What was originally meant to be three weeks quickly stretched into two months as the researchers, with Sofia at their head, ran every test imaginable on me. From basic spell casting to my survival in up to a +5 AMAT, 150% ambient mana conditions, she checked it all. While the thought of finally being able to live above ground helped maintain most of my enthusiasm, the wait was quickly tempering it. Thankfully, the bracers stood up to and sometimes even surpassed the expectations set for them. After the final test, a continuous two weeks of me living in the cube at full average ambient mana values, I was free to leave Understudy.

It was surprisingly less emotional than I expected. It wasn’t like I needed every person in the facility to drop their work so they could bid me farewell, but it would have been nice. I should have known that leaving wouldn’t have been a big deal since I would probably be back in a couple of days for more tests, but I wouldn’t have minded if someone had cried, someone other than me. As the months had passed my tears and even some of my excitement had been dulled by the extended wait, but as the doors to the underground bunker closed behind me, the reality of the situation hit me, and all the emotions came flooding back. Fear, doubt, and pure bliss, it was finally happening. I was finally free.

That freedom however was extremely short-lived as my glorious exit of Understudy’s main compound was quickly followed by Liza. Walking into the antechamber we sat on a pair of chairs and waited. Due to the facility’s natural absence of mana the antechamber was constructed to slowly add or remove mana to a person’s surroundings. This would prevent mana shock, a rare but not impossible injury. I would be fine even without the antechamber since random changes in environmental mana was one of the tests Sofia had run on me, but the general public was more of an unknown. Feeling the mana flow back into my body I realized how much I already disliked being without it. While I was pretty sure part of it was fear that I’d be stopped from living above ground, not having mana felt like a piece of me was missing. Sofia attributed it to my body's increased sensitivity to mana due to the bracers, and I didn’t know anything else it could be.

Exiting the linked room through the two massive stone double doors that served as Understudy’s main access point, we were quickly joined by two new individuals. They introduced themselves as Taeho and Yoojin, a pair of young royal guards hand-picked to be my glorified babysitters.

The two were as similar as they were different, both were from the Tribes of Vernia, the same as Tabatha, though their differences in facial features suggested no direct relation.

We made our way through the castle’s many subterranean halls with Liza at the helm. She was easily the most well-educated on the path we needed to take as I had no clue where we were, and the two raven haired guards didn’t know Understudy existed a week ago. It took well over five minutes just for us to reach the surface, though this was mainly due to us looking for a specific exit.

Climbing a final set of stairs my hopes of seeing the sky were dashed, when instead of the beaming sun I saw more walls enclosing me on every side. While it might have been a little foolish for me to assume an entrance to one of the palace's secret facilities would be in some random gardener's shed, I was still disappointed.

The windowless room we walked into was empty save some magic light crystals positioned along the walls and a singular spear-holding guard. Offhandedly I realized though there were the light crystals in the tunnels, they should have been too far and few to see by, but my surroundings had still been easily visible. Leaving that mystery for another time I looked at the guard as we approached.

On the other side of the room the soldier saluted before knocking on the wall. A rectangular piece of the stone glowed briefly before sliding to the side as a pair of brown eyes peered through. Seemingly satisfied, or not as they didn’t say anything, the person slid the stone back and after a few mechanical clicks the stone, no, door, slid directly into the wall beside it.

“You have all been precleared for departure, Prince Benjamin, Lady Elizabeth,” the doorman said, his figure, twice my height, bowing to the point I could see the top of his head.

I looked to Liza, deciding it was best she spoke. I had known for a while that being a prince was important, but seeing these adults many times my age treats me with such respect was… disconcerting.

“You may raise your head,” was all Liza said before she began her march once again.

Feeling even more awkward than before, I hesitantly nodded at him and his partner. As my eyes met theirs, the pair immediately clicked their heels and slapped their fists to their heart, the sound echoing off the walls. Taeho and Yoojin quickly mimicked their salute though I wasn’t sure why. Deciding any more reactions would be both too embarrassing and loud, I hurried after Liza.

Rather than another stone tunnel, as I had been expecting, we exited into a lush bedroom that easily dwarfed the one I had stayed in for most of my life. Behind me the soldiers had switched places, the one previously in the stone room now standing in the bedroom and vice versa. I watched as the wall began to slide out from the stone, a plain wood paneled wall replacing the entry point.

‘Huh, something else to ask about’, I silently noted.

As we walked through the bedroom, I marveled at the design.

‘A room fit for a king,’ I thought, chuckling at my joke.

Exiting the sleeping quarters there was an antechamber where another guard stood holding the door. He saluted, though much quieter than his counterparts, my personal guards doing the same, while Liza seemingly ignored them, and I did my best not to make eye contact with anyone. A similar scene played out as we exited the room into a hallway. I could tell we were still underground, but it seemed we’d reached the castle proper. Stone bricks lined the wall instead of smooth stone, and a ways down the passageway I spotted the occasional person in castle servant clothes. Looking back at the door to the room we had exited from, it looked as innocuous as all the others around it, but I still did my best to remember its location.

Liza took the lead once again, and we were off. From what I could tell as we walked, we seemed to be in some type of storage complex as everything from clothes to food could be spotted. It wasn’t long before Liza turned onto a staircase, and we were headed up again.

I sighed and Yoojin spoke up, “Would you like me to carry you your highness,” her voice was warm, and her golden eyes held only the slightest bit of mockery.

After a moment of genuine consideration, I dragged my small frame up the stairs. I knew my parents had arranged for the pair ahead of time, making sure our personalities wouldn’t conflict, and after the exaggerated respect the other soldiers showed, it was nice to be treated like a normal person. As normal as a person I could be treated, that was.

Thankfully, this set of stairs was much shorter than the last we’d been through, only taking about half a minute to reach the top.

A singular guard stood near our exit, saluting at our arrival before walking through so they could hold the door. Passing through the doorway, I got my first view of real sunlight in over a year. As my eyes were still adjusting, I barely had time to register the person at the far wall before a middle-aged man in the oddest-looking suit I’d ever seen greeted us.

“Ah, Prince Benjamin, it is an honor to meet you, I am Abraham Ziles, but you can call me Abe, Vander Palace’s head butler,” barely pausing for a breath his jovial tone continued. “I was commanded directly by the King himself to take you to what will be your new living quarters, while I am not going to be tending to your needs directly, please feel free to ask me for anything if one of the other staff are unable to help you.”

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I looked towards Liza for answers only to see her bowing at the man.

‘Weirder and weirder,’ I thought, adding another thing to the “question for later” list.

The butler, still looking at me, straightened his green and yellow polka-dot tie. Smiling I followed Liza's earlier example of aloofness and gave him a brief nod. Turning, he set off and we followed.

Abe while not physically large was all high energy and big smiles. Though he came on a bit strong, his intentions seemed good, and I was always open to meeting new people. We walked through the palace halls, having to stop at one point as my little legs were giving out on me. Even then, during the brief respite, Abe continued to speak. Undoing the purplish red buttons of his light blue tailcoat, he went into a short history on the design of the castle, even going as far as to name some of the architects.

Resuming our walk I tried to keep a mental map of where we had come from, but the palace was much larger than any place I’d walked through before, if you didn’t count that Understudy was technically part of the compound. As Abe had explained it, the palace was separated into three main sections, or wings, all interconnected. If one was to be facing the castle’s front the public domain was in the center. It was mainly used for balls, public ceremonies and sometimes even tours. The business wing laid to the right of it. This section held all offices as well as the soldiers' training grounds. Opposite the business wing was the housing wing, where everyone from staff to the Royal family had residences. The castle as a whole was massive and learning that the only above ground part, I’d seen was less than half of the living quarters was spurring my excitement.

Abe continued to talk as we walked, pointing out various things as we moved. A piece of artwork commemorating an ancestor here, an unnecessary but expensive curtain there. The information flowed in one ear and out the other as I did my best to keep my mouth closed while looking at my surroundings. Though I still didn’t really know the value of money, I’d grasped a basic understanding during the professor’s classes and these decorations screamed absurd amounts of wealth. I guessed shouldn’t have been surprising due to my family’s position but seeing was a whole different experience.

It wasn’t until after the final set of stairs, I spoke for the first time since meeting my personal guards.

“Wow,” was all I could say, the word drawing out, astonished as I stared out the window getting my first look at many of the massive buildings in Vander’s Skyline. All were far away as we were still deep in castle lands, but the beauty was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

“Yes, gorgeous isn’t it,” Abe said, chuckling at my wide-eyed expression. “But let’s not dillydally, come along, there will be plenty of time for you to marvel from your room. The view is even better if I do say so myself.”

Trying and failing to school my face, I followed as we turned a final corner,and the butler unlocked a door into a hallway that looked like any other.

“This is your ward, Prince Benjamin,” Abe said, a hand on his handlebar mustache.

It took me a minute before I caught on, but when I did, I asked a question.

“I’m guessing all the space is for guards and other servants’ quarters, but what about my siblings?”

“You’re just as sharp as they say you are, Young Prince. While I do believe your extenuating, I mean… more specific, circumstances do play a role, the main reason is an old law passed through the generations of the royal family. You see, when the continent was in constant disorder, it had become a sort of tradition that the children of the main royal branch would reside separately, so the entire line could not be wiped out at once. The rules now are much more relaxed compared to back then as it was rare for princes and princesses to even travel together, but some still hold.”

I nodded, understanding but still saddened by the fact that I wouldn't get to live with my siblings like I’d dreamed. They’d stayed in my room a few times in Understudy, and I was looking forward to every night being like that. Despite Abe’s words I decided to ask my parents if we could still have sleepovers occasionally.

Walking our final steps for the day, the head butler stopped in front of the third doorway in the corridor, my new bedroom.

Pulling a few keys out of tight fit purple trousers, he inserted one into the lock and turned revealing a small sitting room. “I hate these things,” Abe said, shaking the keys in his hand. “I much prefer mana locks compared to this old tech.” He reached out handing the key, along with what looked like a pair of bracelets, to Liza.

Abe took a step forward, then paused. He stood still for a few seconds before muttering something in a language I didn’t recognize. The butler took a step away from the door, an apologetic look on his face.

“It seems something has come up, I’d planned to walk through the place with you, but it seems that cannot be the case. Liza knows everything I do,” he paused, chuckling at some inside joke before continuing, “ask her if you need anything.

Everything with the head butler happened so fast it took me a moment for me to catch up to the conversation.

“What do you need to do?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

“Oh you know, head butler duties and that, the toilets aren’t going to clean themselves.” A smile on his sun-tanned face.

I knew an obvious misdirection when I heard one, so I just stared at him. Unperturbed, he took that as his cue. With a lively bow he was off, as rapidly his mouth had moved.

“He’s the weird one right,” I asked no one in particular.

Taeho let out a brief chuckle before schooling his features. The olive-skinned man might have been told to act less formal with me, but he was still a trained royal knight, no matter how young.

Walking through the door I realized it was a sitting room, similar to the one in the basement but with much less grandeur. Two couches were set against the only walls without doorways, both looking like they could fit five of me comfortably. The walls were an off-white with blue and gray filigree adorning their tops. It reminded me of the room I had stayed in for most of the first year of my life, and I figured that was somewhat intentional. There was a certain comfort I could find in this being the connecting room to my new life.

As I walked toward the door to the actual bedroom, Yoojin excused herself and fellow guard so they could go pick their own rooms in the ward. They began the motion to salute, almost banging their fist against their armor before remembering how much I hated that, opting for a half bow instead. While that was happening, Liza had used one of the keys to open the second door. Compared to the grandeur of the sitting room the actual bedroom, while quite large, was rather bland.

As the room was dark the first thing, I noticed was the simple canopy bed toward the space’s center. Walking deeper into the room Liza turned the lights on allowing me to see the rest of the furniture in the space. There was one desk across from the foot of the bed, two couches, a coffee table, and two end tables, one originally blocked from my sight by the bed.

As I wondered what possible use I could have for all this stuff, Liza led me further into the room; obviously having been here before. The walls were completely white and devoid of any art or other decorations. There was a window and like Abe had said the view was equal to the one I’d seen earlier, though slightly obstructed by the business wing, if the beautiful multistory building could be called an obstruction. As we reached another door Liza opened it to show a wide array of all clothes, shoes, and other wearable items, though the room was only half full.

I walked back to the bed moving the curtains aside to make it easier to sit. I felt somewhat drained and told Liza so. As much as I wanted to run around the castle, the last hour or so had been a lot.

“I will leave a set of the physical keys on your desk and there is also a pendant that you can press if you need me. It’s linked to a pendant I have so I’ll come as soon as I can, though if it’s an emergency push the pendant twice.”

“Oh and,” she said walking into the closet, “you’ll probably want to change from those clothes before you sleep.”

She laid out a set of shorts and a shirt for me to change into before making her way to the door and opening it.

“Is there a time you want to be woken up?”

We had left Understudy around midday making it about one o’clock.

“Can you wake me for dinner?” I asked. This would mean I could sleep for four hours plenty of time to recuperate and experiment.

The moment Liza was out of the door I followed her to it. After making sure it was locked; I ran back to the bed climbing to the center. Sitting in the lotus position I began to feel for the mana in my body attempting to form my favorite spell. I had been able to feel my mana since I’d left Understudy. It had only been an hour, but just knowing I could access my mana whenever I wanted had me primed to use it.

Reaching out to my arcane senses I felt for my wind mana and attempted to shape it around me. Nothing happened. While I could still feel the mana in the room whenever I tried to manipulate it externally, it just failed outright. It didn’t take me long to realize what occurred. Getting under the blanket Liza had already pulled to the side I groaned, though I couldn’t see any obvious runes on the wall, the entire room must have been warded. I wasn’t quite as free as I'd thought.