Storehouse Secrets

Thankfully, the tunnels were wide enough to accommodate the wheeled chair. Because some of the sections had been rebuilt by the gnomes, Aurora held a small candle in her lap as they silently moved along the passage. The tiny light dispelled the darkness where the glowstone was no longer there.

The last time she had been to the Storehouse, Aurora had been running at a rapid pace to escape the tenacious gnomes. This time she was moving slowly after having escaped the hideous wolves. 'Always escaping something, it seems…'

The Empress idly twisted the Fate's chain around a finger. For the year that Alaron was 'dead', the fiery-haired woman had felt incomplete without the golden necklace dangling from her shoulders.

Nearing the final turn, Devrim also became nostalgic. "I remember finding this place by accident for the first time. We were so shocked that Cafer could hear us that we fell backwards into the tunnel. We know now that that trickster was a gnome, but back then I thought he was some kind of wizard..."

Aurora nodded. "He was in a sense, I suppose. I..."

Footsteps rang off the stone behind them. They were quiet at first but grew in intensity as someone neared. Devrim pulled his sword, protecting the chair from the interloper. His face was grim as gripped the pommel of his weapon.

Suddenly the footsteps stopped. The hall grew eerily silent. The Emperor tensed, trying to discern the coming danger.

"Have I not suffered enough indignation by being mauled by that wolf-like monstrosity? Must I also become a pincushion by the Emperor Consort?" A lady with colorless rises rounded the final corner with a scowl.

"Sorry, Hanna," Devrim responded, sheathing his sword. "I had no idea that it was you."

Turning her body around in the chair, Aurora gawked at the Fate. "What are you doing here? Are you following us?"

"Do you think I would let you go to the Storehouse without me?" Hanna countered. She tapped her foot on the glowstone, creating a metronomic echo in the passage.

The Empress realized that for the first time in a long time, Hanna's expansive knowledge of the world had failed her. She wanted answers just as much as the rest of them. Without using her magic, she would need a Fate's chain to enter just like the humans.

"We would be honored for you to join us." Aurora held out her right hand over the back of the chair.

Hanna's placid smile returned as streaks of lightning raced across her irises. She strode forward and accepted the waiting palm. "What are we waiting for? We will never find anything just gabbing here, will we?"

The trio stopped at the long straight stretch of glowstone. Leaning forward, Aurora reached out and touched the spot with the faint imprint of the Fate's symbol. The wall undulated as her hand slipped through the stone like it was made of sand. Before their eyes, the Storehouse entrance appeared.

With the golden necklace outshining the candle, the three visitors entered the vault of information. The shining essence broke from its perch on the gold chain into a thousand fireflies and lit the sconces in an ethereal glow.

As usual, the Storehouse was filled with books of all kinds ordered in a way that was beyond the two royals' understanding. If not for the pedestal to provide what they requested, Aurora was sure she would never find anything she needed.

"Greetings, Storehouse!" The Empress said automatically.

The room rumbled, and Devrim gripped the back of his wife's chair.

"I am only here to help push her," he promised, his voice going to a slightly higher pitch.

There was another rumble, and Hanna laughed. "Don't worry, Emperor. The Storehouse is friendly. It just doesn't like for anyone except the Fates and those with their chains to touch its treasures."

The Emperor remembered when he unknowingly touched the map of the land of magic during his first visit to the mysterious vault. The Storehouse had nearly swallowed Aurora and him whole.

"You don't say," he responded wryly.

With the Emperor's steady push, Aurora came even with the raised platform. As usual, it lay empty, awaiting a request from the bearer of the Fate's chain.

The Empress froze.

"What's wrong?" Hanna cocked her head to one side.

"I am not sure what to ask," Aurora answered after a moment.

She had asked questions and made requests regarding how to heal Alaron until she was blue in the face and had come up empty. The Storehouse could only give the answers if it had them. And that meant finding the right lock for the Storehouse to provide the key…assuming there was one.

"Try something, and we can go from there," Hanna encouraged her.

Taking a deep breath, Aurora said the first thing that came into her head. "I would like some information on wolf creatures, please." The woman did not even specify which language she wanted, because the Empress knew Hanna could translate.

There was a sound of thunder and then a thinly bound book splashed onto the podium like a fish out of water. Unfortunately when the Empress looked at the cover, she could immediately tell that it was not what she was looking for.

Flipping through the pages only confirmed that it was a digest on forest wolves. She placed it back on the podium to be returned.

"May I have a book on magical…dogs?"

The Storehouse did nothing for a moment. Then quieter than a whisper, two tombes appeared.

"Not very confident in this answer, I think," Devrim noted. "There was no big production and there are two books, not one."

It seemed that the grey-eyed man's assessment was correct. One book was on the beautiful multi-tailed kitsune. One of these foxes had been able to save Zan from the ice barrier many years before. They were amazing, but not anything like what had attacked the palace. Aurora ran her fingers along the pages before returning it to the stand.

The other book was slightly more promising. It was a text on the Drifting Dunes. Opening the cover, the Empress scanned the history of the area. Her eyes stopped on a passage about the wolfish creatures that lurked beneath the dunes.

"What about these?" she asked Hanna.

"Ha! I am not sure those creatures even qualify as magical. Is that really all you have?" She scolded the Storehouse. "Those sad pups never leave the desert. They are not very smart and are opportunistic, waiting for prey to come to them. I could never see them taking such a risk for so little advantage." Hanna found the suggestion ridiculous.

"What if someone sent them?" Devrim pressed.

"I'm not sure they are smart enough to follow orders. Anyway, the wolves we saw look nothing like those beasts. Dessert wolves are white and nearly hairless, crawling on all fours and using the sand to protect them from the sun." The Fate could think of no way to make their appearance look anything like the monsters from the palace.

Aurora hesitated, but tucked the book under her arm and let it rest between her and the chair. "I am sure you are right, but I will hold onto this until we find a better option."

After a few other questions yielded no results at all, frustration began to cloud Aurora's thoughts. When she asked about any books or resources on bipeds with fur, claws and teeth, the Storeroom produced a rather avant-garde painting of a man wearing a wolf pelt across his shoulders and a stuffed canine head upon his own.

"What. Is. That?" Devrim felt the need to cover his eyes, and yet he could not look away.

"If I am not mistaken, that looks like my Great-Uncle Duvous. I read that he was quite eccentric. What is it doing here?" Aurora stared at the face of the painting with strange fascination.

Hanna winced. "I won't point any fingers, but different Fates deem different things…valuable…"

Devrim finally managed to tear his eyes from the portrait. "Why haven't I heard of this great-uncle of yours?"

"We don't talk about Duvous." Aurora dismissed the painting.

As the night wore on, the group added a Creaturepedia and a topographical compendium of magical clans to the collection in Aurora's chair.

The third choice brought with it a small earthquake. Hanna clicked her tongue. "The Storehouse has indicated that you have reached your limit. You will have to come back another time if you wish to take anything new."

"I was not aware that there was a check-out limit," the tired Emperor said with a yawn. "Though I cannot say that I am sad."

Aurora did not share his opinion, but she understood. "Thank you, Storehouse." The Empress inclined her head. A gentle wind teased through the woman's hair in response. It was enough to bring a smile to the weary woman's face.

As Devrim pulled on the chair, the lights from the walls came back and perched on Aurora's neck. With a lurch, the chair began to roll and the Empress clutched the three books to her side. The bindings of the tombs brushed comfortingly against her skin like the touch of an old friend.

Tomorrow, she would try to discover what secrets they held.