Realmspace wrapped around Addie and Squishy like a plunge into ice water. All influence from the old woman was now gone. Addie took less than a second to process her surroundings with her spatial sense and saw twisted roots trying to claw their way toward her. This likeness of a tree from another world tried to tie knots around the girl and her companion, its aim to drag them back into that witch’s domain.
Addie took ten steps in tandem with Squishy. Luckily, Realmspace was preoccupied with repelling those intruding fibrous roots. As such, Realmspace was momentarily unaware of the bonded pair, allowing them to walk through its domain far longer than normal. On the eleventh step, Realmspace thoroughly erased the witch’s presence, and by the twelfth step, finally became aware of Addie and Squishy. On the thirteenth step, the pair were finally ejected from the dark of Realmspace.
Through some twist of luck, the time spent in the witch’s house had been long enough for the rain to ease up, and Addie now stood mostly dry upon slick mud. She looked behind her and saw the house. The once protective tree now menacing. No leaves adorned its form, and twisted branches led to spiked thorny twigs.
The witch stood in the front doorway to the house and waved gently to Addie. “I’m sorry you couldn’t stay the night dearie, but please keep the clothes as a token of my hospitality! I’ll leave your friend’s booties here on the porch if you want to take them back sometime!” Called Grandma sweetly.‘Perhaps at least a thank you for the bath?’ Addie shook off a shiver and turned away from the house. No.
The woman couldn’t have been too dangerous, in retrospect. Her father, bound to the land itself, never would have missed her presence, since the tree was intermingled with the land. That, plus the fact that the woman could have directly harmed Addie at any time but notably hadn’t, suggested she was most likely harmless, if a bit crazy. “And terrifying,” Squishy chimed in through the bond.
Addie looked down at herself and examined her new pajamas. They felt just as soft as they had when she first put them on. Besides the creepy tree motifs designed on the matching shirt-pants combo, Addie actually sort of liked the clothes. Knowing who knitted the clothes, however, made them feel somewhat unpleasant. Looking at her pants’ cuffs, she noticed that mud seemed to repel off the fabric. Some form of enchantment, perhaps. Addie guessed that the woman must have bonded her soul to that tree in the yard, giving her some measure of power over anything wooden. Perhaps these clothes themselves were spun of that tree’s fibers. Addie certainly wouldn’t be asking anytime soon to find out.
The memory of Addie’s expensive dress left behind in the bathroom filled her with a degree of regret. That dress was as good as lost. Her bare feet didn’t help matters, either. At least her current attire was enchanted against this wet muck. She sighed, determined to make it to the mansion, pajamas or not. Thoughts of her father were now solidly at the forefront of Addie’s mind.
Squishy’s presence filled her soul, strengthening her resolve to rescue her dad. Addie wouldn’t be alone this time. She took her first few steps forward, even as exhaustion clung to her. The old woman was right in the sense that Addie needed sleep, but she could sleep after she knew her father to be safe. If she slept now, Addie would risk never hearing her father’s comforting voice ever again.
As they walked in the pre-morning light, Squishy reached out telepathically, “Do you believe that old woman had a name?” Squishy wondered.
“If she did, probably for the best we didn’t find out.” A shiver ran through Addie, a guttural “Ughh” of repulsion escaping her.
“Perhaps,” Squishy continued, “Or perhaps knowing her name could give us a certain power over the woman,” The cat-like creature mused.
Addie left it at that as they wandered the road towards the mansion. No one seemed to be up this early in the morning. Addie thought some of the villagers would need to be up to attend to their small chickens or garden plots.
Regardless of her assumptions, no one was out today, leaving the chilly morning air to just the duo as they walked toward their long-awaited destination. Addie knew it would be better to get there as fast as possible, either by running or traversing Realmspace, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. The closer they got, the more her nerves seemed to crash against her chest.
Squishy spoke up, drawing Addie out of her thoughts, “Let us decide on our course of action. While running in there and gambling on our success is certainly a strategy, it is not a winning one. Between the two of us, you are the thinker. What can we do to mitigate our chance of failure?”
“Chance of failure, huh? I think we should focus more on trying to win than trying to avoid failure. But alright, let me think,” Addie said, rubbing her face as they continued down the road, trying out different ideas in her head.
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“Ok, I think I have a plan. Let me know what you think.”
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If the nerves eating away at Addie before had been intense, now they felt nigh unmanageable. Somehow, the pair had managed to reach the manor walls without seeing another soul in town. Normally, there would be all manner of servants hustling around the manor, drawing water for many daily needs, or tending to the plants in the garden. Today, it was dead silent.
Addie thought little of it, as concerned as she was with her own plan and possible success. If there was no one out here to spot her, great. Addie paid it little mind.
Following their plan, the pair stepped into Realmspace. Now, was the tricky part. They had agreed to manifest directly within the manor’s wall cavity. That bit of space between the outer wall and the inner wall, which is often filled with insulation. That familiar cramped and musty place would be their perfect vantage point to scout the manor. With any luck, she might even encounter Rob in his usual hiding spot. Her grandfather’s old bonded would be a great help if she could find him. Addie thought to check that area of the house first.
In reality, Addie knew the chances of her father being in the upper levels of the house were slim. More likely, Addie would need to find a way into the basement. But if Rob could help them, it would be worth the detour upstairs.
Before any of that, though, Addie and Squishy had to correctly judge the exact number of steps it would take from Realmspace to reappear inside the wall cavity. One misjudgment of distance, and they would be short, still outside the manor, or worse, they could overshoot and appear within the halls. The former would be a small annoyance, but the latter could be a deadly mistake if Christena had someone patrolling the inside of the mansion.
Luckily, Squishy had many years of Realmspace traversal under his belt. Likely, there was no being on the planet better at traversing Realmspace than her little partner. Addie suspected he might be the only creature who could even access Realmspace at all. She’d never heard of such a thing in all of her lessons.
Addie walked parallel with Squishy, trying to mimic the exact distance he was going for. After just a few steps, Squishy stopped. Addie made sure she was exactly in position with him, and then she braced as Realmspace pushed them back out into reality, the pair no longer working their magic to stay.
Upon their arrival back, Addie noticed she saw nothing but black. Then, after a little while, her eyes adjusted, and she saw the musty crawlspace from within the wall cavity. Some of Addie’s tension released out of her, then.
From here forward, the two of them had agreed that Addie would not speak aloud. From the first moment of their bonding, Squishy always communicated telepathically with Addie. Though the girl hadn’t tried to do that herself, she had some experience sending Squishy rudimentary thoughts and feelings through their bond back in the forest, back when Addie worked on the fire.
To continue with their plan successfully, Addie needed to figure out how to speak back to her companion without using words. To that end, she focused back on the time she sent Squishy a prodding feeling through their bond, those few nights ago. She remembered vividly how to send that feeling over to him. Now, it was just a matter of sending something a bit more complex.
For now, she worked out a simple thought, “Silly cat”. She focused on that mantra and bundled it up. Then, she attached it to that feeling of ‘sending’ something through their bond and sent the thought on its way.
“It appears that you have figured it out. Congratulations,” Squishy said genuinely, seeming to ignore the barbed statement.
Addie slowly sent more words over, and even a couple of small sentences. The act still required quite a bit of concentration. It didn’t take long though for her to figure it out. She had a decent amount of experience pulling on the magic interwoven between their souls. This method of communication was simply an extension of their bond, one Addie had been on the receiving end of for days now.
Addie felt less pride in her accomplishment than she might otherwise have. The simplest step of their plan was successful, but the pair still had a long way ahead of them to save her father.
They walked through the musty crawl space within the walls for a while. Even after her eyes fully adjusted, the location confused Addie for a moment, causing her to readjust and try to get her bearings straight. Normally, she entered the crawl space from the kitchen, using that starting point as the basis of her internal map. Now, she had to reorient herself and figure out where everything was in relation to her new starting position. She had never been able to enter the crawlspace from the front of the house before, so things didn’t quite match her instinctive memory of the layout.
It didn’t take her long though; she had traversed all the crawl spaces between the walls since she first discovered it last summer. It took her only about two minutes to figure out exactly where she was given her mental model of the manor’s crawlspace.
Over the course of a few steps, using her mental map, Addie gained confidence as she continued. Soon, she knowingly led the way straight to the kitchen, hoping to find Rob. Getting the old werecat on their side would mean two against Christena’s one. Addie prayed to the binary that Rob would be in his customary spot as she quickly but quietly got closer to the kitchen.
Addie held her breath as she got closer—finding Rob might be the difference between saving her dad and abject failure. Nervous hopefulness built up in her chest. The odds were good; it was still early in the morning, and the likelihood that the old grump was avoiding the rest of the house seemed to increase during normal sleeping hours.
Addie tip-toed along, placing her feet on the most stable boards, as she had learned which boards creaked and which did not long ago. Now, it was mostly second nature. Addie barely had to think about where to place each foot to maximize stealth. If Squishy was the master of forest navigation, then Addie was the master of mansion crawl space navigation. Normally, Addie would be happy to teach Squishy how and where to walk in here to avoid making noise, but for now, she held him tightly to her chest. It was better not to take risks for the time being.
Her heart dropped as the familiar hideaway came into view. Rob's blanket lay undisturbed, the familiar black feline missing. Addie tried not to let her confidence crumble.
“Oh no,” Addie sent out telepathically, “He’s not here.”
Addie leaned over and looked down at the hole near her feet that led to the kitchen. It was so strange seeing it so empty. Usually, there would be a mass of servants bustling about preparing breakfast by now. Either Christena had given all the staff leave, or something worse had happened to them.
Addie tried not to let the dark thoughts show on her face. She needed to be strong. Even without Rob, Addie felt she had good odds against Christena. After all, she didn’t need to defeat Fluffy or Christena in combat; she just needed to be sneaky enough to save her dad without either of them immediately noticing. Still tightly holding Squishy, Addie began walking back through the crawl space to get to the basement entrance.