Inversion (2/2)

But what he got from Mrs. Beemer was a look of horror. “You were one of our strongest allies,” she whispered. “What will we do now?”

“I still am,” Threadbare said, puzzled. “You're doing very good work, here.”

“Excuse me,” Mrs. Beemer said, rising and clapping her hands. “I need to get the little ones to class. Come now, children.” Her voice was wobbling a bit.

Threadbare was mortified. Had he upset her? It certainly seemed that way.

Graves laid a hand on his paw, and shook his head. Wait, he mouthed.

“All right,” Threadbare said both to his friend and for Mrs. Beemer's benefit. “Thank you for letting us play with them. I rather liked that, haven't had a proper game with children in a very long time.”

“You're very welcome. Please stop by... whenever you can,” she said, and hurried off, with four eager little oblivious golems in tow.

“Oh dear oh dear me,” said the Mousewife, once she was away. “She was holding back tears. What did we do? How can we help?”

Graves shook his head. “You can't, I'm afraid. She's been under a lot of stress recently. This is very much the last straw on the camel's back.”

“There's a camel involved in this somehow?” Threadbare rubbed the top of his head. This was getting even more confusing.

“No.” Graves sighed. “It... well, we've had problems with people saying very hurtful lies about what we do here. A few of the Council have toured the place and had people inspect it to make sure that we aren't up to shenanigans, but the rumors keep persisting.”

“I don't recall any of this coming up when I was on the Council,” Threadbare said. “And I only left a few weeks ago.”

“Begging your pardon sir, but that makes sense,” the Mousewife said. “Everyone knows the Rumpus Room was your idea. Of course they wouldn't insult you by saying you was behind killin' children and putting them into dollies.”

“That's what they're saying?” Threadbare was horrified. “Which people?”

“Just... people,” the Mousewife spread her paws.

“The rumors don't stop,” Graves said. “And now that you've gone the Council is taking them much more seriously. My read on it is that they're covering their bottoms.”

“Do they...” Threadbare was about to ask if there were Councilors running around without pants now, but this was hopefully some kind of language quirk. He felt a tug of regret that Celia wasn't here to explain it to him.

“This will pass,” Graves said, rising. “And as you've said, you're not a part of the Council anymore. Don't worry about Mrs. Beemer. She's under stress, but so long as it stays all talk, and nothing goes horribly wrong, she'll—”

The world flickered, then faded back in. Flickered, and faded back in.

“What is this?” the Mousewife squeaked.

Words appeared out of nowhere.

ERROR! NO MASTER DETECTED. DUNGEON SEALING IN 30...29...28...

“Something's happened to Reason!” Graves stood. “Quickly, the core chamber's down the southern hall—”

The countdown stopped.

The words disappeared.

And the room shifted around them, as reality altered...