Lucky Rabbit

Augustus stepped between Pandy and the statues as they began to shift, legs straightening and arms falling to their sides, though each of them maintained their grip on their essence stone. “What do we do?” he asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a sword that definitely shouldn’t have fit in there. In fact, Pandy was fairly certain it shouldn’t have fit into the secret cache she’d found inside his bedroom wall. Did he have more than one?

The maybe-not-a-statue-after-all Fire elemental’s hair flickered, flashed, and burst into flames, filling the surrounding area with sparks. The Nature elemental swayed away from the fire like a spooked sapling, its root-toes curling and hair-leaves crisping in the sudden heat. Pandy saw the motion and said, “The Fire and Nature elementals usually hated each other, but worked together against the Dark elemental. It looks like they still aren’t exactly best friends.” What they were supposed to do with that, Pandy had no idea, but it was blatantly true.

She tugged hard at her hand, which was still stuck to the stone in the Dark statue’s hands. In a sudden burst of brilliance – or so she thought – she cancelled Shifting Faces, but that only resulted in her becoming a dangling rabbit rather than a pinned human. Kicking her paws helplessly, she managed to twist up until she was sitting on the Apparition’s thin arms, then cast Shifting Faces again, which resulted in her sitting astride the elemental’s arms like it was a particularly peculiar pony.

While she was doing this, and Augustus was distracted by trying to keep himself between Pandy and the advancing statues, Abbington suddenly shouted, “UmbrellaBoom!” Which made no sense at all to Pandy, but Thaniel and Geraldine exchanged glances, then began circling around the statues, which really were very slow. Pandy tried to tell them to stay out of it and let her and Augustus handle it, but the only thing that emerged from her mouth was “Eep!” as her legs failed to find purchase on the flat arms of the Apparition, and she slipped around until she was hanging upside-down like an inept second-grader on the monkey bars. This was Extremely Uncomfortable because her hand was still attached to the essence stone, but nothing actually broke, so she would probably call it good. Later. If they all survived.

Geraldine circled behind the Fire statue, running in to grab at the stone it now held at its side. Sparks fell all around her, cascading from the fiery hair, but she ignored it, and it very politely failed to even singe her clothes. When her fingers neared the stone, however, the orb absolutely blazed, turning into a fireball in the thing’s hand, and she staggered back.

Miss Cupcakes had no such problem however. Seeing what her young mistress was trying to do, the lanky kitten launched herself into the air. Her fur shimmered with heat much like the banked coals of a campfire, and she sank teeth and claws into the statue’s arm, bracing her back feet against the flaming sphere so she could shove on it with all her strength. With a sharp crack, essence stone separated from statue-stone, arcing through the air, only for Geraldine to catch it neatly in the skirt she held out as a basket.

Meanwhile, Thaniel and Abbington launched themselves at the much less daunting-looking Nature elemental. Its rough bark skin was dropping small chunks with each step, and some kind of vine wound up one leg, a flower opening next to its left hip. Thaniel came up on this side, and the flower turned, opening fleshy yellow petals and beginning to ooze something that was probably very unpleasant.

“Thaniel!” Pandy shouted – still dangling upside down but now unconcerned about her own situation, even as she nearly broke her own arm attempting to rip herself free from the stone that still held her tight. A sudden pain followed by hot wetness told her she’d torn the skin of her hand, but she still couldn’t escape.

Augustus had glanced back at Pandy when she slid around on the Apparition’s arms, but now he focused again on the statues and the children. He shifted his stance, preparing to launch himself toward either Thaniel or the burgeoning flower, but Abbington got there first.

All week, Pandy had had the children working together with their elementals to quickly summon their magic, even in the tiniest way. Admittedly, she’d only done it to help them get ready for the first floor, and then to wear them out and keep them busy during class, but now the practice paid unexpected dividends.

Abbington thrust out his hand and a tiny stream of water emerged from it, striking the Nature elemental in the side. The wrong side, away from the flower, but it made the blossom hesitate, and as the oozing flower shifted toward the taller boy, Brook took action. As Pandy had seen her do before, the capybara’s solid body melted into a vaguely rodent-shaped globule of water, which flowed out and around the statue and its flower. Normally, plants and water got along fine, but even Pandy knew that too much water wasn’t good.

This was too much.

The animated statue tried to move, but couldn’t. It seemed to be caught in a bubble of water that lifted it just above the floor, preventing its roots from grasping the stone. It waved its arms, a tree caught in a torrent, and Thaniel thrust his hand into the deluge and grabbed the essence stone. It came away in his hand, and as it did, the third stone dropped from the Apparition’s grasp, settling into Pandy’s hand and dumping her onto her head.

-5 LF

Not even bothering to heal herself, Pandy rolled up to her feet, already preparing to use Air of Superiority – no, that would blow the children away, too – so maybe Scorching Sonata – no, definitely not that one – but saw that the threat – if it had ever really been one – was over. The Fire and Nature statues were exactly that once again, frozen in the positions they’d been in when their orbs were removed.

Opening her mouth, Pandy eloquently said, “I… You… What?”

The children – one disheveled, one soaked, and all three breathless – looked at each other and grinned. “It’s the Umbral Bloom,” Thaniel said, then stopped, apparently feeling this was enough explanation.

Apparently it was, at least for Augustus, who let out a long, deep breath and shook his head. “How did you even think of that?”

Abbington actually looked proud of himself as he puffed out his chest. “Won wi’it yest’rday.”

Pandy finally began sending Minor Heals around to everyone, though it turned out only she actually needed it. In spite of the terror she’d felt at seeing the statues moving toward her, which had only increased when she realized the children and Augustus all planned to defend her, no one else had been hurt. In fact, if she hadn’t managed to get herself in a twist and hurt her hand, even she would have emerged intact.

Seeing her total lack of understanding, Augustus said, “It’s from a game children play to learn the elemental interactions. They use combinations of cards to represent the various elemental tiers, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each type. Three of a kind is like a third-tier elemental, and would defeat any first-tier elemental, even if it’s a strong one.”

“But if you have two Water cards, that’ll beat three Fire cards, ‘cause Fire is weak against Water,” Thaniel said.

“That’s the most basic version of the game,” Augustus said, giving the boy an approving nod. “But you can also play with rules that allow certain hands to have special effects. One of those is the Umbral Bloom. Dark is the weakest suit in the deck, but in combination with others, it can be far more effective.”

Geraldine pointed at the still figure of the Fire statue. “Fire’s strong against Nature, but two Light cards and two Nature cards will beat three Fire cards. Nature is the second-strongest element against Dark, Fire beats Nature, and Dark snuffs Fire. For some reason.” She muttered these last three words not quite under her breath, and Augustus picked up the explanation.

“Umbral Bloom is a pair of Nature cards, a pair of Fire cards, and a pair of Dark cards. Technically, they should cancel each other out, but instead they become one of the strongest combinations, with the interaction going: Nature feeds Fire, Fire feeds Dark, Dark feeds Nature.” He pointed to Pandy and the Dark elemental statue as he said ‘pair of Dark’, then at Geraldine and the Fire statue as he said ‘pair of Fire’. “We didn’t have two Nature, but apparently Water was good enough. Either that or we just got lucky.”

Luck wasn’t something with which Pandy was particularly familiar, other than the bad kind, but she was willing to accept that – no matter what thought process led to it – they had ended up at, if not the correct outcome, at least one that worked. Well, they were no longer being stalked by creepy statues come to life anyway, and that was enough of a win for her.

Lifting the essence sphere she still held, Pandy grimaced at the blood that had smeared all over it, then rubbed as much as she could off on her pants, knowing the stain would vanish next time she shifted shapes. It really was nice having built-in drycleaning. “Um, normally once this stone was broken, the floor would take us up to the next level.” She mimed throwing the stone, which was glowing a surprisingly pleasant black, onto the ground. “Should I just…?”

“No!” Augustus said, even as Thaniel and Geraldine both raised their own stones, mimicking Pandy. The chancellor actually paled slightly as he reached out to prevent the apparently priceless chunks of rock from being shattered.

He needn’t have bothered, however, because as the stones approached each other, they grew brighter and brighter. Pandy and the children, fascinated, held them out until their rounded sides touched each other, and a gentle chime rang out. Green light fed into red, which fed into black, which fed into green again, pulsing around in a cycle that grew brighter and brighter with every rotation.

ɱĆƋʒ IɲɳȦţɇ Mąɠıς¦¦

The crisp, dark letters stood out starkly against the colorful lights, and without even pausing to properly consider the idea, Pandy thought, <Use Innate Magic.>

Innate Magic successful.

-100 Mana

ÐıƢ Ī ŧƹąȼħ ყΘŭ ŋøŧħıŋɠ̶̷Њ?

-200 Mana

-300 Mana

<Stop Innate Magic!> Pandy shouted, as the darkness and the light seemed about to swallow her up. She didn’t have another four hundred Mana to lose, and every time the cycle of colors came back around to Dark, the amount it siphoned from her increased by another hundred. Behind her, something moaned, and a pleasantly familiar Aura enveloped her.

+1 Corruption Point for entering Dark Aura I 

Pandy turned, lowering her hand as she did so, though the light from the three essence stones was already beginning to fade now that she wasn’t feeding it. She had a feeling she knew exactly what she’d see, and sure enough, as her eyes landed on the Dark statue, the only one that hadn’t yet come to life, she saw its arms ripple, then fall.

+1 Corruption Point for entering Dark Aura I

Dark pits opened in the smooth ‘face’ – two at the top and one much too long and wide below those. Another moan emerged from within that vaguely mouthlike orifice, and the statue rippled again as Pandy and the children stepped back. Augustus was the only one who held his ground, and his face was grim as he raised his sword.

+1 Corruption Point for entering Dark Aura I

Rather than advancing toward them, however, the Dark elemental stretched up, flattening its already flat body even more. Its arms caught at the edge of the next mezzanine, its ‘legs’ merged, and it became a black-on-black-on-black talisman, hanging from a tree, containing the well-wishes of some long-forgotten craftsman. With a final moan, a sigh of cool resignation, a ridge of right angles ran down its spine, creating shadowy steps. Then it stilled again, settling into its new configuration with one last wash of Corruption Points.

ӜӴՐԻҰ ևᴘ ẜἵ´ⱺﬣ ꭐËêʼn ƜɐɨȉПԍ

Pandy stepped forward. She was almost certain the statue was done with its little scaffolding trick, but she certainly wasn’t going to let anyone else find out she was wrong the hard way. Trying to seem as confident as possible – never one of her best looks – she lifted a foot and set it on the first stair. It held when she put weight on it, so she tried the next, then the one after that.

About halfway up the narrow makeshift stairway, she stopped, looked down at her fascinated audience, and said, “I guess we go up.”

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