Lucky Rabbit

Soon after that, the old ladies pleaded exhaustion and sent the group back out into the cold. Pandy managed not to run on the way back to the carriage, even waving a limp hand at Lady Frances, who stood in the doorway while someone helped Lady Arabelle to their bedroom. The lady waved in return, but the Very Thoughtful Look hadn’t left her face since dinner, and it was still there when the carriage door shut between them.

Pandy had fifteen minutes left on Shifting Faces, thanks to the fact that dinner had been surprisingly short for something so tortuous, but she immediately thought, <Cancel Shifting Faces> and retreated to the bench beside Thaniel the moment her transformation was complete. Lian already had his mouth open, but at this, he stopped and turned an accusing glare on Augustus instead.

“You’re going to allow my brother to move in with this… this?” he demanded, pointing at Pandy, who was now settled into Thaniel’s lap. Thaniel started to reply, but fortunately Augustus beat him to it.

“Yes,” the chancellor said firmly. “But not right away. Avington House has certain security features the school lacks, due in no small part to the fact that it is a private residence, rather than a public institution. Thaniel will actually be safer there.”

Lian opened his mouth, then closed it again, looking frustrated. Finally, he said, “Then I’m moving in there, too. My brother’s not going to live in a strange house, with a strange… person, without me.”

Without even glancing at Pandy, Augustus gave a small, almost satisfied smile and said, “Of course.” Pandy glared at him. Why was he happy about putting the Villain in her home? Where would she even put another person? If Geraldine, Isidor, Thaniel, and Eleanor were there, that only left one bedroom, which already belonged to Abbington, at least in Pandy’s mind. Admittedly, it was unlikely that the Valley boy would be allowed to move in with them, but she could hope, and no matter how much she liked seeing the characters from Gacha Love, in Lian’s case she very much preferred to do it from a distance. Preferably a great distance, while holding a bucket of popcorn.

Lian clearly hadn’t been expecting such an easy agreement, and he was left gaping until Augustus finally took pity on them both and said, “I have reason to believe that you are also being watched. No attempt has been made to take or harm you, possibly because of the security surrounding your friends, but it would be wise to move you somewhere more secure as well. Your daily commute between school and home will be a concern, but steps are being taken to ensure your safety there, as well.”

Augustus was making some attempt to obscure his meaning, but Thaniel picked up on it anyway. “You mean somebody’s watchin’ me? Why?”

“Watching,” Lian corrected absently, then frowned as he said, “It’s best not to talk about it here.” He knew about Pandy’s theory that Thaniel’s heartstone was the key to everything, as did Augustus, but no one had explained it to Thaniel. It seemed very unlikely that the boy would take it well.

Thaniel’s eyes darted around the carriage, and he leaned forward around Pandy. “You mean someone might be listening?”

Lian hesitated, but Augustus laid a finger over his lips, smiling conspiratorially. If there was one thing Thaniel couldn’t resist, it was a secret. Grinning, he pretended to button his lips, then returned to petting Pandy while speaking a little too loudly about the extremely good food they’d just eaten.

Pandy and Isidor had to return to Avington House, which was actually the closest to the aunts’ house, but they didn’t want to draw attention to the estate, so they avoided it and headed for Falconet first. Thaniel and Augustus got off at the school. Though Thaniel clearly wanted to carry Pandy with him, she couldn’t go yet, just in case someone actually was watching them.

That left Pandy alone in the carriage with Isidor and Lian, which was a very strange pairing indeed. Neither boy was exactly talkative, but it turned out they had some classes in common, and soon they were talking about aetheric resonations and the efficacy of foraged ingredients versus home-grown ones for use in potions or as spell reagents.

Pandy was lost almost immediately, and realized that she probably really did need to attend elementary school all over again, because she didn’t even have a foundation to understand what they were talking about. The books in Gacha Love were almost entirely about lore and elementals, not even mentioning what was apparently an entire science of magic. Clara certainly hadn’t had any classes in it, with her education focusing primarily on combat, contracting elementals, and things like etiquette and dancing.

Pandy was relieved on several levels when they arrived at Kestrel and Lian got out, though she actually transformed back to Eurydice when they drove up the long drive to the school. She’d been distracted by Augustus and Thaniel when they picked the older boy up, but now she peered into the darkness, trying to see how much it resembled the images of Condor from the game. It was hard to tell in the light of the half-full moon, but if Falconet was a miniature Condor, Kestrel was a step between the two. The front stairs were lit by magical orbs, but the door held the embossed golden image of a bird – presumably the eponymous kestrel – and a uniformed man opened it as Lian approached.

Pandy turned to Isidor as they drove away, feeling a strange sense of melancholy, almost like she was missing something she’d never actually known. Could you have déjà vu nostalgia? She spent all but the last minute of her human-time talking with Isidor about the things he and Empress Glory had ordered for the house – which had apparently taken pretty much all of the gold she’d left for them, with a few vendors saying they’d return for payment the next day – then poofed back to Bunny for the remainder of the journey home. That last minute was spent walking from the carriage to the door, being visibly Eurydice for anyone who might still be interested. In theory, once she crossed through the gate onto Avington property, she should be safe from spies, but she didn’t want to test that.

She spent an hour or so grinding spells and skills in the secret lab, then flew back to Falconet. It was at this point that she realized she should have kept one more minute of thumb-time, but eventually she managed to get through the doors and snuggle in with Thaniel. The next day, Pandy returned to Avington House to find that deliveries were already piling up at her door. At least this time, she managed not to break anything by slamming into them, so that was an improvement.

Thanks to Pandy’s high Strength stat, she managed to get the crates containing the pieces of her new stove into the house. Putting it together was surprisingly easy, even though the instructions read like something purchased from a Swedish megastore. There was definitely something magical about the way everything snapped into place, which was good, because Isidor was a very demanding project manager, and Pandy wasn’t entirely certain he would have survived the process otherwise.

Empress Glory’s personal items were stuffed into every nook and cranny of the crates – tucked into stovepipes, stashed in the body of the oven, and folded around smaller components. The moment they were freed, she gathered them up and strode off to her apartment, not to be seen again for the rest of the day.

That left Isidor answering the door, but apparently Glory had already made deals for everything they needed at the moment, so he could just tell these Johnny-come-latelies that they were, in fact, too late. Meanwhile, Pandy was busy working on the house, updating the rooms she’d already finished with better furniture, and getting the rest of the bedrooms into shape. She also discovered that the room that was currently the nursery – and in Gacha Love contained a very disturbing and deadly simulacrum of an infant, probably played by Nox – had also been a regular bedroom at some point, so she set it up that way again, just in case Lian actually did move in someday.

That left the stable, so she emerged outside, clutching the Avington House book, only to find that the day had turned gray and overcast, with a chilly mist hanging in the air. The good news was that either the weather or the news that the flow of easy money from the new noble in town had ended was keeping any new salespeople from turning up at the house. That meant Pandy could get to the stable without anyone seeing her and sending the book into demure dissipation.

The horse’s name was indeed Soot, and other than a white blaze on its forehead, it was as black as that name implied. Otherwise, it was nothing like Pandy expected. It towered above the dainty princess, Lord Winston, and the dragon, with its shoulders at about Pandy’s eye-level. The princess was attempting to tempt the horse with a dandelion, the dog lay half-burrowed in a pile of straw, and the Dragon hung from the rafters like a particularly cute but cantankerous chickadee.

The scarred monster of a horse turned a dark, intelligent eye on Pandy, looked back at Eleanor, who showed no reaction other than to grin at the newcomer, and shifted its weight with a groan and a huff. Pandy hadn’t expected to find the princess here, and of course the book had vanished as soon as the girl came into sight, but that was all right, because if Eleanor was as fascinated by Soot as she seemed to be, it might be best to consult her about the stable anyway. Besides, Pandy had no idea what a stable should look like, so she’d basically been planning to go with the cheapest option.

Not that the ‘stable’ was exactly that, either. There were four half-rotted stalls on the right side, and a large, high-ceilinged open area on the left. A carriage probably occupied that space when the stalls were also filled, but now the building was mostly occupied by the funk of rotting hay. As Isidor had mentioned, the door was broken, and there was a set of steep steps leading upward to what might have been a loft, but also might have been a living space for the carriage driver. Either way, Pandy would fix it up when she came back with the book. For now, she gave Eleanor a smile.

“I see you’ve made a new friend. His name is Soot?” Pandy held out a hand, wary of the large yellow teeth visible in the wide-lipped mouth as the horse munched on a piece of the hay that had been delivered that morning. Someone had done a decent job of cleaning out the stall, and the floor was mounded with straw, but the gate was little more than a pair of broken hinges and a few shreds of rotting wood. Which was, apparently, fine.

“The note said his name was Slaughter, but that’s an awful name,” Eleanor said, reaching up to stroke the velvety muzzle. “But he’s black and Soot kind of sounds like Slaughter, so it shouldn’t confuse him too much. He’s terribly smart.”

The horse glared at Pandy as if daring her to contradict the princess, but Pandy had no intention of doing any such thing. She would far rather have a Soot living in her backyard than a Slaughter. “I think that’s perfect.” She looked around, then lowered her voice conspiratorially. “I don’t really know anything about horses. What does Soot need to be happy? Does he have all the, um, reins and saddle and… stuff?”

Eleanor perked up even further. “Whoever brought him left a set of tack and a brush. We’ll need combs and some blankets and another saddle pad and a hoof pick and-”

Pandy winced, listening as the list grew ever longer. Surely Isidor and Glory knew about this and had ordered all of those things? If not, she’d ask Augustus to help her find a horse store so she could get an equine starter pack.

“What about the stable?” she asked, looking around. “Is there anything in particular he needs here?”

The princess frowned, following Pandy’s gaze. “It looks like there used to be two stalls, and someone split them up so they could have four horses. It would be nice if he had more room. And,” she hesitated, then rushed on with, “no doors. He stays right here, or goes out into the pasture when he wants to. He’s really smart.”

Pandy eyed the horse. Just how smart was he, that a princess used to elemental steeds felt the need to keep commenting on it? With a shrug, she said, “That’s fine with me. As long as he won’t run off.”

Eleanor patted Soot’s shoulder, which was as high as she could reach, and the horse practically purred, leaning into the girl so he could slobber on her hair. The princess giggled, which was not the response Pandy would have had to foamy goo dribbling onto her shoulder, but to each their own. 

“Okay, so only two stalls, if that’s a thing. And no doors. Or maybe doors, but ones that are easy to leave open,” Pandy said. The girl nodded, and, seeing that Pandy was really paying attention to her ideas, launched into more thoughts on how, exactly, the shabby stable could be turned into a horsey paradise. Pandy took mental notes, but mostly she was just happy to see Eleanor truly opening up, like a flower that had finally been given the right soil and nutrients to bloom.

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