Chapter Sixty-five – Risky Revelations

“Bunny!” Thaniel exclaimed. He scooped her up, snuggling her as he turned toward Isidor. Biting his lip, he said, “Um, she-”

Isidor shook his head, his expression a study in surprise and something akin to resignation. He closed the door, then motioned to the bed, saying, “We should probably talk.”

Thaniel’s teeth clicked shut, and he sat on his bed, while Isidor crossed to his own bed, pulling his tortoise from his pocket as he did so. He set Tempest down beside him, a finger stroking her shell as she turned a judgemental brown-eyed gaze on Thaniel and Pandy.

The sounds in the hallway outside died down as the four roommates gazed at each other. Thaniel shifted awkwardly, but stroking Pandy’s fur seemed to soothe him, so he was able to wait until Isidor spoke first.

“You know who Ellie really is, don’t you?” Isidor asked.

Thaniel froze, hand lifted to pet Pandy. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone who Eleanor was, but Isidor seemed to already know, so was it all right to talk about it? Pandy nudged his hand with her head, thinking, <Let him talk,> as loudly as she could.

She had no idea if Thaniel picked up on it, but he shrugged, turning his attention onto Pandy in a blatantly uncomfortable way. “She’s my friend,” he mumbled, and that was all he was willing to say.

While Thaniel was staring down at Pandy, Pandy was watching Isidor, and she was shocked when the boy actually smiled. “That’s right,” Isidor said, “and that’s the most important thing. But she’s also someone special, and as someone special, she has to be…protected.”

Thaniel looked up, startled and blinking. “Sure she does. She has guards and-” He broke off, either realizing he might have said too much, or that, in fact, Eleanor did not have guards. Not here. At least not obvious ones.

One corner of Isidor’s mouth turned up, and he patted Tempest once more. “She does,” he agreed calmly. “In fact, someone has gone to a great deal of effort to make sure that she has a good time at school, and, more importantly, that she’s safe here.”

Thaniel nodded. “I won’t let anybody hurt her,” he said stoutly. “But why would anyone want to? Was that…what Ms. Wellington was doing? Was she trying to hurt Ellie?”

Now it was Isidor’s turn to look conflicted. “I don’t know, exactly. I don’t think so.” His dark eyes were thoughtful as they rested on Thaniel. “Do you have any ideas what she wanted? Because to me, it looked like she wanted you.”

Thaniel blinked again. “Me?” His voice squeaked. “Why would anyone want me? I’m not anybody important. Not like…like Ellie.”

“But you are a Dark mage,” Isidor said softly. “Aren’t you? And your rabbit is-” He stopped shaking his head. “I don’t even know what she is. At first I thought she was a demon, possessing that animal’s body. But no demon would act like she has, so now I’m really not sure, though I have a pretty good guess.” He watched Thaniel expectantly.

Thaniel’s fingers tightened on Pandy, and she stretched up to tickle his neck with her whiskers. He gave an involuntary giggle, and his small body relaxed. “I don’t know what I am,” Thaniel admitted. “I think maybe…maybe I do have Dark magic. But I haven’t ever had an elemental come to me, and you have to have an elemental for a nat’ral revelation.”

“Haven’t you?” Isidor asked softly. He was staring at Pandy, but he had picked up Tempest and was stroking her shell. “Did you know that while most natural revelations involve a tier one or two elemental, sometimes a particularly strong or unusual mage will attract a tier three, or, rarely, a tier four?”

Thaniel’s nose wrinkled. “I’m not even sure what the difference is,” he admitted. “Ones and twos are the pretty, sparkly ones, right? Like the ones that show up when a flower blooms.”

Isidor nodded. “First tier elementals are essentially mindless, wild things. Some people don’t even believe they’re properly aware. They appear, perform their function, then vanish, often over the course of a short period of time. They’re the most likely to show up when a child’s element reveals itself. Second tier elementals aren’t much better, though they can understand and obey simple commands. They have their own personalities, and some are quite playful, while others can become angry if they feel they’ve been disrespected.”

“You think Bunny’s an elemental,” Thaniel said, holding Pandy tighter. “A really real elemental, not just a pretend one. And if I’m a Dark mage, that makes her a Dark elemental. An’ Dark elementals are bad.” It wasn't like this should be a new idea to Thaniel, since he'd announced it to all of them himself, but now he didn't sound like he wanted to believe it.

Now Isidor looked down at Tempest, who gazed back up at him in a very un-tortoise-like way. “No elemental is bad,” he said carefully. “Some are simply more dangerous than others, and Dark elementals can be very, very dangerous. That’s why it’s illegal for anyone to have a Dark elemental that’s higher than tier two, at least not without special permission from the crown.”

“But you think Bunny’s higher than a tier two,” Thaniel said, and she could tell from the way his voice wobbled that he was worried. Still, he looked up, meeting Isidor’s eyes as he said, “She’s not dangerous, though. She saved me, an’ she saved Miss Cupcakes, too.”

Isidor’s brows went up, but he said, “I do think she’s higher than a tier two, and no, I don’t think she’s dangerous. At least, I don’t think she’d deliberately put you or your friends in danger. But the only elementals that can do what she’s doing – remain in the body of an animal – are tier three and above.”

Thaniel shook his head, frowning. “What does all that have to do with Ellie, though?”

Isidor tapped Tempest’s shell once more, then said, “Every now and then, very rarely, a third tier elemental will take on the form of an animal in order to remain close to a person it’s interested in. But that’s all they can do: be an elemental or be that animal. It’s hard to change forms, so they rarely do, at least until they decide they’re not interested in that person any more. That usually takes a week or two, leaving a child with a vague memory of a friendly creature which spent some time with them, then vanished.”

Thaniel still looked confused, so Isidor went on. “One of these elementals became interested in Ellie. And me. And Geraldine, and Abbington, and…you. Maybe. No one has ever heard of a Dark elemental doing this, so everyone believed that you must be a Light mage, like your mother and your brother.”

“How do you-?” Thaniel started, but Isidor just kept talking.

“Having a Light mage who is personally loyal to Ellie would be a good thing, so she was brought to meet you. At the same time, it was decided that Geraldine would be a good friend, one without political interests or power of her own, who comes from a family loyal to the crown, and who also has an elemental.”

Once again, Thaniel tried to break in, but Isidor wouldn’t let him. “But Ellie also needed a guard. One who had nothing to gain by betraying her, and everything to gain. One who had enough strength to protect her, but would fit in at school.” He grimaced. “Not that I’m doing a good job of that.”

Thaniel lifted a finger, pointing at Isidor. “You? You’re Ellie’s guard? And Tempest is… Miss Cupcakes is…”

Isidor grimaced. “Honestly, when my Master suggested I do this, I told him no. I thought it would be too easy, and going to school with a bunch of-” He stopped, cheeks flushing. “But now I wonder if I’m even up to the task. There’s clearly something going on here, and I have to decide-”

Drawing in a deep breath, he said, “I have to decide if Ellie can stay here. If I’m not certain I can protect her, then she’ll have to go back to private tutoring.”

And it finally clicked. In Gacha Love, Clara and Prince Kaden only had one real conversation about their siblings, but when they did, Kaden said he missed his sister because he rarely got to see her. At the time, Pandy assumed that Princess Eleanor lived at home, while Kaden lived at school, if she even bothered to think about the statement at all.

But the royal family was wealthy enough to send a dozen children through school, if the schools even charged the royal family tuition. Add to that the fact that all three schools were in Knightmere, and there was no reason the siblings couldn’t see each other every weekend if they wanted to, especially since students at Condor were allowed to wander the city with relative freedom. Kaden certainly could have gone to visit Eleanor at Falconet or Kestrel, even if she couldn’t go see him.

Which meant that something had happened between now and when the game started to cause Eleanor to go…elsewhere. Clara and Kaden had attended a ball together at the royal palace, and Eleanor wasn’t there, but that could simply be because she was still too young. So why was Eleanor relegated to tutors, in spite of her obvious enthusiasm for school?

Pandy didn’t know. What she did know was that exactly one thing had changed: Thaniel was alive. He was alive, and a Dark mage, which was apparently reason enough to call in the Shadow assigned to Eleanor. That meant Miss Wellington was revealed long before she might otherwise have been. What was the woman supposed to do? She obviously hadn’t killed Eleanor, because Kaden had definitely spoken as if his sister was still alive, so it was something else. Something that meant brother and sister didn’t get to see each other often.

All of which made it all the more urgent for Pandy to figure out who had hired the Shadow Exchange, and why. She liked Eleanor, and while it was obvious that Ms. Wellington was there for something involving the princess, Pandy hadn’t been too worried, since the girl was alive and well in three years time. Except now the story had changed, and even if it hadn’t, Pandy didn’t want Eleanor to have to leave, much less go through whatever led to her departure. While all of this was going through her mind, however, Thaniel was finally allowed to speak.

“I’ll help,” the boy said, leaning forward. He was practically vibrating with enthusiasm. “And so will Bunny. We won’t let anyone hurt Ellie.”

Isidor nodded. “That’s why I told you this,” he admitted. “I thought Tempest and I could handle anything that happened in a…here. But,” he mimicked Thaniel’s posture, leaning forward, “if you see anything, you’re to tell me. Don’t try to do anything by yourself. You’re just a, um,” he reddened again, “you’re only six. So-”

<And how old are you, Isidor?> Pandy thought.

She wasn’t even aware of how loudly she’d thought it until Thaniel said, “How old are you?” Then he blinked, glanced down at Pandy, then back up at Isidor. “How old are you?” Thaniel asked again, sounding more like he meant it this time. “You sound more like Lian than me.”

Isidor sighed, but reached up and touched a leather thong around his neck. Tempest put a foot on his other hand, and he glanced down at her, but just gave a little smile and pulled the thong over his head.

The tall, gangly kid on the bed melted into the shape of a lean but muscular boy somewhere in his early teens. He was still recognizably the same person, but several years older. Thaniel had been quite correct. Isidor had to be close to Lian and the male leads in age.

“I’ll be fourteen in a few months,” Isidor said, lowering the necklace back into place. The simple silver pendant hanging from it disappeared beneath his shirt, and he lost eight years in age. His dark eyes met Thaniel’s wide blue ones. “They knew an adult couldn’t fit in here, and my Master is…Ellie’s mother trusts him. He said I could do it, and of course there are several powerful elementalists working here as well, so help should always be nearby. My only job is to keep her safe until they arrive, and I still almost failed.”

“But now you have me, and Bunny,” Thaniel said, lifting Pandy into the air. “We won’t let anything happen to Ellie, so she can stay, right?”

Isidor looked bemused. “Don’t you even want to know what’s in it for you? It could be dangerous, you know.”

Thaniel shrugged, grinning until his dimples appeared. “I get to help Ellie,” he said simply, before a bright glint of mischief appeared, deepening the dimples. “And it sounds like fun!”