even she rarely bothered to prevent it unless it was Edgar, which only happened when she got really bored and decided to do a Dorian play-through just because she hadn’t seen every frame of his path fifteen times already.

This seemed to be enough to placate Louisa, because she said, “So long as Thaniel is alive, Kaden and his friends should be safe as well, is that what you’re saying?” Pandy nodded enthusiastically, but the queen took the wind from her sails when she continued, “Except that, as I understand it, the magic of the god who brought you here is also trying to return the story to its original path.”

Wow, Louisa really had gotten the full download, hadn’t she? Well, there probably hadn’t been a way to avoid it if they were going to enlist the queen’s help with Thaniel and the heartstone. Honestly, Pandy would have told the other woman if she’d been asked, and now she almost wished she had been. At least if she’d told the story herself, she’d know exactly what Louisa knew.

“Yes,” Pandy admitted. “Though it doesn’t seem as focused on killing Thaniel anymore. We still watch him, but unless the magic is trying to lull us into a false sense of security, it seems to be working on something else.”

The spell isn’t that complex.

It doesn’t understand misdirection.

If it’s not paying attention to Thaniel – and I agree, it doesn’t seem to be – then it has found another aspect of the original story to focus on.

Pandy almost jumped straight out of her seat. Keros hadn’t been nearly as chatty since he got back from being trapped in the sandbox version of Pandy’s old apartment. <Can’t you tell? You knew when it was doing something before.>

The pause was long enough that Pandy partially tuned back into the conversation around her, which was mainly Louisa suggesting Lian be removed from Kaden’s Small Group, and Kaden saying that’s exactly what they shouldn’t do, which Pandy agreed with, so she didn’t need to butt in.

It has been active almost constantly, just at a very low level.

It’s using less of my power than it did for a single one of its previous attempts on Thaniel’s life.

But I can’t help but feel this is not a good change.

The spell has found something which it believes will bring this world closer to Gacha Love.

And, as I mentioned, it isn’t that complex.

Or it shouldn’t be.

<You’re worried,> Pandy realized. <Really worried. Not just about Thaniel, but about everything.>

I am… concerned.

The end of the game is the confrontation between Clara and the true evil.

That should mean the one you call Asparagus, but we believe that one has become Clara herself.

At the moment, I see no way that exact confrontation could take place, even if Thaniel died.

Which probably explains why my magic has moved on.

The question is, on to what?

Pandy frowned, thinking. What were the high notes in Gacha Love? Killian the Villian, obviously, as well as the Demon Queen Ascyra. Lian had no reason to become Killian now, and, as Keros had noted, it seemed unlikely that he would do so at this point, even if Thaniel did die. Lian knew about Gacha Love and his role in it, and so did his friends, so there was no way he’d be allowed to go down Killian’s bloody path, even if he somehow got hold of the heartstone. Unless-

<Do you think they’re going to go after Lian?> Pandy asked with mounting horror. <Get one of those fake stones and make him a Dark mage against his will? Augustus said someone is watching him. Maybe that’s the plan?>

…

It’s not impossible, but as you noted, they would also need to wipe his memory of everything you told him, or at least convince him not to believe you.

Which might be possible, but it certainly wouldn’t lead to the same mysterious spree of murders that took place in the game.

If Clara was at school, the spell might be guided into throwing her together with the love interests.

It’s two years too soon, but-

“We need Clara,” Pandy blurted, startling everyone. Augustus and Kaden had joined forces against Louisa, who seemed to have dug her heels in over Lian just on the general principle of the thing. Not that killing twenty or thirty people, including maybe Kaden, and starting a war wasn’t a pretty big principle, but Pandy agreed that the best way to keep Lian on the straight and not-homicidal was to make sure he had lots of friends and plenty of hugs.

“You said she needed to stay away,” Augustus said. He was obviously the only one who had followed Pandy’s mental bunny-hop.

“Okay, yes,” Pandy admitted, “but K- Louisa’s right.” She flinched at the looks they gave her, and belatedly corrected it to, “Queen Louisa, um, Your Majesty, and… Anyway, the magic is going to do whatever it can to bring this world in line with the story from my world, and there is, um, another aspect to that story.”

Silence greeted this statement, into which she dropped the single word, “Romance.”

Kaden cracked up. Louisa clutched her proverbial pearls. Augustus put his face in his hands. Bravely – or foolishly – Pandy forged ahead. “Hear me out. What if we gave the magic something to do? Something that won’t hurt anyone? I mean, other than the fact that Clara is… a little odd, sure. But I wanted-”

She’d wanted Gacha Love to be real. In two years and some months – who was counting? – when all of this was over and Clara went to Condor with the boys, Pandy wanted to see the protagonist of her favorite game meet the love interests and go through the non-murdery parts of the story. But that wasn’t going to happen, and Pandy honestly had no other good argument for why they should keep Clara away.

Well, other than Clara maybe being Asparagus, and the fact that she seemed to have some kind of System 2.0 that not only offered her options but also made her act in a very Clara-like fashion once she selected one of those options. But Clara wasn’t using that System, nor was she acting very human and the moment. She’d also kind of tried to kill Kaden when she was following the System prompts, and neither Kaden nor Edgar actually liked her. But other than that, there was no reason not to invite her to Knightmere.

Augustus finally managed to raise his face from his hands, and there was no doubt his mouth was twitching when he said, “You want that Clara to come here and flirt with these boys?”

“Flirt?” Pandy asked, feeling her cheeks burn. “I mean, she doesn’t- She’s probably not-”

“Edgar doesn’t even like-” Kaden started, only to break off before finishing the sentence. What word was he going to put there? Clara? Or girls in general? Because Pandy was starting to have some Suspicions about Edgar, which put an entirely different spin on everything he’d ever said and done in Gacha Love. The prince switched tacks. “And Dorian isn’t interested in anything except learning to fight and earning a spot as a Knight-candidate.”

“Bastian,” Pandy said, actually feeling a stirring of excitement. Bastian was the only one of the four love interests who had no idea what was going on. He also hadn’t yet been bumped up a year, so he and Clara would still be in the same classes. Also also, he’d always been the kindest and most understanding of the boys, putting no pressure on Clara to be anything but who she was. His path was the easiest, and Pandy suspected that he would accept the current weird Clara as quickly as he’d accepted the pretty, smart, talented, sweet Clara from the game.

Augustus looked thoughtful, Kaden shrugged, but Louisa immediately shook her head. “You said it was on Bastian’s ‘path’ that Kaden is killed. I won’t have it.”

“That only happens if Kaden doesn’t like her enough,” Pandy said, but she could feel the moment slipping away. “If he plays along, then he’ll be perfectly safe. I can tell him exactly what to say and when.” It wouldn’t be quite as much fun as watching nature take its course, but at least Pandy would get a kind of live-action version of Gacha Love anyway.

Kaden looked irritated but thoughtful. “I suppose it doesn’t matter, so long as the girl knows my interest isn’t genuine. Diplomacy is little more than pretending friendship with someone when in fact you wouldn’t mind if they,” his gaze flicked to his mother, “never spoke to you again.”

That was fine. Pandy was fairly certain Ascyra-Clara was about as interested in romance as she was in having her fingernails pulled out. Less, probably. If anything, being around the boys – well, all right, Bastian – might teach the demon-girl some humanity.

Louisa still didn’t look happy with the idea, but she nodded. Turning to Pandy, she said, “You will tell my son exactly what he needs to do in order to remain on the safe side of this magic. Augustus, you will prevent a repeat of what happened on Celestine Point. Kaden.” Her gaze softened when it landed on the prince, tracing over the lines of his face with a mother’s love. “Stay safe.”

Yes! Pandy felt like she’d just unlocked an achievement. The timeline was all messed up, it wasn’t Condor, and for three out of the four boys as well as Clara it would all be pretense, but she was going to get to see Gacha Love for real. But wait. Wasn’t there something else she was supposed to ask Louisa about if she got a chance? What was it?

An image made up of letters and numbers appeared in front of Pandy. It was Killian, wearing the black stone that Pandy and Keros believed had once been Thaniel’s heartstone. <Thank you, Kappa,> she thought.

Louisa was shifting, looking like she was ready to move on, so Pandy spoke up before the queen could. “Do you, by any chance,” she asked, “have a white stone in the royal treasury?” She used her fingers to measure out the shape and size of Thaniel’s heartstone, hoping Ismara’s mirrored its opposite. “It probably would have belonged to Nora. Queen Nora, I mean.”

Kaden seemed confused, but Louisa’s cheeks turned pink, and she actually bit her lip. “That… It was part of the jewels Fergus gave me when we got married. I was very young, and it was dull. Like someone just picked up a river-smoothed stone and placed it in their pocket while they were on a walk. Nothing special. It looked out of place among the crown jewels, and Grace liked it, so I gave it to her.”

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