Standing in yet another hall within the depths of the castle, Nina began to wonder if Saela’s comment had pushed the man just a little too far. It had certainly shut him up while making a somewhat reasonable excuse for her lack of respect, but the result was that it hadn’t taken long for him to leave them waiting. If he was simply collecting his thoughts or making them stew for his own satisfaction was a question in itself, but considering that they had been waiting for fifteen minutes, his claim that ‘I’ll just be a minute’ was obviously a lie. The temptation to wander a little had already come and gone despite the lack of supervision, but Nina knew that there was not much choice in the first place. Being limited to the jetstone within the halls felt like being a train on rails, and people passed by regularly enough to ensure that she wouldn’t try her luck with setting her feet elsewhere.

“Would have been nice if there was something better to look at,” Saela said from where she sat on the floor, her back against the stone wall as she drummed her fingers across her knee. They had attracted some strange looks as they loitered across from a door for Qualifieds only, grey robes both coming and going at a steady pace, and Nina wondered if it was the entrance to their quarters. Well, some of them, at least. It hadn’t taken her long to recognize that there was a separate hierarchy within the Qualifieds themselves, and the overwhelming majority of the people that passed before them were clearly at the bottom of the pile. Only twice had she seen a badge with two mountains on it since they had first stepped inside the castle, their owners dressed lavishly in contrast to the collections of grey robes, and the only three mountain badge she’d seen had been worn by the woman who greeted Svanda. Worlds within worlds, she thought, although unfortunately they all shared the same tendency to look down on her with unreserved scorn. It was unsettling if nothing else that they hadn’t even made it to their first destination before the thinly veiled hostility left her feeling uncomfortable, but there wasn’t much she could do besides roll with it. Treating guests in such a manner was in poor taste she thought, perhaps unless it was Rucille, but at least then she would have had a reason that wasn’t just using tradition as an excuse.

No wonder Trim had said that she wasn’t interested.

“I had important things to do,” the man said as he finally pushed his way through the door, continuing off down the hall without waiting to see if they would follow. Nina noted his lack of apology over the delay, and his implication that they weren’t important wasn’t lost on her either. The trace of a sneer in his tone led her to believe that he was rubbing things in just to get a kick out of it, so in turn she wondered if he truly knew who they were visiting with. Shouldn’t Svanda as their backer be enough to scare him into treating them with a little more respect, or did he genuinely not care about any chance for repercussions?

“I wonder what Svanda’s up to,” she mused, clearly loud enough for the man to hear as she followed the jetstone path which ran alongside the slate. “It must be nice, always being able to see the good stuff.”

“She probably couldn’t care less,” Saela replied, hands in her pockets as she slinked along behind them. “You know Svanda, fancy stuff doesn’t interest her.”

Nina smiled when she realised that Saela’s comment had been right on the mark before mentally noting that the man hadn’t flinched. Maybe he didn’t care after all, which was disappointing, but it wasn’t particularly surprising either. It simply wouldn’t have added up if they didn’t brief him on what he was up against before they had arrived, outsiders or not. The Daerx Clan had not only survived for a long time in what was apparently a very difficult period of history, they had also thrived. Having at least a shred of tact at the minimum was expected.

The more concerning deduction, she thought, was that the man continued to treat them in such a manner despite what had been said. Clearly he didn’t think that they were capable of going over his head to land him in trouble, and that was something that surprised her. Cronyism was surely widespread within the clans on the mountains, and so she didn’t see why she shouldn’t be able to pull Svanda down on top of someone who was only a low ranking Qualified. Perhaps there was another obstacle for Svanda that she didn’t know about which would prevent her from doing so, so for now she would simply bide her time. Svanda, unlike anyone else, would answer her questions so that she could finally see if her first few conclusions were correct.

If they weren’t, she’d be complaining about their guide right there and then.

Until that happened, however, their journey continued. Up winding flights of stone stairs, through bleak passages of nothing but jetstone while their guide waited for them on the other side, and even down stairs which seemed to be no different from what they had climbed before. It all seemed so pointlessly roundabout to Nina that by the time they finally stepped into a normal corridor her legs were aching, and she had even resorted to asking Saela why she thought it was so.

“Because we can’t cross the other paths, I guess. Just a maze just to get us where they need to without offending anyone,” she said with a shrug while eyeing the white marble path that stretched down the centre of the corridor. The path occasionally branched off towards large double doors which were placed down one side of the wide and airy passage at every twenty or so meters, while smaller doors were also placed between them. The occasional tapestry or vase which dotted the space told them that they had finally made it out of the tiring string of service halls which hid behind the main corridors, although the foot traffic here was surprisingly quiet.

Nina was about to continue with her line of questioning when she saw that the man in grey had gestured towards a small door, paths of both slate and jetstone stretching underneath. Initially she thought that it was his own way of asking them to open it for him, but before she could move he had already turned around and set off once more. Feet glued to the floor as she watched him stride away from them, confusion briefly surfaced over what to do until she realised that she didn’t have a choice. There was no continuation of jetstone in his direction at all, and so while he headed for a small stairwell not much further down, the only path available to them was the one which disappeared underneath the door.

“We should ask for someone useful next time,” Saela said with clear intent for her words to reach the man’s ears. If he heard it, however, he didn’t show it, so with a small sigh at her small victory being denied, she instead pushed open the door to be met with a very welcome sight.

“Carpet,” Nina said as she stepped inside, her eyes glued to the deep blue wool beneath her feet. Ignoring her surroundings, she hopped from side to side a little before turning to watch as Saela followed behind her, the expression on her face unreadable. She certainly wasn’t as happy as Nina to see that they could finally step where they pleased, and her cautious scan of the room reminded Nina that she should have probably done the same.

Looking up, she found that the room was deserted. Small and rectangular with unfinished stone walls that stretched away from them before stopping at the far wall, Nina guessed that the room was about three meters by five. Neat but narrow beds sat in each of the distant corners with a pile of sheets on top, while a single dresser sat underneath a small round window through which she could see the dreary skies outside. The rest of the room was almost as featureless as it was spotless; a second door in the wall to their left attracted her attention, while a cupboard sat against the opposite wall to their right. Saela had already opened it to see that it contained nothing but a few brooms and some cleaning gear, so Nina instead stepped to the door before reaching for the handle.

Opening the door, she blinked twice at the brightly lit room before her. The same blue carpet stretched away beneath her feet, but that was just about the only thing that the two rooms shared in common. Larger than the entire top floor of their office at The Cloud Orchestra, the room featured smooth creamy walls with decorative marble inlay instead of featureless stone, flowing swirls containing flowers and birds stretching up towards the white ceiling above. Wide arched windows ran along the wall to her right, but drawn silk curtains hanging limply across them blocked the view to the town beyond. Underneath two of the windows in the centre of the wall sat a large bed obscured by a thick swathe of sheets which hung from the posts surrounding it, while beside it was a sitting area complete with small trays of untouched food. Much of the remaining space, however, to Nina’s amazement, was simply empty. A small timber desk sat across from her on the far side of the room, while an ornate and much larger dressing table was placed beside it. It was here that Nina was attracted to the large oval mirror which was the central feature, but before she could even take a single step, her eyes widened as she saw a face in the reflection that she would have recognized anywhere.

With a twist.