Derpy was calm.

  No more white-blue surges crawling out of his fingers. No involuntary snaps. No lightning biting the stone.

  Just cold air, stone beneath him, and the tiny Celica-guardian perched on his shoulder like a rule made physical.

  “Are you ready to go back?” it asked.

  Derpy didn’t look at it.

  “No.”

  “We did what we came here to do,” he said. “We’re leaving.”

  The avatar fluttered off his shoulder and drifted in front of him, hovering at eye level.

  “You can’t run away from your bonds,” it said. “You made them. With your friends.”

  Derpy’s jaw tightened.

  “I can’t deal with the pressure.”

  As if the world had been waiting for that admission, his pets found him.

  Sphinx jumped up and landed on his shoulder like she belonged there.

  Mia pressed in at his side, warm and steady.

  Derpy’s hand moved automatically—petting, grounding.

  “All I need are my pets,” he said, voice rough. “I can’t bear this. Seeing people I care about hurt.”

  His skin glowed.

  Not bright. Not holy.

  A quiet internal heat—like a decision being made under the ribs.

  Rabbit ears pushed up through his hair—long, bent slightly at the tips, reddish-black like bruised ember.

  A small bunny tail formed at his lower back, the same red-black shade.

  The Celica-avatar floated beside him, watching like it had expected this.

  “I will support you,” it said. “But this is the closest we have ever been to having all the calamity books together.”

  “There will be a time when we come together,” it continued. “But right now—”

  “I need to think,” Derpy cut in.

  And then he moved.

  Not sprinting. Not panicking.

  Quiet.

  He magic-stepped onto the first pillar.

  Then the next.

  Then the next.

  A rabbit choosing height. Choosing distance. Choosing silence.

  Ace was there.

  The dragon girl who’d come in with Lenora and Lewd.

  She landed in his path like a door that refused to be opened.

  Derpy stopped on a pillar edge, rabbit ears twitching.

  “Hey,” he said.

  Ace’s gaze swept him—ears, tail, glow.

  “Though you changed your appearance,” she said, “I can still tell it’s you, Derpy.”

  Derpy clicked his tongue and looked away like he’d been found out.

  “This is new,” he muttered.

  Ace’s eyes narrowed, studying him like a pattern.

  “I see,” she said. “When you’re in dragon form, you’re confident. When you change into that wolf form, you’re all over the place.”

  Her gaze flicked to his ears.

  “And when you feel bad—when you try to run away—you turn into a rabbit.”

  Derpy’s rabbit ears twitched.

  He swallowed.

  “Please, Ace,” he said. “I need space.”

  Ace didn’t move.

  Her hammer didn’t lower.

  Her answer was her stance.

  Mk1’s head lifted.

  Worried.

  Then she darted out of Vaeloria’s rooms like a beacon that had decided to run.

  Lenora moved instantly—out the door, fast as panic.

  Lewd followed.

  That left Vaeloria with her three daughters.

  Vaeloria’s voice stayed level.

  “Listen to me, Lieam. Derpy is most likely going to try and take off.”

  Lieam groaned.

  “Normally I don’t want you to use that calamity book,” Vaeloria continued, “but I give you full access to keep him from leaving.”

  Lieam’s face twisted.

  “Why, Mom? I don’t like using it. I feel weird.”

  Vaeloria’s gaze turned icy.

  “I can have one of my pets trying to leave,” she said. “He’s important to me.”

  Amy snorted.

  “Why?” she asked.

  Vaeloria didn’t flinch.

  “Because he was able to do something you couldn’t,” she said. “That doll your husband—my father—could command… he’s able to control.”

  Her voice sharpened.

  “And now the ruin series are following him. Or perhaps the War Council and War Office magically disappeared due to him and that Riven doll. Since coming here, the Empire has shifted—for better and for worse.”

  Vaeloria’s eyes flicked to Lyn.

  “Lyn,” she said. “He is not allowed to leave. Is that clear?”

  Amy tipped her hat down.

  “Got it, Ma.”

  Then she grinned without warmth.

  “But ya gunna owe me something in return. Is that fair?”

  Vaeloria’s mouth curved—calm, dangerous.

  “That’s fine,” she said. “Whatever you like, dear.”

  Back in the corridor, Ace and Derpy stood like two predators about to clash.

  Ace’s voice was steady.

  “I’m not like I was when we first fought.”

  Derpy’s eyes narrowed—slits, dragon-sharp.

  “That’s fine,” he said. “If you won’t let me past… I’ll force my way through.”

  He reached up and shoved something into his ears.

  A plug.

  A block.

  Music bled in—loud enough to drown thought.

  Loud enough to drown voices.

  Sinister Derpy.

  Celica.

  Everything.

  Ace’s mouth moved.

  Derpy didn’t hear it.

  He tilted his head, rabbit ears twitching to the beat.

  He spoke anyway—casual, cruelly calm.

  “Your move, luv.”

  Ace dashed.

  Hammer down.

  It hit a magic circle.

  Derpy jumped onto it at the exact second of impact.

  The circle flared.

  And he launched—fast—down the hall like a bullet that had decided to dance.

  A gust of wind kicked up behind him as Lenora, Lewd, and Mk1 burst into motion.

  Mk1 accelerated first—doll-body built for pursuit.

  She caught up, mouth moving.

  “Friend—ok?”

  Derpy read her lips.

  He shook his head once.

  No.

  He raised a hand.

  Ice shards formed in front of her—sharp, clean.

  Magic circles stamped onto the shards like seals.

  Mk1 smashed through.

  The circles detonated.

  She was shot backward—hard—slamming into Lewd and Lenora.

  Mk1’s face tightened, upset.

  Mk1 didn’t waste time arguing with pain.

  She snapped upright and ran—not after Derpy’s last position, but after his route, reading the corridor like a map.

  Then a magic circle appeared at her throat.

  Her voice came out altered—broadcast.

  “Mk1 failed to protect Derpy. Need assistance in catching Derpy. Threat to himself. Form change: red and black bunny ears with red-black bunny tail.”

  Derpy hit the corner of the hallway, music still pounding in his ears.

  He hopped onto the next magic circle and shot left.

  Guards appeared ahead—forming a line fast, like they’d been warned.

  Mk2 was with them.

  Mk2 lunged for him.

  Missed.

  Derpy broke the line the guards tried to form like he wasn’t even there.

  Mk2’s eyes tracked his trajectory.

  “Launch me forward,” Mk2 snapped. “I can’t catch up. I need a boost.”

  Lenora and Lewd were still regaining their footing behind the pileup; Mk1 wasn’t. Mk1 was already moving.

  Mk1 hit the wall, boots and palms finding purchase like she’d been built for vertical surfaces.

  She sprinted along the stone—cutting the corner above the guards instead of through them—then dropped down beside Mk2 in a hard, controlled landing.

  Mk1’s arm lifted.

  A huge beam fired.

  It struck Mk2’s back and launched her forward like a cannon shot.

  Mk2 caught up.

  She tackled—

  And hit a perfect copy of ice.

  A decoy.

  Mk2 was pinned in place by the frozen duplicate while Derpy kept moving.

  Derpy’s thought was simple, brutal, and wrong:

  I’ll be better if I’m alone.

  Mia and Sphinx clung to him—tiny weights on his shoulders, anchors he refused to drop.

  At the end of the corridor, Vaeloria stood waiting.

  Her mouth moved.

  Derpy didn’t hear her.

  He jumped onto a magic circle and shot forward—downward—fast enough to tear breath out of lungs.

  Vaeloria grabbed his hoodie as he passed.

  The force yanked her off the ground—

  and she braced.

  Runes flared under her boots like a slammed stamp.

  Magic anchored her to the corridor for a heartbeat, long enough to keep her spine from snapping, long enough to keep her grip from tearing loose.

  She still screamed.

  Tears ripped free from her eyes from the speed alone.

  But she held him—arms locked around his waist like she could physically hold him to the world.

  Wind gathered under Lenora’s feet.

  Pyro’s power—air made violent.

  She darted.

  Caught up.

  Teleported to Derpy’s side.

  Lenora’s eyes flicked over him—rabbit ears, tail, the too-calm posture.

  She could tell he was hurting.

  Hurting for hurting Lewd.

  Hurting for being seen.

  Ace darted past Lenora and tackled—

  Derpy.

  And Vaeloria.

  The impact spun Vaeloria out.

  She hit the floor hard.

  Her eyes turned into dizzy circles.

  Out cold.

  Lenora and Ace stood side by side, careful.

  Pyro’s voice murmured inside Lenora like heat behind teeth.

  “I sense nothing from him right now.”

  Derpy got up.

  Brushed himself off.

  Music still blasting.

  He bobbed his head to the rhythm like the world was a club and he was the only one allowed to leave.

  Hands in pockets.

  Then he raised one hand and made a small motion.

  Come get me.

  Ace dashed in, hammer swinging.

  Derpy dodged by dancing—spinning left, flipping, landing on his hands, rabbit ears twitching with the beat.

  Lenora lunged to grab him.

  She missed.

  Her ears caught strange sounds—faint, tinny—leaking from his earplugs.

  Music.

  A wall.

  Derpy’s eyes darted—exit, exit, exit.

  A window.

  He hopped from one foot to the other.

  Sparks formed on his arm again.

  The same new expression as before—white-blue at its core—

  but in this state it looked darker, bruised, almost black against his skin.

  Uncontrolled.

  It crackled down his legs, then shot upward toward the window.

  He launched—

  And slammed into bodies.

  Riven.

  Mk3.

  Mk4.

  They hit him like a wall that loved him too much to let him die.

  They pushed him back into the castle.

  Riven landed on his chest and absorbed the shock, taking the electricity into herself like a sacrifice.

  Derpy’s body went limp.

  Riven’s eyes fluttered.

  Both of them passed out.

  Celica’s tiny dragon avatar perched on Lenora’s shoulder.

  Lenora stiffened.

  She hadn’t realized.

  Not until the voice spoke with that calm blade-tone.

  “I tried to stop him,” the avatar said.

  Lenora’s breath caught.

  “The things in his ears make it so the voices can’t reach him,” Celica continued. “He was dead set on trying to leave.”

  Lenora stared down at Derpy’s unconscious body.

  At the rabbit ears.

  At the red-black tail.

  At the way his hands still looked like they wanted to run even in sleep.

  The chapter ended with the room holding its breath.

  Because the calm was gone.

  And the next choice would hurt worse