With the curtains pulled tight in the library it was hard to tell how much time had passed. Estia spent several long minutes slamming the drawers on the desk, and muttering to zirself, but other than that there was only the gentle shush of paper as Takayoshi and Claudia worked.
When Alice joined them, Selene must have begun her ascent, darkening the skies, as Alice was holding a lantern. “Supper is ready. You should come and eat.”
“We should head back to town.” Takayoshi frowned down at his pocket watch. It was well past six. “Before it gets too late.”
“I’m afraid that’ll be impossible.” Alice shook her head. “The forest has already grown too dark to travel. If you go out there now, you’re liable to get hurt. No. You’ll stay with us for the night.”
Estia and Claudia glanced at Takayoshi. “What of our horses? There is no stable here.”
“I had Jasper bring them around into the courtyard. They’ll be warm enough, and sheltered there from the elements. And there’s plenty of clover for them to snack on. Now come along, before supper gets cold.”
Takayoshi nodded, and the others took their cues from him as they all headed back toward the kitchen.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Alice was smiling again, and in the darkness of the corridor it did not look quite so open and friendly as it had earlier in the day.
"Not yet."
"Aw, well, that's too bad. You can continue your search after supper, I suppose. Since you're staying."
Takayoshi nodded, his hands clenched behind his back as he took careful steps to remain beside Alice. The softly flickering lantern cast an eerie glow about the hall, making the dark walls seem as if they were twisting and teaming with shadows.
"The desk was empty," Estia said from behind them. Zir tone was carefully neutral. Takayoshi almost turned around to see what zir face was doing, but he knew that it would not help him to understand what Estia was feeling. "Did you take anything out of it?"
"Excuse me?" Alice stopped in the middle of the hall, the lantern in her hand swinging around to cast them all in that strange light held just below their waists.
"It just seemed a little weird." Estia's arms were folded carefully behind zir back, weight leaning back on zir heels. "If the place was abandoned, as it seems to have been, then they wouldn't have cleared out the desk so thoroughly. There wasn't even a bit of unused paper left behind. So. Did you clear it out?"
Alice and Estia held each other's gaze for a beat, seeming to size one another up. Then Alice threw her head back and laughed, that same laugh from hours before in the kitchen. Estia watched, brows wrinkled just slightly in the center.
When Alice finished laughing, after she realized perhaps that now was not an appropriate time to laugh, she shrugged. "Maybe Jasper cleared it out. He always had ideas about devoting himself more seriously to studying botany. He likely emptied it out so he could use it."
"What happened to everything that was in it?"
"It's probably around here somewhere. Jasper never throws anything away. You'll have to ask him at supper." Alice turned back to continue their trek to the kitchen, seeming to dismiss Estia and zir questions.
"I guess I will."
The big round table in the kitchen was laden with more food than the five of them could ever eat. The dishes ranging from pastas and noodles to finely braised meats. Takayoshi stilled, his eyes roving over the spread.
"We didn't know what you'd like," Jasper said, a nervous smile on his lips.
"So you just made everything?" Claudia asked, a chuckle in the words.
"Yeah, we did." Jasper threw his head back and laughed, Alice joined him a moment later. Claudia and Estia both let out soft chuckles, and Takayoshi settled into his seat quietly.
"At least there will be plenty left over for lunch tomorrow," Claudia said, sitting beside Takayoshi. Estia sat on his other side, and the two began loading up their plates once more.
"Yes. But please, eat up." Alice smiled, moving to pour water into everyone's glasses. "I'm sure all your research has made you hungry."
The group around the table chatted companionably, with minimum necessity for Takayoshi to participate. Of this, he was grateful. It left him time to think about what they had not found in the library, and where else they might search. It was clear that the previous owners of the home had hidden the map piece. It was possible there was a vault somewhere, or...
"Is there a cellar?" Takayoshi set his fork down on the edge of his plate, his hands moving to fold in his lap.
"A cellar?" Jasper asked.
"Yes. Does this home have a cellar?"
"No. No cellar." Alice shook her head. "Any particular reason?"
Takayoshi looked back down at his plate, his shoulders drooping just a little. "I thought perhaps what we were searching for might be hidden there. If there is not a cellar, then it might be in a vault somewhere."
"We've never seen a vault." Jasper lifted his glass, taking a careful sip. "But you're willing to look for one."
"Or maybe under the floorboards or something," Claudia said. She had stilled, her fork holding up a bite of pasta halfway to her mouth.
"Tucked away in what looks like a book," Estia added, zir fingers drumming on the table thoughtfully.
"Well, it sounds like you three have some idea where it might be. But maybe if you told us more about it we could help. You said it's a piece of a map to an archive, but what does it look like? Do you have a picture?" Alice leaned forward, bracing herself on her elbows. Takayoshi did not like the sudden gleam in her eyes.
"No. We do not." Takayoshi lifted his fork again, and went back to eating.
"Oh, well. We'll just leave you to it then." Alice seemed to deflate.
Takayoshi nodded.
The dinner conversation moved back into idle chatter. Alice and Jasper had been living in the manor for some time, and wanted to hear about the outside world. Estia and Claudia were kind enough to fill them in. When all was said and done, they helped to clear the table, and then returned to the library.
"We need a plan," Claudia said, grabbing a blank bit of paper from one of the stacks, and pulling a pencil from her satchel.
"I found a blueprint of the house earlier." Estia moved to a stack of rolled up papers to pull one out, and unroll it between them. "It doesn't show any vaults, or hidden compartments. But—"
"But why would it." Claudia nodded. "So we should start with the most likely places."
"The study." Estia tapped on a room, and Claudia circled it with her pencil.
"The courtyard." Claudia circled it thoughtfully. "There might be some kind of marker where they buried it."
Takayoshi's eyes flicked over the map, drinking in the different rooms. There were so many. It would take them weeks to search the entire manor, and he was not sure that they had weeks. They still had two other pieces of the map to find, and he had no idea how long it would be before Cricket lost himself entirely to his dragon nature.
"The drawing room." Estia was chewing on zir lip.
"Do you think?"
"It's worth a look. And more likely than the kitchens."
Takayoshi tugged on the collar of his tunic, pulling the fabric away from where his neck had begun to sweat.
"The solarium." Claudia tapped her pencil on the table.
"A room of glass?"
"Yeah. Why not? Hide it right in there with all the other glass."
"I guess it can't hurt to look. What about the bedrooms?"
His hair was sticking to his temples where it had fallen free from the short tail at the back of his head. So many rooms. There were so many rooms. And they had no way of knowing what could be hidden in any of them. They did not know if the map put off a magical signature, and if it did if that would have been swallowed by the emptiness that lingered in the walls. Or perhaps the map was the cause of the emptiness that lingered in the walls. There was not enough information, and he was not clever or creative enough to make this task go more quickly.
"I wish Cricket were here," Takayoshi blurted, his fingers brushing the sticky hair back from his face.
"What?" Estia stilled, zir eyes moving from the map to Takayoshi. Assessing.
"What would he do differently?" Claudia asked. For once she did not seem interested in dragging any answers about Takayoshi's relationship—or lack thereof—to the prince of Lunette from him. "If your prince were here, what would he suggest?"
Takayoshi thought to argue with her choice of words, but suddenly he felt too tired to bother. He had called Cricket "My Prince" before he had left. What was the difference in Claudia using that terminology now?
"He would likely come up with a talisman that we could use to track the piece." Takayoshi pulled a piece of paper to himself. "That was how we found the items in lake Nishi."
Claudia nodded. "Do you remember how he created it?"
"He had to imbue the ink for it with the magical signature from the other items we had found. That is not something we can replicate with this."
"No. But maybe we can use it to find the others." Estia plucked the pencil from Claudia's fingers, then held it out to Takayoshi. "Could you draw it from memory?"
Takayoshi nodded. The pencil in hand, he sketched the characters he'd seen Cricket use on the talisman, exactly as he had seen them. "I do not know if this will work in this particular case. We can try it."
Claudia had risen from her seat to watch Takayoshi work, her mouth falling open. When he slid the paper over to her she let out a soft squeak. "This is..." She fumbled with her words, her fingers creasing the paper before she laid it back on the table to try to smooth out the creases. "Your Prince is a genius."
Takayoshi felt heat crawl into his ears, different than the heat that had made his hair cling to his neck. This feeling, he was familiar with after having felt it so often around Cricket. A blush. "As I said, I do not know if it will be usable in this circumstance."
"Maybe not but..." Claudia whistled, shaking her head.
"We still have to find the first piece," Estia said, drawing their attention away from the talisman.
"Right." Claudia nodded, reluctantly tucking the talisman copy back under her map. "Have we completed our search of the library?"
"We have not checked the books yet. I do not think that will take all three of us."
"Then why doesn't one of us go and start in the study?" Estia turned to look at Claudia, one brow raised expectantly.
"Yeah, I guess I can do that." Claudia stood, stretching. "I'll just be right down the hall. Holler if you find anything."
"We will." Estia smiled up at her, zir eyes following Claudia to the door.
Takayoshi said nothing as he rose and moved to one overstuffed shelf. Pressing a hand to it, he reached with his magic in the hopes that something would respond. When none did, his shoulders drooped slightly and he began to pull the books down one by one. Flipping each open to the middle before returning them to their place.
They worked in silence for a count of twenty books on Takayoshi's shelf, before he heard Estia fidgeting behind him.
"So, Your Prince, huh?"
Takayoshi did not sigh. "Why?"
"Why what?" Estia turned to watch him. Takayoshi could feel zir eyes following him as he pulled another book down and flipped it open.
"Why are you so interested in my relationship with Prince Cricket?"
"Cricket and I are friends, of a kind. He seems to like you. I just want to make sure you like him back."
"It does not matter if I like him." The weight was back. The ill-fitting armor around his shoulders. It would never protect him from a sword. Not in a real fight. Cricket would slash through it in seconds.
"Why doesn't it?"
"Because we cannot be together. Now, help me search." Takayoshi did not snap, but his words felt brittle as they left his tongue. Like one more word from Estia along this line and they may crumble away, leaving him mute entirely. He would not tell Estia about the curse. He would not tell Estia about the effect the curse was having on Cricket. He would not trust Estia with that information.
"Fine." Estia huffed, turning back to zir own shelf.
But Takayoshi could feel that this was not the end of the conversation. They worked in silence from then on, and Takayoshi was glad of it. It let him focus instead on the task at hand.
They were each half way through their second shelf when a light knock sounded from the door to the library. Takayoshi turned to see the smiling face of Jasper.
"It's quite late, you two, you should get to bed. I've already had Alice show your friend to her rooms, let me take you to yours."
Takayoshi's gaze settled on Estia who's eyes had begun to droop, and yawned into the back of zir wrist.
"Yes, thank you." Takayoshi nodded. He settled the book back into the shelf, the pages facing outward, so he would know where he left off in the morning. Then turned to follow Jasper and Estia up a winding and creaking staircase in the back corner of the sprawling manor.
Jasper showed them each to an expansive, lushly decorated room with large four poster beds, soft rugs, and roaring fires, before wishing them goodnight. Takayoshi did not feel tired. His mind still hummed with the events of the day, and all he would need to do the following day as he changed into his sleep clothes.
Ideally they should finish their search of the library, and the study, then head to the courtyard to search. Perhaps they should split up again, sending one person elsewhere. He did not want to leave Estia without supervision, so it would have to be himself or Claudia alone.
He sank down into bed, mind working over the blueprints that Claudia had shown him. Listing off the rooms, and deciding where to start. Or, he intended to, but the moment his head hit the pillow, exhaustion overwhelmed him and he fell asleep without even remembering to turn off the lantern by his bedside.
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