Can anywhere truly be off limits if you’re royalty? Pt 3.

"Where is Princess Avaline?" Jin asked a guard in passing, his eyes sweeping over the room.

The commotion had significantly calmed down by this time, the noble lady's coughing had subsided and the doctor had confirmed she was fine. Although the kitchen and wait staff were being interviewed as a formality, since the lady in question was completely unharmed, it was generally believed that she simply had a reaction to the spices on the dish she ate. Still, Mila seemed to have taken fault on herself for the incident, silent tears streaming down her face. She seemed distraught, Covin beside her, patting her back lightly in comfort. Of course, no one would ever blame the royal family's staff, and Princess Avaline's much beloved personal servants. But as Jin looked over the expanse of the ballroom, he couldn't spot the person in question, who surely had to have been concerned for her companions/servants.

The guard turned to look over the room, frowning before he bowed his head. "I'm awfully sorry, Your Highness, I'm not sure. I'll look into it immediately."

Jin gave a dismissive wave of his hand, sending the guard off while he sipped his wine. The guard returned shortly after to report back. "It seems the Princess left for the restroom." Jin gave a nod of acknowledgement, returning to his conversations but his gaze kept looking towards the doors. But as time wore on, Jin's patience slowly waned, his fingers lightly tapping the side of his glass. Surely it shouldn't take this long… He frowned faintly, glancing toward the noble lady who had suddenly started coughing earlier. He couldn't ease the slight, and slowly building concern, despite recognizing how baseless it was.

Rather than cause a commotion, Jin simply stood up, requesting to be escorted to the restroom. And so he found himself wandering along the long hallways of the estate, one of his best bodyguards at his side and a servant leading the way. That is, until they came across a glint in the darkness from around the corner ahead of them. Jin remained patiently, hands clasped behind his back and still rather relaxed while the guard cautiously walked forward to investigate, the nervous servant hesitantly following behind. There was no such thing as too much caution when it came to the safety of royal family members and false alarms were commonplace. What came as much more of a surprise, startling Jin slightly was the quietly whispered "Prince Jin."

Ava had collected what she had come for already, writing out copies of documents she had snuck from the records room of the estate. They were safely folded up and tucked away in her hidden pockets. It hadn't even been that difficult, they clearly hadn't expected someone to go snooping, the door wasn't even locked. Talk about a let down. She had mostly been sneaking about for fun at this point, dodging the guard cycles as she poked around, when she heard steps. When she opened the door just a crack to take a peak, it was a familiar figure she noticed.

Jin looked at her with surprise, nearly greeting her but she quickly raised her finger to her lips to silence him. He looked completely confused at this point, head tilting slightly. But she merely smiled at him, gesturing him over with a wave of her hand. Jin glanced toward the back of his bodyguard and the accompanying servant before stepping in closer. Ava hastily waved him in, shutting the door securely behind him. "I came across something interesting, would you like to see it?"

Jin was still trying to wrap his head around what was happening here but upon seeing the excited twinkle in her eyes, the questions he had slipped him for a moment. "Sure."

Ava waved him along, leading through the sitting room to the open doorway on the other side. Jin looked back towards the closed door before he followed her. "What exactly are you doing here?"

"Ah, I got lost while looking for the restroom…" She pulled on an embarrassed expression. "I ended up coming across this rather interesting room instead however."

"...I don't believe it's appropriate to wander around the estate as we please." He noted, a hint of amusement to his voice as he observed their surroundings. "Nor do I believe that guests are allowed here." Jin had a hard time believing she wasn't already aware of this, afterall, she had summoned him over quietly, without alerting anyone else.

"Is that so? I hadn't meant to. Besides, as long as no one knows, there shouldn't be a problem?" Ava led him through a narrow hallway, lit only by the moonlight that poured in through the tall windows that lined the sides, pushing open the door at the end. "Besides, who would dare forbid you from going somewhere? There's no harm in it."

"Forbidden, no. That doesn't mean they wouldn't be unhappy about this." Jin looked around with interest.

It was a circular room, with twisting pillars placed evenly along its walls and intricate carvings lining the space in between. They seemed to display scenery, hills, forests, skies dotted with stars and moons, or covered in clouds.It was lit by a circular skylight above their heads, shining a spotlight on the stone pedestal in the centre of the room. A strange circular box sat atop it. While Jin was slowly walking a circle around the room, inspecting the walls, too distracted to notice, Ava fiddled with the box. She pushed against the raised surface of the button until a small section of the box's wall slid away, revealing a small, empty space. Ava slid her fingers in, glancing up to ensure Jin wasn't looking before she injected a stream of light magic in. The device promptly lit up, spreading a warm glow through the room. There was a grating sound as the walls of the box slowly started to spin.

Jin turned around, walking over to investigate the strange box. But just as he did, the walls of it spun faster, creating an animated scene projected along the walls from the glow and shadows. The imagery across the walls showed small children running along the carved scenery, ribbons of light twisting over the walls as they played. Butterflies floated across with wings that shimmered gold, not unlike the ones Ava summoned when no one was paying attention. A fox of golden light formed from the little sparks that drifted in the scenery, looking as if it were jumping about and diving within the clouds. To develop a device like this took a mastery of magic and mechanics hardly seen, and it certainly hadn't come about in this generation where magic was kept behind closed doors. It was likely this was an artifact from a lifetime ago. It was also likely that this particular noble family had had light mages in their bloodline for some time.

Once Jin had finally stopped admiring the scene, he turned to look more closely at the box. "You were right. This is interesting. How did you get it to work?"

Ava shrugged. If Jin hadn't been able to tell that her magic wasn't just illusion magic, which was a general kind, but that of a light mage, a specialty magic, then she wouldn't make it obvious. He could figure it out for himself. "There was a button on the side. It's a shame magic isn't celebrated here."

"It's for the better. Magic can easily get out of hand."

Ava hummed. "Shall we head back?"

"Ah, yes. We shouldn't have been here at all." He frowned slightly but Ava curled her arm around his, gently pulling him over to the exit.

"You're right, it was my mistake. You aren't upset, are you?" She blinked up at him.

"No. As long as no one knows… It's fine. Otherwise, we owe an apology."

As the door slowly fell closed behind them, Ava swept her hand, extinguishing the last of the light poured from the room.