Lucky Rabbit

Last time Pandy used Sandbox Mode, the world remained faintly visible around her, giving her at least a general idea of what was going on in the physical world. This time, the apartment felt as real as it had when she lived there, and as she began to feel better, she also started to feel a little bit nervous about the change. She needed to leave. She still had information Augustus needed to know, so she couldn’t just sit here in her uncomfortable chair and look at screenshots with a god. As soon as Pandy thought her legs would support her again, she asked Keros to remind her what she needed to say in order to leave.

He looked at her with concern. “Don’t you think you should wait a bit longer? Your Mana won’t even be halfway recovered yet.”

Halfway? As far as Pandy could tell, she got back about one point of Mana every ten to fifteen seconds, so that meant she’d been here around two hours. She’d barely even noticed time passing for a large part of that, but two hours was more than Augustus had to spare. “Are you sure?” she asked, standing up even though she was fairly certain it didn’t actually matter what position she was in when she left. Squinting around, she asked, “Why can’t I see what’s happening?”

Keros’s eyes flickered from side to side as if he was reading something. Had he given himself his own version of the System? If so, she was willing to bet it wasn’t as obnoxious as hers. In fact, it probably called him Kero-kero and told him his muscles were-

“Last time, you had a much stronger grasp on the real world and a full Mana pool. And I’m certain. I can only see the data coming in through VitalLink from here, but you have three hundred and eighteen Mana. Your health is at maximum, too, so whatever’s going on, you haven’t been blown to bits,” he told her, as if she should be grateful for even that much.

“What about Augustus? Lian? Did they find the house? Is Bryan in custody? Who’s going to-?”

Keros held up a hand. “Just say End Sandbox Mode.”

Pandy did, and the apartment disappeared into darkness. Pandy thrashed, wondering if she’d somehow managed to become untethered from her body again, and this time Keros hadn’t been there to keep her from dissolving into rancid rabbit refuse, and ‘rancid’ was really a terrible word and she wished it hadn’t popped into her head as an adjective that could, potentially, apply to her.

“Pandora?” Augustus’s voice seemed to come from all around her, and Pandy finally processed that while her eyes weren’t offering helpful feedback, the rest of her senses were. She was warm, cozy even, snuggled up against something firm but smooth that smelled like Augustus, which was rapidly becoming one of her very favorite smells, even though that seemed like a very strange thing to think about another person.

Her container shifted around her, a sliver of light reached her eyes at last, and strong, gentle hands slid beneath her body and lifted her out into the crisp morning air. She shivered involuntarily, then wondered why she’d done that, but Augustus was raising her to his face, frowning in concern, and such petty things as the fading of her undead cold-tolerance disappeared from her bunny brain.

“Are you all right?” he asked her softly, not even bothering to glance around to make sure no one saw him talking to a rabbit. Then again, he’d apparently had said rabbit tucked into his shirt for the past few hours, so she doubted this was going to make anyone question his sanity any more than they already did.

Pandy nodded, and the rush of relief that filled his face made her go all warm and gooey inside. Not literally warm and gooey probably, but she definitely felt like someone could butter their toast with her. But she didn’t have time to bask in his lo- affection right now. It had to be close to eight in the morning, and when Thaniel didn’t show up at breakfast, waste products were going to hit the proverbial spinning blades.

Sitting up a bit, she peered around, seeing that they were no longer on Celestine Point. Instead, they were surrounded by trees, and… she sniffed, feeling her whiskers quiver. Was that smoke she was smelling?

“We found the house,” Augustus said, taking a single step to the side so the nearest tree was no longer between them and the lightly-smoldering building. “We think most of the Bound burned or were destroyed by the occupants before they fled, but we caught a few. It was…good that we found them so soon.”

He looked grim, and Pandy wondered what happened to Bound if they were left alone for too long. In Gacha Love, the Demons were mostly winged humanoids roughly sketched in the background of the journey between Knightmere and wherever Killian was hiding. In the images, the atmosphere was turbulent, the sky red and orange, with dark masses of armies facing off in the distance, and the Demons sending dark waves of magic against the forces of West Altheric. There was a great deal of implied violence and death, but the game didn’t dwell on the specifics. Even Killian’s victims were generally just shadowy forms lying on the ground, as much a part of the scenery as the trees and buildings. 

Pandy gave a wiggle, trying to indicate that she wanted down, but Augustus only tightened his grip around her middle. “It wouldn’t be good if Eurydice was seen here. The Knights have the situation in hand, but neither the chancellor of Falconet nor the new Lady Avington have an excuse for their presence, and we’ve attracted a few too many eyes already.”

Pandy stilled, her head cocking to the side as her ears twitched questioningly, and he chuckled. “Yes, I know we need to talk, but we can’t do it yet. Unless you know something that can’t wait a few more hours?”

Pandy bobbed her head enthusiastically, and he grimaced, glancing around. “Well, I suppose a few seconds won’t hurt. Can you explain in ten words or less?” She gave him a flat look, and his eyes twinkled as he suppressed a smile. Crouching, Augustus tucked her into a gap between a nearby tree and a particularly pungent plant.

Pandy thought. They’d have even more explaining to do if anyone saw ‘Thaniel’ here, but he was small enough to be nearly invisible in a shrubbery this size, unlike Eurydice.

Shifting Faces successful.

05:00:00 remaining today.

Nine uses remain until level 11.

As usual, Eurydice’s clothes puddled around Thaniel’s small body, though the bush was somewhat helpful, in that it kept her pants from actually trying to fall down. Of course, that was mostly because there was a branch pressing pointedly into her posterior, but it was what it was.

“They’re planning to use Thaniel’s absence to prove that you’re a terrible option to be his guardian,” Pandy said quickly. Augustus nodded. They’d been fairly certain something like that was in the works, especially given the way ‘Thaniel’ had been encouraged to write to Dear Uncle Andres. She hurried on. “But they’re also going to try to get you fired from being chancellor. They have some kind of evidence that’s supposed to show that you’re a terrible influence and can’t be trusted with any children at all.”

Augustus’s eyebrows went up, and his eyes narrowed. “I see,” he murmured. “I wonder what they think they’ve found.” He leaned to the side, gazing off toward the burned-out shell of a building. Clicking his tongue in irritation, he said, “I suppose we’d best get back to Falconet and prove them wrong, shouldn’t we? Is there anything else?”

She’d already spent more than the few seconds he’d said she could have, but she said, “If they find any strange rocks in there, it’d probably be best not to touch them. But also don’t leave them behind.”

Now the chancellor looked intrigued, and he nodded before holding out his hands. Pandy cancelled Shifting Faces and hopped back up into his arms. With a murmured apology which was absolutely unnecessary as far as Pandy was concerned, Augustus tucked her back into his shirt, then called, “Captain, a word?”

No sound reached Pandy’s ears, but after a moment she had the feeling they were no longer alone. Really, the armor the Knights wore was way too overpowered. How was she supposed to have any idea where they were when they spent so much time completely soundless and invisible? Though the whole point was undoubtedly to allow people wearing a series of large metal cylinders to sneak up on other people who didn’t want to be discovered doing whatever it was they were doing. It still wasn’t fair that Pandy couldn’t even hear them with her amazing rabbit ears.

Augustus passed on the information Pandy had given him, then informed the other person that he would be leaving. Before doing so, however, he asked, “Have you located Bryan Conroy?” and Pandy felt her ears stand straight up. What was this? She was certain the Knights had taken Bryan into custody. How had they possibly lost him?

“No, sir,” a clipped voice replied, the clearest words Pandy had heard from the newcomer. As usual, it was difficult to tell the gender of a Knight wearing their featureless and possibly voice-altering helmet, but Pandy thought this one might be a man.

In a voice so neutral it was chilling, Augustus said, “I see. That will be all.” He remained still for several beats, as the Knight Captain presumably went back to whatever he’d been doing, then sighed deeply. “It seems that Lord Dunning still has a few tricks up his sleeve,” he said conversationally. “I’ll be quite interested in what you have to tell me about him. But for now-”

His body shifted, shirt pulling taut over Pandy’s fuzzy shapeas he raised one arm. A piercing whistle made her fold her ears flat, and a horse whinnied from somewhere not too far away. Hoofbeats thudded on the cold ground, and Augustus pressed his right arm over Pandy, holding her in place as his muscles moved against her side while they swung upward through the air in a smooth motion that nonetheless left Pandy a little dizzy. Apparently she wasn’t entirely over running out of Mana yet.

The next several minutes were spent pressed into Augustus’s abdomen as their steed first took a few steps, then seemed to launch itself up into the air and began running. What, exactly, they were running on – or possibly through – Pandy had no idea, but once they went up, not a single hoofbeat reached her ears.

The end came as abruptly as the beginning, with Pandy’s innards dropping sharply before the absent hoofbeats returned. Pandy listened, but still wasn’t sure what the horse – or whatever they were riding – was walking on. From the sound, it wasn’t dirt, stone, or wood, and she was out of options after that. Augustus held onto her again as he swung down from his mount, and when he spoke, she couldn’t understand the words. Hoofbeats sounded for the last time, halting in a very unnatural fashion that bore no resemblance to fading in the distance.

Again, Augustus opened his shirt, removing Pandy, but this time he crouched and placed her on the ground beside him. Pandy was already looking around as she cast Shifting Faces again, rapidly realizing where they were. “We’re at Falconet,” she said, stepping to the edge so she could peer down at the familiar grounds. “On the roof.”

Augustus grasped her arm and gently pulled her back. “I know you’re well-nigh indestructible,” he said wryly when she gave him a questioning look, “but you’re also sometimes a bit clumsy, and now is not the moment to have to explain to the entire staff and student body how the new teacher was able to recover from breaking every bone in her body.”

Yes, well, that was fair. “But how are we going to get down?” She looked around, as if she might have missed the presence of a handy ladder or fire escape. Honestly, at this point she’d take a grappling hook and rope. With her Agility, she might even manage not to fall while trying to climb down.

“Easy,” Augustus said, twinkling at her as he stomped sharply: once, twice, a pause, then a third time. Pandy winced, thinking the clay tiles might crack beneath the blows, but they remained entirely unmoved.

Unmoved, that was, until a circle of them completely vanished, nearly dropping Augustus into whatever room lay below them. Not that Pandy had any doubt which part of the building they stood on. Even if she hadn’t seen the front steps and the road when she peeked over the eaves, there just wasn’t anywhere else Augustus would have chosen to land.

A round table rose up through the hole, the Dragon seated at it looking distinctly irritated as he lifted a cup of steaming liquid to his lips and sipped. “I haven’t even had my morning tea. Whatever it is, it had better be important.”

Augustus grinned, and if she hadn’t known better, Pandy would have thought he was having fun. “Oh, it is,” he told Professor Beeswick. “We’re going to stop a coup.”