Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Radiant

"And here I thought you were sensible enough to know when to stop!" Lydia scolded me as she pulled a towel from one of my chests. Tingling replaced the pain in my fingers shortly before I lost all feeling. I scowled up at my maids.

"Is this necessary!?!" I demanded as Frida brought my numb hands out of the water. Lydia began to pat my hands dry with the towel, both of them ignoring the scowl stretched across my face.

"It is our duty to take care of you, your highness." Frida responded in a stern voice. "especially when you have forgotten to do so yourself."

I huffed in response as a cloth was slowly wrapped around each finger. Soon, both of my hands were covered in white. I raised them in front of me and sighed. I wouldn't be writing until my hands healed enough that Lydia and Frida no longer felt the need to mummify my fingers.

I glared at my fork as I clumsily picked it up from where it had clattered against the porcelain plate. It was quite hard to be both elegant and practical with mummified fingers. I aggressively stabbed a piece of cut vegetable before shoving it into my mouth.

I could still do some of the Rimgar with my hands wrapped so. But as for my research, I would have to find another way to record the information. I had seen a couple of servants fluttering around the library. Maybe I could get some of them to collect information for me.

I finished dinner a half-hour later, spending most of the time fumbling around with the silverware in my fingers. Tomorrow was research day so first thing in the morning, I would set out for the library and find someone who could act as a scribe for me.

I had found a scholar that was eager to scribe down what I wanted from the scrolls I had collected on the history of Ûru'Baen. While he wrote the main points down on parchment, I read through another scripture that described a particular battle that had to do with the walls.

My intention?

Find about the weak points and what they did with them. Any information that could provide an insight to break into the city would prove useful in my endeavor. My fingers brushed against the aging scroll in front of me. My eyes ran over a particular story of the creation of a door to the castle.

The castle of Ûru'Baen provided miles of tunnels and passages that would make a challenge if one was not familiar with the network.

"Giles?" I spoke up, looking at the scholar hunched over a piece of parchment. The scholar looked up at me with his glasses nestled against the crook of his nose.

"Yes, your highness?"

"Are there any maps of the tunnel system?" I asked him. "This scroll mentions that hundreds of passages were built, but I wondered how anyone kept themselves from getting lost."

"Of course, your highness," Giles replied. "When the humans moved into Ûru'Baen, the system of tunnels were mapped out using magic. You can find them in tucked away in a glass case by the scrolls on healing potions."

Right where no one would think to look for them. I mused to myself before glancing at the section of the library that contained the scrolls on healing potions. Standing up, I strode over to the potions section of the library.

Sitting inconspicuously, sat a case with a glass top. Beneath the crystal glass sat several large parchments, they looked old and frayed but well cared for. My fingers slid against the glass top before they found the brushed copper latches.

With a soft click, the glass top was released from the latches, giving me access to the very papers I knew would prove to be invaluable. With a delicate touch, I picked up the first parchment and inspected its contents.

It was of several interlocking tunnels that ran near the servant's passages. Not entirely useful but in the event, the Varden found themselves in the walls of the castle, perhaps useful. Pulling the parchment towards me, I looked at what was underneath.

My eye's scanning over faded lines as I quickly assessed whether or not I should give this sheet any attention. It only covered the passages near the stables, now Thorn's nest.

"Probably want to avoid that area," I muttered to myself before I pulled the sheet back and looked at the next map. Now, this is precisely what I needed. Removing the parchment from the pile, I quickly folded the parchment until it was roughly the size of my palm and shoved it into my corset.

No one would think that I'd be smuggling something, now would they? After all, I was just a princess. Why would I need information on a portcullis fixed nearly a century ago?

Shutting the glass top, I quietly returned to my previous reading, not giving the scholar any suspicion that I had taken something from the case. The rest of the day passed by, and I soon found myself dressed in burgundy trimmed with gold.

Tonight, there was a banquet to be held, and that included my father's advisors and a few of the noblemen that were associated with the current battles. I sat ramrod straight with my bandaged hands folded neatly in my lap.

Servants began to flood into the room with trays of freshly cut vegetables, meats, cheeses, and dipping sauces. One was placed in front of me, and I was glad to find that my plate lacked the meat part of the first course.

Reaching up, I clutched at my sliver fork and stabbed a slice of radish, before dunking half of the vegetable in one of the sauces on my plate. I had found that while the nobility Ûru'Baen seemed to eat luxury meals for every time they ate, the dishes were excellent.

I placed the radish in my mouth and found that the sauce tasted of flavors like fresh citrus and herbs.

"Your highness, whatever has happened to your beautiful fingers!?!" One of the advisors exclaimed. I glanced down at the fingers gripping my fork and smiled.

"It seems that the Royal Library was far too much for me to resist, and I have caused injury to myself in my endeavor to learn all that I can."

"You find it prudent for a woman to study?" Another asked his lip curling slightly. My eyes darkened.

"Of course," I replied coolly, raising an eyebrow. "As much as you humans seem to think that young woman does not need education, it is my belief that a woman uneducated provides the dullest conversations. Wouldn't you rather have a conversation with a woman who knows her history than one who doesn't know what one plus one equals?"

One of the other advisors coughed to hide his laugh as the advisor who asked the question turned slightly red and suddenly found the plate in front of him very interesting.

"I thought as much," I continued. "where I was raised, I lacked the resources to learn. But now that I have just about every book and scroll, I could ever want, I find it hard to stop writing, even when my blood flows onto the very parchment I write upon."

Next, to me, my father started to clap his hands. The chatter concerning my words and actions ceased.

"I expected nothing less from my daughter," My father laughed as he clapped his hands together. "Quick with wit and silver-tongued!"

Leaning back in a distinct action that meant the first course was done, my father wound his fingers together.

"Tell me, my daughter, what do you think of the war with the Varden?" My eyes blinked as I thought carefully about my next words. Plates disappeared, and the soup course was delivered.

"With all honesty, it is no war in my eyes." Yet. "Only skirmishes."

"You do not think that the King is at war with the Varden?" I looked at the advisor who had spoken and shook my head.

"Of course not, not yet at least," I replied as I picked up my soup spoon and dipped it into the green velvet soup: broccoli and cheddar, hints of garlic.

"Do you think it will ever be a War, your highness?" I looked up; it was Stron. My lips curved into a half-smirk.

"Perhaps,"