Harriet gestured to the missing chunk of stone in the wall.
"This is it."
Both princesses stared down at the dark crawl space in disbelief. Selma was…in the walls? Cora raised her gaze back up to Harriet, lifting a single eyebrow. "This is supposed to be an entrance?"
Harriet made an exasperated gesture with her hands. "Princess Selma went through it and so did several other maids. Apparently, there are many others but they're extremely difficult to find. I don't even know if this is the one she went through today. Probably not given how far it is from where she bolted." She sighed, shaking her head, "the girl moves in here like a damned ghost."
That earned a chuckle from Cora. Though she seldom interacted with the Forsythian princess, Maren and Harriet both seemed quite taken with her. What she did know of Selma were things that were not necessarily good or bad. She'd heard the girl was quiet but followed to the beat of her own drum. That she was someone who kept to herself but grew increasingly obsessive over certain things that she wouldn't stop for anyone who got in her way. For Cora, she used to see Selma as just another obsessive Starfollower — someone who lived in the background, watching and judging. But if Selma was good enough for the two most important people in her life, then she was good enough for her.
Cora dropped to her knees, earning a noise of surprise from Maren. She spread her palms across the ground, getting lower onto her elbows to fit through the space. Then, before she moved through, she shot a look back up at Maren.
"Come on, we haven't got all night," she said with a tired smirk. "We have a princess to talk to."
She scurried through the small hole in the wall and after a few minutes, Maren squeezed her way through as well. They hadn't showered since the previous day. They were exhausted and their clothes carried a heavy stench to them. And though Cora craved nothing more than to crawl into the steamy royal baths here in Forsyth, she knew this was more important.
Their footsteps echoed through the shadowed walls. When Cora had first learned of the hidden halls, she imagined they'd at least have lanterns lining the hallways, but that was not the case. The hallways were lined with nothing but darkness. If it weren't for the faint glow of their eyes, they wouldn't be able to see a thing.
But before long, Cora swore she heard a sound. She stopped in her tracks, her boots scuffing against the stone. Maren stopped just ahead of her.
"Cora?" Maren asked.
Cora's ears perked up. It was silent. Those halls were silent, but she was sure she'd heard something. Occasionally she'd hear a banging of hammers on the walls, alerting her that they were near the renovated area. But that was more of a thudded sound. These walls were clearly thick and what she heard was clearly a muffled voice. But it was gone now. Cora chewed the inside of her cheek, frustrated. She wracked her brain for something she could do that might seem useful, but nothing came to mind. She wasn't particularly good at tracking. And though she technically had powers, she wasn't sure how to use them. She remembered the night before, when the presence of a darkspirit activated instincts, she didn't know she had. Cora wondered if she could do that again.
She closed her eyes, trying her best to rationalize her way through her magic power. If the darkspirit triggered it, then that meant these were hunting instincts, similar to a cat. The moment her powers activated, she didn't remember much — it happened so fast. But she remembered that teeth clenching, stomach turning hunger when she heard it. She wondered, if she focused on that feeling — if she remembered the sound of the darkspirit — then…
Suddenly, Cora felt her senses activate. Each hair on her body stood at attention. Her eyes shot open, and her pupils dilated, wide enough that the walls were now more visible. She could hear the tapping of hammers on the walls in the distance, and even a leaky faucet that dripped into the hidden halls. And that voice, muffled enough not to snake out the words, but clear enough that she could tell where it was coming from.
Cora could feel that her hold on her own magic was weak. She needed to move fast. SHe grasped Maren by the wrist and pulled her quickly through the shadows.
"CORAAA!" Maren cried out, stumbling behind her.
Cora wanted to stop, but there was little time. She could feel her senses wavering, the darkness closing in.
Finally, they turned down a hall, only to find a dead end.
Cora's hold on her magic released but before it did, she thought she heard a familiar voice. But one she knew she couldn't be hearing.
"There's nothing," Maren said, her voice breathless and heaving. She placed her hand on the wall and — WOOSH!
Her hand went clean through.
Maren snatched her hand back, clutching it to her chest.
"The wall…" she muttered, her eyes wide and startled.
And Cora understood immediately. There was some kind of magic at work here. They had been wandering the halls for some time now, maybe about twenty minutes. Forsyth palace was massive and nearly ancient, despite the renovations in the last two hundred years. But Cora couldn't help but wonder, as she lifted her hand, reaching it out toward the magic wall, that these secret corridors were keeping them from finding Selma. She noted how she could hear the hammers working somewhere on the other side of the walls. It was entirely plausible that they simply became lost in the darkness. But as she slipped her hand through the wall, Cora began to trust that instinct — that the magic of these walls were working in Selma's favor.
Cora squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to let fear stop her, and moved her entire form through the wall. Her skin prickled with magic, hot and electrifying. And when she opened her eyes, she found herself in a new corridor. It looked exactly the same as the others but with better lighting. Candle-lit sconces lined the walls evenly on either side. But this room smelled distinctly of magic, overbearingly sweet and rotten, with a tinge of something metallic. The scent sat heavy in her nose, settling somewhere in the back of her mouth.
Maren practically flung herself through the wall, tripping on her own feet as she forced herself through. Cora moved fast, grasping for her. One hand found Maren's waist and the other, her arm. The two were able to straighten themselves out, though clumsily.
"Are you alright?" Cora asked, leaning in, holding her close.
Maren flinched at the sound of Cora's voice, her body burning with a heat of her own.
"Y-yes," she answered, blinking rapidly with an awkward smirk on her face.
Cora released Maren and walked ahead with a giddy smirk of her own. After everything that happened, she felt like they'd finally reached an understanding, though Cora wasn't quite sure what to call it. It was a relationship of sorts, but one that would never have a title. There was no way they could publicly marry each other, at least not now. Same sex marriage wasnt technically illegal under Carbouranian law but the problem lay mostly with tradition. It was customary that the Starblessed marry a Prince candidate from one of the kingdoms to allow that kingdom an opportunity to rule. To attempt to override that tradition would inspire treason at best.
The worst-case scenario…
Cora shook her head.
She didn't want to think of what that could mean.
But above all of that, Cora knew one thing — that she loved Maren very much.
"I'm sorry."
Cora's head snapped up, forcing her out of her thoughts of Maren. That all-too-familiar voice — she'd heard it again.
"My babies-" said the disembodied voice.
Cora hurried to the door on the opposite end of the hall, where the noise was coming from. Her hand closed over the knob, and she yanked it open with all her might.