"Did you fall through the floor?" I half-shouted. "A trap door under the rug, clever, clever." The doctor shook her head. "I think he phased..." I shook mine. "That's not good..."
"If I start raving incoherently," the lady in pink said, "just drop me in my ice bath and back out of my house." The doctor snorted. "If I were to do something every time you raved incoherently, I would be working twenty-four hours a day." I tried not to laugh, only to see her nod sagely. "Yes, it did occur to me that might be a full time job." Well, can't argue there.
"Definitely phased," I said, standing, in time to see Hiro limp into the room, fur damp from the exertion of getting up the stairs. I turned to walk to him as he crossed the floor--and the door opened again. "Oh no," was all he said, in a quiet voice.
How did it OPEN again, I thought wildly, watching the doctor pull some strange metallic wand from her medical bag, and point it at the door. I reeled back from the bright burst of light, as an arc of seeming electricity flew from the wand tip to the heaviest of the tentacles wrapped again around the Duke. "What on earth--" I stared, and the doctor just shook her head. "Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies," she said, and what else was I do do but accept that?
"Can we lock that thing again?" I cried out. Hiro wrestled with it, breathing hard. "Okay," he finally said. "Maybe we need help." NOW he says we need help??
The doctor and I watched the tentacles detach, and--something--else--pushing its way through the mass of writhing limbs, and we ran together to the door, in a frenzy now to close it. Through dint of sheer effort, more muttered incantations, something the doctor did that caused a sizzling sound, and kicking, we finally got everything that was on the other side of the door, back on the other side of the door, and the door firmly shut. I looked around for what to do next but the doctor was already prepared, sliding a metal bar in front of the door that seemed to auto-attach to the wall, and pulling out a heavy, ornate padlock, clasping it closed through two thick holes on one side. She turned, handing me something else, something...dark...wrapped in stained parchment.
"If that thing gets out again...and gets hungry again...feed it this," she said, placing it in my hand. "I got this in Babbage with a friend of mine. Hunting with him." She explained that it had started out life as blood sausage, but that now, it had a mix of certain herbs, and had been soaked in holy water. I watched the lady in pink take a step back.
Hiro looked around, dizzy, swaying on his paws. He looked down. "Oh," he said faintly. "I am not clothed." I leaned in closer. "I was going to point that out," I murmured. I thought the crisis was over until a mad light gleamed in his eyes, and he turned around, staring at the lady in pink. "Is this--your doing?" he asked, the words halting at first, but gaining in strength. "Is this some vile godless Communist--stuff?"
I blinked. I looked at the doctor. "Could it have--affected his mind somehow?" Though I realized, he was already coated with--something, and that could be affecting on its own. The doctor shrugged. "I suggest he bathes, possibly with a little holy water, some old salts I got from some very strange and distant relatives..." And she pointed her chin in the direction of the vial I still held, that I could feel was very old, very powerful...and very fae. I slipped it into my pocket, staring at her. She just smiled.
I turned back to Hiro. "Oh, please. She had nothing to do with this," just as the she in question added, "I doubt it." His eyes flicked to me, then to her, then back to me, widening.
"No offense," the doctor said. "but she's not remotely capable of causing this amount of trouble..." I nodded, watching him. "Or, at least, it's different trouble. Not interdimensional beast trouble." I leaned closer, whispering "That's mostly us," to the Duke.
For her part, the lady in pink just sighed and looked at the ceiling. "I try to be a model citizen."
But he would not be calmed. "Who pushed us to rent this place?" he asked, his voice rising. "Is this some plot? Is this--"
I patted his arm. "Now, now," I said, I hoped helpfully. "I suggested this shop to you because of the office. You remember that."
He turned shocked, and now angry eyes to me. "Et tu, Emilly?" The doctor sighed. "Hiro, this is not some plot." I just narrowed my eyes.
"Oh, we're suspecting ME now?" The doctor nodded. "If that thing was known, don't you think someone would have bombed the thing by now?" Or perhaps destroyed the entire French quarter, I thought. I looked up in time to see the Duke sway forward, barely catching him in my arms, struggling to keep him upright.
"Right. Back to Gearhaven. You need a bath. Possibly in holy water."
"Could you do me a favor?" he asked weakly, swiveling his gaze to mine. "And not mention this to..." He trailed off, and I frowned. "I have been, uh..." He trailed off again. I just wrinkled my nose at him. "Under the weather?" I asked. As if a few years of sanitarium care and my guardianship of his lands were nothing more than a summer cold. He simply nodded, however. "I have been attempting to get to know her," he whispered. "Just to discuss her career..." I shook my head. "Yes, I know, Hiro," I whispered back. I looked worriedly at the doctor.
He murmured something I barely caught, about 'Unseelie mama juju', shaking my head. "I may have something else," I said, looking at the doctor. "Hush, now, we'll be home soon."
Thankfully, transport portals were a simple magic, known by many island residents. I quickly summononed one while looking around the room. "I do apologize, everyone. I hope the goat was not too disturbed." Great, now I'm the one sounding deranged. I watched the doctor take some nails that were left over from an emptied crate, touch the strangely charged rod to them, and watched as they screwed in along the door, stranding faint lines of blue-white light between each pair.
"There," she said. "Charged with enough extradimensional etheric energy to make sure any supernatural that wants to get near the door hates it..." I nodded. "Good idea." I activated the portal, and the last thing I heard as we faded from view was the doctor saying "That is one tough goat" to the artist. "Most would have run away."
"I'm sure he'll be...fine..." I murmured, into the sparkle, and even I wasn't sure if I was talking about the goat, or the Duke...
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