Chapter 52 — Secrets of the Past

Ria could tell that the battery constructs in the spell template held enough energy that the door would stay suspended open for a short period of time after she stopped powering the spell, then the heavy stone door would slowly sink closed.

Ranger was already poking his head through the open doorway, so Ria borrowed his eyes to scan what lay inside.

Keira’s light shone into the dusty darkness, revealing an open space with bookshelves, ornate couches, chairs and reading tables. Ranger’s magic sight showed what were probably lightstones mounted in sconces around the room.

{Ranger, go inside and turn around so I can get a look at the interior walls.}

With a quiet woof of acknowledgement, Ranger did as instructed, and Ria spotted a dusk-covered book on the nearby bookshelf that connected to the spell she was using to hold the door up.

“Is it safe?” Keira asked.

A glance back at her companions, showed Orlisi bouncing on her feet with excitement, barely able to await the answer. The others looked worried… except Keira, whose mask hid her expression. Well, maybe Iselyn seemed eager as well. So… really it was just Aldri with his brows scrunched together.

“It’s fine, I think,” Ria told them, and Ranger woofed his concurment. “I’ve found a way to open the door from the inside, so I can safely let this go once you are all through.”

“Aldri can portal us out, so getting stuck isn’t a worry,” Orlisi reminded.

“Oh, right.” Ria laughed.

“Keira, let the barrier down. Let’s go!” Orlisi prodded.

As soon as the barrier was dispelled, the elf girl disappeared into the room, leaving a wake of dust as she joined Ranger.

Aldri looked up nervously and quickened his pace as he passed under the hovering stone door.

“Will you be able to follow?” Keira asked as she hesitated at the opening to make sure Ria was going to be okay.

Ria let go of the enchanted slab and pushed Keira through with a smile. “See? It’s fine.”

Keira huffed.

The room lit up as Orlisi found a panel for controlling the room’s lights. The dust was inches thick, as if the room hadn’t been visited in decades or maybe centuries—though the couches still seemed to be in decent condition and there was no sign of a preservation enchantment on the furniture. The bookcases, on the other hand, were faintly enchanted.

Aldri had dusted off some of the covers and was carefully removing a large tome, his eyes wide. The sudden grinding sound of the door sliding closed behind them almost caused the red-headed boy to drop the book—a reaction that repeated when Orlisi snuck up behind to peer over his shoulder as he opened the book atop a dusty table.

“Ah-! Dammit Orlisi,” Aldri complained.

“So, what is it that’s got you so spooked?” the grinning elf asked.

“If this is what I think it is…” Aldri started to answer as he peered at the fancy script contained inside.

“15th day of the 2nd month of the 633rd year of the Grand Calendar. King Alphonse Vesali the Second gives audience to the High Priest of Anasari,” Orlisi started reading, her voice growing in excitement. “Oh, wow! Every word of their meeting is recorded.”

“These might be the lost histories of the Vesali kings from before Crysellia became a republic,” Aldri breathed out.

“Do you think we found a secret passage into an abandoned part of the palace?” Orlisi asked as she darted over to another bookcase, a stiff breeze from her hand blowing swirls of dust away to reveal the books’ titles.

“No, I don’t think so,” Aldri shook his head. He closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. “Why have a secret passage into a library in the castle? This is probably an archive used by the court’s head scribe—a place to store the histories in case the castle fell.”

“Not the scribe,” Orlisi corrected, a smaller tome open in her hands.

Aldri looked sharply at the elf girl. “You find something?”

“Just a tome on intermediate crystal magic,” Orlisi lightly revealed with a smirk. “Rather, a whole bookcase, I’d say.”

Aldri froze on the spot.

“Crystal magic…” Ria breathed out. A Vesali private library… maybe the old king’s personal library. But why would the king’s secret passage run under the Vorshan estate?

“Maybe we shouldn’t be here,” Keira worried from beside Ria.

Ria’s eyes were still on the bookshelf with crystal magic tomes. With her own affinity having crystal properties, this was an unbelievable chance to learn crystal magic… but could she just steal the Vesali heritage like this?

Speaking of heritages…

“Orlisi, the other day, did you find the Moon Elf book you needed?” Ria suddenly asked. If any place would have such a missing book from the past…

“Ah-!” Orlisi placed the crystal magic tome on a side table and began darting around the room blowing dust off shelf after shelf in a swirling storm that made them all cough and hack, even Iselyn who had quietly found a far corner to investigate, Malleron sitting on her shoulder looking bored.

“Mythra’s Dusty Veil, Orlisi!” Aldri complained again as he gasped for breath.

Aldri’s curse brought a chuckle from the elven whirlwind as she flew up to the second-floor bookshelves and spun more dust into drifting clumps of fluff.

Ranger didn’t seem to mind and was entertaining himself by leaping at the fierce floating dust dragons and defeating them with well-executed paw swats.

“Gah, what’s she doing?” Keira exclaimed through her frock sleeve.

Ria shook her head at the mayhem and surrounded herself and Keira with a barrier of fresh air, grabbing her friend’s hand for courage as she approached the bookshelf with the tomes on crystal magic.

“Ria, you can’t be thinking…” Keira said with dismay.

“With this much dust, would anyone alive miss one?” Ria asked, half to convince herself. “Can’t we read or copy the useful ones before reporting the find?”

“What if there are Vesali family secrets here? What if it’s restricted knowledge?” Keira demanded. “What if there are national secrets?”

Ugh. Would that mean trouble with the inquisitors?

“A beginner tome should be fine, shouldn’t it?” Ria argued as she scanned the titles.

“Can you even do the energy transformation for crystal magic?” Keira challenged.

“Not yet,” Ria admitted. “But I’m fairly sure orichalcum is both metal and crystal.”

“Oh gods,” her blond friend breathed out. “There’s no way that’s true… Aldri, is it really true?!”

Aldri looked over from the mostly dust-free bookshelf he was perusing to shrug. “No idea. Wendra or Researcher Shadwich might know. But if Ria says it is, then it probably is.”

“Ah ha!” Ria found the beginner tome she was looking for and started paging through it. The theory looked a lot like what she learned from her Luventi-authored tome.

“It’s here!” an elfin voice squealed in triumph.

Ria took the opportunity to store the beginner tome on crystal magic while everyone was distracted by Orlisi using her magic to levitate a beautifully-bound book titled in elven script into her eagerly awaiting hands.

Already poring through the book, Orlisi drifted to a reading table, clearing the dust with her wind as she sat.

“Where’s the beginner tome, Ria?” Keira accused. It wasn’t really a question.

“Isn’t it better if you don’t know?” Ria tried.

Keira groaned. “The Vesali are going to know if they see you use their magic.”

“I know,” Ria admitted. “But I can use it to make my own spells.”

Keira huffed and looked over at Orlisi, who was running her hand down page after page of the elven book.

While Keira was looking away, Ria reached over and made the intermediate crystal magic tome sitting on the table disappear too.

“Did you just…” Keira trailed off in exasperation.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” Ria said as innocently as possible while holding back a grin. She wasn’t the only one taking books. There were empty spaces over where Iselyn was still perusing.

“You’re incorrigible,” Keira grumbled before letting out a defeated sigh. “Fine. But I don’t want to be involved in any way.”

Ria gave her friend a hug. “Thanks, Keira. I’ll be careful.”

While hugging Keira, Ria noticed Aldri partially unroll a thick scroll that was wrapped around two ornate jade rods. The rods had an enchantment inscribed with gold inlay.

“You find something, Aldri?” Ria inquired, letting go of Keira, who turned to see what Aldri had discovered.

Aldri gave a distracted nod. “Maybe, can you clear the table for me?”

Ria used air magic to blow the dust off, and Aldri brought the large scroll over, laying it down and unrolling it the rest of the way. The heavy jade rods kept the scroll from rolling back closed.

What revealed itself was a map that depicted multiple floors of a large structure.

“Does it tell us where we are?” Ria asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think so,” Aldri replied and pointed to a fancy title written in the upper right corner.

Ria leaned closer over the complicated map to read the script that reminded her of Phaelys and Hulle’s handwriting. “Vesali Castle, Lower Levels.”

“There’s a rumor that the lower levels were lost to undead after the last king died,” Keira muttered. “To have a full map…”

“What’s that?” Ria asked, pointing at an illustration of a cavern and a waterfall.

“There’s no way…” Aldri muttered.

“The divine realm of Vesali City’s land-god…” Keira breathed out.

That was one of those Vesali family secrets Keira was talking about, wasn’t it?

Aldri slid his finger to a marking that seemed to indicate a secret passage connecting one of the floors above the entrance to the land-god’s divine realm. “If there are secret underground passageways and escape tunnels that we can use to access the lower levels…”

“Iselyn! It’s here!” Orlisi called out to her research partner. “The ritual to summon the guardian sprite really is here!”

“Summon?” Aldri queried, looking up from the map where his finger had moved over a room marked as a vault.

“Gah!” Orlisi complained. “You’re right. Neither Iselyn or I have a summoning license.”

“I don’t mind helping,” the red-headed boy volunteered, moving closer to read over Orlisi’s shoulder, his interest in summoning taking priority.

“Ritual still sounds like shamanic magic,” Keira pointed out.

Aldri shook his head to deny it. “Most summoning magic still involves rituals for both the summoning and the contract. So, it’s part of the license.”

That was good to know but… “What happens when you summon the guardian sprite? Will we get access to the gardens?” Ria asked.

Orlisi shrugged. “Maybe.” The elf girl looked to Iselyn who had also come close to read from the book. “We’ll have to get the sprite’s permission.”

Malleron hopped onto the table and joined in.

While they were distracted, Ria stored the map, eliciting an “Ah-!” from Keira when she looked back to see it gone.

“Aren’t Miela and the others going to get worried if we take too much longer?” Ria reminded her friend.

Keira was probably making a face at her under the mask, but the girl’s shoulders slumped a bit. “Ugh. You’re right. Maybe it’s best to collect a few items and head back before they send for adventurers.”

“There’s still the other door.” Ria pointed to the section of wall opposite the door they entered and also without a bookcase or shelving. A similar thin stone slab was the likely opening mechanism.

“If we’re really under the castle, there could be undead on the other side,” Keira cautioned.

Ria glanced over to their companions, and they were busy discussing the ritual. Ranger was sitting on a couch meditating, having grown bored at some point.

“There’s one way to check,” Ria decided, leading Keira over to the door and casting her Sensing Sphere spell. Unfortunately, the result was the same as with the first door.

“Anything?” Keira prompted.

“It’s warded,” Ria reported, shaking her head. “I can’t sense what’s on the other side at all.”

“Anasari’s Light,” Keira cursed. “I’ll contact Arthur and let him know we’ll be a while yet.”

Ria nodded and turned her attention to the ongoing discussion as Keira got out a communication stone.

“…he says how the offerings are prepared is important and that they cannot simply be bought,” Iselyn translated for Malleron.

“So, it’s going to take time to learn the glyphs, memorize the incantation, and to get everything prepared,” Orlisi concluded.

“And we still haven’t found the hidden floor,” Aldri pointed out.

Orlisi sighed in defeat. “We’re so close! But it’ll have to wait until after the Spring Moon Festival.”

Aldri nodded his agreement then looked back toward where the map was, and his wide eyes quickly found Ria.

“The map’s safe,” Ria volunteered, and Aldri raised an eyebrow at her. “Shall we continue exploring?”

“Oh! I almost forgot about the second door,” Orlisi cheered and touched her vault key, causing the elven book to disappear.

“We need to be wary of undead and traps,” Aldri cautioned.

“I thought you didn’t think this was part of the castle?” Keira asked, surprised.

Aldri shrugged. “I don’t, but if this place is connected to the lost portions of the lower levels…”

“Ah,” Keira voiced in understanding.

“We all have magic useful against undead, so unless we encounter something particularly strong, we should be fine,” Orlisi encouraged. “Let’s do like before and have Keira make a barrier while Ria opens the door.”

“Got it.”

“Ranger, you’re up again,” Ria called, and with an enthusiastic bark, her familiar was soon at the ready in front of the door as she again filled a template spell enchantment with energy.

Like last time, once the battery constructs were full the excess energy caused the wall to vibrate and dust to trickle down until the large stone slab of the door ground free and began rising.

There wasn’t as much in the way of dust passing under the door this time, and Ranger darted through the opening.

The new room was small, barely large enough for them all to gather. A portion of the far wall was wood paneled with the now familiar activation slab adjacent. When Ranger looked back toward the doorway, she identified the companion slab for the one she was currently powering.

Ranger didn’t sense any traps, but if they were built into the door enchantments, it would be hard to know.

“I think the next room is clear,” Ria reported.

“I’m releasing the barrier,” Keira advised.

They moved into the next room, each checking for hidden mechanisms. When Ria checked the activation slab for the door that was already sliding closed, she quickly came to a realization that the spell template to open the door was incomplete and there were extra energy pathways that were present inside the slab. All the energy pathways seemed to stop just under the surface of the slab without connecting.

Ria tried to fill one of the pathways to test it, and the energy drained away without going into the spell construct!

The door finished closing with a thunk of finality.

“What’s wrong, Ria?” Aldri questioned.

Ria glanced back at the others. “I think a special method is needed to open the door from this side… I don’t think I’ll be able to open it.”

“What about this one?” Keira prompted, motioning toward the slab adjacent the wood paneling.

Squeezing past her friends, Ria placed her hand on the slab that would hopefully let them continue exploring and sighed in relief. It was like the others. “I can use this one.”

“Positions,” Aldri reminded, and Keira’s barrier returned.

“I think we’re about to discover something big,” Orlisi whispered, bouncing on her feet with excitement.

Even Iselyn looked eager.

“Ready.” Keira motioned for Ria to proceed.

Ranger quietly woofed that he was also ready.

Feeling a bit of tension herself, Ria filled the template with energy. This time once the battery constructs were full, the wood paneling swung silently inward, revealing itself to be a bookshelf.

That wasn’t the only surprise. The room through the doorway was already lit with the characteristic blue of glowstones.

Ranger darted through again, and the sight of tall maze-like bookshelves packed with books and scrolls gave a sense of familiarity that made her immediately suspicious of where they were.

“Clear,” Ria reported. Once past the secret doorway, Ranger’s senses were no longer blocked, and she could sense there was no one around. Ria told him to stay quiet though. There was no dust here.

As usual, Orlisi was the first through once Keira released the barrier. Ria followed behind the others, and while they were all looking around stunned as they checked the contents of the nearby shelves, the bookshelf behind them silently swung closed.

Orlisi laughed. “I think I know where we are.”

“Hello?” a boy’s voice projected timidly from the end of a row of shelves soon followed by the boy himself, a second-year student wearing the stole of the Library Guild.

The Grand Library!