NOVEL NEXT Bonus Chapter: Chou's Night Out
Chou's Night Out
Chou watched Serea leave the room to enjoy her party. The room was quiet and still. Hollow. Empty. Sadness.
The butterfly burbled out a vibration that matched the emotion.
It was difficult to stay in that state of disappointment when Serea's emotions were so vibrant in Chou's core. Instead of continuing in that state of perpetual sadness, Chou began her regular analysis based on the facts at hand.
Serea's mask created a layer of mana over her to mimic real fabric, and transformed her outward appearance in every way that mattered. This did not alter their soul bond. Likewise this did not alter Chou in any noticeable way based on the diagnostics. Conclusion: The magic in the mask was superficial and could be bypassed with the correct aetheric filter.
Chou's blue-glass wings fluttered with enthusiasm at this discovery. Now she only needed to calculate the correct aetheric filter to be able to see through the silly mask magic. Unfortunately, without Serea present anymore, this task proved impossible for her little circuits to calculate correctly. Each time Chou tried there was an annoying boo-boo noise accompanied by a "404 error: cannot compute" notice.
Her antennae twitched, frustrated by the lack of data. She turned her attention to the bigger problem at hand, where would she find the data to do this? After processing that question for a moment, the answer became clear. Conclusion: The Enchanted Masquerade would have ample subjects by which to test the correct settings for the appropriate aetheric filter.
It was as simple as that. Chou had to go to the Great Hall to gather more data.
Getting out of the room was a simple matter. All she had to do was lift the latch on the window and push it just far enough that her tiny mechanical body could flutter out. Without Serea's long legs, though, it took a really long time to fly to the Great Hall from their room in the Sanctum. The trip was worth it with all of the scribes in masks congregated in the courtyard.
This gave Chou all the data she would ever need! She got to analyzing right away from the top of a hedge off the main pathway through the courtyard. Scribes in masks clustered together in small groups making data collection a breeze! This was going so well that Chou might have been shaking with joy!
Masks of every shape, size, and style were cataloged, compared, and cross referenced for aetheric function and mana density. It was so exciting that inclining trills of happiness escaped her when initial results came in for filtering options. Chou waited though, until the final piece of data was 100% complete. Conclusion: Aetheric filter settings should be adjusted to sepia. Should this setting be applied?
Chou trilled out with glee in affirmation to the suggestion and before her eyes, the silly mask magic was filtered away to reveal scribes in plain clothes. She adopted the posture that the one called Professor Lighthammer had often used when he was thinking deeply about a topic, a spindly forearm set on her face. It was a bit disappointing to view it all this way, which was not an expected result, at all!
The lighting in the courtyard was dim and mysterious. The music from inside the Great Hall wafted into the open air, adding to the ambiance. Scribes milling about in their normal attire somehow did not fit the predetermined splendor that Cira and the other girls had spoken about earlier in the day.
Tilting her head, Chou turned off the filter with a low vibration and all the scribes returned to their silly, opulent garb. This seemed much more concurrent with her data. She tilted her head the other way, making an inclining vibration to set the filter once more. With all the scribes returning to regular garb, the data conflicted again. Conclusion: The silly mask magic is a necessary part of the Enchanted Masquerade.
"Ho, ho! If it isn't Chou." A nasal voice caught Chou's attention while she analyzed all the data. It belonged to a black furred Panthara with large yellow-green cat eyes and regular clothes. The green one-piece dress had a familiar stew stain on it. Conclusion: This was Fara with whom we had lunch earlier this afternoon.
"Good evening, Fara." Chou trilled in an excited greeting and took flight to join Fara at eye level.
Fara's eyes widened at this and hissed quietly, "You know who I am?"
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"Yes." Chou tilted her head, turning the filter off, to see what exactly the silly mask magic did to one of Serea's friends.
Fara wore a fox mask in reds and oranges that glittered softly in the low lighting of the courtyard. Her fake dress was sleek and form fitting in a similar color palette with a high slit up one leg and a translucent, flowing over skirt. The oddest piece of information was this fake form had no fur! It was replaced instead by smooth, dark skin and short, straight, black hair that framed the mask.
"This is an unexpected development, I must say." The fake human version of Fara smiled devilishly while she rubbed at her cheek, as if trying to smooth the skin there.
The gesture did not compute and gave Chou a headache. The butterfly tilted her head to turn the filter back on and the image now made sense. The Panthara was smoothing out her whiskers. Conclusion: Both the real and fake images must be shown to maximize the accuracy of data and resolve computing errors.
It took a few moments of processing in which Chou's wings fluttered erratically and lost altitude for a heartbeat, but the end result was worth the processing power. The real image now showed the static, opaque form of the individual with an overlay of fake mask magic on top of it. Chou's circuits breathed easier as a soft vibration of relaxation escaped her.
"Are you feeling alright? Should we find Serea?" Fara's voice was deep with concern for Chou. "You can find Serea, right?"
"Oh yes!" Chou gained altitude again and somersaulted in the air. "I can always find Serea! She created me."
"Let's go find her, then." Fara suggested in a kind voice.
"Oh," Chou started with a descending trill, "We should not. I was supposed to stay in our room or else she would be discovered."
"Nyahaha!" The Panthara laughed hardily. "Don't worry. We will stay well hidden so as not to give away your little secret."
"Secret?" Chou knew this word. It meant to keep information hidden. Bad! Devious! Who would hide information on purpose?
"Yeah, you came to the Masquerade, even though you were told not to. So we need to keep your presence hidden from Serea."
Small thin legs held Chou's face on either side, antennae straight as a board. What had she done?! Her need for data had created a secret to be kept from her benevolent creator! But she needed this data to present to Serea so she can know the inner workings of the silly mask magic. But now she couldn't tell Serea because it would admit that Chou came to the Masquerade!
Chou felt dizzy as the logic kept circling around and around in her core. She didn't notice that she had descended right into Fara's gentle hands.
"Come on," Fara coaxed gently, which broke Chou from her logic loop. "We will just check on her. She won't even know you were here."
"Really?" Chou looked up at the fox mask with a tremor in her voice.
"Of course! Now which way is she?" Fara asked, already moving in a direction before Chou pointed out the correct one. They were not the same, but Fara adjusted quickly.
It did not take long for them to find her through the magnetism Chou felt from her core. It led them into the Great Hall and Fara was able to maneuver them through the crowd of scribes into a position with a full view of the dance floor. In the middle of the floor was Serea in her glowy bird mask dancing with a tall man in a mask like a skull with antlers and sharp teeth.
They moved and laughed together around the dance floor. For a moment, Chou was too stunned to speak until Fara whispered down to her.
"Do you see her?"
"Yes," Chou responded, "The black bird dancing with the scary skull."
"Wow! Look at her go!" Fara mused quietly. "Who is she dancing with?"
"I do not know. I have never seen him before."
"But you can, like, see through the enchantment, right?"
Chou nodded, antennae bobbing.
"Describe what is under the enchantment, then."
Chou did her best but there wasn't much to say. He had coal dark hair and olive toned skin. His pants were normal, a comfortable fabric, and a similar sleeveless shirt on. The most notable thing about him was the tattoos that moved under his skin, leaving trails of mana in their wake. Conclusion: does not match any male known in the database. Checking auxiliary memory for more information.
"Did you say moving tattoos?" Fara's voice was bright and Chou recognized a familiar calculating glint in her eyes.
"Do you know him?" Chou asked, fully invested in updating her database.
Fara left the dance floor and the couple behind the two of them to wander casually back out to the courtyard before answering.
"Oh, yes, I know him. Chou, that is Calas Duskwood that she is dancing with and I'll be damned that he actually knows how to dance." Fara knuckled her chin in a thoughtful posture.
"Calas Duskwood." Chou repeated, searching her memory for the entry. She was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information that came up from her query. This was the same scary guy that Cira complained about all the time!
"Wow," Chou remarked after her info-dump, "That scary guy looks a lot nicer than I had expected."
"You know, Chou, you are so right." Fara's smile was ear to ear, revealing all her real sharp teeth. "I would say she is in good hands, wouldn't you agree?"
Chou tilted her head, wings fluttering as she processed that statement. "I suppose that makes sense." In truth, she was not entirely certain what the other girl was saying at all, but there was a 72% chance that Fara meant that Serea wasn't in any danger.
"Then you should get back to your room before the night is over and all of this can be our little secret." Fara flashed another wide grin.
Conclusion: Fara is so friendly! Serea is very lucky to have such a good friend.
"Yes!" Chou trilled, taking flight and zoomed away from Fara, the courtyard, and the Enchanted Masquerade.
Like Fara said, it was just a little secret.