The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere 031: In Fading Image (

Inner Sanctum Loft | 11:20 AM | Second Day

The walls were lined with masks.

There didn't appear to be much of a unifying the, or even aesthetic, other than them all having distinct designs and being obviously made to last - there wasn't anything made out of papyrus, or any other disposable material. So of them were simplistic, being little more than uniform pieces of material with eye holes, or even just distinctly colored balaclavas, while others were extrely ornate and specific. There were bejeweled ball masks, vivid recreations of animals, and historical ones from almost every culture. Saoic and Inotian theater masks, all bright colors and caricatured expressions. khian death masks, sombre and eerie in their realism. Ysaran parade masks, lined with feathers.

Regardless of nature and quality, all were given equal footing in the display. Each was set on a oval wooden plaque about half a foot apart from the next, hanging from bronze hooks by lengths of silk string. They were labelled only by a four digit number, displayed above each, that seed sequential rather than random, counting from left to right, from ceiling to floor.

You might be getting the wrong sense of scale here, so I feel it's important to emphasize that there were a lot of masks in this room. The chamber wasn't as big the private theater we'd just passed through a mont earlier, which Neferuaten had explained dominated nearly half of the third and final floor, but it was big enough for it to take a few monts to walk from one end to the other. And the ceiling was tall to the degree that I could see a ladder over in the corner to reach the higher parts of the display.

If you followed said display all the way to its terminus, they must've numbered a bit over a thousand. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little creepy. There was only a single window, built into the slanted roof, which cast the entire scene in a peculiar, unbalanced light.

This ti, Neferuaten had led us into the room completely without comnt. She wore a cheerful expression in response to our imdiate bemusent.

"Mmm," she humd, after a few solid seconds of silence. "Yes, this is the reaction I was hoping for, I think."

None of us said anything at first, except for Kamrusepa, who might've mumbled sothing along the lines of 'my goodness'. My eyes wandered further up the wall. A mask that seed to be intended to resemble so kind of lizard stared down imperiously, and I pressed my lips together in mild discomfort.

"Co on, then," she went on. "One of you ought to ask first. Grant an old woman her small pleasures."

"What," I asked in a deliberate tone, "is this place?"

"Ahah, I knew I could count on your curiosity, Utsushiko." She cleared her throat. "This is our mask room."

"Yep," Ran said flatly. "Might've picked up on that."

"It's actually an interesting bit of history, if not quite as dramatic as what I showed you earlier," Neferuaten continued, moving to ignite so of the lamps in the periphery of the chamber, rendering the atmosphere a little less eerie. "You see, back before we beca a public organization, a lot of our mbers were actually anonymous even to each other - not the inner circle, mind, but many among the lower ranks."

"I thought a lot of them were still anonymous," I said.

She nodded. "To the outside world, yes, but we no longer grant that privilege within the order itself. It was decided that the benefits of increased trust and organizational coherence outweighed the loss of a few die-hards who wouldn't tolerate it." She leaned idly against a wall as she finished. "But as I was saying, back before then, the need would sotis arise for in-person etings that preserved anonymity. And so..."

And so they decided to do it in the most over the top way possible, I thought. Figures from what we've seen so far, I suppose.

"I think I might have heard about this before, now that my mind has been put to it," Kamrusepa chid in predictably. "There was a leak from a reported ex-mber about seventy years ago, I read, that ntioned etings almost having the air of a masque ball..."

Neferuaten snorted. "That gives our capability as hosts more credit than it probably deserves, as dinner last night well illustrated," she said. "The only atmosphere we seem competent at cultivating here is the one people need to breathe, and even that's not been immune to the odd fuck-up over the years."

"So this is a sort of-- A museum, for that custom," Kamrusepa concluded.

"The better word would probably be 'gallery', but yes, more or less," she said, nodding. "We've never quite known what to do with the top floor. As I've been told, the theater was part of the old temple, and so got preserved along with the rest of the design - but we're about as far from an acting troupe as you can get. We use the stage and seating area for so of our larger larger etings, but we never found a use for this backstage component until this. It was Hamilcar's idea, originally. He thought, since we had all these masks, and a thematically appropriate spot for them..." She shrugged. "Well, why not?"

'Why not' seed increasingly like the basis for the majority of the design choices of the Sanctuary. Before this was all over, I really hoped I have a chance to ask just how this all got built.

"Er, to be honest, I'm not sure I really understand this," Theodoros said, wrinkling his brow. "Why would you bother with this idea at all? Couldn't everyone just wear their veils?"

"Because they wanted a system where you'd be able to distinguish individuals in spite of their anonymity, I should think," Kamrusepa said. "Is that right, grandmaster?"

"Mm? Oh, ye~es," Neferuaten replied. "It's definitely that, and not just that the people making the decision thought it would have more mystique."

Kamrusepa's expression deflated, but not into the disappointnt of earlier. Instead, it was more of sardonic look. "Oh."

Neferuaten chuckled. "Actually, truth be told, I don't know the real reason. Once again, it predates my involvent." Her eyes wandered up to the window overhead, to the beam of lamplight. "It was a strict requirent that everyone's mask be clearly distinguishable from the others, however. Which is the reason for the rich variety here. Having one made and approved beca quite a complicated process by the end, just to make sure there wasn't any overlap."

"Pretty strict," Theodoros said.

"Oh yes," she said, smiling. "We love being strict about the oddest things, here."

My eyes wandered so more over the display. A mask that looked like a sheet of solid stone. A mask that looked like the head of an ant. A mask that looked like a ss of bandages, barely recognizable as one at all save for the context.

A funny idea ca into my head.

"Was there a rule against wearing soone else's mask, then?" I asked.

Neferuaten scrunched up her lip, thoughtful. "You'd rather think so, but no, I'm not aware of anything like that. I think it was all just taken more or less on trust. Or the idea that you'd probably be able to tell, regardless."

"Well, er, realistically, you probably could," Theo said, scratching the side of his cheek. He seed more talkative now then he had, earlier. "It's not hard to tell who you're talking to behind a veil, so I can't imagine a mask would altogether much different. You might not know the face of the person wearing it, but you'd definitely know if they suddenly beca soone else."

"Almost certainly," Neferuaten said. "That's why I'm not certain about the true intent of the rule." She looked thoughtful, for a mont. "Perhaps it wasn't about identity at all, but simply a way to declare oneself to your comrades, absent of a face."

"You'd think clothes would suffice, for sothing like that," Kamrusepa said.

Neferuaten snorted. "Well, if I might be a little crude, the lions share of our mbership are male scholars, and pretty old ones at that. It's a sea of grey and black chitons, whenever we get enough people in one place."

A couple people chuckled, then the room fell silent again for a mont.

Eventually, Neferuaten idly raised her hand, pointing a finger. It was directed towards a mask on the left wall, a little over half way to the ceiling.

It was one of the Inotian theater masks I ntioned earlier, realistically styled, but with an over-the-top expression; in this case, a jolly smile that would've been unsettling if it wasn't so completely goofy, along with a thick, curly beard. It was unpainted save for what looked like a ruby set in the forehead.

I got the impression it was pretty old. Since replication arcana had destroyed the value of precious gems, they'd gone from being viewed as symbols of luxury and beauty to being seen as tacky unless they were utilized very carefully. This was certainly not an example of such tasteful usage.

"That one," she said, "is your father's, master lanthos."

Theo adjusted his glasses, looking surprised only briefly before furrowing his brow. "Not particularly surprising," he said. "He's, uh, certainly a fan of traditional Inotian culture. Altaia, especially, and that looks Altaic."

"It's a little silly-looking," Kamrusepa said. "You might've thought he'd pick sothing with a bit more of an authoritative energy, considering his position."

"It's probably just him trying to be funny," Theo said. "He's always doing that sort of thing-- Picking out silly-looking furniture or clothes for the novelty of it, seeing if they'll make people laugh."

It was true. The lanthos family manse was filled with curiosities that looked like they'd been placed there as an appeal to so complicated form of irony. I had a mory of playing hide-and-seek behind an incredibly janky-looking statue of a dog that so local restaurant had commissioned as a mascot, only to get rid of it a month later on account of it scaring off half of the younger custors.

"Sounds like you're not a fan of that side of them," Neferuaten said, looking mildly amused.

"I'm, er, not sure it's possible for a child to enjoy their parents sense of humor, ma'am."

"What about the other inner circle mbers?" Kamrusepa asked, her brow raised in curiosity.

Neferuaten took a breath. "Gods, let's see..." Her finger wandered idly in circles along with her gaze, until both focused on another target, much closer to the ceiling. "That one up there was Anna's, for a start."

I craned my neck to look.

It wasn't much of a 'mask' at all. Rather, it looked more like a veil that just happened to be made of leather rather than cloth, with a slit cut out for the eyes. There was a number in E stitched at front: 15.

It was ugly, in a way that I had to conclude was on purpose. The leather was raw-looking, with obvious vein lines and stitching that wound across the surface.

"Huh," I said.

"You're surprised?" Neferuaten asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sort of. I had a feeling it'd be simplistic, though... Not quite like that? I an, we only t briefly, but..."

"What you must keep in mind," she said, "is that masks were chosen upon the initiation of the mber, and that changing them, though not forbidden, was sothing of a nuisance. So I suppose you could call them sothing of a snapshot in ti-- More illuminating about the past than anything close to the present."

Snapshots of ti. "Like the building itself."

Neferuaten didn't say anything, but she did smile a little to herself.

"I've seen one of those before," Ran said, looking up as well. "They use them at the Runesmith's Guild as a punishnt." She hesitated. "Well, maybe not anymore. This was in a period play I saw a few years ago."

"What sort of punishnt?" Kamrusepa asked.

"Humiliation, sort of like a dunce cap," Ran explained. "Pretty old-style educational custom. The people doing the worst in the whole year got stuck in a redial class, and given veils like this so everyone would know about it, with the number being their academic ranking." She frowned. "I dunno the truth of it, but the drama made it seem like the intent was more to pressure them to wash out then actually get better."

"Hard to believe," Theo said. "U-Uh, that soone like her could have ever been in a position like that as a student, I an. Considering who she is now."

"Well, you're rather jumping to conclusions there, Theo," Kamrusepa said. "It could simply be her using a prop she had access to in order to make so manner of statent." She made a curious frown. "Indeed, the better question is why she'd pick such a thing to represent herself at all, regardless as to if it bore personal relevance or not." She looked to Neferuaten. "Do you know, grandmaster?"

The woman looked contemplative for a mont. "I've known Anna for more than two centuries, and even now, she's still a bit of an enigma. I could make an educated guess, but I think it'd convey more to simply say that she's a deeply cynical person. In fact, you could say that she doesn't really believe in progress at all-- not for science, and certainly not for individuals."

Kam blinked. "That's... A little hard to believe, if I may say so." She tilted her head to the side. "Rather, how can you be in an organization like this and not believe in scientific progress?"

"Let clarify," Neferuaten said. "When I say 'believe' I don't an in the sense that she doesn't believe it's possible."

"You an, she's opposed to it?" she asked.

"Not quite that, either. She has a... Funny way, of thinking about things," she replied, shaking her head. "Forgive , I probably shouldn't have said anything." Her finger slid sideways, to the other side of the room.

This ti, it pointed to a colorful mask, obviously styled after a bird, with bright blue, purple, pink and red feathers arranged in a pleasing contrast around a beak shape. It looked like sothing you'd expect to see at a masquerade party, if a little higher effort.

"Durvasa's," Neferuaten said. "Fairly by the numbers, as one would expect from him. I think he always felt the whole idea was a little silly."

"It's tasteful, though," Kamrusepa said. "Expressive, but not to the point of sticking out too an excess. I'd probably pick sothing like that, were it ."

I gave her a skeptical look. "I find it hard to believe you wouldn't want to stick out, Kam."

She clicked her tongue. "I like to think my choices in attire are very considered and understated. It's hardly my fault the rest of our class still dresses like they're in secondary school, miss wool-robes-and-braids."

I flattened my brow at her, and Neferuaten chuckled. She shifted her finger again, towards an ornate-looking tal mask - brass, but with so patina left to form and then polished, leaving it that distinctive mix of shining green and bronze - that seed to depict so sort of demon, with warped, animalistic features, horns, and a gaping maw. It looked Saoic, probably from sowhere in the league.

"That one is Zeno's," she said. "Obviously, you haven't t him yet, but he's quite the fan of collecting foreign artifacts... Foreign from his perspective, at least. It's all very typically Inotian." She glanced to the side. "No offense intended, Theodoros."

"Uh, none taken," he said.

She spun her finger in the air a few tis, looking put-off. "As for Hamilcar's, it sadly escapes . He didn't wear the thing often. At the larger etings, he usually was represented by proxy or attended only through a logic bridge, and the design itself was sothing forgettably traditional. I rember it was mostly wood..." She sighed. "You'll have to forgive ."

"What about your own, grandmaster?" Kam asked, with her inquisitive smile.

"Oh, right!" She let out a surprised burst of laughter, shaking her head. "Forgot to count myself." She stepped away from the wall, and then gestured up towards the area above where she'd been leaning.

It took a mont to realize which mask she was pointing out, since it was so unremarkable. It was little more than an oval of silver, with holes cut for the two eyes and mouth, and a little dent to accommodate the nose.

This story has been stolen from . If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Honestly, I'm lucky I got away with it," she said. "We've rejected plenty of similar ones on the basis of them being too indistinct. I must have caught them on a lazy day."

"It's very... Utilitarian," Kamrusepa said, in a tone where you could tell she was straining to make it sound like a complint. "I expect the tal was a bit uncomfortable to wear, though."

"There's a little cushioning on the other side," Neferuaten said, with a small smile. "I had to fix it up quickly after the first ti I wore it and got a rash."

I stared at the thing with a funny expression. I wasn't sure why, but it produced a strangely somber feeling within . An uneasy one, like sitting by the grave of soone you never knew.

She turned to regard . "You look a little disappointed, Utsushiko."

"Oh, uhh-- Sorry," I said, hesitant. "It's just... Not what I would've expected from you."

She turned to look at it herself, her expression a little wistful. "What might you have expected, if I might ask?"

"W-Well, I don't know about that," I said, curling a length of hair around my finger and averting my eyes as I was put on the spot. "But you're an artist, and I know you have a lot of passion for older khian culture... But then, I suppose this was a long ti ago, so..."

"No, no, you're right," she said reassuringly, as I trailed off. "It was unlike . Even all those years past."

She fell quiet, for a mont. I didn't interject, since it looked like she was still formulating her thoughts.

"It's hard to put it into words, really," she eventually said, sothing in her posture changing, becoming a little more uncertain. "As I said, these are more snapshots of the past than anything, and I was in a very particular state of mind, all of those years ago. I suppose I was thinking of the idea of... A clean slate, perhaps."

"A clean slate?" Kamrusepa frowned curiously. "Were you trying to make a fresh start, when you joined the order, grandmaster?"

I bit my lip. Suddenly, I was feeling like it might've been dumb for to have said anything.

Neferuaten opened her mouth as to laugh, but instead only exhaled strangely, the corners of her eyes wrinkling. "That's a funny question. You're not wrong, but on the other hand, you've probably mistook my aning completely."

"Oh," Kam replied, suddenly hesitant. "Pardon, I shouldn't have been making assumptions. Well-- That is to say, I ought not to have inquired about sothing personal at all."

"No, it's alright," she replied, shaking her head. "My own fault for being excessively cryptic."

Another mont passed, and as I saw Neferuaten lean her head towards the door, I expected she was about to say that we ought to move on.

But then, sothing different happened.

"It's probably a little much to to say," she said, the tone strangely casual, "but when I was young, I lost almost my entire family. I'd married early - the two of us t in university - and in those days, there weren't the age requirents for child rearing that there are nowadays. By the ti I was in in my late fifties, we already had three children. Two daughters, one of whom was coming up to adulthood herself, and a little boy who had only got to walking a year or so before." She ran her tongue along the upper rim of her mouth, the bulge visible. "Feels more like sothing I read in a book than sothing that happened to , now."

My eyes widened, a little taken aback. I'd pieced together a lot from our conversations and simple context clues, but I'd never heard Neferuaten talk so forwardly about her early life before. Least of all around others.

"One day, I had so sudden obligation to do with work - I was a journalist back then, if you can believe it - and I had to miss a week-long trip my husband was taking to visit his parents, along with the children. Apparently, so group a few houses away got a little incautious." Her voice grew more distant. "I don't know how much they tell children nowadays, but when a contact paradox happens, there isn't very much left. The iron in people's bodies vanishes all at once. What's left is... Well, sort of a green-grey sludge."

Dead silence.

"I doubt it will make sense to you," Neferuaten continued, before anyone could gather themselves sufficiently to say anything. "But sothing about the fact that there was nothing left... That when I was looking at their coffins at the funeral, they were just tokens, fetishes... That was what stuck with . How should I put it into words..." She exhaled. "I had never thought about how fragile a state it is to be the person you are. Back then, I'd poured almost all of myself into my family-- Into being a 'mother'. That word defined my place in the world. The love of my husband, the smiling faces of my children, were what filled my heart every morning when I opened my eyes... And then it was all gone, without anything but old pictures and papers to prove it had happened." She snapped her fingers. "Just like that."

The sound echoed in the quiet of the room. I could only see Kamrusepa from where I was standing, looking dumbstruck.

"It's a funny thing to say, I know, but I've co to believe that humans never truly grow up," she went on. "Rather, we mistake amassing things - skills, wealth, loved ones - for maturity, because they allow us to mask our inalterable weakness, and build adult identities around those masks. ...but such gains remain rooted in the physical world, and if stripped from it, the rest will follow. Strike the fingers from an artist, they will cease to be an artist. Cut the tongue from a singer, they will cease to be a singer. Cut the legs from an athlete. The eyes from an investigator. Take the wise to a place where their wisdom is mocked, the proud to a place where none know them, the loving away from those they love." She smirked, but with a hint of pain. "It doesn't take much to return soone to their baseline state, in the end."

A few monts passed after that, with staring ahead, speechless. Again, this wasn't anything I hadn't suspected, but for her to just... Co out and explain it, in this ti and place, had taken completely off guard.

Funnily, it was Theodoros who had the nerve to speak up first.

"That's, well..." He cleared his throat roughly, holding a fist to his mouth. "I'm so sorry, ma'am..."

Kamrusepa blinked a few tis, then nodded along with vigor. "I-- That's terrible, grandmaster Amat," she said, with grave seriousness. "I can't even imagine how awful it must have been."

Neferuaten turned to regard the two of them, and after a few monts, smiled sardonically. "Ah, dear dear. There's nothing like a sob story to get perfectly smart people saying the most typical things." She shook her head. "No, forgive -- I do appreciate the sentint, but there's no need. As I said, it was a very long ti ago."

Kamrusepa let out a small, nervous laugh, then quickly shut her mouth and bit her lip, going silent altogether. Theodoros simply looked towards the ground.

On the other hand, Ran was wearing a strange expression. Like she was fully engaged with what Neferuaten was saying for the first ti in a while. It reminded of the look she sotis got right at the end of one of her books.

What's she thinking?

Neferuaten turned her head upwards again, looking towards the rows of masks. "It's strange, the feeling of losing sothing so completely that there's no one to even grieve with who understands. It's almost like traveling through ti, or waking from your own life as though it had all just been a happy dream." She stopped for a mont, as if questioning her own words, but then nodded to herself in approval. "I suppose that was what I'd ant the mask to represent. That sort of bitter new beginning."

Her gaze turned back to regard it again, and mine followed. I stared at the tal, reflective surface, the black holes within the eyes.

"Anyway," Neferuaten said, "I hope you'll forgive for oversharing. You've humored quite a lot this morning, so I thought you deserved better than a deflection."

"Ah-- You have nothing at all to apologize for, grandmaster," Kamrusepa replied. "Really, I'm flattered you felt comfortable."

It took a mont for her to reply. "If you say so," she said, with a hint of tired amusent.

"If you don't mind asking..." Kam went on. "...and really, please do stop if this is impertinent... But, is this why you beca a healer?"

"Oh, no!" she replied, shaking her head. "Not remotely. Gods, if I were after so sort of vicarious catharsis, it would have been more appropriate to have sought a career in the the Chamber of Public Safety. It's not like all the tabolism-tweaking incantations I've been churning out for most of my career would have done the four of them much good, after all." She chuckled to herself again, though it was grimr this ti. "No, in fact, I originally trained as an Aetheromancer before I even thought of going back to my holand and studying Thanatomancy. I like sailing, so I thought I might beco an arcanist for a ship... Though really, I was probably looking for any excuse to leave the country."

"You weren't an arcanist, before you lost your family," Ran inferred.

She didn't respond as if it were any kind of deduction, only nodding slightly. "That's right. I was pushing 90 when I went through my ceremony. I suppose most people say the mind is too set in its ways to properly learn the conceptualization aspect of casting if you start so late nowadays, but it was never an obstacle for ." She shrugged. "It's self-flattery, but I've always had a fluid mode of thinking."

This part, I'd never heard before. I'd always assud that Neferuaten had been like a more temperate version of Fang when she was young - already obviously brilliant, and upsetting authority figures with her theories.

It was hard to say exactly how, but it changed my impression of her, just slightly. Maybe because it was a less familiar narrative to , having surrounded myself with so many people who had already experienced success at what was, really, a ridiculously young age. People who I really had no business being around.

"Though, if your intent was more to ask if it influenced my interest in longevity scholarship, miss Tuon," she said, "then I suppose it did. Because after a while, I realized that the only reason I was able to start again at all was because I had been born into this era. If it'd happened a few thousand years earlier..." She stopped herself, letting out a small sigh. "I suppose I ca to believe that if the fundantal cruelties of the world cannot be changed, that at the very least, people should always have a chance to start anew."

At so point, without having realized it completely until that mont, I'd started to cry, just a little bit. I disguised it, shifting my hair so it fell to block the side of my face.

Co on, I thought. This isn't the ti for self-pity.

"That's a beautiful sentint," Kamrusepa said, sounding earnest.

"Is it?" Neferuaten raised an eyebrow. "Sotis I wonder if I still really believe in it, or if sowhere along the way, my ans beca the ends." Her eyes flickered up the wall, for a mont. "That's life, I suppose. You do things because they stir sothing in your heart. Then you forget that feeling, but you keep doing them anyway." She let out another small chuckle. "All you can do is try to laugh about it all, in the end."

I didn't laugh. Instead, my eyes drifted back to her mask. Towards sothing which part of still wished for, but I knew I could never receive.

𒊹

Ran took out her cara, and took a photograph of the room, with Neferuaten insisting that we posed with so of the masks on a lark to lighten the mood. When Theodoros suggested this didn't seem appropriate, she assured us that she'd only pick ones out which belonged to people who deserved it. I got one which looked like an elephant.

After that, we went back through the theater, which in contrast to more contemporary architectural trends, was the only room in the entire facility with a glass roof. It only had one entrance, so we doubled back to the halls of the third floor, which was much more modest than the previous two, or even the guesthouse with its mural. Nothing funny about the walls, just tasteful wallpaper and the occasional landscape painting, so by Neferuaten, and so by other artists.

There wasn't much else to see. There was a room full of niche artifices the order had constructed over the years and hadn't found anywhere else to put, like a mirror that was supposed to show a much older version of the onlooker - though the result was a bit off, doing little more than greying the hair and adding so wrinkles, producing a dissonant outco - and a doorway to the tower at the back of the building, which had an arcane lock and Neferuaten inford us was strictly off-limits. (Since it was technically a different structure, I doubted it would have counted for the instructions in the note, anyway.)

Soon, though, we exhausted anything remotely compelling, and Neferuaten steered us back towards the stairs. She took out her logic engine and checked the ti.

"Well, it's a bit tighter than I'd like, but we still have so ti to take a look around the research chambers, I think. Shall we be off?"

"Actually, if it's not too much of a bother," Kamrusepa interjected, "I was wondering if I take a mont to partake of the lavatory? I saw we passed one a little earlier." She gestured in the general direction.

"Oh! Go right ahead," Neferuaten said, nodding. "Foolish of - ought to have offered, since I've been dragging you all about since breakfast."

Kamrusepa looked to , her brow raised suggestively. It took an embarrassing amount of ti to take the hint.

"Ah, um." I bit my lip. "I'll go, too."

Neferuaten gave a dry smile. "You hardly need to announce it, Utsushiko."

I laughed nervously, scratching the side of my head.

Theodoros went with us, while Ran stayed behind and started asking so trivial questions, presumably having keyed in to what we were up to. When we made it back to the lavatory, Kam told Theo to go ahead and use it. When he quickly turned around and inford us there were actually several separate little toilets inside - probably on account of the theater-slash-conference hall we'd just passed through - she inford him we'd wait anyway, as two girls using a shared facility at the sa ti as a boy 'wouldn't be appropriate'.

After he'd gone inside, she quickly took hold of my arm and dragged further down the hall.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're about as subtle as a cavalry parade, Su?"

"I think people might've ntioned it's not my strong suit," I said flatly. At the word parade, another thought suddenly intruded into into my head. "Oh, I'd almost forgot-- The double centennial parade will have started by now, won't it? And all the other celebrations."

"Don't change the subject," she chided . "You know, I'm doing you quite an indulgence right now. The least you could do would be to try to pretend we're not doing sothing suspicious."

"Sorry," I said. "I'm, uh, not that experienced with lying."

This, in itself, was a lie of such titanic proportion that my voice ended up cracking a bit as the other shoe dropped ntally mid-sentence, resulting in sounding like the platonic ideal of a suspicious person. Kamrusepa regarded with a combination of profound skepticism and concern for a mont, then shook her head.

"Never mind," she said, then stopped us suddenly as we turned the corner, getting out the map she'd sketched out earlier. "Listen. I've found a spot where our hidden archive could be."

My eyes widened. "You have?"

She nodded. "Look here. Below us, at this point in the building, are two of the bedrooms." She pointed to the corresponding part of the sketch. "Assuming they're all the sa size as Neferuaten's, they both extend ten ters from one side to the other. Now, this room we saw earlier here--" She pointed to a door to our left. "--corresponds to one of the bedrooms... But it's only about five ters long, and I haven't seen anything to explain the dead space." She narrowed her eyes. "So if there's a spot for a hidden chamber, this is it."

"You've thought about this a lot," I said, a little taken aback.

"Like I said, Su. If one is going to do sothing, however absurd, it behooves them to do it properly." She cleared her throat. "In any case. I'd suggest we duck in, give the room a quick inspection for hollow walls and the like, then try to get back before Theodoros finishes his business. Shall we?"

She didn't wait for to respond before quickly proceeding towards the room. "What if we're too late?"

"I'm sure you can make sothing up," she replied, as she opened the door. "Theodoros would probably believe you if you told him we'd been attacked by giant snakes."

I glared at her. "Don't say peculiar things, Kam."

She rolled her eyes. "Co on, Su, you're not that imperceptive," she said, as I followed her into the lounge. There was barely anything notably about it; so chairs, a fireplace, a couple of bookshelves. "It's obvious that he has so sort of peculiar thing for you. If not a crush, than sothing adjacent. He always hangs off your every word."

"Between this and what you said about Ran earlier, I feel like you're developed so very strange ideas about my interpersonal relationships," I said flatly. "We're childhood friends. And I'm pretty certain he knows I'm not interested in n."

"The heart goes where the heart wilt, Su," she said, in a tone like she was conveying so profound wisdom.

I rolled my eyes back at her.

"Check around the back of the bookshelf, I'll move these chairs," she said, as we approached the wall adjacent to our absent space. "And don't get any ideas about using the Power to make this easier, by the way. We don't want people knowing we've been slinking about."

"I'm not stupid, Kam," I said, dryly.

"Just a reminder," she said, as she begun pushing one aside. "Say. Out of curiosity, what was it that he wanted from you, yesterday?"

I gave her a confused look as I moved around to the side of it. "What are you talking about?"

"At dinner, when he was going to bed, just before everything got so sour." She raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell you you forgot?"

I blinked, then widened my eyes. "I-- I did," stopping what I was doing completely for a mont at the realization. "I guess it got pushed out of my head after everything that happened."

"Goodness," Kamrusepa said, smirking a bit as she inspected the wall. "So much for your infallible mory, I suppose."

I frowned. "It's not like it's eidetic. I forget things all the ti. And I've had a lot on my mind, this weekend."

"Alright, aright," she said. "Don't an to pick excessive fun at you." She shifted a chair out of the way, tracing a finger down the side of the wallpaper. "I do rather wonder how it left Theo feeling, though."

Oh, hell, I thought, as my mind made so connections. "Gods..." I rubbed my eyes. "Maybe that's why he's been acting strange all morning."

"Could very well be," she said.

I crossed my arms uncomfortably, furrowing my brow for a mont, before shaking my head. I turned around, and started to shift the bookcase. "I'll have to ask him when we get back. Apologize."

"You sure you want to do that?" she asked. "Might've dodged a bullet if it was a love confession."

I glared at her. "Like I said, it's not like--"

And then I stopped, as my gaze was suddenly drawn to what I'd discovered.

Behind the bookcase, in a little enclave only visible when it was pulled a good foot away from its resting position was an open door, seemingly built to swing inward. And through that was another chamber, that looked to be about the sa size as the one we were in.

Despite this being exactly what we were looking for, I still almost physically jumped in surprise at the sight. It was such a sudden transition between what felt like incredibly theoretical, abstract reasoning and clear reality that it felt like the world had turned upside down for a mont. The shock hit in my gut, and I stepped backwards.

"Like what, Su?" Kam asked, clearly not paying the closest attention.

"K-Kam."

She looked up. "Hm?"

I held up a finger, and pointed. Her expression turning suddenly inquisitive, she got up, and looked too. And then similarly gawked.

"Good god," she said.

"Uh-huh," I said, staring.

"I can't believe I was right."

"Yeah."

She blinked a few tis, contextualizing the information. "I can't believe you were right."

"Y-Yeah." I hesitated. "Wait, what?"

"That there really was sothing up here!" She exclaid. "A secret room, like the note said!"

"I thought your theory was that the note was real, too?" I asked, looking down at her (on account of the height difference). "Just from the order."

"Well, yes," she said, leaning forward. "But that was just-- Just musing. I didn't expect any of this to really co to anything. I was just trying to help you feel better to make up for yesterday."

"You were humoring the whole ti?" I asked, frowning.

"Yes, obviously!" She said. "The whole thing is absurd! We established that already."

"I... guess," I said, scratching my head.

We stared into the chamber ahead. It was dark, and seed to be broken up into little sections by a stone barrier down the center, lined with white marble - like a bathroom, except this obviously wasn't a bathroom. There were a couple sets of shelves, but there didn't seem to be anything on them other than a few maintenance tools. A wrench. What looked like a box of screws.

"This, uh... This doesn't really look like an archive," I said, stating the obvious.

"No," Kamrusepa said. She slowly bit her lip. "Mm. Perhaps the note was fake, and we've simply, well. Stumbled on an unrelated secret room, using my thod?"

I still couldn't believe Kamrusepa's 'thod' had produced any result at all. The whole thing seed so far-fetched, it being vindicated was honestly making rethink a lot of aspects of reality. What else could Kamrusepa be right about? The usefulness of her over-the-top professional conduct? The near-term prospects of longevity scholarship? Politics? (No, definitely not politics.)

"It's... I an, it's possible," I said, with a shrug. "Or maybe there are books in here, and they're just deeper inside."

"Not out of the question, no." She stared for few more monts, before turning to with a strange eagerness. "Well, then. Let's take a look, shall we?"

My eyes widened in surprise for a mont. Then I hesitated, looking to the side. "Uh... Should we...?" I scratched the side of my neck. "I an, I know this was my idea, and everything, but... This feels kind of serious."

"Su," she said, suddenly serious herself. "We've co this far. Propriety demands we look inside."

"Are you sure...?" Of course she's sure. If you don't want to do it, co up with sothing better than that.

"We'll just take a quick peek," she said, now in her speaking-with-authority voice. "See if there are any indications of so grave conspiracy at work as the note appeared to suggest, and then get back to the toilets."

'Toilets' instead of 'lavatory'. Kamrusepa always slipped out of her more upper-class language when the situation beca serious.

I squird for another mont, then nodded, reluctant. "Alright," I said. "I guess I'll grab one of the lamps, then..."

When I turned back around, she'd already moved to head through the gap.

I bit my lip, and followed.