At this point, it was a safe bet that Jade had spilled the beans about pretty much everything she knew. Looking around the room, she located a secret door and walked toward it. “Well, if we are going to have this discussion, let’s get a little more space.” She opened the door and walked through it hoping to find a living area on the other side. It was a very common occurrence so she was not too worried about that.

Sky and Jade followed after her right away but when she turned around to check on the adults, there was a mixture of disbelief and shock on their faces. It appears they did not fully believe whatever Jade had told them. After the door had closed and she re-opened it, Jade whispered “I didn’t tell them about this, I just told them you know how to read the runes.”

The adults immediately started to nerd out. She was inundated with questions and they were all trying to talk over each other.

“How did you do that?”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Where does this lead?”

“What is this place?”

“How long have you known about this?”

“Why doesn’t the door work for me?”

Violet was in a state of shock. If only she had a way to go back in time and assess the situation properly before sticking her foot in her mouth. She had worked it up so much in her head that she was on edge and her thoughts had gone haywire. Geez, she was close to thirty-four years old mentally and she still jumped to the wrong conclusions with little to go off of.

Well, she guessed it was time to spill the beans on herself it would seem. She decided to share as little as possible about the hows and the whys and drown them in all of the fun things they had found in this section.

“I picked up the skill called Language - Runic a little while ago. As soon as I got that on my skill sheet, I was able to read a little bit. The more I was exposed to the symbols of this language, the higher the skill level got. I’m sorry! I didn’t want them to take me away for being too smart.” At this point, Violet had planned on turning on fake tears and using her skill levels in Acting. In reality, she was very passionate about this subject already so the tears came naturally.

Her mother was the person who spoke next. “Honey, we would never willingly let them take you away from us. The other adults and I have kept this from you but we are only a few months away from being punished. We have been studying these ruins for years and gaining very little progress in learning the language. It is likely they would have sent us away sooner if we had not found a way to open the door in this section.”

This news was shocking and unwelcome to Violet. She was being selfish and keeping secrets about certain things that could save her family from punishment. It did not mean she was going to suddenly tell them about her magic but she was a lot more open to trying to teach them the local language.

“What does punishment mean?” She still to this day had never gotten a straight answer from any adult on what it meant.

“Nothing you should have to worry about for a long time.” Is the answer that Nina responded with.

After a little bit of discussion, it was decided that Violet would wait an hour after bedtime and then collect the others and start giving lessons on the language. She had to demonstrate multiple times how she opened the door before they would accept that the door would not open for them.

The adults were mixed on what to do about the area behind the hidden door. Violet’s parents argued to keep it a secret because it could cause problems when it came out that Violet was the only one able to open the door. Jade’s parents wanted to go straight to Noble Tennyson and barter better working and living conditions. They were tired of being away from civilization and wanted to return to the capital. There was plenty of portable material that they could bring with them to study from the comforts of a real city.

Sky’s parents were still undecided on what they wanted to do. The discovery of this extra area would be a huge boon to their research camp. On the other hand, it endangered Violet if she was the only one who could open the door. Corrin was also still a little upset at how he was treated after they had their initial find. It had been quite a while since he was demoted and set aside but he could hold a grudge for a long time. His request for reassignment closer to his daughter was not even responded to. Poor Sky didn’t remember very much of his sister.

With the adults not agreeing on a course of action, it was decided to wait and see what the reaction to one of them learning the language would be. They would decide based on how they were treated. Violet would have preferred not to tell anyone at all about anything but unfortunately, that ship had already sailed for her. She was also upset that she was not included in the discussion of what they were going to do.

The next morning, Ardon and Judy were missing from the breakfast gathering. Jade was present but Violet had a sinking feeling in her gut. “Good morning Jade. Where are your parents?” she asked.

“Not sure, they were missing when I woke up this morning. They probably just wanted to get an early start to the day.”

It didn’t even sound like Jade believed what she said. Ardon and Judy kept the same schedule as everyone else on this shift and never missed joining everyone for breakfast. The only reasons that Violet could think of for them to be missing were not good ones when it came to her wellbeing.

“Violet, I want you to stick close to us today. We need to be with you if something happens.” Her father said to her as they were walking to their work area. She nodded and followed along in a half-daze.

Several hours went by and nothing seemed to be happening. Judy and Ardon were still missing, but so far no guards had shown up to arrest her or anything else her mind had conjured up for the unknown.

She was working side by side with her mother today. They would look at an enchanted cube and she would tell her mother what it said. It wasn’t a whole lot, but she felt it was helpful. Her mother brought out a copy of the tablets they were originally trying to decode for her to translate. When Violet saw it again she started to laugh earning a stern look from her mother. The tablet was a list of rules for the section.

Fire section rules:

Sign in at the door All bags are subject to inspection No gambling allowed on-premises The only thing you are allowed to take from these premises is knowledge No animals allowed Permits required for all weapons Mind-altering substances are not allowed in this area Use common sense, stupidity will not be tolerated

Her mother chuckled a little at what had been written on a tablet she had spent so long trying to decipher. “Thank you, I’ll study this and see if I can get the language skill.” Her father gave them a funny look from across the room trying to find out what could cause them to start giggling all of a sudden.

It was nearing lunchtime when a messenger from the noble’s regime came to summon Violet. The servant who came for her was so out of breath he must have run the entire way there. “His esteemed self Noble Tennyson requests an audience with Violet Tidwell an hour before dinner.”

“Violet is a minor, as her parent, I will make sure she makes it there on time.” Her father was quick to reply.

The servant nodded his head and left. As soon as the servant was out of sight, her mother went to the head researcher where they were working and let him know that the three of them were summoned to the noble and they needed to leave to make themselves presentable.

It was early to be leaving but the head researcher was more interested in what he was studying than anything else. He only cared about results and didn’t dare step on the toes of their esteemed noble.