Two is Company (House of Anubis)

TOUCHSTONE OF RA (Part IV): The Symbol & The Summoning

Eddie's lungs and legs were burning when they burst into the school. Their first priority was reconvening with the rest of their housemates and coming up with a new plan of action; hopefully they were all here and accounted for, not just out running around the grounds looking for the other pieces of the pyramid- or worse, already heading back to the house to report their findings.

They'd stumble upon quite a sight if they did, and Eddie could just imagine their worry... or their fear if Sophia was still there to catch them by surprise.

What was more likely, was that Sophia was already hot on their tails, but he was confident they had enough of a head start to keep outpacing her. That is, if they didn't stop for too long.

At some point during their mad dash to the school, the Touchstone had changed hands a few times, now clutched firmly in KT's left hand like an extension of her arm. In a weird way, it seemed to ground her.

Nina, on the other hand, was a complete mess, frazzled and afraid, but trying very hard not to show it. "This way, I hear people talking!" she urged, hanging left down one of the corridors by the computer lab; KT and Eddie followed her.

When they threw open the classroom door, however, it was just Dexter, Cassie, and Erin clearly having a major debrief of everything that had already gone down with the canopic jar, the Touchstone, and Sophia.

"I knew there was a reason I never liked that bitch," Cassie was seething as they barged in, and if there'd been any time to waste, Eddie might have given Dexter a hard time over blabbing everything to the first people he saw.

There wasn't any time, however, so Eddie just blurted out the most important question that came to mind. "Where're my sister and the others?" The tweens stared at the disheveled mess that Eddie, KT, and Nina surely were, and he grunted impatiently. "Hello, someone wanna answer me? Kira, Patricia- where are they?"

Dexter found his voice first. "Th-They told me to stay here," he explained. "They went looking for you."

Of course they did. "We can't wait here for them," he said to the girls, and Nina nodded sharply, on the same page as him for once.

"You're right," she replied, already on the move. "We'll catch up with them when we can."

Eddie and KT turned to follow her, but Dexter called out: "Where are you going?!"

KT and Eddie drew up short, and Nina huffed impatiently, already half-way down the hall. "We need to get this," KT replied, waving around the Touchstone, "as far away from Anubis House as possible!"

"Which means now," Eddie grunted, running to catch up with Nina, while KT followed after.

"Hey, wait for us!" Cassie called after them, and suddenly, the trio became a party of six.

"No, you'll only slow us down! We need to get to the woods and stay there till we have a real plan!" Nina barked, not waiting to see if they obeyed or not.

"Yes, ma'am!" KT replied, earning an appreciative glance from Nina. Thank god they at least got along, Eddie mused, because otherwise this already dreadful quest would have been beyond torture.

"Woods it is," he agreed, drawing ahead of the Chosen One so he could lead them out the side door of the school.

-

Kira didn't know what to expect upon returning to Anubis House, but it certainly wasn't Victor lying on the ground in the foyer covered in glass and debris from the fallen chandelier.

Their cursory sweep of the grounds predictably turned up nothing of real substance, and it had been something of a unanimous decision to return to home base and reconnect with the rest of Sibuna. Now, though, Kira's heart was in her throat. Something very bad had happened here, and if it had felled Victor, she didn't want to know what had become of her loved ones.