Book 7, Chapter Eighteen – Bounce More Unto the Breach

There was no putting it off, so Pandy slid one of the little boxes Professor Beeswick had given her from her pocket. “You know what this is,” Pandy said, flipping open the lid of the box with exaggerated care. She was ready to yank it back if Nox went for it, but the Apparition actually recoiled, his human body flattening in its effort to get away, twisting into a curve that would have been impossible for anyone with bones. After a moment, he filled out again, a bicycle tire reinflating with air, but he didn’t come closer.

“Yes, Lady Avington,” he said, a new wariness in his dark eyes. Was that wariness for her, or the stone? Pandy wondered what she’d see if she checked his Loyalty at that moment, but the book was gone.

“If I take this into the basement, can I see the rest of General Avington’s story?” She clicked the box shut, and both elementals seemed to deflate slightly in relief.

A stiff nod answered her, and Pandy hastily stuffed the box back into her pockets, wondering if she was treating the thing too cavalierly. She’d become used to the stone during the time it was in Thaniel’s chest, but it was the token of a dark, probably evil god who was trying to take over the planet.

She barely even wobbled as she made her way to a sort of pillar that occupied the corner of the room. There were four of them; graceful columns that looked pretty in this version of the office, and heavy and masculine in the original version. In Gacha Love, this particular column held one of the secrets that most players required several gacha spins to discover, but which Pandy had found the very first time she searched the room.

Pressing her hand to the cool stone surface so her fingers laid perfectly along the shallow ridges that went from top to bottom, she pressed down, then twisted counter-clockwise while gripping with the tips of her fingers. It was an awkward maneuver that had taken her several attempts to figure out, even though she’d been all but certain the space behind it had to be there. And indeed, a section of the column swung out, revealing a deep but narrow gap which Pandy had taken to using for the things she didn’t have room for in her Inventory.

Reaching down into the cavity, Pandy’s fingers brushed across the small swatch of Aetherbane that had been wrapped around Hazel’s duck when Pandy got it. It was a singularly dangerous item to both unBound elementals and humans with magic. Pandy had no idea how to safely dispose of it, so she’d just stuffed it in here to serve as an additional deterrent to anyone who might attempt to raid her stash.

Touching each object hidden there, Pandy went through a mental checklist before landing on something that was pointed on one end, while the other end moved slightly beneath her fingers. Pulling it out, Pandy released a long, slow breath that actually left her feeling slightly better. Had she been holding her breath while she dug around inside the pillar, and had her body actually noticed the lack of oxygen?

The little wooden top wasn’t sturdy enough to stuff in her pocket, so Pandy put it back into her Inventory before closing the hidden stash. Simply having the top in her possession had unlocked the Avington House sidequest, and she’d never intended to actually do anything else with it. She should have known she wouldn’t be able to avoid it forever.

Having done all she’d come up here to do – make sure Nox and Nyssa still existed, repair them as much as she could if they were still there, and retrieve the top – Pandy opened the office door, revealing an empty hall. Augustus must have gone back into the atrium after checking on her.

“All right,” she called, and four faces peered around the opening that led to the atrium. Three of them held varying balances of relief and curiosity, which warmed Pandy’s maybe-organic-heart. It was more difficult to tell what Tempest was feeling, but Pandy counted it as a win anytime the tortoise didn’t zap her.

Pandy moved aside, revealing Nox and Nyssa, and Isidor actually took a step forward when he saw them, obvious relief painting his face. He gathered himself quickly, but it reminded Pandy that he had allowed Miller into the house, and things had gone downhill from there. Knowing Isidor, he probably blamed himself for the damage, including the possible deaths – dispersals? – of the elementals.

Nyssa beamed when she saw them, excited as ever to have guests. “Oh my! You all look so tired! I’ll go fetch some tea and cookies at once.” Her head rotated in a way that normal human necks wouldn’t allow, and she blinked owlishly at Pandy. “I’m not certain the front parlor is ready, my lady. Should I…?”

Pandy smiled back, just happy to see the kind elemental acting more like herself. Not normal, no, but who in this house was normal? “Not today, Nyssa. We’re a little busy.” Nyssa’s face fell, and Pandy hurried to reassure her. “Next time though, I promise. And maybe Hazel will be back to help.” Would she, though? Pandy’s deal with Professor Beeswick had definitely involved something about keeping the little Dragon safe, and she hadn’t exactly managed that, had she?

Nyssa nodded, appeased. “I’ll just check and see what’s in the kitchen though, shall I? In case one of you gets hungry.” She was already halfway through the floor by the time she finished speaking, and vanished before she could hear Empress Glory groan.

“Ismara’s crumb cake,” the woman groaned, pressing a hand to her flat belly, “that’s the only thing I didn’t like about living here. Nyssa’s great, and it’s nice not to worry about doing dishes or sweeping – though I think sometimes she eats the teacups – but her cooking is terrible, and Hazel’s is-” She turned a little green just thinking about it.

Enlightened, Pandy asked, “Is that why you brought home that enormous cheese?”

Glory gave her a startled look. “Oh, no. It just looked like fun.” She grinned roguishly, and Pandy decided it was probably best not to ask any more questions about anything else the other woman brought home. Ever.

Clearing her throat, Pandy said, “I need to go into the… the basement.” For lack of a better word. Why couldn’t the Avingtons have a nice wine cellar beneath their house, like other noble houses? At least, Pandy assumed wine cellars were a thing here. Maybe not though? Everyone seemed to have some kind of magical storage, but Augustus’s had to have an actual physical location for him to connect to, unlike Pandy’s game-like Inventory. Unless hers, too, actually connected to some real location? Were all of Pandy’s items neatly displayed on Ismara’s wall, waiting to be summoned?

Everyone was watching her, waiting for further explanation, so Pandy sighed and said, “I don’t think it’s dangerous anymore, but it’s creepy and kind of disturbing, and there’s a dead guy down there, so you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

Isidor frowned, Empress Glory looked too interested for Pandy’s comfort, and Augustus watched Pandy, clearly concerned. None of them indicated a desire to be elsewhere – an option Pandy would have taken in a heartbeat – so she turned and led the way.

The Secret Lab occupied a good part of the main floor, and the basement sat directly beneath it, accessible only through the coat room. Though it seemed reasonable to connect the two secret areas, as far as Pandy knew, the Avingtons had never done so. Now that the lab was almost completely empty, she was sure even she would have noticed a door or hatch if there was one.

The coat room was the one part of the house Pandy had only briefly glanced into, and she’d have preferred if it stayed that way. Forever, if possible. Originally, if Clara took the top down there, she was able to speak to the… occupant, who gave her various clues to how to get through the house. Otherwise, the top was just the trigger for the event with M. Piers Avington, and after that it occupied a space in Clara’s Key Items inventory for the rest of the game.

The coat room was, predictably, all but empty of coats. A few motheaten furs and old-fashioned overcoats hung in the back, while an Isidor-sized jacket hung off to one side. He stared at it, scowling. “I wondered where that went. I had it in my room.”

“This is the coat room, Master Isidor,” Nox said dryly, making all of them jump. He had solid feet now, but his shoes made no noise, and he hadn’t spoken a word as they made their way down the stairs and back to the front of the house. He’d frowned disapprovingly at the one broken hinge that dangled like a baby tooth hanging from a scrap of skin, but otherwise he’d seemed content to trail along behind them.

“I can put on my own coat,” Isidor said. “And I usually go out through the kitchen, since that’s where-” He stopped, probably realizing that the stable might or might not still exist, and his old, reliable steed was actually a Fire elemental. That was definitely a problem for the future.

“It is still my job to bring you your outerwear,” Nox said inexorably. “Your coat belongs here.” He turned blacker-than-usual eyes onto Pandy. “As does yours, my lady.” Pandy swallowed and nodded. She wasn’t going to argue.

“I need a coat,” Empress Glory said, striding deeper into the room, heading straight for the once-expensive furs. “Maybe there’s-”

Nox – a flickering, fully Apparition Nox – blocked her way. Pandy hadn’t seen him move. One moment he was standing in the doorway, and the next he filled the space in front of Glory. Which, now that Pandy knew he was actually part of the house in some Very Magical Way, made sense. Nox probably didn’t need to move anywhere, because technically he was already everywhere. Which was something Pandy decided she wasn’t going to think about too hard.

“It’s all right,” Pandy said, sidling forward as if soothing an angry animal. She held out her hands as she moved between the Empress and the Apparition. As she did so, she sensed more than felt something move around Glory’s torso, and knew the Tenebron had noticed the other elemental. She wondered how that worked, since as far as she knew, no elementals were allowed to enter the house without her permission. She supposed that not only had Glory and the Tenebron entered with her, but it had already been ‘inside’ when Nox swallowed the house again. Maybe Nox would eventually cough it out like a cat with a hairball?

 “We need to go down there,” Pandy said, pulling her attention back to the matter at hand. She made the top reappear from her Inventory, and Nox subsided, his dark eyes morphing from cavernous pits to simple black irises.

“Of course, my lady,” Nox said, bowing stiffly. He sent a glare over her shoulder as he straightened. “But please remember that no one may enter without you. Under any circumstances.”

Oh. That was good to know, though Pandy hadn’t intended to send anyone else down there anyway. Of course, the elemental’s words were probably more of a warning for Empress Glory than anything else.

Nox stepped aside, and Pandy moved forward, wrinkling her nose against the scent of decaying furs and dust. Gingerly, she pushed the coats out of the way, and tried to pretend like she didn’t see parts of them writhe in response to her touch. She would let Nyssa know these were definitely trash, and trash belonged somewhere Not Here.

A narrow door was set into the back wall, where it should technically meet up with the Secret Lab. She reached for the doorknob, and jumped as a spark leaped from the metal to her fingers.

-1 LF

-1 Mana

-1 CP

Wait, whoa, that was new. Since when did the house steal her Corruption Points, and when had anything ever drained her Mana? She couldn’t remember a single instance, even with her hamsters going full-tilt. A drop of blood splashed onto the door as she shook her hand, but even as she reached to wipe it away, it sank into the wood like water in a sponge. Well, that was creepy. She also didn’t remember the door hurting Clara, so why was this different?

Cautiously, Pandy tried again, but this time, before her fingers even touched the knob, the door swung open, revealing… a cheerfully lit set of narrow stairs that took a steep turn to the right. Yes, there were a few cobwebs, but it definitely wasn’t the ominous, gloomy, oppressive passage she remembered from the game.

“Um, Nox-?” Pandy turned back toward the elemental, but he was gone. Isidor pointed down into the floor, and Pandy gave a nod of acknowledgement. “Okay then, I guess we just… go?”

Augustus, who had remained in the doorway this entire time, keeping an eye on the open front door, offered her an Eye Twinkle and a lop-sided smile. “After you, my lady.”