I finally did it! I made it to 64% synchronization for Disguise Self. The expected message never came. I was expecting to get a quest or message of sorts to return to a certain location or object for a new aspect. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Nothing happened.

My runic language skill has leveled to three, and with it, I can understand most of the simple words that are written around the doorways. I have been able to find the “open” symbol on every doorway. When I experimentally touched the “open” symbol by the nature door, nothing happened. Confused, I walked over to the illusion door and pressed the “open” symbol. After waiting the expected amount of time, the door silently opened. I made sure to do my experimenting when there weren’t any adults around to see moving doors that should not be moving.

Tonight, after the adults have fallen asleep, I am going to sneak out and approach one of the smaller illusion buildings. It will be a bit of a walk, but the closest one isn’t too far away. I would try to go back to the main building, but it takes us an hour to walk there in the morning and I don’t want to waste that much time.

There is no moon in the sky when I sneak out of our house. The stars are bright, but it is difficult to see much of anything. I have run around this area enough during our rest days that I know there are no hidden obstacles hidden in the grass between buildings.

Reaching the door of the smallest building for illusion, I am relieved that the system has decided to help. The action symbols are all faintly lit up for me. I gently push the symbol for “open” and wait for the door to open. Suddenly, I am blinded by the light coming from inside the building. As quickly as I can, I sit down just inside the door so that it will automatically close. I don’t want to alert any of the adults by a beacon of light on this moonless night.

Looking around the room, the first thing I notice is I am not in a hallway. The outside door opens into a large gathering room. Along the walls of the room, there are several conversation seating areas. Most have a couch and two chairs as well as a coffee table in the middle. Other seating areas have taller tables with chairs only. These areas would be ideal for playing a game of cards. In the center of the room, there are several sets of gold circles inlaid in the ground. They are big enough to be used as practice fighting rings.

Along the walls, there are several doors with simple door frames. Choosing at random, I reached toward the hand pad beside the door. After placing my hand on the door, words appeared in my vision.

You are not assigned to this barracks. See the administrator if this is an error.

Barracks! I then walked up to another door and received the same message. Looking around the room, there was one door that was as ornate as the entrance door so I headed in that direction. Using the “open” symbol to enter, the room looked like a waiting room complete with a reception desk. Just past the reception desk, there was another door with a hand pad next to it.

You do not have the proper clearance to enter.

There was no computer or enchanted surface at the reception desk that I could locate. It was possible that what I need is on the other side of that door. Letting out a long sigh, I realized I don't have time to do anything else tonight. I made sure to search the walls on my way out of the building but still came up empty-handed.

It may take doing something rash to get inside the illusion section of the main structure again. Showing my parents that I can open some doors will lead to more questions than I would like to answer. Before I take such a drastic step, I am going to study the central pillar today. Maybe I can glean some information on how to add myself and possibly others into the system. If everyone here can open doors then all I need to do is “accidentally” touch the right symbol in front of an adult.

The central pillar had to have been built more for beauty than for function. There are a few words on it that are enchanted to do things. After my first experience with the central pillar, I have been hands-off while studying it. Spending the rest of my free time slowly circling the pillar, I can say with confidence that it is not the central control interface. It is just too simple and very artistic.

My big break happened when I pushed a chair over to one of the podiums and looked at the slanted table on it. Along the top of the table, there were three symbols, “function”, “on”, and “off”. By pressing “function” and “on”, a large section of the table started to glow like a computer screen.

Welcome Ancient One!

Assign Illusion Door Access Assign Blacklisted People Assign Barracks Assign Administrators Assign Research Facility Access Set Messages To Appear Assign Temporary Access

Why does it keep calling me Ancient One? Oh well, I’m not complaining! Touching the screen, I added access for everyone in all areas I had available on this screen. There was an option for “unlock for all” which saved me the time of entering each person manually. I could only add myself to the Administrators option because there was a requirement of having Illusion magic connected to it. While messages sounded like fun, I chose not to play with them at this time. I then pressed “function” and “off” to hide all evidence of what I was doing.

Ardon was sitting by the illusion door when I walked over to it. “Hi Ardon, whatcha doin?”

“Well hello there Violet, right now I am trying to compare the symbols on this doorway with the symbols that are on the other doorways to see what matches.”

I pressed the “open” symbol and then asked, “What does that one mean?”

After the usual thirty seconds had passed, the door slid open. The look on Ardon’s face was so comical that it took everything I had in me not to burst out laughing. “GUYS! COME LOOK!” Ardon yelled. He then made sure to hold my hand to stop me from darting into the unknown room.

The door closed after the customary one minute of being open. To add to the comedy, it closed before anyone else was able to get there to see it open. When the others arrived at our location, Ardon was up against the door trying to push it sideways back into the wall.

“We’ve tried that Ardon. Please tell me we did not all just walk over here for one of your pranks” Corrin said.

“The door just opened! Violet saw it too!” He then started pressing all the symbols in the area near the open symbol. “Violet, do you remember which one you touched?”

I then pressed the “open” symbol again and said, “this one I think.”

When nothing happened right away, Ardon seemed to deflate. The door chose that moment to open once again much to the surprise of everyone there.

“This is a great find!”

“How did you do that!”

“Wow!”

Everyone started animatedly speaking at once. While they were all arguing about who would go inside first, the door closed again. This time it was Ardon who pressed the “open” symbol. I held my breath hoping that my changes on the admin console have taken place. Thirty seconds later, the door opened again and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Draw this symbol. It seems to take a few seconds after pressing it to get the door to open.”

“Violet, why don't you go run along and play with Sky while the adults work.” My mother said after she noticed I was still standing there with them.

I found a place not too far from the door to sit and observe the adults as they experimented with the new door they could open. If only I had access to popcorn! It took them well over an hour of opening and closing the door before anyone was brave enough to cross the threshold. Nobody wanted to be stuck on the wrong side of the door.

By the time dinner time rolled around, they had located the “open” symbol on the opposite side of the door and verified that it worked going the opposite direction as well. There was a celebration when everyone got back to camp. Everyone was singing, Judy got us up and dancing around with her. Corrin even broke out a bottle that looked suspiciously like alcohol.

When bedtime rolled around, my hopes of visiting the barracks again were completely dashed. My parents stayed up talking long into the night too excited to fall asleep. I ended up falling asleep before they did.

Her plan to introduce the door to the adults had several drawbacks. It took over a week for her to be able to sneak out at night once again to visit the barracks. While they were interesting to look at, she could not find anything that would give her access to gaining another aspect. What she assumed was the research facility in the medium-sized structure, was too far away for her to reach at night without being caught.

The adults were too afraid of the unknown to allow any of the children into the new section. They continued to keep a rotation for our training and were firmly against any of us going in for any reason. This left her only one option but she was hesitant to do it. She could open the secret room from the central column again.

She didn't want to do this because her absence would be noted. The walk from that room to the exit was just too long for her to make it back before being noticed. In the end, she took advantage of Nina’s distraction one day to enter the secret room again. Nina was too busy looking at the doorways and not paying attention to what the children were doing.

Sneaking up to the central column, she had just pressed the last symbol when Sky came up beside her and asked what she was doing. The next thing she knew they were both falling into the secret room.