Lucky Rabbit

“So,” Lady Frances said, “you would like us to believe that you and Lady Eurydice,” she inclined her head toward Pandy, who had returned to Eurydice’s form and now sat in one of the comfy chairs from Augustus’s living room, “have been involved in a, what did you call it, my lady? A ‘sting’ operation?”

Pandy winced and nodded. She was just trying to support Augustus’s story, but as it turned out, the sudden insertion of an unknown term hadn’t actually cleared anything up.

“You,” the elderly lady pointed at Bryan Conroy, who sat next to his son in the other comfy chair, which was a bit too comfy for the old ladies, and threatened to eat Lady Arabelle when she sat in it, “are supposed to be dead. But in fact you were helping with this ‘sting’ operation,” Pandy winced again, “and when the people involved attempted to kidnap your son for reasons which are entirely unclear, Augustus and Eurydice were able to capture them and release their Bound. At school. With a hundred precious noble scions all around you. That was the best possible moment you could come up with for your ‘stinging’?”

This time the only thing that stung was her tone. Neither Lady Frances nor her wife were stupid, and this was a ridiculous story. But Augustus nodded solemnly, his expression as bland as unsalted crackers. “Well, we didn’t know they would actually dare to bring a Bound into the school,” he admitted. “But otherwise that’s the gist of it.”

“And you would like us to tell our friends this story?” Frances asked, gripping her wife’s cane, which she held across her lap.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Augustus said.

His aunt opened her mouth to respond, but Arabelle laid a hand on the other woman’s tense forearm. “Then that’s what we’ll do,” she said, offering Thaniel a warm and understanding smile. The boy had yet to say anything, and after the first fierce hug he’d given his father, he’d stayed within not-quite-touching distance of the older man. Pandy was reminded that Arabelle had been Thaniel’s therapist for a few weeks now, and wondered just how much the boy had opened up to the gentle woman.

Staring back at Arabelle, Thaniel’s eyes abruptly filled with tears, and he gave a deep sniff before looking from his father to her. He nodded, Arabelle nodded back, and Pandy felt like she’d just missed an entire conversation.

With one last pat on Frances’s arm, Arabelle retrieved her cane and levered herself to her feet. Pandy had healed the older woman the moment she got close enough, so she didn’t think it could possibly be as difficult as Arabelle made it look, but her struggle did manage to capture Lady Frances’s attention quite thoroughly.

“Now, I expect you’ll have a great deal of company very soon,” Arabelle said briskly. “That or some very important people will send for you, so you’ll be needing some time to,” her lips twitched, “speak with one another privately. And on that note, I doubt classes will take place today, so perhaps it’s best that we go home. A few of our friends have been complaining that we never seem to have time for them any longer, and this seems an opportune moment to rectify that.”

Frances looked from her nephew to her wife, then gave the nephew a withering glare even as she offered the wife her arm. “I expect more details as soon as possible, Gus. I’d hate for your mother to get the wrong idea about what you’ve been up to.”

Augustus paled slightly, but stood politely, crossing to open the office door for his aunts. “I’d hate for that to happen too, Aunt Frances.” Lady Frances offered her papery cheek, Augustus kissed it, then Arabelle’s, and turned the doorknob. A Dragon all but fell into the room.

“Oh, there you are,” Professor Beeswick said, barely even bothering to try to look like he hadn’t been listening at the door. “News travels very quickly, and parents are beginning to arrive to take their children home. Some of them would like to speak to you.” He paused a moment before adding, “Some want to skip the talking and go straight to the firing.”

Augustus’s lips pinched, and he gave a brief, defeated sigh before saying, “I have others I must answer to first, I’m afraid. Let them all know school will be cancelled for the rest of the week, and the Crown will determine what happens after that. If they have further questions, they can address them to the queen.”

Pandy didn’t think that answer was going to further endear Augustus to either Queen Louisa or the parents of his students, but hopefully it would be enough to keep most of the status-conscious nobility in check for now. Lady Frances gave her nephew what almost looked like a sympathetic glance, then sailed out of the door without another word. Voices rose up from the entryway below, calling Augustus’s name, then that of his aunts. Frances lifted a hand in greeting as she helped her wife down the steps. Her voice came back to the listeners above as she spoke to someone she knew.

“Why Lord Faris! I didn’t realize you had a child at Falconet. Oh, a grandson? You can’t possibly be a grandparent already. You’re still so young! Yes, my nephew is the chancellor, and he has just told me the most shocking tale of villainy and heroism. Let me-”

Professor Beeswick closed the door behind him, blocking out the chatter coming from the lower floor, the tone of which was already shifting now that someone had come with some kind of answers. The Dragon’s narrowed eyes landed on Bryan Conway, who shifted so his body was partially between his son and the extremely dangerous elemental who had just entered the room.

Crossing to Bryan, Beeswick reached into his voluminous robe and pulled out a knife. It wasn’t particularly large, and frankly Pandy wasn’t convinced that someone with claws like that needed a blade at all, but the Dragon pointed it at Bryan, who silently held out his hand, palm up.

“Don’t hurt my Papa!”

The little voice seemed to take both of them by surprise, but Pandy saw Bryan’s eyes brighten noticeably as he looked around at his son. “It’s all right, Thaniel. They want to do some tests to make sure I’m not a danger to you or the other children.” He smiled down at the boy, who was glaring at Professor Beeswick, looking like a duckling intent upon stopping a ten-ton boulder rolling inexorably toward his nest.

Just as Bryan had said, the Dragon simply pricked the fleshy pad of Bryan’s palm with the knife, allowing the resultant trickle of blood to flow down a trough in the center of the blade. The blood seemed to sink into the metal before it reached the hilt, reminding Pandy uncomfortably of a similar event that seemed like a very long time ago now, when a Shadow Exchange member – who she now realized must have known perfectly well that she wasn’t Ms. Wellington – cut Pandy’s hand in order to ‘test’ her.

After a beat during which everyone stared at the place where the blood should have been, Professor Beeswick nodded in satisfaction. “Not Bound, certainly. Though it will take a bit longer to determine if you really are Bryan Conroy.” He looked down at the knife, then tucked it away with a sigh. “I’ll have to have that reconsecrated next summer.” He clicked his tongue in irritation, his look at Thaniel’s father leaving no doubt as to who he blamed for this inconvenience.

Augustus cleared his throat. He’d returned to his seat behind his desk, watching the interactions until Professor Beeswick made his pronouncement. Now he leaned forward, steepling his fingers together and using the tips of his forefingers to push his glasses up his nose as he considered Bryan.

“Lord Conroy,” he said. “Assuming you’re the same man we arrested early this morning, would you care to explain how you escaped the custody of the Knights of the Royal Eagle? I’m quite certain you shouldn’t have been able to use any magic or summon an elemental to aid you.”

With a smile that held a surprisingly small amount of bitterness and a great deal of weariness, Bryan reached up toward his chest, something which made both Augustus and Professor Beeswick tense. When Thaniel’s father only began to unbutton his shirt, the chancellor and the Dragon shifted to looking confused instead. As the stone in Bryan’s chest came into view, their confusion became shock.

“There’s another one?” Augustus blurted out, looking from the black stone to Thaniel and then to Pandy, who could have smacked herself.

She’d told him to keep any weird stones the Knights found, but not why, and they hadn’t had enough time alone to fill him in on everything. Still, surely she could have found a moment to say, “Oh, by the way, the bad guys have learned how to steal people’s magic and give it to other people, which makes the first person into a Magicless, and Bryan’s one of those now.” She couldn’t imagine that actually would have been less confusing though, so maybe not.

“I have no magic,” Bryan said, “nor do I have any contracted elementals any longer. I simply tore the Aetherbane blocking my path and left.”

“Papa?”

Before Augustus could respond, Thaniel reached up and touched the stone in the center of his father’s chest. Bryan flinched back, but nothing happened as the boy’s fingers touched the surface of the stone. Looking surprised, then thoughtful, Bryan gently captured his son’s hand and held it, peering into the boy’s eyes.

“Are you-” he broke off, looking up at Augustus, Pandy, and Professor Beeswick. “Did you test him? I didn’t have any essence stones at home. I was just returning from a trip to purchase two small ones when-” He squeezed Thaniel’s hand, then dropped it, absently rubbing at his own thin chest before beginning to button his shirt again.

“Stones which are very illegal to own without a license,” Augustus noted dryly, but nodded. “We tested him, though Lian requested we not do so on the first day.” He didn’t say what the test had shown, and Bryan’s expectant expression slowly melted into one of defeat.

“I… see,” Bryan said heavily. “Well, I… I knew it was possible that his magic might be damaged, but I didn’t-” He swallowed hard, meeting Thaniel’s eyes. His voice was rough when he spoke again. “I’m sorry, Thaniel. I just wanted to… I couldn’t lose you. I didn’t know what to do, and-” A tear slipped from his eye, and Pandy watched it trail down, wondering what her System would tell her if she dared to lean over and drink it.

“Ms. Arabelle says adults don’t always know what to do, either,” Thaniel said, reaching up to wipe the tear away with surprisingly steady fingers. “You have more ‘xperience, so you can make good guesses, but sometimes they’re still just guesses. You must’ve been really scared when… when Mama… when I-”

He broke off, swallowing hard, and Bryan, greatly daring, reached out and wrapped the boy in a hug. Thaniel sat stiff in the embrace until a sob shook him, and then he curled into his father, fists twisting into Bryan’s rapidly dampening shirt as the boy finally broke down, overwhelmed by the morning’s events and the miraculous return of his dead father.

When it became obvious that father and son needed a few minutes, Pandy stood and moved over next to Augustus. Professor Beeswick joined them, and she quickly filled them in on everything that happened to her since she was voluntarily ‘abducted’. Augustus became more and more grim, but Beeswick mostly looked fascinated.

“These books,” the Dragon murmured, eyes bright. “The ones detailing the experiments. Do you think they’re still there?”

Pandy hesitated, glancing at Augustus, who gave a half-shrug. “They’re still going over the site,” he said. “I’m not technically supposed to be involved in this at all, though I suppose some retroactive orders had better appear fairly soon. Once they do… If they do, I can find out about the books.” He sighed, glancing at the door, through which the sounds of voices still reached them every now and then.

Reluctantly, Pandy said, “I think they must have started from some copies of the Avington book. I don’t know how they got them, and they were broken up by author, rather than being all bound together, but the way it was laid out, the handwriting, even some of the words, it all looked familiar. I suppose I could-”

Pandy had made a concerted effort not to look at the Avington murder manual too closely, but morbid curiosity had overcome her better judgement more than once, usually when she was hanging out in the mostly-empty lab recovering her Mana. Still, she could probably sneak the books out in her Inventory if Beeswick really needed to see them.

“I have the more recent efforts memorized,” Bryan said from the other side of the desk. They all turned to look in his direction, and he managed a thin smile. His eyes were red-rimmed, but there was some life in them now, as there hadn’t been before. Thaniel snuggled against him, looking only half-awake and with a similarly blotchy face and red eyes.

Ignoring the fact that Bryan was responding to a conversation he hadn’t technically been part of, Professor Beeswick waved a hand and said, “This all sounds familiar. Like I’ve read something similar before, though I don’t think there were any-” He shook his head, brows drawn down and wings shifting in agitation. “It was in the documents I read while researching the fall of old Altheric and Zh- The enemy god. I wouldn’t have paid any particular attention, but it mentioned strange black stones. I need to get back to the library.”

Circling around the desk, the Dragon laid his hand on the office door, pausing only to turn back and point at Bryan. “You had better be who you seem to be, or I shall be quite displeased.” Shifting the talon toward Augustus, he added, “And none of you had better be arrested before I can tell you what I find. I need someone available to be properly impressed.” With that, he opened the door, slipped out, and closed it behind him with a firm click.