The laboratory had been sealed for years—ever since the Fourth Princess's mother died and her research was classified as "imperial property pending review."
Elara broke the seals herself with her household authority ring. The door groaned open, releasing stale air thick with dust and the faint metallic tang of residual magic.
Inside, the space was exactly what she'd hoped for: comprehensive. Stone workbenches lined three walls, surfaces marked with burn scars and chemical stains. Glass apparatus hung from ceiling racks—distillation columns, resonance chambers, containment vessels. Shelves held reference materials: grimoires, formula compilations, experimental logs written in her mother's precise hand.
At the far end, a large slate board still showed the last equation her mother had been working on. Unfinished. Chalk dust had settled into the grooves.
Elara closed the door behind her and locked it.
