Lucky Rabbit

“Today, we’re going to play a game,” Pandy told the five children. As usual, Thaniel was seated beside her on one of the benches, while Eleanor and Geraldine sat on the other nearby bench. Isidor and Abbington stood further away, and, as had become usual, Brook wandered around near Abbington, trying to determine what, if any, of the neighboring plant-life was edible. It was Friday, Abbington was finally beginning to relax around her, and Pandy wished she dared to give the little boy a hug. He reminded her so much of herself; always wary, expecting something to go wrong.

As expected, Pandy’s statement piqued the children’s curiosity, even making Isidor glance away from the trees surrounding them. Seeing that they were all paying attention, Pandy leaned forward, almost whispering as she said, “Have you heard of the Seven Mysteries?”

Isidor snorted and looked away, immediately dismissing her, but the other four all leaned closer, even Abbington. Pandy smiled at them and said, “Every school has mysteries, but the ones here are particularly,” she paused for dramatic effect, “spooky.” Four sets of eyes grew wide, but Isidor rubbed his forehead as if he was getting a headache.

“What are they?” Thaniel asked, speaking in what passed for a whisper among six-year-olds.

Pandy held up a finger. “The Portrait That Watches you as you pass. It’s said that if you break a rule while under its gaze, it will call for a teacher.” Another finger. “The Locked Classroom. Somewhere in the school is a classroom that never opens. Not even the teachers have a key. The Student Who Never Graduates.” A third finger was added. “One student begins as a first-year, and each year seems to grow older, but rather than graduating, in the sixth year, they return to their younger self, and begin again.”

Geraldine wrapped her arms around herself, eyes wide, but Thaniel and Eleanor nodded eagerly. Ah, now Pandy knew which of them liked ghost stories. Well, she still wasn’t certain about Abbington, who kept edging closer, then backing up again.

“The Instrument That Plays Itself,” Pandy said, lifting another finger. “One of the instruments in the music room appears to play itself, but only in the light of the full moon.”

“Tonight is a full moon!” Thaniel whisper-yelled, and Eleanor nodded eager agreement, while Geraldine looked up, as if hoping they might be wrong. Of course, the days were long in the summer, and it wasn’t even dusk yet, so she wouldn’t have been able to see the moon, even if there hadn’t been thirty feet of leaves and branches between her and the sky.

“The Clock that Chimes Thirteen,” Pandy said, holding up a full hand of fingers. It really was nice having fingers again, even if it was only for a few hours a day. “At midnight, one clock in the school chimes not twelve times, but thirteen. Some say that in the moment when the final chime still hangs in the air, a passage opens between this world and the next, and if you’re ready, you can pass through. Or,” she leaned forward even more, but made sure to give Geraldine a surreptitious wink, “something else can reach through from the other side.”

Thaniel and Eleanor gave delicious shivers, and Geraldine relaxed just a bit. A hint of amusement appeared on her face as she watched her friends. Yes, she was all right now that she knew these were all just stories. Except that it was possible they weren’t, not entirely.

“And,” Pandy said, abandoning the finger count, because she’d already slipped up, and she was hoping no one would notice. “The Vanishing Staircase. Every Friday, at six o’clock, a spiral staircase appears at the top of one of the normal staircases. If you find it and take it, you have until the next bell to return, or you’ll be lost on the third floor until the next Friday.”

“But Falconet only has two floors,” Geraldine said, sounding a bit challenging now that she’d recovered her equanimity.

Pandy laid her finger by the side of her nose, trying to look mysterious. “Exactly.”

“What’s the seventh?”

Suppressing a sigh, Pandy turned to look at the source of the question. Of course Isidor had noticed. She’d planned to say six mysteries, but in the game it was seven, and the real number had just slipped out. Waving a dismissive hand, she said, “Did I say seven? I meant six.”

Isidor’s eyes narrowed, and she thought the attempt at misdirection had actually caught his attention far more than just making up a seventh would have done. She definitely should have made something up. A magically floating sausage, maybe, or a bathroom mirror that gave backhanded compliments every other Tuesday.

To her surprise, he didn’t press any further, but she was absolutely certain he didn’t believe her. If it turned out that these ‘mysteries’ were as real here at Falconet as they had been at Condor, would he try to figure out the last one on his own? Edgar and Clara had read about them in a book literally called, The Seven Mysteries of Condor Academy, so theoretically, there might be a similar – or the same – book in Falconet’s magically-shared library.

“Today,” Pandy announced, drawing the children’s attention back to her, “we’re going to see if we can find the Portrait That Watches. But you have to do something against the rules to get it to work, so,” she set a finger along her jaw, trying to look thoughtful, “what can you do that’s a little bit naughty, but not very?”

“We can run in the halls,” Thaniel said promptly, and Pandy suppressed a laugh. She’d known that would be his first suggestion. He was constantly darting through gaps between taller, older students, and more than one teacher had already warned him to slow down.

“We can drop crumbs,” Geraldine said, tugging a wadded-up handkerchief containing the remains of a crumpet from her pocket. Lord Winston perked up, his tail thumping as a few crumbs fell onto the path. The dog quickly took care of them before sitting down again, jowls remarkably unruffled.

Eleanor couldn’t seem to think of anything, but surprisingly, Abbington said, “C’n takeoff m’shoes.” He lifted one foot, the too-tight shoes clearly pinching his toes. Pandy was fairly certain that getting his uniform had already stretched the finances of his family as far as they would go, and the expensive, made-to-order shoes just hadn’t happened. He wore shoes when he was inside, but the moment he could, he toed them off. Thick calluses on the bottoms of his feet attested to the fact that he either preferred to go barefoot or this had been a problem even before he was sent to Falconet.

Thaniel brightened at this suggestion. He, too, had gone barefoot most of the time at home, and learning to wear shoes all the time had been difficult for everyone involved. Whenever he wasn’t paying attention, he would just slip out of them, apparently without even noticing, and only realize when a servant or Lady Reedsley tracked him down and gave them back to him. Abbington, at least, kept careful track of his own footwear.

Geraldine obviously didn’t like this idea as much as her own, however, because she tucked her feet further under the bench on which she sat. She and Eleanor were both wearing stockings beneath their knee-length skirts, and the girls had recently begun lacing their pretty little boots with russet or blue ribbons, which weren’t quite outside of the dress code.

“I’ll go with Eleanor,” Geraldine said, sliding her arm through that of her smaller friend. “We can look in the girls’ hall. And we’ll drop crumbs.”

“An’ Izzy and I can look in the boys’ hall,” Thaniel said.

Isidor’s head whipped around, eyes wide, looking like someone had smacked him with a fish. Which was an oddly specific expression, but one that Pandy had far more experience with than she would have preferred, thanks to a brief stint working in a fish market.

“What…did you call me?”

Thaniel flinched, glancing at Geraldine guiltily. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Geri told me to ask before giving people nicknames, but I’ve been calling you Izzy in my head for a while, and-”

“You,” Isidor cleared his throat, “gave me a nickname? Like a…friend?”

Thaniel looked puzzled. “Sure, ‘cause we are friends.” He suddenly looked uncertain. “Aren’t we?”

Isidor opened and closed his mouth, then shrugged, glancing away. His hand delved into his pocket, presumably confirming that his elemental tortoise was still present and accounted for. “I suppose,” he said at last. “I call you Thaniel, after all.”

Thaniel grinned. “My friends call me Thaniel,” he confirmed. “So, should we look for the portrait together?”

Pandy coughed quietly. “Actually, I think Thaniel and Abbington should go together, and I’ll take Isidor.” Now Isidor definitely looked suspicious, and Pandy couldn’t blame him. She did have something sneaky in mind, after all.

“Oh,” Thaniel said, and Abbington took a step back, staring at his feet, already mumbling incoherent excuses about why Thaniel would be better off with Isidor. Seeing the other boy’s withdrawal, Thaniel quickly said, “I just thought it’d make sense, since Izzy an’ I live there, but Bing, you’ve never even seen the dorms, have you? I want to show you our room!” He glanced guiltily at Isidor. “I mean, if Izzy doesn’t mind.”

Isidor hesitated, then shrugged. “Just don’t get into Tempest’s box. She doesn’t like that.”

Abbington looked between the other two boys, but there was no doubting Thaniel’s sincerity. He was practically bouncing on his toes, grinning so his dimples flashed. “Guesso,” he said, then looked down at Brook. “C’nBrookc’min? She’sabig’un.”

Pandy nodded firmly. She was supposed to be a teacher after all, and there had to be some perks to the job…besides spending time with four adorable children and Isidor. “If anyone questions it, tell them I said it was okay. She’s just not allowed in the classrooms.” I think. “Besides, she probably wants to see the school, too.” Brook was an elemental, after all, not an actual capybara. Pandy wasn’t sure what tier she was, but she had to be either three or four, which meant she was intelligent enough to be curious.

Abbington’s eyes lit up. “She’d likethat. Sure’nsure.”

“All right,” Eleanor said, speaking up for the first time since Pandy started telling them about the Mysteries. Her eyes were sparkling as she said, “but how shall we tell each other if we find it?”

Pandy smiled. “You all eat dinner together, don’t you? If you find the portrait before six, you can try to find the rest of us, but otherwise, just get ready for dinner as usual, and after chores, you can all go see it together.”

Thaniel’s face fell at the mention of chores. He and Eleanor had been in the library all week, but Lian and Kaden had told their siblings that they would be on an excursion today, which meant Thaniel would have to try shelving books alone for the first time. Lian had ended up doing it for him all week, and to his credit, the older boy had never said a word about it after Thaniel ‘tried’ and failed.

Thaniel, for his part, was obviously afraid that he would damage the books if he actually managed to use his magic. That wasn’t good, and Pandy was starting to worry that he might stunt his magic if he continued to refuse to use it, or, worse, became really frightened of it. Pandy would have said something to Professor Beeswick, but she hadn’t seen the dragon since Monday. Hopefully he would be there today, and she still had more than an hour left on Shifting Faces.

“Should we go now?” Isidor asked, obviously more curious than he was willing to admit. “There’s still at least half an hour before six.”

She nodded. “Go ahead. And remember, it has to be somewhere in the school building, not in the greenhouse or the stable or something.”

They all gave her the kind of looks that Very Intelligent Children gave adults when those adults felt the need to say something that should have been obvious. In Gacha Love, however, the painting could be in any one of several locations, and it had taken a little while for players to realize they were never in an outbuilding, even though both the greenhouse and the stable were available as options to be searched. A moment later, however, all of the children were heading for the main building. Both Thaniel and Abbington were already removing their shoes.

Pandy and Isidor watched them go, with Isidor shifting so he could see Eleanor until the moment the little princess entered the door. Only then did he turn to Pandy.

“So what do you really want?” he asked. Tempest nodded agreement from his pocket.