Chapter 50
Secret Passages
Mary walked down the increasingly familiar, well-lit and yet cramped hallway, her eyes locked firmly on to the runic lights that had been built into the walls.
“I really don’t get it.”
The princess muttered as she craned her neck to eye the walls further, more specifically as she stared at the subtle magic currents that connected one light rune to the next.
It was a system that she had not expected in the Midgard palace; after all, such things were not present outside of these secret halls.
Internally, the princess heard various noises of agreement, the second minds equally baffled by what they had recently learned about this particular palace secret.
{There must be something that we’re missing, some hidden or obscure piece of history, perhaps a part of the geopolitics at the time of the palace's construction that explains the discrepancy.}
Part of the princess agreed with the rationalisation that one of her second minds had offered her; that was unsurprising, while they could be remarkable divergent, they were still ultimately a simulated version of herself and were more likely than not to reach the same conclusions that she would. But another part of the princess, a part that she knew existed within the second minds too, couldn’t help but think that it was a poor explanation for the latest strangeness she had discovered about her new home.
If the palace could indeed be called that.
The princess quietly walked through the hallway that Sylvia had directed her to as the internal conversation continued.
Perhaps typically for a hidden or servants' passage, the hallway was not wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side; even as a child, she would have to squeeze past someone to allow them to move past her.
Of course, Mary thinks to herself ironically that would require something that simply won’t be happening in this passage way.
After all, she would not be meeting anyone in this secret passage; this was because knowledge of these passages had been either lost entirely or forgotten a long time ago, certainly long before Mary had ever been born. It was only due to her mother's excellence in magic and her instincts as a veteran adventurer that had allowed the rediscovery of these passages.
And even then, Sylvia had revealed to the princess that Elizabeth was certain there were undiscovered secrets to be found here, although the maid had chosen not to explain further, preferring to allow her princess to learn at her own pace.
Perhaps if the former king had not betrayed her mother, they would have a truly complete map of the palace by now.
“Or maybe not.”
Mary muttered again, her scrutiny of a particular brick increasing as she once again lost her tentative lock on the hidden power network.
The princess frowned and reflected on how she had ended up exploring what could only be called a far too clean hallway, despite the total lack of activity it had seen over what she took to be countless years.
It had all started when Sylvia had introduced the princess to the remarkably well-lit hidden library; even a cursory inspection had told the princess that it was far larger than she had been led to believe by Sylvia, so much so that the library spell that Mary had so painstakingly crafted would not be large enough to contain its contents.
In the long term this was a good thing, as it meant she had access to far more magical lore that the princess would be able to study and absorb, but in the short term it meant that she truly struggled to properly direct her efforts, as there was so much to work with.
These were all problems that she would work through given enough time, but the mere size of the hidden library was not the only palace secret that she had to consider.
There were two other matters that had confused Mary when she had first been introduced to the room. The first matter, one that was ultimately cleared up by her maid, was the room's location, particularly its proximity to her own room.
Mary had rightly considered that there was more to it than luck.
At first, she had assumed that its closeness to her chambers had been coincidental. But the maid had quickly reminded her that the former king, Mary's grandfather, had been remarkably hands-off when it came to the princess.
This was also the case for her so-called father, something that did not help her already negative opinion of the man.
In the end, before she could confuse herself further, Sylvia had revealed that the room had been chosen by her, and the maid had intentionally placed her princess in a prepared room, one that her mother had chosen for her first child, whenever such a thing would have originally come to pass.
The second, much more important matter, the thing that Mary had immediately noticed during her very first visit, had been the general state of the library.
How clean the room had been; the room had been spotless; there was not a speck of dust or dirt to be seen. That wasn’t necessarily impossible, except Sylvia was the only person who knew of it.
There was also the matter of how bright the room had been. While not blinding, there were no shadows in the room at all, and yet the light itself had been soothing, similar in a way to the more public palace hallways.
Except, far more so. Even without checking those light runes, Mary knew that they were of much higher quality than those in the public halls.
Which immediately brought up the issue of power.
Of course, both of these duties, cleaning a room and powering the runes, could have been handled by Sylvia directly; she was, after all, a maid, and she clearly knew about the room and could have been maintaining it.
It was possible that Sylvia had been charging the light runes.
She could also have been cleaning the room, either through the magic that Mary knew that she had access to or even the more old-fashioned physical way.
But something about that conclusion hadn’t sat right with Mary.
If there was something that the princess had learnt about her maid over the year that she had known her, it was that she liked to talk, to fill the silence between them.
Certainly, much of what she spoke about could reasonably be called relevant information, things that Mary needed to know as she grew up.
She talked about information concerning the kingdom and its politics; oftentimes she spoke about the palace and its inhabitants, both the royal family and maid corps.
On those rare occasions that she spent longer periods of time away from her princess, she sought to tell Mary about her day and what she’d done and what she had seen.
It was because of this that Mary knew the truth about the battle-hungry maid. The truth was that Sylvia liked to gossip, although it was something that she usually tried to hide behind the façade of duty.
And not once had she talked about cleaning that library; not once did she mention charging the light runes.
The latter especially had been a dead giveaway, as the maid somewhat frequently complained about that particular duty. From Marys perspective, Sylvia seemed to resent any duty that didn’t have something to do with her princess.
And yet, on the rare occasions that Sylvia had duties other than taking care of her princess, she would talk about it. Talk about what she had done during those days.
Not once did she mention maintaining the secret library that Elizabeth had discovered and stocked.
And so, Mary did not feel any surprise at all when she had asked the maid about the room's state, about the runes, and about the cleanliness.
In truth, the answer that the princess had received that day had caused Mary to despair at her maids' ignorance.
It still baffled the princess to think that Sylvia had not realised something was wrong with the room or had perhaps dismissed it as a much more local effect than it truly was.
Mary was certain that Elizabeth would have noticed what was wrong with the hidden library, and apparently Sylvia had either dismissed what her friend had been talking about, or was once again toying with her pricness to get reactions.
Mary was not certain which possibility she preferred.
Which was ultimately why Mary had spent the last few months trying to figure out how to perceive the mana power network that her long-dead ancestor had put the effort into hiding.
Confirming that such a network existed had taken the princess weeks.
Mary grimaced at the memory.
She’d had to intensively study enchantments in order to confirm that such a network even existed. Enchantments were something that she had truthfully intended to study eventually, but not so soon.
Even in her most optimistic projections, it would be nearly a decade before she would have any real use for enchanting. Truly, in the short term, it was a skill set that would only be useful for confirming a few theories that she’d had, instead of preparing her for the years to come.
Despite the fact that she stood in a hidden passage, a hidden passage that she had discovered without the aid of Sylvia. Even though she was slowly tracing her way to what she could only assume was a power source.
A power source that by all rights shouldn’t exist in the kingdom of Midgard.
Even considering all of these things, Mary wasn’t certain if the effort that she had expended to get here was truly worth it.
{You’re spiralling again.}
Chided one of her second minds.
{If nothing else, fully mapping the hidden passageways of the palace will help us in the years to come.}
Another agreed.
Mary frowned externally but reluctantly acknowledged that their assessment was at least somewhat accurate, but she couldn’t let it go without another shot.
“And yet, we’ve made far less progress on biomancy than we otherwise would have.”
{That is unfortunate.}
One of them agreed.
{But even then, we have made notable progress. And while the library was largely stocked by our mother, there might be other equally useful secrets to be found in these halls.}
{And it is better that we know what the palace can offer as soon as possible.}
The second minds said, causing Mary to sigh in defeat.
In the end, Mary was once again forced to admit that they were right; it was hardly the first time that they have had this argument, in fact they had repeated it or variations of it several times now, and yet the facts that had convinced her to take this course of action were still as valid now as they were months ago.
Even if her progress was much less than she preferred.
Mary glanced at the wall once again, attempting to rediscover the hidden network.
“But why is it hidden?”
Mary rhetorically asked again.
How much time, effort, and money had been wasted because the maid corps had to physically recharge all of the runes in the palace?
Except apparently, the runes that were used in the ancestors’ hidden rooms.
{It’s worse than that if you think about it.}
{Those aren’t only light runes.}
The second minds once again agreed.
“That’s even worse!”
The princess retorted.
For the life of her, Mary could not understand why this capability had been hidden. If it was only a light rune then she could somewhat accept it.
Having to recharge the lights of the palace was annoying and likely cost some degree of money but it did mean that every part of the palace would have to be regularly visited. To leave the light runes uncharged would mean that a section of the palace would be abandoned.
So, making it so that the maid corps must regularly visit the entire palace was something reminiscent of an advantage.
The inclusion of a cleaning spell into the hidden enchantments didn’t truly change things; had they been present across the entire palace, the maid corps would arguably have to work harder due to greater energy drain.
Unless of course they were part of the power network.
It was the third and final part of the enchantment present in those runes that truly annoyed the princess simply due to how useful they would be if they were widespread.
{Well, we would have been doomed if they were present everywhere, though.}
The second mind reminded the princess, causing Mary to grimace in agreement.
“If every light rune in the palace functioned like a security camera, then we’d have been found out immediately.”
Mary conceded easily.
"But I just don’t understand why a ruler would dismiss an advantage like that.”
The princess continued to complain.
It was a surprisingly modern setup, if Mary were to be honest.
The hidden parts of the palace not only had perfect lighting and perfect cleaning due to the enchantments on the walls but were also being constantly observed by a sort of optical element.
Of course, it didn’t seem like anyone was watching those magical security cameras. And so somewhere hidden in the palace was a room that not only had some sort of magical power generator but also a magical observation system.
It might even have long-term memory for that observation.
All of which was extremely useful for palace security, which was why Mary couldn’t understand why it was being used only for the hidden parts of the palace.
Before her recrimination could continue, she ran into another hidden door.
“I wonder if this is going to be another ladder, or another room?”
Mary muttered.