Lucky Rabbit

Apparently, Mistress Rose was allowed to open any door in the school, including the one leading to the chancellor’s private quarters. That made sense, since it seemed like a good idea to make sure your medical personnel could reach you in an emergency. The doctor ushered Pandy in, told her to, “Sit down and don’t touch anything,” then headed down the stairs to the foyer.

Pandy, of course, did not sit down, and she did touch things – specifically, the doorknob to Augustus’s bedroom, and the large painting he’d hung over the hole in the wall. The eyes of the woman in the painting seemed to stare at her accusingly from where she tossed it onto the bed, so Pandy flipped it face down, reminding herself that it did not matter in any way that Augustus had a picture of a beautiful woman hanging on his bedroom wall.

The box full of potions had been tucked back into its hiding place, and Pandy quickly dug through it, this time trying to keep the bottles in their places until she found the one marked Shadow P. She sent it into her inventory, then replaced the box in its hidey-hole. Hopefully it would help, and if it didn’t, she’d just start pouring potions down Augustus’s throat until he got better, even if it meant confronting the glaring woman in the portrait again.

By the time Mistress Rose and Timon escorted a rather cranky-looking Augustus into the small apartment, Pandy had seated herself on the sole chair in the main room, trying not to look like she’d just been rifling through the chancellor’s hidden stash.

“I can still walk,” Augustus said, pulling his arm away from Timon as the boy tried to guide him through the door. At Timon’s flinch, the chancellor sighed and spoke more gently. “We don’t know how the illness spreads. I may have open wounds, and I’m certainly breathing. There’s no reason for you to expose yourself any more than absolutely necessary.”

Mistress Rose came along in time to hear this, and looked up from her task of shaking some fine, white powder into the air and onto the floor. “He’s quite right,” she said, giving what looked like a silver sieve one more shake. A puff of dust coated the door, especially the knob. Looking at Augustus, the healer said, “Get undressed. You’re covered in blood, but I can’t see a single injury.”

She sent a suspicious glance toward Pandy. “Unless Ms. Wellington got it wrong, and all of that blood is from other people?” She didn’t sound like that would be surprising at all, which made Pandy wonder just how much the doctor knew about Augustus and what was really going on at Falconet.

“I received healing,” Augustus said dryly. “The only thing you need to worry about is the venom from the bite, and whatever illness I was exposed to. Hopefully, it isn’t as bad as I was led to believe, but,” he, too, glanced at Pandy, “I suspect the only reason I’m still upright is the healing.”

Pandy gave a very small nod. She’d checked. Her Mana still wasn’t recovering, and, in fact, was now ticking down very, very slowly. That argued for her ‘increased distance equals increased cost’ theory, except that even with Augustus standing only a few feet away, her Mana was still dropping. Eventually, she was going to run out, and then she’d either be able to use her large number of Corruption Points, or the spell would end. She didn’t want to know what would happen if Innate Magic stopped working while it was holding the effects of the venom at bay.

“Well, the anti-venom I gave you should work against most types of spider bites. Hopefully, that will be sufficient, and we can focus on the illness. You say it’s been going around in the towns outside Knightmere?” The doctor opened the door to the bedroom, then went around the room, dusting everything down. Augustus followed her, while Pandy and Timon stayed outside, each avoiding the other’s eyes.

“Yes. I’m told that it’s usually little more than an inconvenience, like a seasonal sickness. Those who are already weak can die of it, but others recover with time.” Augustus’s voice trailed off, and he said something too quietly for Pandy to understand. The doctor had no such problem, however, because her answering exclamation was incredulous, not uncomprehending.

A moment later, Mistress Rose stormed from the bedroom, pointed at Timon, and said, “With me. You will not come back here until I determine that the chancellor is fully recovered. You’ll be attending patients until that time, and I’ll only be available for emergencies.” Pointing at Pandy, she said, “You’re now confined to this room. I’ll have a cot brought up for you. Do not enter the bedroom.”

Pandy and Timon gave simultaneous nods, and Timon scurried after the doctor as she stormed back out into the office, her sieve working overtime as she absolutely covered every surface with powder. Pandy waited until they were gone, then immediately entered the bedroom.

“Here,” she said, thrusting the potion bottle at the man in the bed. Augustus now wore a loose white top that looked like it might continue down into the same sort of nightgown Thaniel and Isidor wore. The blankets were pulled up under his arms, and his ruined clothes were barely identifiable beneath a mound of white dust in the corner.

The chancellor looked bemused, but accepted the bottle. Turning it, he read the label, then tried to return it to her. Pandy crossed her arms, refusing to take it back. “You should drink it,” she told him, her own certainty feeling strange. Pandy was never certain, unless it was about just how uncertain she was.

Augustus shook his head. “This is an antidote to a poison, Pandora. It’s not going to help with a spider bite. In fact, it’s quite a difficult to make, and thus expensive, so-”

“Drink. It,” she told him, stepping backwards. Then she had a sudden thought, and said, “It won’t hurt you, will it? Like, if you’re not poisoned, it won’t make you sick, or something? And,” her mouth had really gotten away from her now, and for the life of her she couldn’t stop it, “who is that?” Spinning in place, she stabbed an accusatory finger at the female in the portrait. Really, now that Pandy looked again, she wasn’t even that pretty. It had to be difficult to breathe through a nose that dainty, and her eyes were too far apart, so she looked like a cow chewing her cud.

“I don’t know,” Augustus said, breaking through Pandy’s critical examination of the picture. She turned to stare at him, and he shrugged. “There was a hole in the wall, and I needed to cover it up, so I went to the storeroom and found something the right size.”

Oh. Oh. Pandy’s entirely inappropriate indignation drained out of her like steam from a pork bun. ‘It came with the frame.’ Wasn’t that a joke from some old movie? “You did?” she asked. “I mean, of course you did. That makes complete sense.” It did, too. Augustus just didn’t seem like the type to have another woman somewhere while he… while he…

“Drink the potion,” she said again. “I can buy you another one, if you’re worried about the price. Probably.” She did still have quite a bit of money, so surely she could afford a small bottle of fancy liquid.

Augustus lifted it, staring through the brown glass at the fluid within. “It’s about five hundred gold for each dose,” he told her, eyes twinkling in amusement.

Pandy choked, then let out the air in her lungs with a slow exhalation. When had she started breathing again? She hadn’t done it intentionally. “That’s… fine,” she managed, and he chuckled.

With a sigh, he removed the stopper and tilted back the bottle, swallowing the contents. “It begins to degrade once it’s opened anyway,” he told her. “I just thought that with you around, it was probably best to keep it until I could get another.”

Pandy glared at him. He’d been teasing her. Again. she thought.

Name: Pandy

Race: Human? (Deceased)

Age: 24

LF: 2/2

Mana: 251/875

Stats▴▾

Strength: 23 Intelligence: 35 Agility: 30 Pain Tolerance: 2 Charm: 1 Fire Affinity: 2Skills▴▾

Hop: Lv. 20 (119/190) Bite: Lv. 24 (254/550) Scratch: Lv. 13 (3/46) Dance: Lv. 10 (4/19) Dual Wielding: Lv. 1 (0/2)Spells▴▾

Minor Heal: Lv. 23 (63/460) Wings of Glory: Lv. 2 (1/3) Verdant Surge: Lv. 1 (1/2) Vita Herbalis: Lv. 1 (0/2) Spark: Lv. 20 (21/190) Shifting Faces: Lv. 6 (1/7)     02:17:06 Radiant Presence: Lv. 2 (2/3) Innate Magic: Lv. 23 (43/460) Shield of Darkness: Lv. 1 (0/2) Air of Superiority: Lv. 1 (0/2)Boons▴▾

Ismara’s Blessing IMark of KerosAglaea’s KissCorruption Points: 510

She had so many Corruption Points, but that wasn’t what Pandy was focused on at the moment. She watched Augustus, waiting to see if he would react, while also keeping an eye on her Mana. While she’d been waiting for him, it had definitely been going down, but now a minute passed as he looked more and more bemused by her silence.

Finally, when her timer for Shifting Faces was down to two hours and fourteen minutes, her Mana ticked up by a single point. Up. That was the first time she’d gained Mana since she’d cast Innate Magic. Did that mean the potion worked? The only way to be sure was to release the spell and see if he died, but that didn’t really sound like a good idea.

“Usually, I get about four Mana per minute,” she muttered, counting on her fingers. “The spell said it cost point one Mana per minute to maintain. So my Mana should still have been going up by almost its usual rate, and it wasn’t. Which means either Innate Magic has a hidden cost or side-effect, or… or…”

“Pandora?” Augustus asked. She looked up, to see that he was eyeing her quizzically. “What are you talking about?”

Pandy opened her mouth, then closed it. How to explain? She was certain by now that people in this world didn’t have a System. They didn’t even seem to have names for their spells, not in the way the game had portrayed. They just… did magic, and it worked or it didn’t. It was all tied to the elementals they contracted, or the little poems they used to direct the magic they were born with. How could Augustus possibly accept that she saw words floating in front of her eyes, and her abilities were quantified and qualified with names and numbers even she didn’t properly understand?

“Try me,” he said softly, and it all came tumbling out. Stats and spells and Mana and even Corruption Points. She didn’t mention that she was fairly certain she was a Demon, much less which Demon, because this really seemed like a bridge too far. He couldn’t possibly like a Demon Queen, and he might even feel like he needed to report her to… someone. The queen probably. The human one, that is.

When she was done, he didn’t argue, didn’t try to claim she must be imagining it, or that magic simply didn’t work that way. Instead, he tapped his fingers absently against the blankets. “So it costs ‘Mana’ to maintain the spell you’ve been using to keep the venom at bay, and after I drank the potion, you began to recover this Mana?”

She nodded, and he hummed thoughtfully. “It seems reasonable, then, to get a fresh potion and drink it. It’s possible that the first dose had already degraded to the point that it simply wasn’t fully effective. It’s also possible that I just didn’t take enough, or that the change is entirely coincidental. The only way to know is to experiment.” He gave her a half-smile. “Preferably without getting me killed.”

Pointing to the painting of the actually quite lovely woman in the ornate frame, he said, “Move Lady Tennesley out of the way, if you would.”

Automatically, she started in that direction, but whirled to stare at him. “You said you didn’t know who she was!”

His partial smile widened into a full one, then into something that resembled a boyish grin. “You seemed upset. I thought it best to claim ignorance. Besides, Lady Tennesley posed for that painting shortly after marrying Lord Tennesley, and now has four children and, at last count, a round dozen grandchildren.”

Pandy’s cheeks were burning by the time he finished speaking, but she just cleared her throat and pulled the painting off the wall. Since Augustus was occupying the bed, she leaned the picture against the wall, revealing the ragged hole. Grimacing, she said, “Sorry about that.”

He snorted. “You could have destroyed the whole room, and I wouldn’t care. Thank you, Pandora.” The tone of his voice was so heartfelt that Pandy couldn’t look at him, instead poking her head into the opening. When he spoke again, his voice was brisk. “To your left and down.”

She looked the other way, and to her surprise, there was another box there. It was longer and wider than the one containing the potions, but only slightly deeper. “What’s that?” she asked, turning so she could shove her arm down into the space, nearly catching the edge of the box, but also causing a bit more of the wall to crumble.

“There’s a latch, about two feet from the ground. It looks like a flaw in the paint from the outside. On the inside, you should just have to lift-” His voice broke off as Pandy’s questing fingers found the little latch, and a rectangular section of the wall swung out, taking her arm with it. More plaster fell down, and Pandy scuffed at it with the toe of her pretty boots, trying to kick it under the bed.

“I didn’t see anything like that when I was in here the first time,” she muttered, withdrawing her arm so she could crouch down and look. There, along the edge of the secret panel, was a tiny, tiny mark that could have been a speck of dust.

“If it was easy to find, it wouldn’t be a very good secret hiding place,” Augustus said as Pandy tried to pick up the box. It didn’t move, and she tugged a bit harder, until the chancellor gasped softly behind her. She released it, turning to see that he had a very strange expression on his face.

Pressing his hand to his chest, he said, “As you mentioned, we don’t have names for our spells the same way you do, but if we did, this one might be called Hidden Cache. It links a location that doesn’t move to one that does. When it’s in place, I can access the contents of that box from almost anywhere, simply by reaching into my pocket. I believe you’ve seen me do this, in fact.”

That was a terrible spell name. There was no poetry to it. If Pandy was naming it, she might call it, ‘Whisper Vault’, or maybe, ‘Ethereal Alcove’. She wasn’t going to tell him that, though. “So what happens if I move the box?”

He looked torn between amusement and surprise. “Until a minute ago, I would have said you couldn’t. In order to break the binding, you have to be able to exert enough physical force to counter the amount of magic – Mana – I put into the spell, which was… quite a lot, actually. You didn’t even look like you were trying, though.”

Pandy’s cheeks heat. “Oh. Did I, um, hurt you?”

“It felt very odd,” he admitted, “but not exactly painful. I don’t really have the spell active right now, though. Unfortunately, the Shadow Exchange has ways to detect magic and elementals, so I had to leave the other end of the spell here until I got back.”

Ah, that explained why he hadn’t had his usual Pocket of Everything. She’d assumed he had something like her Inventory, but it seemed not. Everything he produced had to be stored in this box beforehand. Which apparently included carrots and sugarcubes, but not, for whatever reason, potions that could save his life.

“Open it,” he urged softly, and Pandy did. It looked like she’d found a raven’s nest. She’d heard they would pick up anything if they found it interesting, and this box contained an amazingly eclectic mixture of things. There was gold, of course, but there were also buttons, a few small gemstones, another potion – carefully wrapped in cloth so it wouldn’t break – a short knife in its sheath, a few pieces of paper, a pen, a half-burned candle, what looked like a bag of marbles, a mound of sugarcubes, and several carrots, in various stages of wilting.

“If I’m ever away, and you need to send anything to me, this is how you do it,” he told her, serious for once. “Being able to access an Air mage’s cache is… all it would take is a poisoned needle where they would touch it, or removing some needed item, and no one would ever know what had happened.”

She stared at him. This was a sign of trust. She had told him about the System, about her Mana and the way her abilities worked, and he’d shown her how to save or kill him. Pandy opened her mouth, had no idea what to say, and closed it again. Finally, without speaking, she shut the box, then the panel, which latched into place as seamlessly as before. Only when Lady Tennesley was looking benignly out over the room again did she clear her throat and turn back to him.

“So, how do we get you another potion?”