Functionally, there was nothing different about her next few weeks in the castle, but even the smallest child could tell the girl was not all there. Lessons continued as a matter of course, but they devolved into her reading a wide serious of cute children's books on topics from weather to basic chemistry.
It stood out most when her first friend maid Mare meet after not seeing each other for a while.
"Hey Tiff, how are things?" Waking the noble from her dazed lunch the wire thin women, appeared even more twig like, having grown an inch seemingly overnight.
"Quite fine if I say so." Which both ladies present knew this was false, but maid Mare didn't comment on things.
"I have bad news, Instructor Rose caught me the other day…I still can hear the ringing in my ears from her lecture." Most people got one or two plates, but as a growing girl, her tray was laden with four.
"Also, Maid Jac misses you, she still can't make her bed look as good as yours. Vicky back in water maintenance was just telling me about which stiped hats are the cutest…" Aside from the occasional hum of acknowledgement, Lady Tiffaney just stayed out of things. It was pleasant she felt, listing to the wire squeak about who was doing what, even if she didn't know any of them.
Having finished long ago, maid Mare was polishing her fourth plate off as well. Despite this the maid didn't stop her yammering leaving the heir in a bit of a tight spot until.
"I don't remember lunch lasting this long, maid Mare."
"Get my tray would you 'Tiff'?"
"She still runs fast as ever doesn't she." Behind them Sir Octave had appeared with what looked to instructions and a sweet peppermint lollipop that was in her mouth before she realized it.
"Thank you, is there something you need?"
"I am here to merely delivering the travel arrangements, it's been decided that we will go by boat to our destination. A gallon merchant ship ran by the Edison mercantile house."
With out noticing, the girl had become quite adept at speaking around the paper stick. It also caused her to wonder about where and how he acquired so many flavors of candies, and even more so where they were being kept.
"I see, thank you for informing me."
"Here is the itinerary. If also included a list of items that it is recommended, you pack." Unlike last time she conversed with Sir Octave, this time she was reading the paper before the butler dematerialized. Yet another mystery of this grand castle.
Boats were something that the noble knew of but never expected to see or ride one. However, it wasn't anything that she could worry about now. Her two priorities were to find a good way to say thank you, and then not fall of in the sea. She had other concerns but there wasn't any problem with those that was immediate.
"Blood draw?" Mabey, she had been wrong, the noble didn't know what that meant but drawing blood seemed to have only bad ends. At the lest these plans had been given to her by the head butler, and aside from the lady sneaking in contraband, she had given a reasonable outstanding lesson. It could be worth giving the lady the benefit of the doubt.
Still, she wondered when she could stop worrying about how her adoptive mother was going to accidently get her killed. Fortune had it that it was nothing more than a slight pitch and some cookies.
"There's a lot we can learn about someone through their blood. If their sick or they have other problems, I want to make sure there isn't any reason why we can't go by sea." She had wrapped her arm up with a soft cord and was filling a few vials of dark red that looked syrupy. With out much more explanation, the lady of the house, put gauze on her small wound before taping it in place.
"Don't worry, you have recovered nicely, and this little bit of blood is nothing, just eat a hearty meal tonight and sleep well. Tossing her hair, the lady stood and collected her vials after writing her name on the label. She placed the needle set back in its container, before she dropped the whole thing into a small hole in the wall.
"Creamsicle." Without looking and from a strange angle a wrapped candy appeared in her hand, with just a faint image of white glove.
"You did great, some people ball like a baby when I do this." Guiding her out, the noble didn't hear any thing about her being sick, so she just assumed all was well. Her choice in gifts had been a more tiring design. With the aid of her instructor the two made a lovely bracelet from a soft dark yarn and a few gear charms that would look great for either a lady or a lord. Things had happened so fast that the young child never found out if they were a boy or a girl.
"I don't think I have any thing more to get ready." She had two suitcases packed, almost all of it was clothes, with a small space for toiletries and her writing supplies. Her lessons would continue while they traveled. It didn't leave her much else, but she didn't have anything else to bring, just a nicely wrapped box.
She didn't see the lady at all for several days leading up to their departure. This was normal as she would often get sidetracked into whatever project she was working on at the time. As for how they would arrive at the boat itself, was a surprise.
Rather than dock, the small party carrying their luggage and the two Dynes proceeded to the subterrain levels. There underneath was a small underwater dock that fed directly into the ocean. Water sluiced down grates and other tunnels and passages into a complex network of water works somewhere in the castle.
It was a small scoop, with a light sail plan and a pair of end cabins. It had several long rods running parallel to its mast, with no topgallants. The slipways were above the main deck, so the wide gangplank landed downward into the ship that was less than twelve meters long, four wide.
"We ill be taking this boat to the ship that's anchored in the harbor, rather than traveling to a dock." Suddenly it dawned on the noble that this was a small coastal craft, which is why it didn't have any of the fancy things she expected a ship to have.
"It's a large gallon so it should be more than sufficient for this trip." Lady Dyne finished her explanations before shooing her onboard. Planking creaked and groaned as the noble found the soft subtle movement of the boat disorienting, but manageable now. She learned that one would develop 'sea legs' after a while, but some never did and always got motion sickness.
"Once everything is stowed, we will depart." The ship itself would be steered by someone else, so the two sat comfortably on some built-in benches that were dry near the fore castle.
"Boswain Bones, has the specialty piece been secured?" Bones turned, a portly wall of muscle rather than the expected skeleton of his namesake.
"Aye, Lady."
There wasn't anything to do but wait as the ship was slowly pulled from the docks by rope lines. Once leeward of the pylons, the slow crawl picked up as the ship navigated out of the small, enclosed harbor. In the bay sat a large merchant gallon, forty feet across, two hundred in length, a spiderweb of lines and sails with four full mast, square rigged. It flew colors of the empire and what appeared to be shamrock green for the merchant house it served under.
Dyne did have a flag, but there was one hung in the ladies' master bedroom. As the lord glanced at the awe on her heir's face at the massive ship, she felt a pang that she needed to build a ship for the heir.
Elsewhere-Depths of Castle Dyne prior to departure
There were no less than three main secret laboratories in the castle, not including the seven hundred and four secret passages that had been built over the years. Even than there were still seven secret spaces, and lastly three hidden rooms. Ultimately, there were two sealed spaces, ones which no one else in the entire castle knew about. Only the head of Dyne had the right to know.
She was in the latter, which required careful navigation of the worst death traps ever designed. Unlike the props in the castle proper, these were all highly lethal, with no warnings or tells. Her worst in this sector was the flaming furnace trap. The entire room would be vented with flash heating, reaching a few thousand centigrade almost instantly, as well as quick burn that would consume all the oxygen in the room. If you didn't burn to death you suffocated. There was a single path one could take through the mess. Each step had disengagement methods that required token and biometric clearances.
If by some chance, someone could get there failing to provide the needed items at the end resulted in the entire place flooding with seawater, after which the entire castle would explode.
The family didn't take any chances when it came to these two spaces.
Since she was head, she effectively just walked into the last secret space. The room had a single hard chair, a long table space and a wall with several apparatus mounted on it. One third was dedicated to status lights. The input panels had switches and leavers while the last had a vaguely human shaped statue.
"Scarlet Rosewood."
"Present Blood." Mechanical grinding voice was heard, and the Lady dyne pricked her finger before smearing It into a hallow in the table.
"Passcode?"
"Hearts Anastasia."
"Welcome, Lady Dyne."
Having successfully activated the system. She swept her hands across the table. There was no dust in the room, as no one lived or worked here. The table lit itself up, with button outline and keyboard outlines forming across the entire thing. Lightly stamping the keys, she slowly navigated her way to the reason for coming here.
"Castle, add Tiffaney Elsa Dyne as heir designate."
"Heir Designate returns void."
"Add section 79 OGR for expansion to accommodate for new directive."
"Once built, assign rights equivalent to mine, Passcode, and blood recognition, required only, voice print will be established on first use. For Passcode use, Tiffaney Elsa Dyne. Prepare to accept blood sampling."
Setting a vial on the table the label, 'Tiffaney Dyne' was plain as day. Looking at the vague human statue was always with a sense of disappointment. It was a left-over relic from a time when the Dyne family attempted to transcend the logic of the world, to step into the domain of the divine. It failed horribly, and the only surviving piece was the statue itself.
"Add section, I1 AAA-vertical negative. Designation of Alganon bloodline recursive search parameters."
"As desired Lady Dyne." For a moment, there was some feedback as the components began to work. Heavy grinding and moving of gears had begun as the parameters and commands had been issued.
"Thank you, Castle Dyne," The lady muttered idly as she waited for it to commence its work.
The third greatest secret in all of Dyne History, the family had transformed a castle into a living being.