A/N: So, this is inspired by and his 'A Comprehensive Guide To Taking Over the House' about a different Rightful Heir, and this is basically a rewrite of the books in which I assume the Rightful Heir has no qualms about becoming a Denizen and thinks his moves thoroughly, though I'm keeping the Rightful Heir as Arthur instead of inventing someone entirely new. As such, it will be much shorter as I'm omitting several parts and Garth Nix had to make the story fit seven books which I don't. The story starts with Arthur, Suzy, and the First Part of the Will in the Lower House as they are in an elevator in Mister Monday.
Arthur was breathing heavily, though not the kind that signaled an asthma attack. He had just ran and jumped much further than he had ever been able to, and was surprised that he hadn't collapsed.
The Will had, to Suzy's relief, ejected itself from her mouth and was now babbling about the next purpose it had to do and claiming the Hour Key.
"Wait," Arthur said. "Look, it's nice that you're telling me all of this, but the thing is that I've been doing a lot of reading in the Atlas, so I know what you're telling me."
Truth be told, once Arthur had figured out how to use the Atlas, he had spent quite a lot of time reading it, poring through its pages about the Days and the Keys. He had already armed himself with quite a bit of knowledge before even walking into the House, and though he felt a bit of trepidation, also felt excitement. The House fascinated him like nothing else, and here he was, inside of it.
"That will expedite things then," the Will boomed, still not using an indoor voice. "I suggest for now that we mobilize ourselves and look for allies within the Lower House."
"But what is your eventual plan?" Arthur asked.
"You will need to speak an incantation in order to wrest the Hour Key from Mister Monday, though how to go about doing so is, as some may say, 'still in the works'," the Will said.
"But," Arthur said, "the Hour Key is much more powerful that the Minute Key. And how are we supposed to deal with his soldiers, even if we do have some allies?"
"That is a risk that must be taken," the Will said. "I was unable to convince Monday to hand over the Hour Key as well, otherwise this would have been so much faster."
Arthur then shook his head, and the Will saw, for the first time, something gleaming in the boy's eyes. It spoke of mischief, as well as cunning, something that it had not noticed up till now.
"Rather than do that, which is a plan almost guaranteed to kill me since the Hour Key is more powerful, though I guess you don't care since you can just go ahead and choose someone else to be the next Heir, I have a better plan," Arthur said.
The Will croaked, but Arthur wasn't sure if it was disagreeing with him or wanted to hear more, so he went on. "If any one of the Seven Days had fulfilled the Will, then would there have been this sort of problem? I mean even if someone besides Monday decided to hand over the Key to someone before he did?"
"No," the Will said, "It wouldn't be a problem per se, but none of the faithless Trustees have fulfilled even a part of me."
Arthur smiled, like how a magician would before pulling out his main act. "In that case, think about it carefully. Getting the Hour Key is dangerous and near impossible, and while we still stay in the Lower House we have to be wary of Monday's minions. Rather than go through all of that, let's instead fulfill another part of the Will, and get another Key, with which we can easily force Monday to submit."
The Will croaked. "Easier Key? I'm afraid that getting another Key would indeed be difficult, much more so than the Hour Key. Not to mention it messes with the order. We should of course, go for the First Key first!"
"But you just said order doesn't matter," Arthur said. "In that case, the most logical thing to do right now would be go to the Border Sea."
Arthur spent around five minutes explaining how Duchess Wednesday had been betrayed by the other Days and wanted to give up her Key.
The Will began protesting. " I must say that we should desist from this course of action. The Trustees, despite their names, cannot and should not be trusted."
Arthur tapped the Atlas. "The Atlas says so, and the Atlas isn't wrong. Plus, I know where the Third Part of the Will is hidden. We could go there by the Improbable Stair right now, but the thing is that it is on a pirate island, and I think the Minute Key could protect me but we also have to carry all the Denizens imprisoned there, and the Improbable Stair can't do that."
"And what more does this plan of yours entail?" the Will asked while hopping about. Arthur wasn't sure if it was being agitated or happy, probably the former.
"We go to the Border Sea, and then rent a vessel with which we go into Wednesday's stomach and the worldlet in there, with a crew that's ready to fight pirates, so we'll probably need to enlist Wednesday's Dawn help. Then, we take the other part of the Will, use it take the Third Key, which I think will make dealing with the Hour Key easier," Arthur said.
"The Hour Key without the Minute Key is currently about as powerful as a Key brought from another Demesne into the Lower House, though it can't be used as frequently. True, this plan has a chance of succeeding, but I still must say that we should go for the Hour Key first," the Will said.
Arthur wagged his finger as if he was explaining to a impatient toddler that one plus one equals two, "Again, getting the Hour Key wouldn't be a problem if an incantation would simply help me claim it. But according to you, I'd have to say the incantation, which would fail if Monday's holding the Hour Key, then hold it close to me which would probably make it easier for it to kill me, and then hope for the best. That's not much of a plan for me, though it might make sense to you since you can keep trying it over and over by choosing other Heirs. So, I say we take this elevator to the Border Sea, and that's it."
There was a sort of firmness about his voice which told the Will that arguing with him was going to be difficult.
Arthur then looked at Suzy, who had been surprisingly quiet up till then.
"And I s'pose you all wants me to join in on this?" Suzy asked.
"Indeed," the Will said. "In exchange for your help, there may be rewards."
"May be doesn't seem so sure," Suzy said. She looked at Arthur and the Will warily, it was clear to Arthur that she didn't trust them, Not to mention that behind what seemed to be her sunny disposition, he felt something else. There was hurt in her eyes, though not at them but at something else.
Arthur stood up. "Think about it. If we win, you can have the future Ruler of the Border Sea in your favor, and if we're caught, you can just say that you were kidnapped and forced to do this all against your will."
"There's somethin' else I want," Suzy said. "All of us Piper's Children are immigrants, so to speak, and we don't really belong here."
"So that's what you want?" Arthur asked. "For all of you to go back to where you came from?"
Suzy shook here head. "I don't s'pose that's possible."
The Will interrupted. "Indeed. Even if all the Piper's Children did want to go back to the Secondary Realms, which I doubt, the undertaking would probably span several millennia to complete, and would violate the Original Law. Not to mention that most of them, due to the House's influence, have become near-Denizens, and their prolonged presence would most probably be inimical, especially for the few who have been promoted to high positions, which would have greatly accelerated this process."
Suzy shook her head. "I don't want to go back anyway. Not back to where I had been," Her eyes became even more distant as she spoke about his, which made Arthur sure it had something to do with her previous mortal existence.
"In that case, you could all come back to modern times," Arthur said. "We could set up something like an orphanage back in my time."
"Actually, what I wanted was for us Piper's Children to be treated better," Suzy said. "We keep gettin' washed between the ears, and few of us have high posts."
"So, you want sort of an affirmative action for Piper's Children?" Arthur asked, who was currently unaware of what 'washing between the ears' was. "That's fine."
The Will jumped agitatedly. "This discussion is fine, but we really need to get a move on if we intend to reach the Border Sea before being caught."
Suzy then reached up and pushed a button, but it just ended up being pushed out again instead of lighting up.
"Proper authority is needed to reach a place like the Border Sea," the Will said and hopped, and then pushed the button. It started to glow and the elevator began ascending.
"Can the elevators be stopped?" Arthur asked.
"They shut down a lot," Suzy said. "One time, I had been stuck in this one for six months."
Arthur was about to say that that was impossible since she would've died, but realized that eating and drinking were not necessary in the House so stopped himself.
"Well, I meant to say how far do we have to be so that we'll be out of Monday's jurisdiction? You know, so he can't send someone to get us?"
"Once we're at the bulwark between the Lower House and Border Sea," the Will said.
"Okay, tell me once we get there," Arthur said.
Arthur began flipping through the Atlas again, checking up on new information. He was also silently brainstorming. Not about the Border Sea, he had already planned that, but rather about other things related to the House.
You see, he had already found out about the Will and its… final purpose.
"Right now we should be safe," the Will said finally.
"Okay," Arthur said. "Now, Will, Monday's Dusk is with is right."
The Will croaked in surprise, which told Arthur that he was right. It was another one of those things he had read in the Atlas.
"I need a telephone," Arthur said while touching the Minute Key. A telephone materialized near him. He picked up the speaker and a voice said, "Operator here."
"I need to speak to Monday's Dusk, please," Arthurs said.
"Yeah," the Denizen on the other end said in a bored tone, "see, the problem with that mate is that Monday's Dusk is a high ranking officer, and considering the fact that you just said 'please' that probably means that you're a nobody, so I can't connect you like-"
Arthur grabbed the Minute Key and repeated his request, hoping that the Key would make him sound… importanter? No, that was wrong, but anyway he was hoping it would work over a distance.
Apparently it did, because next thing he knew he was connected to someone who was talking, except his voice echoed across the elevator room and carried the essence of the night somehow.
"Who is this?" Monday's Dusk asked.
"Who's there with you?" Arthur asked.
"What? Who is this?" Monday's Dusk repeated, clearly irritated.
"I think you know who I am," Arthur repeated. "I'm a mortal."
There was a pause.
"Is there anyone there who might overhear us?" Arthur asked.
"No, fortunately I am in my private office," Dusk said. "What is it that you want? My Master is looking for your head."
"And yet you freed the Will," Arthru said. "Yes, I know all about that, but to be quick, there is something that I want. I need to know if you have a way of communicating or sending a message to Wednesday's Dawn."
There was a pause. "I know of no such way. Telephones do not work in the Border Sea. But there was something…"
There was the sound of something being forced into a hole too small for it, and Arthur watched in amazement as a something was forced out of the earpiece and fell out. It looked like a small firecracker.
"That was something that Wednesday's Noon gave me during my stint in the Great Maze," Dusk said. "The higher-ranking officials of the Maze used to use them as distress signals back when telephones were not in the fashion of the House. They should emit an aura visible to Denizens who were trained to see them. If I am not mistaken, Wednesday's Dawn did her service several hundred years before mine, so she should also have been trained for that. It is the best I can-"
His voice was suddenly cut off.
"We're far too high up," the Will said. "Telephones don't work in the Border Sea."
"Where exactly in the Border Sea are we headed?" Arthur asked.
"Near Port Wednesday," the Will answered.
A/N: Interestingly, though Suzy had mentioned at the beginning of Mister Monday, she never made any motion to want to go back. Sure, her family was gone and they couldn't find the records, but you would've thought that Arthur could have just asked the Atlas for their location, not to mention in Sir Thursday Arthur says that Piper's Children don't want to go back.
Also, the Atlas tends to be a real deus ex machina, which is probably why Garth Nix chose to work in weaknesses and had Arthur give it up occasionally.