Derpy waited until he could hold his hands together without an arc jumping between them.
The ache remained, but the courtyard stone had stopped acquiring new marks. He flexed one finger, then another, watching carefully. Nothing discharged.
On his shoulder, the guardian folded its wings.
“Are you ready to go back?”
Derpy looked toward the entrance.
He could still feel the attention that had passed through the capital. Something had recognized him. The avatar had no name for it, and sitting here had given him too much time to imagine another person, another mechanism, another demand waiting beyond the walls.
“We did what we came here to do,” he said. “We are leaving.”
The little dragon lifted from his shoulder and hovered in front of him.
“Leaving the courtyard is not the same as leaving your friends.”
“I know the difference.”
“Then tell them what you intend.”
Derpy rubbed his palms against his knees.
The thought of returning to the room made his chest tighten. Lenora would want answers. Vaeloria would want an explanation for the offices. Lewd would look at him, and he would have to find something to say that did not become another argument about what either of them meant.
“I cannot deal with the pressure right now.”
A familiar weight struck his shoulder.
Sphinx settled against him, her tail brushing his neck as she found her balance. Mia arrived a moment later, pressing against his leg. Derpy looked down at her, surprised by how quickly his hand reached to stroke her.
Neither asked a question.
The relief was immediate enough to hurt.
“All I need are my pets,” he said. “I cannot keep watching people I care about get hurt.”
The guardian remained in front of him.
“Some of those people are waiting for you because they care whether you are hurt.”
Derpy lowered his eyes.
Warmth gathered beneath his skin. It spread slowly at first, distinct from the electricity, and reached the base of his skull before he realized his body was changing again.
Long ears pushed through his hair.
He lifted a hand and touched one. It bent slightly beneath his fingers, reddish-black fur catching the courtyard light. A small tail formed at his lower back in the same dark ember colors.
Sphinx shifted to accommodate the change. Mia looked up without moving away.
Derpy stared at his hand after taking it from the ear.
“That is new.”
The guardian inspected him.
“I will support you. But this is the closest we have been to gathering the calamity books together.”
“I need to think.”
“There will be time to decide where you go next.”
“I need it now.”
He gathered Mia against his side and rose, allowing Sphinx to settle more securely across his shoulder. The guardian moved aside as he stepped through space onto the base of a courtyard pillar.
Another short step brought him higher.
From there, the upper arcade offered a route away from the room without passing through the people waiting near it. He followed the line of pillars, choosing height and distance before he admitted to himself that he had begun looking for an exit.
Ace landed on the ledge ahead of him.
Derpy stopped at the edge of the next pillar. The hammer in her hand rested low, but she had placed herself across the only easy route into the gallery.
She looked at his ears, then the tail visible beneath his hoodie.
“Changing your appearance does not make you difficult to recognize.”
“I was not trying to fool you.”
“Then where are you going?”
He glanced past her into the covered passage.
“For a walk.”
“Along the pillars?”
“It was quiet.”
Ace studied him. Her gaze lingered on the way his new ears turned toward sounds from the courtyard below, tracking every movement that might become another person coming after him.
“I have seen you become more certain of yourself in the dragon form,” she said. “The wolf comes when everything is pulling you in different directions. Now you want to get away, and you have become a rabbit.”
Derpy touched the edge of one ear.
“You have had about ten seconds to decide that.”
“It is an observation.”
“Then observe me needing some space.”
Her hammer shifted slightly as he moved his weight toward the gallery.
Derpy looked at it.
“Please, Ace.”
She did not move from his path.
Below them, a door opened onto the courtyard.
Derpy’s ears turned toward it before he could stop them.
Mk1 rose from her chair without warning.
Lenora turned at the movement. The doll’s attention had fixed beyond the room, her expression changing from watchful stillness to something close to alarm.
“What is it?” Lenora asked.
Mk1 was already at the door.
Lenora followed. Lewd set down the cup she had been holding and hurried after them.
Their departure left Vaeloria with her three daughters. Amy looked toward the open doorway, then at her mother.
“That did not look like someone taking a quiet breath outside.”
“Derpy is going to try to leave,” Vaeloria said.
Lieam’s face tightened before the queen turned to her.
“Normally, I do not want you using that calamity book. You have full access now if it is needed to prevent him getting out.”
“Mom, I do not like using it. You know how it makes me feel.”
“I would not authorize it if it were unnecessary.”
“You just told everyone not to chase him.”
Vaeloria looked toward the door.
“He was in the courtyard then.”
Amy folded her arms. “So he can have space as long as he chooses the space you want?”
The queen’s eyes hardened.
“I cannot have one of my pets leaving while half the palace is trying to understand what he has done.”
Lieam stared at her.
Vaeloria continued before anyone could challenge the word.
“He matters to me. The doll the King could command now answers to him. The ruin series follows him. Two of the empire’s most powerful offices have disappeared from function because of something he and Riven arranged. You may dislike my decision, but none of you can tell me his departure would be a small matter.”
“That is a list of what he can do,” Amy said. “Not much about why he would stay.”
“He can discuss that with me when he stops trying to slip out.”
Vaeloria turned to Lyn.
“He is not allowed to leave. Make that clear.”
Lyn looked toward the corridor, then moved to carry out the instruction.
Amy adjusted the brim of her hat.
“I will help. But you are going to owe me something for this.”
“Name it later.”
“You are agreeing before you know what it is?”
“Whatever you like, dear.”
The generosity was offered too quickly to be reassuring.
Lieam remained beside the table for a moment after the others moved. Then she followed, one hand held close to the calamity book she had hoped not to need.
Derpy reached the gallery while Ace stepped backward into it, keeping the hammer between him and the corridor.
“I am not where I was when we first fought,” she warned.
“I am not asking for a rematch.”
“Then stop looking for a way past me.”
His eyes narrowed.
“If you will not let me walk through, I will find another way.”
Voices were gathering behind him. He heard Lenora call from below, then Lewd. Beneath them came the attention inside his own head: Celica, Sinister, the unending possibility of another comment before he had finished thinking.
Derpy reached beneath his hair and pressed the small plugs into his ears.
Music filled the space the voices had occupied.
He turned it higher.
Ace spoke. He saw the movement of her mouth and let the beat cover it. For the first time since standing up in the courtyard, no one’s words demanded an answer.
The guardian fluttered beside him. He looked away from it.
“Your move, luv,” he said.
Ace lunged.
Her hammer descended toward the route he had chosen. A magic circle formed beneath it, bright against the gallery floor. Derpy stepped onto the circle at the instant the hammer struck.
The stored force launched him down the corridor.
Air tore at his hoodie. Sphinx clung more tightly, and Mia scrambled into a secure position against his other shoulder as he kept his body balanced beneath them.
Behind him, Ace recovered from the impact. Lenora, Lewd, and Mk1 reached the gallery entrance as the fading circle broke apart.
Mk1 accelerated first.
She caught up along his right side, moving quickly enough that he could see her face for more than an instant. Her mouth formed a question.
“Friend okay?”
Derpy could read that much.
He shook his head.
Then he raised a hand between them.
Ice shards formed across Mk1’s route. Small circles appeared on their faces, layered into the barrier before she reached it.
Mk1 struck through the ice.
The circles discharged together.
The force threw her backward into Lenora and Lewd, knocking all three into a tangle against the corridor wall. Derpy saw the collision as he turned away. For one sick moment, he almost stopped.
Then the music carried him into the next beat, and he kept moving.
Mk1 pushed herself upright before the others had regained their footing.
A circle formed at her throat.
“Mk1 failed to protect Derpy,” she broadcast. “Assistance required. Friend is a threat to himself. Current form has red-black rabbit ears and a matching tail. Intercept his route.”
The words traveled farther than an ordinary voice could have carried them.
Derpy heard none of it.
He took the next corner on another circle, using its lift to change direction without losing speed.
Guards were forming a line ahead.
Their instructions had reached them faster than he had, but they had not finished deciding how to stand against someone who could step through space. A narrow Phantasm opening appeared beside them, and Mk2 emerged in answer to the call.
She lunged as he reached the line.
Derpy twisted out of her grasp and passed between two guards before either could close the gap. One reached for his sleeve and caught air.
Mk2 turned after him.
“I need a launch,” she called. “I cannot make up the distance from here.”
Mk1 came around the corner above the guards, palms and boots finding purchase along the wall. She dropped beside Mk2 and raised her arm.
A concentrated beam struck Mk2 from behind.
The second doll shot down the corridor, arms extended toward Derpy’s moving form.
She hit him hard enough to drive both figures toward the floor.
Ice broke beneath her hands.
The duplicate wrapped around her before she could push away, frozen limbs locking into a restraint that held her in place.
Ahead, the real Derpy landed from a short magic step and continued running.
Mia pressed against his neck. Sphinx adjusted her claws rather than letting go.
They were still with him.
If he could get clear, he could think. If he could be alone, no one else would be caught in what he did next.
The reasoning grew simpler each time he repeated it, until he stopped examining the collisions he was leaving behind.
Vaeloria waited at the far end of the corridor.
She had taken another route. Derpy recognized that much before she lifted a hand and spoke.
He could not hear her.
A circle formed beneath his feet. He jumped onto it and let its force send him forward, low enough to pass beneath the reach she appeared to be preparing.
Vaeloria caught his hoodie.
The sudden weight pulled at his neck and shoulder. Her feet left the floor before runes flared beneath her boots, anchoring her long enough to keep the first wrench from tearing her grip loose.
The anchor failed under the continued momentum.
She cried out as she was dragged forward, wrapping both arms around his waist rather than letting him go. Tears streamed from her eyes in the rushing air. Derpy felt her weight and tried to change his angle, but the corridor had become too crowded to find a clean landing.
Lenora caught sight of them from the junction.
Pyro’s power gathered inside her. She reached for the movement he offered, and a violent rush of displaced air crossed the floor as she stepped through space to Derpy’s side.
For an instant, she saw him clearly.
His face was composed in a way that did not match what his body was doing. His ears moved to a rhythm she could not yet hear. He looked at her, then past her, searching for the next opening.
Ace came in from the other side.
The tackle caught Derpy and Vaeloria together.
They hit the floor in a spinning impact. Vaeloria lost her hold and rolled clear, striking the stone hard enough that Lenora turned toward her before facing Derpy again.
The queen did not rise. Her eyes failed to focus, then closed.
A guard hurried to her side.
“Stay with her,” Lenora said, keeping her attention on Derpy as Ace regained her footing beside her.
Pyro spoke within her, his voice carrying the dry heat she was beginning to recognize.
“I sense nothing from him right now.”
Lenora watched Derpy push himself up.
“Then tell me what that means.”
Pyro gave her no immediate answer.
Derpy brushed dust from his hoodie.
His pets were still clinging to him. He checked each with a touch, then looked toward Lenora and Ace.
The music had not stopped.
He shifted his weight with it, one foot sliding, then the other. The motion made Ace hesitate long enough for him to put his hands in his pockets.
Lenora stared at him.
“Derpy, look at Vaeloria.”
His gaze moved over her face without settling on the words.
Ace tightened her grip on the hammer.
He lifted one hand and beckoned.
She charged.
Derpy spun away from the swing, his body following a rhythm neither opponent could anticipate. He flipped clear of the hammer’s return, landed briefly on his hands, and pushed himself upright before Lenora could catch his arm.
She reached again.
He slipped beneath her hand.
A faint, tinny sound reached her as his ear passed close to her face.
Music.
Lenora turned with him and saw the plugs beneath his hair.
“He cannot hear us,” she told Ace.
Derpy looked toward a window.
Ace shifted to block the direct route. He changed his step, bobbing once with the beat, and let her believe he was turning back toward the corridor.
Electricity crawled across his forearm.
Its center remained white-blue, but the light around it had darkened against his skin, bruised and almost black. Derpy felt the sting and ignored it long enough for the current to reach his legs.
Lenora saw him prepare to jump.
“Derpy, stop!”
He launched toward the window.
A seam opened beyond the glass.
Riven came through with Mk3 and Mk4 at her sides.
He had no space left to turn.
They met him together, catching the force of his leap and driving it back inside. Mk3 and Mk4 held the flanks while Riven took the center, her body pressed against his as electricity burst from him.
Mia and Sphinx scrambled clear into the corridor before the group struck the floor.
Riven landed across Derpy’s chest.
The current passed into her.
Her back arched. Light caught along her seams, and her fingers tightened against his clothing as she absorbed the discharge instead of letting it spread to the others.
Derpy’s limbs slackened beneath her.
Riven looked at his face for a moment. Her eyes fluttered, and then she went still too.
Mk4 braced beside them. Mk3 caught Riven before she could roll away.
The corridor fell quiet except for the music still leaking from Derpy’s ears.
Lenora knelt beside him and removed the plugs.
The sound stopped.
Derpy did not wake.
His rabbit ears lay bent against the stone, one caught beneath Riven’s shoulder. Lenora freed it carefully, then checked the rise of his chest. Nearby, Mk3 was doing the same for Riven.
“They are breathing,” she said.
Lewd reached them with Mk1. She stopped at the sight of the two unconscious figures, one hand lifting toward her mouth before she lowered it again.
Ace stood between them and the broken window.
A small weight settled on Lenora’s shoulder.
She stiffened, turning enough to find Celica’s guardian beside her face. She had glimpsed the little dragon during the pursuit without understanding what she was seeing.
Now it looked down at the devices in her hand.
“I tried to stop him,” it said.
Lenora looked from the avatar to Derpy.
“Why could he not hear Celica?”
“The things in his ears blocked the voices from reaching him. Celica’s, Sinister’s, mine. He had decided to leave, and he shut out anything that might interrupt that decision.”
Lewd folded her arms against herself.
“He asked for space.”
Ace’s gaze moved toward Vaeloria, still surrounded by guards farther down the corridor.
“He was given a courtyard,” she said.
No one answered her.
Lenora rested the plugs in her palm. Around them lay broken ice, scorched stone, an unconscious queen, and Riven, who had returned only to take the discharge Derpy could no longer control.
The dolls had caught their friend.
It had not answered what they were supposed to do when he woke and still wanted to leave.