Mr. Athenida managed to put an end to the ball in a couple of minutes of chatting with the Queen. Though the debutants complained into their handkerchiefs, none of them stopped or remained in the Palace after a couple of minutes. Only Alice, her father, and the Marchioness followed the Queen into her office.
The Queen waited for them to enter, then dismissed the guards and told them to keep on the lookout for other intruders. Kept silence until she stopped hearing footsteps on the other side of the door.
"What in god's name was that display?" She asked the lot. "Daedalus, I know you don't like our absence from court, but if this was an attempt..."
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid I don't have time for this. To answer you, no, this was not an attempt for you to return to London, we are not that desperate. Right now we have a bigger problem. Arthur, the once and future King of England, is back and that is not good."
"Arthur, as the Legend of King Arthur!? Are you insane!?" The Queen began, ready to yell for her guards.
"Enough." Mr. Athenida moved his hand in the air, and the Queen stopped mid-sentence. "Quiet. Sit."
She did all those things, and even Alice had to restrain herself of doing the same.
"Your Majesty, you are going to be quiet about this, from now until the end of time." He turned to face his daughter. "Now, Alice, what did you do?"
She explained everything. From the cup, to the clay and the cave below Buckingham Palace.
"Yes, we all know about the cave. Most of us know to not leave the door open. And it shouldn't have been in those damn floorplans to begin! Now, most important of all. Where are the swords?"
"Swords? Plural?" The Marchioness asked. "I thought there was only one."
"No, there are two. Excalibur keeps Arthur sleeping, and Caliburn… oh, no. Oh, hell no. I need to go to Parliament, now."
"Why, father, what's wrong?" Alice saw his father walking towards the door.
"Caliburn keeps the monarchy from falling!" He yelled as he exited. "I'll be back! Both of you go find who the hell took them!"
"In this dress!?" The Marchioness protested, but Mr. Athenida had left. "I swear I'll kill him again. And then you. Look at you, it's going to take months to clean that primordial clay!"
Due to the slipping in the wet floor of the cave, and the hurried chase back, Alice's dress had grey stains from the shoulders to the skirt. Alice couldn't care less, but the Marchioness had a penchant for clothes, as she worked as a seamstress during the French Revolution.
"It'll take me ages to fix all of that. You and your father are going to be the death of me."
"Your mother is Death, so I wouldn't be worried." Alice paid little attention to the woman, as Queen Victoria, who hadn't said a word, still sat, looking at them. "Your Majesty, are you alright?"
The Queen motioned to her throat, but no sound came of it.
"Damn Daedalus and his puppet spell. No one else can fix it," the Marchioness sighted. "We can't have a sitting, mute queen, not now."
"If it's one of those familiar spells, I think I can do it." Alice turned to the Queen. "Hello, Your Majesty. Speak."
"I'll execute this man, I swear I will." The Queen spoke, though her voice came from deep inside her. "What are you doing still here? Go, do whatever he told you. I'll stay here."
With that, the Queen moved her hand and the doors opened. Despite the shock of earning She was one of them, Alice went out the room, followed by the Marchioness. All the way back to the cave, the passage, and the vaulted room with the altar in the centre.
"I haven't been here since we put Arthur," the woman added, looking at the riches around the altar. "Everything's surprisingly well preserved. Magic will do that to you."
"Anything out of place?"
"Other than the missing King of the Britons and the swords? A couple of this are late additions, I'm assuming from the time of Cnut the Great. Those cloths are from the times of Gloriana. And...this is new."
She picked the small tip of a fountainpen. Bronze. Styled with dozens of little engravings, although not larger than a fingernail.
Once Isigny saw the engravings, her eyes sparked with flames, and her expression changed to pure contempt. For a fraction of a second, the looked like her mother, Death, with her stern face and sunken cheeks.
"I recognise this. But I haven't seen it in a while. Back during the revolution we had a gentleman thief. One of many during those days. His calling card had these same engravings. Joan, your sister-in-law, tried to catch her, but never could."
"Maybe someone learnt of him? We have many records of the French Revolution nowadays. A friend of mine, Charley Moberly collects them"
"But those, we destroyed, among the ones about the magical lineage of the royal family. Since we are sure he, whoever he was, was a member of your community. The Council destroyed them after Napoleon."
"Okay, that doesn't surprise me. Anything else?"
"The fireplace, when you came here. Open or closed?"
"Closed."
Isigny walked around the altar, trying to find more things. Found nothing. Alice grabbed one of the lamps and began looking around the nave. Besides the main area, everything else was covered in darkness. The alleys surrounding it, though not as fancy and well carves as it, still showed mastering of many artistic abilities. All except one, at the corner away from the altar, on the exact opposite of the fireplace-cave entrance.
A large crack on the wall, with several stones fallen. The damage was not new, as spiderwebs and some moss had grown on them. But, once Alice shone a light into it, showed a very narrow and dangerous passage away from the building and into the unknown.
She could also hear something, vaguely, a slow and deep grumbling, such as the one made by a large creature. For a moment, she thought it came from a dragon, like her sister, but the sound had something else in it. A metallic aftertone. The sound was not magical, but from one of the horrid machines of the modern world. One Alice knew.
"Mrs. Isigny, where are we? Exactly."
"If no one moved this chamber from the last time...a bit north. Hyde Park. Why?"
"North as in below the park or under a street?"
"I'm not sure. A lot has happened since then. Again, why?"
"The Tube."
The construction of the London Underground Railway System, affectionally called 'The Tube', was one of the great projects of the time. A couple of years prior, the first attempt was made to join the key points of the city. Since it became a resounding success, plans were made to expand the line to the rest of the inner circle, and construction had begun the previous year.
"Oh." Isigny could only exhale in horror, as she approached the crack. "Let me see where it leads."
Isigny snapped her fingers, and in a second she vanished. In her place, a cloud of black smoke, which quickly entered the crack and left Alice alone in the darkened vault. Almost in the most complete silence. Only hearing the dripping of watter intoa puddle, and the vague rumbling of the train.
"It's Paddington Station," Isigny said, appearing back next to her. "Your father will kick himself when he finds out. He approved the plans for it."
"But Paddington is already done. It's been for years. Why now?"
"I don't know, but your father should lnow about this. Stand back." Isigny moved her hand, and the stones came back to their place. Soon, the crack vanished, and looked like nothing had happened there. "Come, we need to find what happened with your uncle."
"Marcus? He's at the Alhambra, looking after the equipment of an acrobat." Alice followed the Marchioness back into the cave.
"No, not that one. Arthur. Well, he's more of a half-uncle on your mother's side. I thought you knew."
"I didn't. Mother never speaks about her side. It's always father's who give issues."
"Well, careful there." Isigny pointed at a puddle. "That's because your mother's side is, well, dead. Been for millennia. Happens. To everyone but us."
"Us?" They walked into the room and closed the fireplace.
"Well, me. I don't know if you are, well, immortal. There's only one way to know, and that's a way of not many come back."
They returned to the corridors of the Palace, but the Marchioness led Alice outside. Apparently, dealing with an irate -and suddenly speaking- Queen was not in the list of priorities for Isigny. The walked outside the Palace and into the same courtyard they came from, what seemed ages ago. All the other carriages had left, and only the one belonging to the Marchioness remained.
"Good afternoon, Marchioness, did you have a pleasant time?" The man managing her carriage seemed strangely familiar to Alice.
"Cut the nonsense, Hermes. We have pressing matters at hand."
Alice was taken aback by the simplicity on which the Marchioness used Mr. Lestrange's divine name. Her father had made mandatory for no one to use them on earth. Not even when you could make sure nobody could hear you. Certainly this wasn't the case in the middle of the Palace's courtyard.
Isigny shouldn't just blurt out them. Not even Olympians dared. A low-ranking death-associated demon? So down the totem pole no one even cared for them.
"Oh?" The God's voice filled to the brim with curiosity. "And where do you need to go, then. I'm assuming we won't go to Elysian House."
"Either to Parliament or the Athenida & Co. building in South London. Still not sure which," Isigny said, while looking at the stains on her dress. "I'm going to kill him. I know I will."
"I need to go to the Willoughby first," Alice interrupted. "I can't say why, I just need to."
Isigny looked at her with an expression that could freeze mercury.
"That has to be one of the worst ideas at this time. Why on hell would yo go there now!?"
"I just have to. It's on the way to father's office."
"If he asks, I'll tell him."
It took them just a couple of minutes to reach the hotel. The streets, which on the regular filled with people, and carriages, and vendors, and horses, now laid empty. Not in a "quiet day" manner, but in a "everyone vanished suddenly" one.
Not even Mr. Willoughby who always seemed to live chained to his reception desk. Only a sign in his place.
"Closed due to unexpected circumstances."
Alice's heart sank. Didn't wait for Isigny to follow her up the stairs. She bolted. Running, skipping steps, and, on the last floor, floating. Heard a bunch of voices on her way, which became louder the closer she came to Mrs. Bennett's floor.
Found Mr. Willoughby, slumped on a wall to not fall. Handkerchief on his face, and his skin had an ashen look to it, as if he suddenly came to a fit of sickness. He didn't pay attention to her. Too busy trying not to faint. Alice walked down the corridor, but came to a stop when a couple of constables came out of the room and restrained her from entering.
"Miss, you can't enter. There's been a gas leak," one of them said.
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