The hivemind is conquering for me?

“Hailey where are we going? We have been walking through the grounds for over ten minutes.” Elaine questioned. Hailey turned around as she continued walking. “You are the one that needs the evidence, I am taking you to it, it is just around the corner now anyway. So you can stop whining.”

Elaine frowned, but said nothing as they continued walking. Eventually they rounded said corner Hailey mentioned and walked for a minute until the two of them were in front of two statues that were staring at each other.

Elaine recognised the statues, one was of one of the greatest military kings in Spartari history. Leondis, whose valiant sacrifice for his people is still remembered to this day. Looking to the other statue was his wife, Gorga, who actually took over his position as a military queen for a time and avenged her husbands death in her last act.

Hailey had not brought Elaine to stare at the statues and reminisce. As she walked over towards the statue and placed her hand on his foot. “Hello old friend.” She muttered before reaching for its toe and pulling on it.

The stone of the marble gave way slightly and as it did, the sound of gears and stone moving was heard. Elaine was shocked to see the wall next to the statue of Leondis give way to an open space.

“H-How in the? Why do you know about this? And how do I not know about this? I have lived here for years!” Elaine fired the questions towards Hailey who sighed before responding. “I was a curious kid, very curious. Did you know these statues have genitals under their clothes? This babe found out about what people are packing younger then most. As I was checking out Leondis here one day, I accidentally pulled on his toe and what do you know? A huge mystery room appeared, haha, but It is so much more then that, come on.”

Hailey did not wait for Elaine and began walking into the dark room. Elaine hesitated. Something so unknown inside of her home frightened her slightly. However, she was a queen and had some rather dire information needing answering so she followed Hailey inside and as she did, the wall closed, swallowing the two women into the stomach of the palace.

Elaine was blinded by the darkness for a moment before Hailey activated a torch. “All my stuff is here which is good, means my evidence will be in its room as well. Look next to you and turn on that lantern.” Hailey suggested to Elaine as she pointed with the torches beam.

Elaine took up on Hailey’s suggestion, activating the camping lamp, brightening the rest of the dark room. In an instant, Elaine got a good luck at the room. Journals, diaries, more torches and even long expired snacks were jotted throughout the room.

“What is this place?” She asked in fascination. “This is, was, my Labrinth. I used to come here and play ‘explorer princess’ in my free time. But there is more to explore here then just this room. Grab a couple of torches, who knows if the battery material degraded or not in the last thirteen years.”

Hailey began leading Elaine away from the welcoming room and began walking though narrow corridors Elaine’s curiosity grew more and more before she accidentally bumped into Hailey who had stopped walking.

“Why have we stopped?” She questioned. Hailey then covered her lips with her finger indicating to be silent. Elaine was not sure why she needed to be silent, but she complied. Hailey then reached out for a piece of small rock and pulled it out of the wall. All of a sudden, Elaine heard sounds of moaning and flesh being smacked together.

Curiosity got the better of her as she looked through the peephole that had emerged. Two nobles she did not recognise had snuck off from their party hall and were spit roasting a third member and all three were clearly enjoying themselves. Elaine looked a moment longer, just to validate she was actually seeing what she was seeing of course, before Hailey placed the rock plug back into the wall, blending perfectly and leaving no outlines.

Elaine was about to ask a question, but Hailey beat her to it with her explanation. “These holes are literally all over the palace. Every nook an cranny. Whoever made this secret peep labyrinth, did so without help as well since there is no technology back here at all and the pathways look hand carved, or perhaps Psionically carved. I think It was made after Leondis and before Core world 7 was named after him and the Military Kings made that place their base of operation instead of sharing this palace as they used to do.”

Elaine furrowed her brows. “So as a child, you used to come in here and watch people have sex?” Hailey made a disgusted face. “Eww no, I used to come back here and record peoples conversations so I could bring the points up later to sound smart. Sometimes there would be sex on the other side of the walls, but I was too young to care. Enough about this, we need to go to my record stash. It is not far from where dear old daddy ordered my moms death.”

As Hailey turned around to continue walking, Elaine felt a deep sense of worry. At first, she only came with Hailey to prove to herself that her husband was not capable of such an atrocity, but If Hailey actually managed to record Dickon ordering a hit on his ex wife…

The two of them continued walking for a while. Going up and down, taking turns deeper into the mountain in order to arrive at different points of the palace. Eventually as they had been walking for a while, Hailey stopped walking, causing Elaine, who was right behind her, to bump into her once more.

Hailey did not react to the bump however, and continued to stare ahead at a rock wall plug in front of her. Elaine placed her hand on Hailey’s shoulder, but no reaction was had. Making her way past to see Hailey’s face, It was scrunched up as she tried to fight back a myriad of emotions. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

Not wanting to strain their relationship further, Elaine said nothing to her and decided turn around made her way towards the plug. Upon taking it out of the wall and peeping through the hole, Elaine was confused by what she saw.

A regal room, with decorations, fine furnishing, a bookcase and even an assortment of wines and alcohols inside a display case. There was even a bottle on the table next to a glass. However, what was strange was that the entire room was covered in a thick layer of dust, making you want to sneeze by just looking at it.

“I don’t understand, where is this?” Elaine mumbled to herself. Every room she had peeped through so far. She knew where it was and began to map out the labyrinth in her head via the exterior rooms.

In her mapping, she should be close to her and Dickon’s room. ‘But there are no other rooms near ours? And if there were, they would never be in this state.’ Elaine looked around the room once more. She spotted a door at the far end of the room so there was definitely an entrance.

She thought for a moment, before she had an idea. Placing the plug back into the wall, she took the hand of the over stimulated Hailey and began to lead her a little further down the corridor they were in. Towards the next wall plug.

Elaine braced herself a moment before taking the plug out of the wall. As she placed her eye next to the hole to see though it, a mix of anger, disgust and relief washed through her body. Beyond this peep hole was her and Dickon’s room.

She now knew for a fact something strange was happening. Why else would a mysterious room next to her own not be accessible from the main hall in the palace. With a determination to get to the end of this mystery, Elaine turned to Hailey and spoke in a tone that snapped Hailey from her current state.

“Where are your recordings Hailey? I need to get to the bottom of this now.” There was a trace of anger in her voice that seemed to growl as she spoke. “They are just up ahead. By my old room. My thinking was that they would be safe closer to me, but not in reach of those that could enter my room. They were my own private adventures after all, before they got tainted with my mothers blood that is.” Hailey replied, before taking the lead once again.

Hailey and Elaine walked in a determined silence for a while longer before another room opened up. inside was a bunch of recording crystals that functioned and looked similar to high end communicators. They were all neatly arranged with titles, dates and other little notes young Hailey had placed on them to remember what each one contained.

There was one, however, that stood out from the rest. It was not organised and was strewn directly in the middle of the room.

The evidence.