Book 7, Chapter Six – Fur Better or Worse

There was an odd sort of peace to the hours that passed until morning. A soft, diffuse light shone through the windows, but it bore no relation to anything happening outside the library. When everyone felt tired and decided to rest, it grew dark ‘outside’ because Professor Beeswick wanted it that way. The children snuggled together as Pandy read a few chapters of Pirate Pete, and to everyone’s surprise – possibly including her own – Empress Glory sang a lullaby in a hauntingly husky voice.

The only time Pandy got far enough from Glory to stop receiving Corruption Points was when Thaniel went off to ‘his’ nook – near the children’s fiction section – and as soon as he was asleep, she returned to Millinery and Shoes. Numbers went up.

In the morning, Mr. Farrier brought breakfast, and Augustus arrived with a bit more news. Queen Louisa’s brother, Milton the Malevolent, had had an Unfortunate But Nonfatal Accident, and had decided it was best if he retired to the country for his health. He wasn’t the only one, either. There were a surprising number of wealthy and influential people who were choosing to travel or move to estates outside of Knightmere. It was shaking up the social scene, and Ladies Frances and Arabelle were taking advantage of it, as were a few people who had retired to the country for their ‘health’ over the last few years, and now sensed an opportunity to return.

Andres Forrest, thanks to his Very Visible stunt at Falconet, wasn’t simply able to flee the city or the country. Pandy was a bit sorry she hadn’t gotten to see the look on Dear Cousin Andres’s face when he was arrested, but Augustus assured her it had been quite satisfying. Thaniel and Lian wouldn’t have to worry about that particular leech trying to claim any part of their estate.

Not that the Dunning estate was in good enough condition for anyone to covet it. The house had been deemed unsound, and it was going to cost quite a bit to repair, which in turn was going to eat into the earnings from the Pirate Pete books, leaving the boys not exactly in dire financial straits, but not as comfortable as they had been. Meanwhile, Lord Bryan had opened his eyes a couple of times, but the few words he mumbled made no sense, so it would be a bit longer before they knew if he would make a full recovery. Still, the fact that he’d woken up at all was promising, and Thaniel was distinctly teary-eyed when Augustus told him. Sir Bailey also continued to improve.

When Brook and Abbington checked on Lian, there was no real change, except that the plate of food on the table beside him was all but untouched. The food looked like some kind of filled bun, sliced fruit, and a glass of dark liquid. There was nothing distasteful about it, so they couldn’t tell why he wasn’t eating, which made Thaniel worry that there was something wrong they couldn’t see. Unfortunately, there were no reflective surfaces in the room, so they could only see that Lian’s hands and clothes were dirty but undamaged, with no visible blood anywhere.

As the image faded, Thaniel leaned in, his nose nearly touching the surface of the water, which made the bowl tilt dangerously, splashing water onto everything nearby. Pandy and Augustus both pulled him back, and the boy shoved his now-damp curls back from his forehead, eyes a bit frantic as he said, “D’you think he’s really all right? He must be really scared.”

From what Pandy knew of Lian, it was more likely that he’d already formulated fifty different plans to escape and was now only waiting for an opportunity to put one into action. Given that the Aetherbane shackles on his wrists were clearly visible whenever his shirt cuffs rode up, that would put him wandering in a strange place with no magic, no elementals, and no idea who to ask for help, if he could even speak the language. That didn’t mean Pandy thought he wouldn’t make it home, just that it would probably take a bit longer.

Wrapping an arm around Thaniel’s shoulders, Pandy simply said, “If anyone can handle it, it’s Lian. But Thaniel… there’s something I need to talk to you about. All of you.”

She looked around at the suddenly interested eyes of those who had come to mean so much to her. Thaniel and Augustus, yes, but also Geraldine, Eleanor, Abbington, Keros, and even Empress Glory and the elementals – including Professor Beeswick and Hazel, who was sprawled out in Eleanor’s blankets, her rounded belly moving up and down, virulent orange crumbs scattered around her.

“I think- We think I might be able to fix Thaniel so we can remove his heartstone.” She glanced at Augustus, who nodded.

Recently, Pandy had had an out-of-body-but-in-a-Demon Experience, and in order to repair the body she’d abandoned, she had gotten a new spell: Heal. She’d had Minor Heal almost from the beginning, but it had Minor right there in the name, and apparently regrowing someone’s heart and all of the damaged tissue surrounding it was far from minor. But Heal had completely restored her tiny bunny body from a desiccated corpse to a plump, lively-looking corpse.

She was also noticeably less corpse-like than ever before, which was somewhat worrisome in context, but the important part was that Heal had come directly from Ismara, the goddess of Light, and someone who had gone out of her way to help Thaniel in the past. Which meant, at least from Pandy’s point of view, that it was worth trying on Thaniel.

Augustus had carried her suggestion to Quinten Sinnett, the healer Augustus had consulted when they first discovered the heartstone. Healer Sinnett wasn’t a Light healer, but he was highly respected, and one of the few people Augustus seemed to really trust. Using great care and very general terms, Sinnett had discussed the situation with other healers, as well as the High Priest of Ismara, and they had gotten back to Augustus two nights ago. They were a very cautious Go.

Of course, there were at least two potential problems with this, only one of which Pandy planned on mentioning to anyone else. She hadn’t even told Augustus about the other one. She was fairly certain Keros had already figured it out, but he hadn’t said anything to anyone either, just took every opportunity to give Pandy Speaking Looks.

Hurrying on, she tried to finish before the looks of excitement on the faces around her could do more than dawn. Focusing on Thaniel himself, she said, “But Thaniel, you have to understand it’s only a possibility. And while it might not do anything, like the other things we’ve tried before, it also might work just part way. We might remove the stone, but not be able to… to…”

Her throat closed up. She’d practiced this in her mind so many times, trying to separate what needed to be said from the emotions the words summoned, but she just couldn’t do it. Because if they managed to remove the stone but not heal Thaniel’s heart, he might die in spite of anything they could do. No more chances. No resurrections. Thaniel would be gone. And Pandy couldn’t bear the thought.

“Do it,” Thaniel said, his voice as certain and steady as she’d ever heard it. Technically, he was eight years old, but much of his development seemed to have stopped when he was six, and he’d maybe-but-also-maybe-not temporarily died in the same crash that killed his mother. He’d been through a lot in his short life, and he could be astonishingly mature at times, but for the most part he had the energy and the attention span of a six-year-old.

“Thaniel, you could die.” Augustus said the words Pandy couldn’t, and she bit her lip, determined not to cry, in spite of the burning of her eyes. Geraldine and Eleanor were hugging each other now, while Empress Glory had a protective grip on the princess’s shoulder. Abbington’s hand rested on Brook, where the capybara laid beneath the table, recovering from her most recent round of aquatic clairvoyance. Keros’s expression was unreadable, and Professor Beeswick mostly looked thoughtful.

Thaniel glanced from the chancellor to Pandy before dropping his eyes. “I’m already dying,” he said softly. His hand lifted to press against his chest. “I’ve been able to tell for a while now. I don’t feel right. I’m tired all the time, and there’s a… hollow spot inside me.”

Now Geraldine, Eleanor, and Abbington were crying, tears streaming down their cheeks, though they barely made any noise. They didn’t look surprised though, and Pandy wondered when they’d realized their friend was fading away… and how she hadn’t realized it, too.

She had, though, hadn’t she? She’d seen that he was tired, that he grew thinner every day and only picked at his food. She’d blamed it on concern for his father and brother, but even before they knew Lian had been taken, he’d already lost enough weight that his clothes hung from his small frame. It was why she was willing to even consider attempting something so risky. Fail or do nothing, she was going to lose him either way. The only chance was to try.

Closing her eyes, she nodded. She tried to lock that image into her mind, next to all of the other precious memories. Thaniel laughing, Thaniel running, an angelic Thaniel, hugging her close even in his sleep. Now she had to add a thin but determined Thaniel to the gallery of roguish ones that came before, and she didn’t like it, but if this didn’t work… Worse, if it went badly, she needed to remember that he’d chosen this, because if it was entirely on her shoulders, she would break beneath the weight of it.

“When can we try it?” Thaniel asked, and when she opened his eyes, she saw a shadow of his usual smile on his face, shallow dimples forming in either cheek. “I wanna be better as soon as possible. Will I finally be able to use my magic properly?”

She couldn’t lie. Couldn’t meet that hopeful gaze and claim to know what would happen. Augustus opened his mouth, probably to spare her from having to be the bearer of bad news again, but Pandy said, “You remember when your father was talking about some of the, um, experiments he did? Well, he said that sometimes,” all right, that was a little lie, Bryan had said usually, “when a stone like yours is removed, the person loses their magic.”

Seeing his forced enthusiasm start to collapse, she quickly added, “We don’t know why, but there is one case of a person who got their magic back later.” Years later, and only after being infected by one of the diseases created by the Shadow Exchange-slash-Zheraphon’s cult, but all of that was irrelevant at this moment. “Your heartstone also isn’t the same as those stones, plus they didn’t have my Heal spell, so… I hope that won’t happen.”

Thaniel’s shoulders rose toward his ears as his tension increased, and he gave a little sniff, the first sign of an impending storm. That was enough to break his friends, who gathered around, hugging him and reassuring him that nothing was going to go wrong, that he was going to be fine. Geraldine told him there was no hurry. Eleanor said he should think about it for a while. Abbington just held onto his three smaller friends, watching Pandy over their heads.

A lot of potential Corruption Points soaked into their shoulders and hair, but Pandy just waited, taking the time to stare at her Status, just as she had so many times over the past few days. A hand gripped hers, and she recognized the width and the warmth and the shape of the palm, the way the fingers wrapped around hers just so, and she squeezed back without looking away from the hovering words.

Name: Pandy

Race: Human? (Liminal)

Age: 25

LF: 22/22

Mana: 956/956

Stats▾

• Strength: 32
• Intelligence: 43
• Agility: 68
• Pain Tolerance: 10
• Charm: 3
• Fire Affinity: 2
• Dark Affinity: 2
• Air Affinity: 1

Skills▾

• Hop: Lv. 25 (244/640)
• Bite: Lv. 25 (59/640)
• Scratch: Lv. 20 (27/190)
• Dance: Lv. 16 (2/73)
• Dual Wielding: Lv. 14 (7/55)

Spells▾

• Minor Heal: Lv. 27 (791/820)
• Heal: Lv. ∞
• Wings of Glory: Lv. 11 (17/28)
• Verdant Surge: Lv. 1 (1/2)
• Vita Herbalis: Lv. 1 (0/2)
• Spark: Lv. 23 (83/460)
• Shifting Faces: Lv. 10 (14/19)
• Radiant Presence: Lv. 12 (6/37)
• Innate Magic: Lv. 23 (76/460)
• Shield of Darkness: Lv. 13 (43/46)
• Air of Superiority: Lv. 2 (2/3)
• Dark Restoration: Lv. 1 (1/2)
• Scorching Sonata: Lv. 4 (2/5)

Boons▾

• Ismara’s Blessing
• Aglaea’s Kiss
• Faithful Foundation
• Barter

Corruption Points: 2461

Other than the number of Corruption Points, it had barely changed since they left the Dunning estate. She’d been able to use Minor Heal on several of the soldiers, and she’d fixed up several paper cuts and stubbed toes acquired over the past few days, but otherwise her status was static. She couldn’t exactly Hop or Scratch up the library – or she could, but she didn’t want to annoy the resident Dragon, so it seemed wiser not to. She had an almost compulsive urge to bring her Corruption Points up to a round twenty-five hundred before trying this, and she was still gaining points from being near Glory, but she also recognized that if forty points was going to make the difference, they were probably out of luck anyway.

Luck. The one thing Pandy had always had in abundance… all of it bad. But here in this world, that seemed to have changed, at least some of the time. She had, after all, met Thaniel and Augustus and all of the others. She had a home – even if it was in even worse shape than Thaniel’s house at the moment – and friends for the first time ever. Still, she would trade it all away, even go back to her old luck, which led to her keeping three changes of clothes on her at all times, because at least two would become damaged or filthy due to unexpected interactions with canned meat products or elephants. She would give anything if this would work.

Finally, Thaniel managed to step away from his friends, offering them a damp, wobbly smile as he did so. Then, turning to Pandy, he stepped forward into her, wrapping his small arms around her. She leaned forward, curling against the tightness in her chest, and pressed her cheek into his curls, only realizing she, too, had been crying when his hair stuck to her face.

Quietly, Thaniel said, “I believe in you, Bunny. Heal me. Please.”