At the top of the stairs, Meia looked around the new area.

The hallway here looked exactly like the one below and like every piece of hallway on the upper floors so far. There was a red carpet. The walls were white. Every room door looked the same. Always at the same distance were the same columns with the same vases and the same flowers in them. Always at the same distance were the same glittering lamps on the ceiling and walls. This house was deliberately designed to be confusing. There was no other explanation. The rooms were at least partially numbered. You would think, so what could go wrong if you were looking for a specific room and only had to walk in one direction? - That was exactly the trap. On the first floor, Meia had already seen a corridor crossing. Because this house was so impossibly broad, it had more than one identical hallway per floor. There were at least two. There could have been even three. Because the maid walked so quickly, Meia had not been able to figure it out. by now she was sure. By now she was sure, however, that it was more difficult to find a room in this house than from the garden.

Just in front of the stairs was another giant double door. Like the one with the carving, it was bigger than all the other doors and had its own look. This one, however, was not carved. It was the opposite. It was a plain door with metal fittings and rounded at the top. It looked like a door you would find in a castle.

The maid pulled open one of the single doors using a ring handle. Because it was so heavy, it took a whole moment.

A soft glow of light fell through the first crack into the hallway. As the door was opened further, this glow grew only stronger.

The maid said nothing and went inside.

Meia followed her through a short tunnel with a vault like one would find in a castle.

At one point the housemaid stopped. "Miss Arvis, the reading room." she declared proudly with a sweeping motion of her arm.

It was a round room as high and wide as a tower. Bookshelves upon bookshelves filled the room over two walk-in rounds with balustrades, with small reading tables, with figures of animals and long ladders, higher and higher, up to the ceiling. Below, long tables stood in a circle. On the right side there was a fireplace with an armchair and sofa in front of it. The fire was not burning. Truly everything was full of shelves, which were full of books. Only the outer wall was free of furniture. It destroyed the perfect circle as a straight wall with normal sized windows. Because of that, from the driveway, it had seemed as if there were ordinary rooms in this section of the house. The dome Meia had seen on the carving below, it was here. It was a glass dome as the ceiling of the room. Meia immediately understood why. This room contained something that needed it. - Something that left Meia at a loss for words and her mouth agape.

In the centre of the house was this room. In the centre of this room was a tree. It was leafless and bare. Dozens of branches twisted in all directions from it and forked into countless filigree twigs. Individual spurs reached almost to the dome. The tree was gigantic. It itself was the centre of the house.

However, it was not a real tree. A real tree would not impress Meia that much just because it was standing in this house. This tree here was worked from a certain mineral. It was another work of art. However, the word masterpiece would no longer be appropriate for it. Meia could not even think of a word that would do it justice.

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The mineral was called krystafei. Everyone knew what it was. Visually, it was beautiful like amber, only it was lighter in colour. Haptically, it was hard like glass, only it was more fragile. A thin plate of it could be broken with little force, while a plate of glass with the same thickness would still hold firmly.

A tree made of this material was the jewel of this room, this house, this estate.

"The tree is the surprise I meant."

"It is impressive." This time it wasn't obligatory praise. Meia was honestly impressed.

"It's an heirloom from the Monet family. The tree is at least 1000 years old, but probably even older. Its exact age can no longer be determined. The Monet family records were once lost and no one immortalised themselves in the work. However, someone who knows our writing must have been involved and it is highly likely that this person was someone from a noble family. The inscription on the plinth is too eloquently worded for an artist of the lower classes, Mr Luca Monet thought. He was also the one who had brought the tree here. As the first son of the Monets, he had taken over his father's positions when the latter's illness began and he was unable to continue working because of it. With that, he had also got his official residence in Blenas, where this tree had stood for the last centuries. By now, that was several years ago. Master Luca had it removed, brought here and then had this estate built around it. Why he had not left it in Blenas, he never told me..."

All at once she seemed thoughtful. Now that she mentioned it, you would never get the tree out of the house unless you knocked down the outer wall.

She probably had not noticed, but she had called him Master Luca again. Her behaviour also seemed strange.

The intuition she had before rekindled in Meia. She even already had an idea of how to follow it up.

"Can you tell me what kind of person Luca Monet was-" Again, Meia had asked the question incorrectly. Why could she not just not do it right?

"Mr Luca Monet was..." The maid looked up and considered. "For what reason do you want to know?" she finally asked back.

"No particular reason. I'm just curious."

"Miss Arvis, I am afraid I can not tell you anything about that. However, I would like to remind you to not address me with politeness. Would it be acceptable for me to leave now? I have other duties to attend to."

It was an emotionless statement. Somehow Meia had expected a bit more. Without new fuel, the flame of intuition died down again.

"I don't want to keep you from your work."

The maid nodded her thanks. "I will be back at 6:50. If you need anything in the meantime, please ring the bell," she explained, pointing to one of the tables.

On the table was a golden hand bell. They must have had them everywhere here. If she was not standing in front of the door, would she even hear it?

"Yes, thank you very much. Can-" Meia paused again for a moment to get it right this time. "Can you bring me something to drink?"

"Please do not ask. Just tell me what to do."

"Please bring me a juice."

"Please do not ask. Just tell me what to do."

"B-Bring me juice."

"What kind would you like? Or would you like me to pick one for you?"

"Yes."

"I'll bring something right away."

The maid left the room and from the moment the door closed Meia was alone.

~That felt super rude. Why can't I be nice?~

Meia had stopped counting how many times she had been admonished so far. It was hard to treat her the way she wanted to when she looked like she resented it at the same time. Was it not more humiliating to be constantly admonished by the maid for belittling herself than belittling herself? Woul it not then make more sense to just overlook it? The maid was apparently someone who believed that others would learn something if she just kept pointing out to them that they were doing something wrong. Unfortunately, however, she was surrounded by people who did not learn from their mistakes. Her colleague, after all, was just as unteachable as Meia.

.../ End Part