Chapter 45: Four

Lunch was a quick affair that passes in a haze of yummy food and a lot of laughing with your friends, but despite how fun it was you couldn’t quite focus during that time. Now you’re in the Magical Preparations and Rituals class and lady Professor Clearwater is talking.

You should be paying attention. What if Abigail misses a bit and asks you a question? But the talk about making sure everything is just right before conducting a ritual and making sure all the ingredients are well prepared is not nearly as interesting as the problem you have.

Someone kidnapped Pou-tine.

Pou-tine is a friend, a sort of pet that you kept around and nibbled at when your paths crossed. The only reason they’re here is because you called out across the void and asked them to come. There was no way that weird summoning the Old Faith’s Club tried would have worked.

You’re beginning to think that you’re feeling a little guilty.

“Excuse me,” someone says.

The class pauses, every head turning towards the door where a man in a long coat and a bucket hat is standing tall and proud. There’s a big badge on his lapel with a lighthouse shaped like a ‘I’ on it. “May I help you, officer?” Professor Clearwater asks.

“Indeed ma’am, I did not intend to interrupt your class, but I need to speak to some of your students, if you don’t mind.”

There’s a wash of whispers from all the kids in the class at that.

Professor Clearwater nods. “If you could file the proper forms...” she pauses as the man removes an envelope from within his jacket. She nods and turns towards the class. “Very well then, the students won’t be penalized for their absence. I don’t believe we have any at-home work to assign tonight, so if you are called away today you’re quite lucky. I still expect you to inspect the notes of another student so as to avoid falling behind.”

The strange man bows to the professor. “May I have the cooperation of Miss Normal and Miss Pembrooke?”

Abigail and Charlotte both jump in their seats, then they stand up and start collecting their things in a hurry. Abigail stuffs all of it in her purse where you grab it for her without really thinking and Charlotte swings her bookbag over a shoulder.

Then the three of you are moving after the man with the bucket hat.

“What’s all this about?” Charlotte asks.

“In a moment, Miss Pembrooke,” he says.

She huffs, but doesn’t push for more questions. You, on the other tentacle, aren’t so calm. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see in a moment.”

“But I want to know now,” you say.

“You’ll have to wait,” he says right back.

“But if you tell me now then I won’t,” you point out.

You notice his fists tightening and are about to poke him some more when Abigail places a hand on your shoulder and shakes her head. You grumble a bit, but stay quiet until you’re brought into a small room with a long table in its middle. You and Abigail and Charlotte are made to sit on one side, all three of you facing a wall with a big mirror.

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A mirror with someone standing behind it. There’s a circle etched into the other side of the mirror, and the middle part of that circle is completely transparent on the one side.

They might think they’re clever hiding behind mirrors, but you’ve eaten your share of reflections and mirror dimensions, you won’t be tricked so easily.

Another man walks into the room with Abigail and Charlotte and you. He’s shorter than the first, but his jacket has more badges and his bucket hat has a bunch more feathers and such attached to it. “Miss Normal, Miss Pembrooke, thank you for your time,” he says before pulling up a chair across from you and depositing a suitcase on the table. “We’re waiting for one last... and here she is.”

The door opens up to reveal Daphne who takes in the room at a glance before moving over to sit by Abigail’s side. “I trust this is important?” she snaps at the man with all the badges.

“It is, Miss Daphne of Swinehill.”

Daphne scoffs. “It’s Baroness Daphne of Swinehill, actually.”

He nods. “Pardon me, then.” The man pulls up the suitcase then makes a big show of opening it up and checking some loose sheets within. “We have questions for you three girls, specifically about your involvement with the Old Faith’s club.”

This sounds like it might be the kind of thing that Abigail wouldn’t want you to talk about, so you decide not to say anything at all. Then again, if these people are wondering about the time when Pou-tine came, then maybe they know something you don’t.

The person on the other side of the mirror is a tall, barrel-chested man. His coat hides a suit of armour over cloth and his hat is very tall and covered in sparkly things. He looks very important, and very important people know very important things!

A couple of tentacles sneak sneaky-like into the room from all the darkest corners, then start wiggling through the air towards the big man.

They’re almost there when he spins around and slashes out with a sword that you never even noticed he had. A couple of your tentacles lose their end bits and you wince.

“Are you okay, Dreamer?” Abigail asks you in a whisper. It cuts off the conversation for a moment until you nod.

“I banged my toe,” you lie, then start rocking from side to side while kicking your feet out under the table. There’s a panel there and you feet to thump-thump against it with every kick. The girls nod and the man clears his throat before he returns to questioning everyone. Daphne is wearing a smug smile as she answers everything in a way that answers nothing.

The man in the room is having a bit of trouble now. He might have cut a couple of tentacles, but there are billions where those came from and plenty of places where you can open holes in the world to make more pour in.

Soon enough he’s cocooned in them. “You won’t get away with this!” he screams.

You catch the noises before they have time to leave the room. Tentacles covered in mouths and teeth and other things made for speaking start pouring in. “It’s okay, important mister,” you say. “You won’t remember a thing.”

Tentacles dive into his head, slipping past his skull to root around. You’re not quite as careful as you were with Abigail, but you try to stop his head from exploding or anything like that while you search for Pou-tine.

It only takes a moment.

Your meat body frowns at what you learn. Pou-tine is being held captive. Not all of Pou-tine, just a small fraction, but it’s enough that Pou-tine can’t just leave. Like getting a hand caught in a cookie jar that you can’t break because if you do Abigail will be disappointed at you.

You’re going to need to do something about that. Fortunately, you see what they used to trap Pou-tine and it would be trivially easy to break it.

Maybe after class you can free Pou-tine if you have time between clubs.

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