The emperor and Prince Lysander are all staring in shock at the bouncing mirror.
"What is this?" The emperor asked.
"It's a spirit," Victor said.
"I'm Ariel!" The bouncing mirror said.
"I didn't know there is a spirit in the vault," Lysander said in both surprise and awe. It's not every day you can find a spirit. But why is this spirit so small and embedded in an object? Spirits are creatures of nature and most of the time, people could not see them as they usually hide from others. So many people in the past have tried so many times to harness a spirit into their armory of weapons but nobody could capture one.
"Ariel has been captured by a warlock in the past," Victor said. Then he proceeds to explain the same thing Ariel told him about how a warlock wanted to harness a spirit, took him away from his hibernation place, and because of his disconnection from nature, he remains trapped in the mirror. Victor highly doubts Ariel does not remember or knows the warlock who took him. The spirit does not seem too eager to share that information. After all, if a person were to capture me and trapped me like this for hundreds and hundreds of years, Victor will never forget their name or their face.
"I am sorry to hear that," Lysander said.
"Is there any way for the spirit to be released from this prison?" The emperor asked, also fascinated by the talking mirror.
"He claimed that he could not find a way and has to sustain himself through feeding off mana," Victor answered. "I gave him some of my mana when I accidentally found it and it is now attached to me."
"His mana is delicious so I don't want to leave." The mirror zoomed back to Victor's chest and pressed itself on his clothes like a fridge magnet.
Victor was thankful the spirit is not telling on them about him being the mirror of revealing and its dangerous potential in the wrong hands.
"Is this one of the items you wished to take?" The emperor asked Victor.
Victor nodded. "This is the second one." He showed him the key.
"What's the key?" The emperor asked curiously.
"I am still investigating it." Victor smiled.
The emperor and Prince Lysander know he is lying. But the emperor didn't want to call him out on it. He still wanted to retain a good relationship with his son after all so he let it go.
"What did he say about organizing this place?" Emperor asked when he looked at the room.
"You just ask the room to organize." Ariel pipped and then suddenly decided it was time for him to hide in Victor's tunic.
"Will you stop!" Victor said as he tried to fish out the mirror which is attempting to get in his shirt. "What a weird spirit."
"Just ask the room?" The emperor looked at the mirror to only find it amusing as it annoys Victor.
"Yes," Ariel said as he peeked from the collar with Victor just sighing and rolling his eyes. "Your previous emperor once told the room to organize it by color before he put me in the vault. He was a weird emperor."
Victor grimaced. By color? "I would recommend asking them if they could organize by owner. That might help."
"Yes." Lysander looked happily at the suggestion. Organizing it by owner would provide insights and histories about the members of the royal family.
The emperor still looked at them incredulously. All his life, he didn't think such a thing is possible. For generations, the family vault was just simply a storage place – sometimes they store things inside and forget about it. If the fact that the vault can magically organize itself without being included in the documents is absurd. The emperor has access to so much information, diaries, and documents from previous emperors from the first one. They were very meticulous about those recordings. Even if the emperor dies before a crown prince was announced, that crown prince will automatically be sent to the secret vaults by a specialized servant from the Helmans.
"Please organize the room by the owner." The emperor called to the room and looked around. Nothing happened.
"Huh, I guess…" Victor was going to comment when BANG!
"What was that?" Lysander looked at where the noise is coming from. All of a sudden zoom! Zoom! Furniture and objects started flying and sliding around and the floor even started moving. Both Victor and Lysander grabbed onto the emperor and stood side by side with him trying to make sure none of those objects hits him. They might not be in a good relationship yet but the emperor is still an emperor and if anything happens to him, bad things will happen to them and the empire as a whole.
THUD!
Everything stopped.
And for some reason, lights started pouring around them from the large windows above that they didn't even know it was there.
All three were gaping as they looked around the new, more organized, and cleaner vault. They can now see the walls. There are murals on the walls. This surprised Victor very much. If he were to describe it, he feels like he is inside a baroque-style chapel he once saw in Europe with every inch of the room designed in intricate molds, colors, and murals. He noticed that some of the areas of the walls were showing deep blue-green color, almost like copper that has been oxidized. He knows because as a person who works in construction, he sees almost every material used to create rooms and buildings and copper was a very popular metal in both ancient and modern times.
There is now a path from where they are standing that heads towards another large door which is, as Victor speculated, the inner vault. The items are arranged but some looked squeezed together yet still looked clean and neat and…
"Look at this." Lysander pointed at what seemed to be a standing metallic placard. "Princess Avagrine von Claes, 11th daughter of Emperor Justinique von Claes, 55th emperor." He read. And there were other placards like it around certain areas all had names of the owners of the items around it.
Victor is completely confused. Why does this remind him of a museum? Did the author design the vault-like this? It's so…modern in his opinion. He lived in Astoria in a world that looks a combination of medieval, baroque, and Renaissance plus magic in the mix. It is hard to tell. He wasn't exactly an expert on such art and the history of works of architecture or design. He was a civil engineer who builds the stuff being designed and make sure it follows standards and functions.
"The history of these items and their owners is interesting." Lysander looked impressed.
Victor never realized his older brother likes this stuff and learning about their family history. He never really bonded with him in his first life. Maybe this could be a chance to look at him as a big brother rather than someone he was very disappointed with.
"You can also create a museum that features many of our famous ancestors and ramp up tourism to the capital not just within the empire but also neighboring countries who would visit," Victor suggested.
"A what?" Lysander looked at him confusingly.
"A museum," Victor said. But noticed that both Lysander and the emperor are looking at him confused. That's when he realized. There are no museums in Claes. Possibly in this timeline, they don't exist.
"Um. It's a place where people visit and look at the items and learn about their histories. Its main purpose is to preserve historical artifacts and educate people about its past." Victor gave a short answer to what he thought it is.
"But that sounds like the church," Lysander commented. "We visit the gods and goddesses and learn about their histories, values, and our way of being."
Victor just shrugged. "Well, in museums it is more about the education of history and many other topics in general, not just related to religion."
Lysander looked at his brother thoughtfully and nodded. "It is interesting. I will think about it." But he was more curious about where his brother, who spent years on the battlefield had the time to learn these many odd things.
Victor just nodded as they proceed to the inner vault.
*****
The door to the inner vault also looked the same as when they first entered the family vault. When they entered, the inner vault is smaller than the outer one and looked less cluttered. There were also a lot of shelves full of boxes and chests that he noticed had runes on them. Indicating that these boxes are sealed with magic. This makes sense as the inner vault is often the place where the emperor store items that possess a certain secret. It was a bit darker in here. Lysander conjured tiny small lights around the room that floats calmly. They almost looked like fireflies in Victor's eyes. Magic is very interesting.
"Ariel. Can you help me find Reese's vitality potion?" Victor asked Ariel in a hushed voice. The mirror zoomed out of his shirt and to his hand revealing an image of an open box full of glass bottled potions that are glowing a shimmering light blue. Thanks to Ariel, it was easy to find what he needed.
"What is that?" Lysander asked.
"It's a potion to cure the mana-draining disease," Victor answered. Potions in Astoria don't expire as long as they are sealed properly.
"What?" Lysander and the emperor looked at him with stunned looked.
Mana-draining disease used to be a rare disease in the past but the empire couldn't help but notice that there is a growing number of children who are afflicted and dying of the disease. Although most are coming from commoner families, there is a growing number of noble children who are also afflicted. It was believed that this is due to the growing population of Claes. There is also the fact that there are more and more commoners who are now possessing mana which means they can now use magic. However, since most of them are not used to possessing mana, the mana-draining disease is much more daunting to their bodies.
Their magicians and healers from both the magic tower and the church were unable to find any cure and their research has not made any progress. Of course, Lysander has some suspicions that they didn't bother to research it because it doesn't give any benefit to them. Since only the commoners get it the most and there is no benefit to helping them. Nobles, on the other hand, have this stigma that a child with a mana-draining disease is not a worthy one to be in the household. This is ironic because children with higher and more mature mana than their actual age are the ones who always suffered.
"How do we not know that such a cure existed?" The emperor asked but mostly in anger at the thought that he never knew that there was a cure stored within reach of the emperor. All those children suffering.
"Reese was a warlock that created this potion generations ago. But his history was forgotten due to some conflict with the nobles and the royal family and he was not popular with the magic tower. I am not sure what that conflict is. I believed the reason his potions are in here is that the royal family is aware of its importance." Victor said. "That information could be inside the vault."
"I highly doubt that they don't know what this is." Emperor frowned. Victor isn't sure but the emperor is giving him guilty looks but not at him. He probably is feeling guilty thinking he was a bad monarch to let his people suffer this long.
"I have a friend who has family who needed a cure urgently. But you can use one or two as a control substance and the rest for research." Victor said.
"What is a control substance?" Lysander asked.
"A control substance is something you use for control. Such as reserving some bottles to assess whether or not the new potion has the same effectiveness as the original one." Victor answered. He has studied research concepts like Jeffrey and they always do an assessment of objectives and control when he was managing his own company and projects or testing new products. Never do experiments without control.
Lysander looked at Victor and agreed that this made sense. After all, if some of these bottles will be used to research potions then there should be spares for testing.
"Lysander, didn't you have your own potion company?" the emperor asked.
"Yes," Lysander answered and already knew where this is heading. Potioneering is very important but the creation of potions was often limited to the magic tower and the church, especially those related to healing. They have used that to drive their businesses and income. However, Lysander also came into the scene and introduced an independent potioneer company and registered it with the merchant guild making him one of the major competitors ever since his modification of healing potions was proven to be more effective than those in the church. This caused a rift between the second prince and the church. This is why Lysander never really visits the church and the church didn't want him to be the emperor as they have pushed the first prince who was the son of the Holy Consort to become emperor.
"I will give you authority to research the potion. It will be among your urgent priority." The emperor said. "If you needed funds, let me know and I will approve it."
Lysander nodded. There were at least 30 potions in the box. They decided to leave five in the vault for security reasons and the rest Lysander will take with him.
The emperor then turned to Victor. "Are you satisfied with the items you have taken?" The emperor asked.
Victor nodded. "Yes, emperor. Although the spirit will be a challenge."
"I do recommend finding ways to free the spirit. It is not right for him to be sealed like that." The emperor said.
"Understood."
"Are there any more things you needed?"
"I have been honored by three. I will take three. I don't want to be greedy." Victor answered. The emperor looked satisfied with him.
"But I do have something the emperor should see," Victor said and lead the two men to a carved statue that was embedded in the wall. The statue was that of a man wearing grand robes and there was a sun on the middle of his chest.
"Isn't this Saztor?" Lysander asked.
"Yes," Victor answered. Saztor was able to take the throne in Claes and would have been named 23rd emperor but he didn't last long enough on the throne to be considered a monarch when a brother of his fought him and won the throne in turn. Saztor was famous because of the rumors that he was not the son of the emperor. Of course, there was no proof.
"Emperor, please press the sun," Victor said. "I could do so but if I do that, I would be electrocuted."
The emperor looked at him curiously but was not worried about the fact that he might be electrocuted. The family vault is built to protect the emperor the most so Victor is aware of this as well.
The emperor touches the sun and presses. They heard mechanisms working behind the wall. All of a sudden, the statue moved and the wall behind it opened. Three busts suddenly moved towards them. These three busts were wearing necklaces, each is gold and intricate, and a large gem as a pendant. The one on the left is a yellow gemstone, and on the right was a green one. But the center looks like a large transparent crystal half the size of a regular man's hand.
"What are these?" The emperor asked in awe. He has not seen this before nor has he heard of a secret compartment about the vault about this in any of the records.
"I don't know the others but the one in the center is the gem of the first."
"WHAT?" The emperor and Lysander looked at him in disbelief. The Gem of the First is a gem once worn by the first emperor and possesses many magical properties. It was said that the gem helped protect the emperor during the 100 years of war. However, that gem was lost and never found again.
"But, shouldn't the gem be red?" Lysander asked.
"It is," Victor answered.
"It's transparent." The emperor commented.
"Touch it," Victor said. The emperor who is now already impressed with the third prince about his extensive knowledge touches the stone and immediately the stone turned red like a large ruby. It was beautiful.
"Wha?" the emperor removed his hand and the gem turned into the transparent crystal again.
"The gem of the first is connected to the first emperor's bloodline. For every emperor who wears it, the stone turns ruby red. Even if I do it." Victor touched the stone and it also turned red. "This means that were direct descendants of the first emperor."
"Really?" Lysander asked.
"Guess who hid it in the compartment," Victor said smiling. The two men didn't answer but the light in their eyes showed that they know. Saztor, when he got the throne, was believed to be not the emperor's son so if that was true the gem would have not been red which will prove that he was not of the imperial line and the gem did disappear during his reign.
"So, he hid it in the compartment to avoid being outed," Lysander said, shaking his head.
"I am surprised he did not burn it or throw it away." The emperor commented. But they all knew that doing so would not work. Burning the gem of the first is impossible and throwing it away will only risk people picking it up and using it. Hiding it in an area where only the emperor can access it makes more sense.
"Although I do believe we should change the name," Victor muttered. The name sounds very cliché like they couldn't think of anything to name it. Gem of the First? It's a mouthful.
"But you should wear it, emperor," Victor said. "The gem has very strong powerful runes that protect the owner. Like for example, scents that manipulate one's mind."
Lysander looked at his brother confused and then realized his implications. There was a person in the royal household known to stick on the emperor's side with its god-awful perfumes. Even the emperor frowned.
For many years Lysander has always believed that his father hated him and he could not understand why such a competent man would side with the Elroses and their faction. It turns out that he was being manipulated and nobody notices. After all, who would have thought to use scents as a tool to drug people?
The emperor could only sigh. Ever since his dream, he has noticed that he felt clearer-minded than before and because of this, he has been actively avoiding the Elroses and finds himself disgusted with perfumes that are very popular in the empire. But the gem could be a sign of a more glorious future for Claes. This gem has been gone for hundreds of years and it is coincidental that today's foundation day after all. Still one of these days, Prince Victor has to share with them where he gets this information.
"It would seem we have to make some stronger impressions to the nobles tonight." The emperor smirked as he took the necklace and wore it around him. The gem is now back to its former beautiful red.