Lucky Rabbit

On Thursday morning, Pandy reached level nine of Shifting Faces. As expected, while she did reach five hours of thumb-time, she didn’t get a new face. That was all right though, because as the moment of decision approached, she found that she kept changing her mind about what she was going to do.

According to Shifting Face’s skill description, she might well have only one more chance to find a face more like her own. Should she hunt through the city, looking for a young woman with black hair and green eyes to copy? Maybe someone with really nice cheekbones? Should she pop open the necklace Augustus had given her in hopes that touching whatever discarded hair or fingernails lay inside would allow her to become Eurydice in truth? After all, the woman who sold those bits had given permission for her face to be copied, so was it really any different from going and buying an image from SnapStock?

She still had ten more days until the moment of decision, so Pandy set that aside and focused on what she could do right now – namely, cut her hair properly. So it was that she and Isidor ended up sitting at the table in the main area of the servants’ quarters early on Thursday morning, with Isidor wielding his Very Sharp Knife while Pandy tried not to flinch when he sliced her scalp open.

“You’re a boy,” Pandy said, casting another Minor Heal even as she swiped blood out of her eye. “And you were taught how to use a knife from when you were, like, two. How do you not know how to shave off hair?”

“Six,” Isidor muttered, glaring at the bloody knife as if it was the weapon’s fault that Pandy was already bleeding from a fresh wound. “And I don’t have facial hair yet.”

Pandy sighed, slumping down in her repurposed dining chair as a hot line of pain curled over her ear. <Minor Heal, me,> she thought morosely. She’d started spending at least an hour leveling every night, and had finally brought Scratch up a few levels, which brought Pain Tolerance up as well, dulling the pain of things like knife wounds a bit, but this still wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Pandora for 2 LF.

Minor Heal is now level 24.

+24 Mana

Pandy had to admit to some internal conflict as she read the words. On the one hand, she was always happy to have more Mana, though it pretty much all went straight into repairing Nyssa and the house, but she really preferred to get levels by healing other people rather than healing herself. Not that she wanted anyone else to be hurt, but if they were going to get blisters and stub their toes anyway, it was nice when she could alleviate their pain while also increasing what was probably her most useful skill.

“There,” Isidor said, surreptitiously wiping the blood off of his knife before tucking it away wherever he kept it when he wasn’t slicing Pandy with it. “I think that’s as good as it’s going to get.”

Pandy looked into the sliver of mirror they’d found in the game room – one of the last remnants of what might once have been a wall-length mirror behind the pool table – and turned her head this way and that, examining the result. Her head didn’t exactly glisten like a billiard ball, but beneath the drying blood, there was a soft, relatively even fuzz sprouting from her scalp.

Rubbing her hand over her head, Pandy grimaced. It already felt strange to see Ms. Wellington looking back at her. She was so much more comfortable as Eurydice, especially now that she was getting to know some of the other teachers. A few seemed wary of her, though she wasn’t certain if it was because of her rumored relationship with the chancellor or because of her shiny new noble title, but most were friendly enough. She sat next to Mrs. Lovett, the Leadership and Governance teacher, at lunch the day before, and they had a very pleasant chat about the weather. Which wasn’t much, but it was further than Pandy got with most people, so she would take it.

With a relieved sigh, Pandy wiped off as much of the blood as she could, put her necklace back on, then called out, “I’m ready!” Empress Glory instantly poked her head into the room, her eyes alight with curiosity and what looked like a large roll of brocade in her arms. She seemed disappointed to see Pandy looking exactly the same as ever, except that she was wearing a fresh pair of uniform-adjacent pants and a mid-weight blouse, rather than the clothes she’d started the day in for the last two levels… Er, two weeks.

“Oh,” Glory said, holding the bag a bit closer. “I thought we were going to do your hair and clothes, too.”

Pandy grimaced. “I guess I can wear whatever I want, but I only have a few outfits. I figured it was best to keep it simple.” Plus she wanted to keep it simple, so it was less noticeable that she wore the same thing every day. She reached up as if to run her hand over her hair, then stopped, wondering if her hand would actually disappear inside the short curls of her Eurydice disguise. Seriously, why hadn’t she just cut her Wellington-hair short in the first place? But no, she had to do a hack and slash like a crazed gardener faced with a kudzu infestation.

She turned her hand and made a general kind of ‘this area’ motion in front of her face, adding, “Can we do a little makeup though? I’m terrible at it, but I feel like it’s kind of expected. Just something natural-looking!”

She winced, hoping the other woman didn’t take that as an insult. Empress Glory always sported a full face of makeup, even first thing in the morning, and while it looked good on her, the look would make Pandy feel like a clown. Which would have been okay if not for previous clown-adjacent experiences.

Glory snorted, flipping her hair with one hand. “Oh, that’s fine. You couldn’t pull this off, anyway.”

Pandy nodded in earnest agreement, which made Glory’s smirk turn into a genuine laugh. She approached Pandy, setting the bag down on the floor as she circled around her semi-willing subject. Finally, she nodded, then waved dismissively at Isidor. “Get out, brat. We need to have some lady time, and the smell of burned toast tells me breakfast is ready anyway.”

Isidor groaned, looking at Pandy with something akin to desperation in his dark eyes. “Can’t we leave the house just a little earlier? Then I could get to school in time to eat breakfast there.”

Pandy shook her head. “Not until we get our own carriage. Besides, somebody has to make sure Nyssa and Hazel don’t accidentally poison Eleanor.”

Isidor pointed at Glory, who had unrolled an array of brushes and powders on the nearby table. Glory rolled her eyes back at him. “Don’t look at me,” she said with a shrug. “I’m not on babysitting duty yet.” Isidor rolled his eyes right back and left, closing the door with such gentle care that it spoke as loudly as a slam.

Glory and Eleanor actually seemed to get along fairly well. Pandy had asked Nox and Nyssa how their first day together went, and apparently when the Empress snuck out that first night, she bought a few books to read with the princess. They weren’t what Nyssa considered ‘appropriate’, but once Pandy got over the rush of adrenaline that word caused and asked why, she discovered that they were adventure stories not meant for a ‘lady’. That was fine, but Pandy did add yet another thing to her mental shopping list. She’d need to get something for the two to work with other than pulp fiction.

Still, while Glory was surprisingly quiet and calm when Eleanor was around, when the girl was in another room, the Empress liked to snark about being forced into the role of tutor. Pandy still wasn’t sure the other woman was actually the best person for the role, but honestly, who would be? Anyone who knew Eleanor before was a risk, and how many people could or would just cut all ties with everyone they knew for the duration of the job? Besides, they had to have someone who could prepare the princess for her future position, and apparently Empress Glory came from a noble family, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

“So, um, how is Eleanor doing?” Pandy asked as a brush approached her eye.

“Shut up and close your eyes,” Empress Glory said, applying the brush with surprising gentleness. She worked for several seconds, shifting from one eye to the other until she seemed satisfied and Pandy heard her step back. “Open them,” she ordered, and Pandy did. More brushing took place, and finally Glory said, “Evan.”

Pandy blinked. “What?”

“Evan,” the Empress repeated, prodding Pandy’s cheek with a finger, shifting it up and down as if to examine the way the light fell. “When someone is playing a role, you should use their stage name any time they’re in costume. It helps them stay in character, and keeps you from slipping up when it matters.”

Pandy waited as firm fingers gripped her chin, turning her face this way and that. When the other woman released her and turned back to her tools, Pandy said, “So I should call you Gloria? Or Graham?”

Glory froze, then slowly turned to look at Pandy. “Yes,” she said, though she obviously wasn’t happy about it.

Pandy sighed. She was hoping the other woman might open up to her so Pandy could sound her out about everything that had been going on, and how she was holding up. Glory was an enigma, and that made Pandy very nervous. Yes, Professor Beeswick had the house under surveillance, but as far as Pandy was concerned, the Empress was the weak link in their security, and she didn’t like leaving Eleanor alone with her all day, even though Nox and Nyssa had instructions to keep the princess safe at all costs.

“Why do you dress up as him, if you don’t like it?” Pandy asked once some kind of cream was dabbed on her lips.

A bit more powder, a spritz of something that had no noticeable scent, and Glory stepped back, examining her creation with a critical eye. She set aside the brushes she’d used, then began to pack everything else up. Pandy thought she was going to gather her things and leave, but once she tied the bundle closed again, Glory pulled out another of the chairs they’d hauled in here after it became obvious this was the favored gathering place.

“Look,” she said, meeting Pandy’s eyes with a sincerity Pandy hadn’t seen from her before. “I was born into a family that told me exactly what my life should look like. But even before I entered school, I knew something was wrong. I did everything they told me to, tried to fit inside the little space they made for me, but the bigger I got, the less I fit, until I knew I would have to either break free or cut away most of what made me me. I chose to leave.”

Her eyes flicked toward the back of the house, where Eleanor’s cheerful voice could be heard all the way from the kitchen. Until she moved in here, Pandy hadn’t even known the princess could speak that loudly.

“No matter who that girl is, I can see that she’s a little bit like me. Not the same, but not entirely different. She’s been told who and what to be for her whole life, but it’s not too late for her yet. If she’s strong enough, she may be able to be who she wants to be without abandoning everything good about her life right along with the bad.”

For a moment, Glory’s eyes went dark, her expression somber. Then she shook the shadow away, standing up and shaking out her skirts as she said, “Only one person was there for me when I needed it. I’m going to make sure Evan has at least one person, too. Even if I have to be Graham in order to do it.”

She picked up her bundle and tucked it under her arm before grabbing the dirty brushes. Then she gave Pandy a little smile – something warmer than her usual smirk, if not by much – and said, “And I’m Graham because anyone who knows Empress Glory would know that she would never, ever choose to be him. Now, take a look, and see what you think. Oh, and,” she tapped the end of her nose, “make sure nobody else ever touches your nose. It’ll give you away in a second.”

Pandy clapped her hand over her nose as the Empress disappeared into her room, pulling the door closed behind her with the same kind of gentleness Isidor had shown. Were they actually teaching each other more ways to make Pandy crazy?

Picking up the shard of mirror, Pandy examined her nose, poking it with a finger at the same time. Empress Glory was right. They were similar, but Eurydice had a little bulb on the end of her nose, and Ms. Wellington had a bump in the bridge of hers. All right, so this hadn’t been Pandy’s best plan ever, but at least it hadn’t been her worst, either. Though to be fair, that was a pretty low bar to clear.

Drawing the mirror back, Pandy examined the Empress’s handiwork, half expecting to have been turned into a clown after all. To her surprise, however, she saw that the other woman had only enhanced her brown eyes and made her lips look soft and somehow lush. Pandy found herself wondering what Augustus would think of those lips, and her cheeks grew hot.

Standing, she quickly sent the entire getup into her Inventory, then summoned it right back again. It’d be just her luck if Glory realized she’d forgotten something and popped out just long enough to see a naked stranger standing in what had essentially become her apartment.

Shifting Faces: Clothing set

Shifting Faces: Hairstyle set

Shifting Faces: Cosmetics set

Shifting Faces: Adornments set

Drawing in a long breath, she blew it out again even more slowly. All right, this was it. Ten more days, Pandora. You can do it. Probably.

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