“Over in this direction is the pool of rhinos. No rhinos are staying here at this time, but if any arrive, you’ll be expected to scrub the bird droppings off the tiles.” An overweight tolsen said, showing Daniel the ropes in the stable.

Daniel looked through the hallway into the chamber with sunny yellow and muddy red tiles surrounded a pool of turquoise green water. The doorways were wide and open, with windows open to a large atrium surrounded on all sides by other parts of the Stable.

Daniel doubted there would be Rhino staying here again, not after the contract debacle with the pearl rhino and the current King of the Seelie. Rhinos were known to try to steal fae and use the fae’s hair for remedies and mumbo jumbo cure all’s that probably didn’t work at all. He hoped they didn’t work. This naturally left the fae not desiring the rhino’s return any time soon, and after the contract debacle, Daniel doubted the rhinos’ had any intention to return themselves.

The Tolsen paused awkwardly, then junted forward again, his little legs pinwheeling below his rotund round torso as he sped along to the next corridor.

Daniel regarded the warmth of the Rhino room, and compared it to his current holdings. His mind whirled as he considered whether this room would suit his eventual needs, but decided against it. His stomach seemed to be jousting itself, both sides smashing into each other. He’d really needed to get used to this needing to eat thing, before he started to neglect it. He hadn’t eaten the day before, because he had been seized and examined one last time to make sure he’d been completely stripped clean of his borrowed power.

They hadn’t thought to provide food. Or maybe they had, and had withheld it on purpose. Either way, was his head supposed to go a little light and fluttering now and again? He’d managed to drink a little water earlier, so his throat was only a little parched. He should have known that the lowlings would be mischievous. He should have expected their contempt. He needed to show his own character. But he still felt bitter.

It was now deep into afternoon, the sun’s light red and bloody each time he saw it from the skylights. A few more hours, and then he would be released from his duties. If he hurried afterward, he may be able to get food from the Castle Keep before curfew. The worse thing was how paranoid he must remain and be careful not to become entrapped. But he couldn’t allow himself to become too weak and fall prey either.

“Come along, come along. So much to do today!” The Tolsen said again, and headed deeper into the Stable.

Daniel followed, hand touching the changing material as he followed deeper into the ancient structure. The Stable was an area of deep magic. Expansion of the ancient structure began during the fifth decade of the First King’s rule, completed thirty years after his death. Each king in the following centuries continued to add to the Stable, and yet the exterior remained constant. Even now, the current king was known to add small changes, though no one was bold enough to add rooms and room as in the past. The Stable was perhaps one of the most impressive builds of that era. On the outside, it was a long, narrow length of building, perhaps ninety furlongs long and forty across, with a pale grey roof and sides constructed of darker stone. But that was only the outside.

On the inside, it was so much larger. And more confusing.

The Tolsen narrated as they traveled. It was almost sweet. Unlike the sardonic lectures and pettiness of the Surmount Butler of the O’Tells, at least the Tolsen seemed genuinely excited about the stable. “So many rooms and corridors had been added and added that it now spans uncounted miles. It's like a circle but opposite. If you stay to the perimeter, you can go all the way around in about an hour. But it gets larger and larger to closer to the center you travel. And if you head into the deeper parts, it can add hours. So, remember for safety, never try to save time by crossing across...people get lost in here."

Understatement of the year, Daniel thought.

The Tolsen nodded, seemingly approving that Daniel was taking it seriously.

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The former Lordling and the Stablemaster entered a new section. The smell of more traditional stable, hay, alphfa, and manure, wafted over Daniel.

"As you know, most of the mounts are housed here.” The Tolsen said.

Daniel nodded, feeling the ground change again as they entered a series of chambers and hallways that were made of marble. He knew where he was, if briefly. Along this corridor were some very impressive rooms for the centaurs when the Courts decided to insult the hoofed ambassadors by putting them with the animals. The practice of adding more rooms to an area was if not a completely lost art, then a mostly ignored one. What had truly hampered further creations of this kind was they forget how to make the outside part of the building. But the fae courts still knew how to add new rooms inside an old structure.

But adding new rooms after so much time made the magic odd.

Decidedly so.

While technically one could add more and more space inside a building, making it larger on the inside, it left it open to mistakes. Which they had found out, after centuries of cramming new spaces inside such old buildings. Rooms had a way of disappearing and then reappearing. The passageways disconnected and then reconnected at odd intervals. Entire chambers would be joined awkwardly.

The Tolsen continued, “The rooms are unsteady here. We’ll be heading back soon, although next time I do need to show you where you’ll be working next time you come. Magic is too dense here, and a lot of the loose chambers seemed to wander here. But it’s completely, mostly, safe.”

Daniel touched another section, noticing how the wall itself seemed to flutter, as if it was actively considering moving while Daniel and the Stable Master were standing here.

This overgrowth of a magic structure was still in use for two reasons. The first being that things housed inside the Stable grew stronger and luckier. It only worked for non-sentient beings, which was why there were housing chambers added here for additional insults. Insults aside, only non-sentient beings benefited from their time here, and they benefitted very much. So much so it was worth the effort to have droves of servants and stable hands and animal masters tend to the animals sheltered here, to navigate around the changing structure. The Stable itself could preform a number of tasks by itself when it so chose.

The second reason was that those in charge rarely ventured into the deep parts of the structure. Many common mounts were easy to access, in the forefront of the Stable. But the deeper one went, the further from the windows and the sunlight one went in, the more twisting and curling the building became. So the people in charge never actually had to take those risks, and therefore didn’t mind the danger.

“Careful, Lordl…eh, Branch. Don’t wanna to get lost in here. Not in the deep places.” The Tolsen cawed ahead. Looking at the figure of his guide leading him deeper into the depths of the ancient structure, he thought back to himself as a child.

Daniel remembered himself, nearly 12 years ago and small, with a number of other Lordlings. They had run off here, escaping the endless lessons and drudgery, trying to see a Cold One. He remembered becoming lost as they ventured deeper and deeper inside. He remembered losing members of his posse as the corridors changed or the others losing their courage, until he remained alone. He had found the Cold Ones, and they were…less cold than he had imagined. He had found an atrium that had windows that connected to that place. The eyes of the beasts burned hotly as he watched from the safety outside the chamber, doors bared. When he had returned, he had been praised by his minders for winning the game. The other little lordlings had lost face for losing their ways or their courage. That was when he began to understand the game. It didn’t matter if you did wrong, as long as you won and others knew it.

That hadn’t sat well with him. That sense of justice clearly led him to his current predicament, so he tried to forget the entire encounter and follow his guide more closely.

“I will try to avoid becoming lost.” He said to the back of the head of his guide.

“It’s big in here, faechild. Real big. They asked me one day how big, an’ I tells ‘em it’s real big. Bigger than you’d imagine. Doors and hallways don’t always open to the correct place. Like what happened to that one Lordling who had become so lost inside the stables no one could ever find him again.”

This was something Daniel hadn’t heard about. “That happened a few years ago. He isn’t found yet?”

The Tolsen turned his head slightly, a sliver of his silver eye seen gleaming in the darkness. “Aye. Sometimes the staff hear him on the other side of the wall, but never reach him in time to rescue him. The lost Lordling still wandering around somewhere down here. When you go deeper, sometimes entire sections switch positions with each other, so it’s like a big changing maze, with the path out never the same. Many times the process of getting out is much harder than getting in.”

Daniel stopped, and looked back the way they had come. The open corridor behind them looked just different enough that he had to swallow a small fear.

The Grand Stable. Or the Grant Stable. It had a way of changing things, Granting things. But what it granted was not always welcome.