Chapter 30 – Secret Passage

The day before the winter quarter started, Mirian finished hastily assembling her first delving device. It took her almost the entirety of Seventhday to do, and she was exhausted by the time it was finished. It was not her best artifice, but the item would function well enough. The device used a spell called cave detection, which sent out sonic and x-ray shifted light pulses. If cast from a spellbook, the caster would get a vague mental sense of if there was a hollow space behind a solid object, and how distant it was. Since that sense was a mental component, it was far too mana-intensive for Mirian’s tastes. The device could be tuned by three glyphs on the side to detect near, medium, and far hollows. Instead of giving a vague sense, the device had a quartz crystal that glowed if it detected that hollow space. The stronger the glow, the more clear it was a real reading and not something else. The book had advised her that the spell was extremely prone to errors. Too much dense material between the device and the space, and it wouldn’t detect a hollow. Plenty of other things could also trigger a false positive. It was better than nothing, though.

She waited until after dinner, then she took it and the Academy glyphkeys—which she still hadn’t actually used—to Griffin Hall.

On the way there, she practically ran into Valen rounding a corner. Literally; Valen was short enough that she only belatedly saw her.

“Look who it is,” Valen said. “Where are you sneaking off to again?”

Mirian let out a sigh. Of course she would run into Valen. “Sorry, I know sunlight doesn’t quite reach all the way down where you are, but I’m not sneaking anywhere.”

“Really?” Valen said. “Totally normal to be taking the back alleys of the Academy in the evening, I guess. Where are you going?”

“Away from this annoying pest that just appeared in front of me. Why do you always bother me? What did I ever do to you?”

Valen seemed confused by this. “Can a girl not catch up with her fellow classmate?”

Mirian was usually in good control of her temper. She had, after all, had a lot of practice controlling it, ever since she was little. However today she was tired from relentlessly working and studying for days on end, having done almost nothing to actually relax. Before she even knew what she was doing, she’d shoved Valen against the alley wall with one hand and was holding her there, fingers pressed against her collarbone. She loomed over her, bringing her face close to the shorter girl’s and said in a low voice, “I am not in the mood for this shit. Leave. Me. Alone. Understood?”

Valen’s eyes had gone wide, and with her palm against her chest, Mirian could feel the other girl’s heart beating fast. In the silence of the evening, she could hear her breath. Valen made to move forward, but Mirian held her fast. Finally, Valen said in a meek voice that didn’t at all sound like her, “Yes. Got it. Yes.”

Mirian let her go, then stormed off down the alley, the anger she felt still radiating off her. She didn’t look back. That was stupid, she mentally berated herself. She could report you to the Academy. Or the guards. There was never any one thing with that girl. It was just a thousand little barbs. And what the hell did she mean by ‘sneaking off again’ anyways? That implied she’d seen Mirian on another late-night adventure. Was Valen stalking her? Now she did look back, but didn’t see her.

What was wrong with that girl?

She was annoyed at herself for letting such a small thing get to her. Maybe that’s what Valen needed, though. Maybe she would finally leave Mirian alone.

The street that Griffin Hall was on was practically deserted at this hour. A few students here or there walked about, or one of the townsfolk. Mirian sat on the nearby bench examining her notebook until the street really was empty, then pulled out one of the glyphkeys. She didn’t think the simple locks of the lecture halls would be alarmed, but… well, she had no idea. She’d never broken into a building before.

The first glyph key fit in the lock, but it didn’t do anything. The door was still firmly bolted. She didn’t hear any sirens wailing or magical horns trumpeting, though, so it seemed fine to at least try the keys. The second key didn’t fit. The third key, though, fit and turned in the lock. With a satisfying click!, the door unbolted and opened. Mirian quickly stepped in, and locked the door behind her.

She waited a moment, listening for any sound. When she heard nothing, she cast a light spell. Now that she looked more carefully at the inside of the lecture hall, she noticed something. While the front of the lecture hall facing the street had windows and the two sides had windows, the back where the lectern stood had nothing. And wasn’t the lecture hall shorter in length than the building itself? She retrieved her delving device and powered it up, letting a thin trickle of mana run through it before she sent a stronger pulse into the main conduit. She started by aiming at the back wall. The crystal glowed faintly, but the book had warned her that would happen. When she pointed it at the wall with windows, it also glowed faintly, the spell perhaps triggering off the space between the two walls of the adjacent building. She tried it three more times along the back wall. The third time, the quartz let off a bright flash. Five hells. It had worked.

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She mentally marked the spot on the wall. Then she pointed the device at the floor.