Lucky Rabbit

Once they started, the deliveries just kept rolling in. The linens arrived, along with dishes, furniture, planters, five separate alarm clocks because different people would need to wake up at different times, food, mattresses, books and stationery – everything someone could possibly need for a new house. Nyssa was practically beside herself with glee as she floated around, putting things ‘away’. Most of them were even in approximately the right place, or at least the right room, so Pandy, Isidor, or Eleanor just followed her around, placing things in spots that made sense to humans, rather than elementals.

Eleanor was excited about getting to choose her own curtains and linens, finally landing on some Geraldine had picked out, though they were the tamest of the bunch by far. Once the mattress was placed on the bed, she happily made it, then moped about until Pandy assured her that she and Hazel were welcome to continue sleeping in the master bedroom, and peace was restored.

Hazel herself almost had to be physically restrained when she discovered that the large, brightly glazed clay pots were for her indoor garden. Apparently potting soil wasn’t a thing here, so they would need to dig up the yard to get the dirt they needed, which would have to wait until no strangers were lurking about the grounds. Fortunately, among all of the other deliveries were several packages of cookies, which distracted the Dragon long enough for the hubbub to die down.

Pandy herself spent a solid hour of her time as a human fixing up as much of the house as possible. She repaired the bathroom off of ‘her’ bedroom – which did not, in fact, contain a bathtub full of viscous crimson fluid and far-too-identifiable bits, if it ever had – and the one in the servants’ quarters, but didn’t have enough Porcelain for the other two downstairs, or the remaining one upstairs. Pandy put ‘random ceramic bits’ on her new shopping list and moved on.

The Game Room, Sewing Room, and Sitting Room were all finally completed, but when Pandy got to the huge Dining Room she ran into another problem: Marble. She’d used some broken statues she’d found in the backyard in order to create the countertops for the kitchen, but she definitely didn’t have enough for the whole dining room floor. Pandy found herself staring around at the excessively large chamber, feeling more than a little frustrated. Scuffing her foot on the old, cracked marble, she muttered, “Why do they even need marble floors in a dining room, anyway?”

Nyssa had taken to hovering around – literally, of course – in case Pandy needed anything, and now she tilted her shadowy head to the side and said, “This was one of the last rooms to be redecorated. At the time, having marble floors in the ballroom was a sign of wealth.”

Pandy frowned down at the book in her hands.

DINING ROOM – Enchantments x2 [Shelter, Good Acoustics]

Physical condition: 71%

Cost to repair: 415 G/0 Wood/0 Metal/46 Marble

Magical Condition: 82% 

Cost to Repair: 26 LF/271 Mana/27 CP

“This says it’s a Dining Room,” she said, trying to keep the note of accusation out of her voice. Though come to think of it, Lady Arabelle called it a Ballroom, too. It was really big for a dining room – almost as large as the one at Falconet, which was meant for somewhere upwards of a hundred students, plus teachers.

Nyssa shook her head. “It’s a dining room now, or was most recently. Before that, it was a ballroom. It originally had wooden floors, but the later Avingtons put these in in an attempt to impress the few people who would still attend parties here.” Leaning forward, she peered down at the open pages of the book. “Perhaps you would prefer one of the other layouts?”

Pandy stared at her. “Other… layouts?”

The Apparition blinked dark eyes at her. “Of course. You must alter a room in the traditional way, but if you wish to return it to a previous state, that’s always possible. It’s all in the book.”

If Pandy’s jaw could literally hit the floor, it would have – and, actually, she supposed it could, but not without an unpleasant amount of outside intervention. With trembling fingers, she turned the page. She’d done this before, of course, but not after pulling up room data.

On the next page was a picture of a slightly different layout, with a sort of stage built in along one wall that was probably for a performer or band of some kind. Unless the old Avingtons just liked to look down on everyone else while they ate, which actually seemed entirely possible. The floor must still be marble though, because while the price of the repair overall actually went up quite a bit, the amount of marble required didn’t change.

It took three more pages for the marble requirement to go away, but when Pandy had the book cast the new room up on the walls around her, she saw that it included a truly hideous fresco, involving cavorting fauns and well-endowed women lolling about half-clothed. Which was fine for them, but Pandy didn’t want to see that every time she sat down to eat.

Another page removed the fresco but replaced it with what looked like wallpaper involving a dizzily repeating pattern of ducks and cheese, all rendered in bright but unidentifiable colors. The next turn finally revealed something with a simple, striped pattern on the walls, and Pandy nearly went with that out of sheer relief, but decided to take a look at the rest of the options, just in case there was something even better.

There wasn’t, but there was furniture. After the various room designs came what looked like an inventory of every table, chair, rug, wall hanging, sconce, and other furnishing that had ever occupied this room. Most of them required items she didn’t have in order to make, and she realized she would quickly run out of materials, especially wood, if she actually started filling the house with these objects. Besides, she’d already ordered a table that was the right size for her little family, though it would practically disappear in a room this size. It was good to know that she had options, but it looked like she would have to go back through the ‘completed’ rooms and see if there were better furnishings available for any of those.

With a sigh and a pang of mingled regret and anticipation, Pandy fed the coins required by her selected design into the book, and it settled into place around her. The colors were always washed out in the ghostly overlay, and she was happy to see that the chunky, chipped gold paint someone had applied to the crown molding had disappeared along with the cracked marble floors. The striped wallpaper turned out to be a soft cream and yellow, and the room was now more understated elegance than tacky over-indulgence. Deciding she might as well finish it off properly, she also used Innate Magic to give the book enough Mana for the enchantments.

Turning to the door, Pandy was already trying to decide whether to attempt to fix the library now that she knew she could produce bookshelves and cushy reading chairs, but the handle turned before she could make a decision. When it opened, color flooded back into the room as the book vanished back to wherever it went when not in use. Isidor stood there, wearing one of his brand new Kestrel uniforms, and when he saw her, his mouth dropped open.

“Why aren’t you ready?” he asked, pointing down the hall. “The carriage is here to pick us up.”

Pandy’s mouth fell open. “Carriage?” She stared around. Was it Monday morning already? No, that wasn’t possible. She would definitely remember flying back to Falconet, or running out of time on Shifting Faces. A quick glance at her stats showed she still had almost three hours remaining on the spell, thanks to the fact that she’d spent as much time as possible as a rabbit, now that she didn’t have to hide her true nature from Empress Glory.

“The dinner party,” Isidor said impatiently. “With Lady Frances, Lady Brewer, and Chancellor Blackwood. We still have to go collect Killian, Thaniel, and the chancellor, and it’s almost five.”

Dinner party? Dinner party! Dinner with Augustus’s terrifying aunt! Aunts, actually, because in spite of Lady Arabelle’s apparent gentle nature, Pandy was certain she was just as dangerous as her wife, only in a different way.

Looking down at her dusty pants and smudged shirt, Pandy said, “I can’t go. I mean, I don’t even have a hat.” A hat? Why was she suddenly worried about a hat? But didn’t people wear hats to fancy parties? They always did in the movies, anyway, and-

“You don’t need a hat,” Isidor said, crossing his arms. “But you do need to put on something… else.”

Pandy took two steps toward him, then stopped, turned, turned again, and ended up facing Isidor once more. Her palms were sweating, and she was pretty sure sweat was one of the things undead people weren’t supposed to do. But here she was, and her forehead felt clammy, too. She should just shift in and out of Bunny form. Then at least her clothes would be clean. Clean was definitely better than dirty. Yes.

Someone pushed Isidor out of the way, and Empress Glory stuck her head into the room. Shaking that head, which was currently crowned by a glorious mass of brown hair, neatly swept up into a perfect chignon, with delicate tendrils trailing against her long, graceful neck, she said, “I’ve got this. Go tell the carriage driver she’ll have to wait…” she eyed Pandy, “fifteen minutes.”

Isidor looked aghast. “We’ll be late to dinner.”

“Haven’t you heard of being fashionably late?” Glory snapped, this time shouldering him aside completely. “Go.” Pointing at Pandy, she said, “Come.”

Pandy followed obediently, just glad that someone actually seemed to know what to do. To her surprise, they went upstairs to the master bedroom, rather than back to the former servants’ quarters that was rapidly becoming Empress Glory’s apartment.

“Sit,” Glory ordered as they entered the bedroom, pointing to the bed. It was the only furniture in the room other than a wardrobe that now held Pandy’s few garments, and it was currently covered in cookie crumbs surrounding a small, snoring Dragon. Glory rolled her eyes at the sight of the sleeping elemental, but opened the wardrobe doors with less drama than seemed to be her habit.

While the Empress dug through the wardrobe, clucking her tongue at Ms. Wellington’s stiff and proper dresses as well as Eurydice’s selection of pants, Eleanor poked her head in, then yanked it out again almost immediately. A second later, however, she was back, curiosity apparently having overcome her surprise, though she kept her hands behind her back as she edged around the room toward the bed.

This was very odd behavior for the princess, and when Empress Glory glanced back over her shoulder and saw the girl, she rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t give her so many cookies,” she said, as she pulled out Pandy’s single evening dress and held it up thoughtfully.

“She’s just a baby!” Eleanor protested, pulling the last bag of sweet treats from behind her back.

Hazel was actually older than Pandy, but the Dragon just opened one lazy red eye, locking immediately onto the cookies, and Pandy wasn’t going to argue while she was within reach of those teeth and claws. No matter how small the pointy appendages might be, cookies weren’t worth bleeding over. Besides, maybe if Hazel did gain a little weight, she wouldn’t be quite so agile and sneaky.

Eleanor bounced up onto the bed, settling in with the comfort of someone who’d spent a good amount of time there, and began hand-feeding large cookies dense with dark chunks to the Dragon. Hazel chewed, paused, then spat out the bite, hissing at the princess, who looked down at the rest of the confection. “Yes, of course they’re raisins.” Squinting, she added, “Or maybe sultanas?”

Hazel hissed again, and with a sigh, Eleanor began picking out the rejected fruits, popping them into her own mouth before giving the raisin-free chunks to the Dragon. This resulted in even more crumbs scattering over the blankets, and for the first time, Pandy didn’t regret the fact that she would have to fly back to Falconet that night. Food technically wasn’t allowed outside of the dining room there, and Thaniel certainly wouldn’t risk getting caught sneaking some out by leaving crumbs in his sheets.

“Here,” Empress Glory said, hanging the evening dress on the door of the wardrobe. “This is a little too flashy for dinner with family, but this is the first time you’ll be eating with them as the prospective wife of their nephew, so it’s reasonable that you might overdo it. Better than wearing something informal. That might smack of disrespect, or maybe disinterest.”

Pandy had short-circuited around the word ‘wife’, which was one she had never expected to hear applied to herself in any form. The idea that she might be Augustus’s wife was one that… Well, if her hair wasn’t already missing, it probably would have gone up in smoke at the heat produced by all the hamsters in her brain having a collective meltdown.

When the ringing in her ears faded to a dull roar, Pandy realized even the Dragon was staring, waiting for her to do something. In response, Pandy very nearly banished her current clothing into her Inventory, but stopped herself just in time. That would leave her naked, and she still hadn’t recovered from the number of times she’d accidentally exposed herself before Keros made his adjustments to her System.

One of the best things about her shirts and pants was that they were easy to put on and take off. Pandy quickly stripped down to her underclothes, thankful that they were still far more modest than most of the bikinis in her old world. Eleanor and the Empress helped her into the blue evening gown, though Glory clicked her tongue again and muttered that the shade didn’t flatter Pandy’s coloring. That made sense, since the dress had been made for Ms. Wellington, not Eurydice Haupe.

After that, Empress Glory ran downstairs and fetched her makeup kit. Princess Eleanor and Hazel watched in fascination as Pandy’s old makeup was cleaned off and replaced with something much more striking. When Pandy stared at herself in the shard of mirror after it was done, she wouldn’t have said she was beautiful – definitely not in this world of gorgeous otome characters – but she was pretty, and Glory had somehow managed to use colors that made the bright blue of the dress look like it hadn’t been made for someone else.

The Empress produced pretty, simple clip-on earrings, but Pandy passed on the matching necklace, since she had to wear the locket Augustus had given her. None of Empress Glory’s high heeled shoes fit Pandy, so she was allowed to wear her comfortable boots, which Pandy didn’t regret a bit. By the time they were done and trooped downstairs together in the kind of girl-herd Pandy had never before been part of, Isidor was pacing in the foyer, while a thinly-disguised Sir Bailey waited nearby.

Isidor didn’t even give Pandy the satisfaction of looking impressed – just pulled on his coat and threw open the front door with a gruff, “It’s about time.” Sir Bailey, however, grinned and gave Pandy a wink before hurrying out and down the walk toward the carriage waiting in front of the house.

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