Chapter One hundred ninety – Hare-raising Heights

Augustus and Isidor rode horses when they headed out after the carriage, and Pandy was terribly tempted to ride with Augustus when he patted his saddle and raised his brows at her.

In the end, however, she opted to fly, because while her sense of direction wasn’t the best, there was no way she could miss Celestine Point, and she wanted to be there when the carriage arrived.

The Point was almost precisely in the center of the city when traveling from west to east, but a bit closer to the northern edge than the southern. According to Edgar in Gacha Love, it was originally in the very middle, but the city couldn’t grow north because of the forest, so it spread its skirts to cover the southern fields in the ever-expanding march of time.

In any case, Pandy could easily see Celestine Point, which was almost more like a very small mountain than a hill. The road up it was long and winding, wrapping all the way around like a strand of lights on a Christmas tree – an image that was reinforced by the fact that no one lived on its steep sides, which meant the lights along the road were the only illumination. Buildings nestled up against its broad base, climbing the lower curves like children nestling against their mother for comfort, but the hillside itself was so steep that it simply wasn’t reasonable to travel up and down it on a regular basis, even in a world with magic. Now that Pandy knew an entire river had been redirected and paved over, she wondered that no one had ever flattened this massive, mostly-unused space, but there it stood, looming over the city.

While everyone else had to travel over the cobblestone roads, Pandy arrived at the peak before the sun had even completely set. In fact, she shifted back into her human form and stood at the high railing to watch the burning red orb dip down over the arm of the forest that cradled the western end of the city, and couldn’t shake the feeling that she was watching something miraculous. She felt at home there, standing at the top of a very, very high hill, feeling the wind tug at her clothes and the wisps of her hair, in a way she never had back on her original world.

This feeling was broken by the sound of slow, plodding hooves and the rattle of wheels against stone, as the carriage containing Clara and the two boys rounded the hill below her. Even from where she stood, Pandy could hear Kaden and Edgar arguing. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, though she could guess.

<Cast Shifting Faces,> she thought, darting under a nearby bush as the carriage rounded the final turn, revealing the horses, their hot breath visible as tiny clouds in the cold night air. The carriage itself came into view a few flagging clip-clops later, and then Edgar jumped down from the driver’s seat to chock the carriage wheels.

Pandy remembered this from Gacha Love as well. Edgar was the only boy who always drove an open carriage when he traveled with Clara, and rode horseback when going anywhere on his own. This time the carriage was closed, but apparently he had still insisted that he drive.

While Edgar was making sure the carriage couldn’t roll back down the hill – with or without the horses – Kaden threw open the door and hopped out. He did remember to stop and offer his hand to Clara this time, but dropped it again as soon as the girl’s feet touched the ground. Really, it wasn’t looking good for Clara becoming the future Queen of West Altheric in this real-life playthrough, but that was all right, because Pandy had other plans for her. Though even she had to admit to the bare beginnings of doubt that Clara would ever be up to playing the role Pandy envisioned.

“D’you know how many times your,” Kaden hesitated, glancing at Clara, before saying, “stupid telescope hit me in the head? Why do you even need it? You said yourself it’s too cloudy tonight.”

“It’s clearing up, which you would know if you’d sat up front with me,” Edgar said serenely, climbing into the carriage to wrestle out an absolutely massive telescope tube. He set it gently on the ground in almost exactly the same place Pandy had been standing only a few minutes earlier, then went back for more pieces.

The two boys continued prodding at each other, but Kaden helped get the last few parts of the telescope out, then held various bits in place while Edgar screwed and tightened and somehow made what had looked like a pile of sticks into a proper telescope. Then he turned and adjusted it, peering into the eyepiece until he finally gave a satisfied grunt and stepped back.

“There,” he said, waving to Kaden. “Aris, precisely at the heart of Asteri, just as I said.”

Kaden stepped forward, bending to look, then straightening again as he shook his head. “It just looks like a bunch of stars to me, Edgar, but if you say so, then I believe it.”

The two boys exchanged smiles, and then Edgar seemed to remember that they weren’t alone on top of the hill. Turning back to Clara, he said, “Would you like to see?”

Clara, for her part, had been standing next to the carriage in the same spot she’d settled in after getting out. She wasn’t staring at the rising moon, the brilliant swath of stars strewn across the dark sky, or even down at the city, which was its own field of stars, created by all of the lights of human habitation. Instead, she looked at the plume of her own breath, hanging in the air in front of her, as if she’d never seen anything like it.

Experimentally, Pandy blew out a poof of air, but no bunny-sized cloud appeared in front of her face. Apparently, her breath wasn’t warm enough to create condensation. That was something she would have to watch out for in the colder months. It wouldn’t do to be outed as undead because she didn’t make puffy little breath-clouds.

“Clara?” Edgar said, and the girl turned her head, gaze focusing as her sweet smile curved her lips.

“Yes?”

“Would you like to see the stars?” Edgar asked, but his brows had drawn together, and his expression was thoughtful as he eyed her.

“Should I?” Clara asked, and Pandy wished she could frown, too. The voice was right, but the tone and the words were all wrong. By chance or through Keros’s magic, Edgar had spoken the exact words he used to split this event. At that point, she could go with Edgar and get a quasi-romantic lecture on the stars and the night sky, or she could stay with Kaden and pray with him. ‘Should I’ wasn’t even an option for her response.

“Unless you want to pray with me,” Kaden said, almost managing to sound uncertain. Uncertain wasn’t an emotion the self-confident prince was familiar with, so he also looked very uncomfortable as he looked from his friend to the strange girl he’d ridden up here with.

Clara smiled again. “That’s all right, then. I’m fine here.”

Edgar and Kaden exchanged one more speaking glance, then shrugged and returned to their own pursuits. Edgar fiddled with his telescope, periodically jotting something down in a notebook he removed from his coat pocket, while Kaden took a folded blanket from the carriage. Looking around, the prince located the highest point of this highest point in Knightmere, and rather awkwardly laid the blanket down and kneeled on it. Drawing in a deep breath, as if readying himself to face some strenuous challenge, he folded his hands together, turned his face up to the sky, and closed his eyes.

Time passed. Pandy had no idea where the Knights were, much less Augustus and Isidor, and now that she was stuck beneath a bush, alone, for what was probably going to be several hours, she really wished she’d just ridden up here with the chancellor. It was too late now, though, and she would just have to wait until something happened.

Except that nothing did. Edgar continued to gaze at the sky and mutter to himself, while Kaden knelt in silence. The prince’s feet had to be asleep by now, but he didn’t move, not even when some night-creature – not Pandy – gave a soft cry in the distance. But the strangest thing was what Clara did… or rather, didn’t do. Which was anything. She simply stood there, cheeks turning pink in the cold, staring straight ahead. Even the wind didn’t seem to touch her, her dark curls remaining still on her shoulders as the leaves rustled and the pages of Edgar’s book ruffled.

Without the Shifting Faces countdown, Pandy had no idea how long it took, but finally, just as in Gacha Love, Kaden finally bent forward, pressing his head to the cold grass on which he knelt. His hands unfolded, clenching instead into fists, and Pandy could see the silver trail of tears that traced his face. That face still held a bit of youthful roundness in the cheeks and jaw, but there was nothing childlike in the sob that escaped his throat.

Pandy stopped breathing and turned to look at Clara. The girl still stood by the carriage, making no move to interact with either of the boys or get back in out of the cold breeze, and at first she still didn’t react. Then her eyes shifted, looking from left to right, just as if she was reading something in the air in front of her. Her head tilted ever so slightly, in something that might have been confusion, and then she turned toward Kaden.

Was this it? Would Clara go and pray with the young prince, allowing them to reach that godly warmth described in the game? Would she kneel beside him, reach out to stroke away his tears, and lower her head to share his pain? Pandy crept forward, ignoring the soft sound of branches being pushed out of the way by her small body, and watched, enraptured.

Clara approached Kaden, her steps at first hesitant, then more certain. The prince had climbed up the last ten or so feet to the very top of Celestine Point, as close to the sky as he could possibly reach, and his body was a trembling shadow perched in front of the risen moon. Clara had to pick up her skirts to climb up to him, scrambling awkwardly over the rough stone capped with the highest bit of earth and grass in Knightmere. Then, just as she was about to reach him, she stumbled. Fell forward. Tried to catch herself, and instead… pushed Kaden over the edge.

The prince had looked up as she approached, hearing the scratch of her shoes and the rattle of stones falling behind her. Now the moonlight gilded his face as he toppled over, revealing his expression of abject horror. Apparently Pandy had been right that his legs were asleep, because he tried to right himself, but the limbs gave way. His rear end thumped once against the edge of the overhang, and then he was gone.

Many things happened at once.

Edgar gave a hoarse shout, lunging after his friend and very nearly throwing himself over the wall in the process. A dark figure emerged from the shadows, clearly with the same intention, but instead had to grab at the young Lord Ashford, hauling him backwards. Pandy caught a bare glimpse of this rescuer, and recognized Isidor’s Sneaking Clothes, including a dark mask that revealed only his messy black hair and equally black eyes.

Two more figures emerged from the darkness where Isidor had been hiding. One wore the bright armor of a Knight of the Royal Eagle, with a half-cape draped down its back, while the other was Augustus. Augustus stopped at the wall, but the other figure threw himself after the prince, plummeting after the falling boy.

Pandy saw all of this from the air, because the moment Kaden’s behind slipped off the summit of Celestine Point, she leaped after him. Wings burst from her back, spraying blood and staining her fur red for the second time that night. She glimpsed Edgar and Isidor and Augustus, and then the knight, who was close behind her, but wasn’t as aerodynamic as a diving bunny, and so wasn’t fast enough.

Pandy’s teeth caught at the collar of Kaden’s coat, then ripped through, barely causing a bobble in his fall, though it was certainly enough to catch his attention. He tried to look up, but his spin was out of control, and the slope of the hill was coming up fast.

<Shifting Faces!> Pandy thought, and it was her turn to jerk as she suddenly went from very small to large enough that her wingtip caught on a protruding stone, but somehow her wings sized up with her, and they weren’t trapped inside her clothes, and she reached out and snagged Kaden’s arm just in time to bring him up short, then allow his suddenly dangling toes to land on the narrow road that circled so tightly up to the peak. There was a loud and nauseating SNAP, Kaden screamed, and Pandy dropped the dislocated or broken arm as she started spamming the prince with Minor Heals. That never happened to Superman!

A loud, metallic clank followed immediately on Kaden’s abrupt collapse to his knees, since his legs hadn’t had time to wake up in the seconds that had passed between the beginning and end of his fall. The knight landed beside his prince, a fierce gust of wind pushing up from his feet so his landing wasn’t exactly soft, but it also didn’t shatter his bones. Pandy banked away as the caped figure lifted the prince like he was no larger than Thaniel, and the last thing she saw was the featureless helmet turning in her direction as she circled around the hill and out of sight.