After searching for several minutes in vast darkness – the number of drawers in the antechamber being much higher than expected and the lighting mechanism nowhere to be found –, I eventually got down to the Thirteenth in a silky white shirt and black trousers.

So, who was "the lord of that floor"? Certainly he was invisible, for I had scrutinized all the way through the floor's main hallway with no one on the horizon.

I was about to return to the "imperial lift", as Drace wanted, when a silhouette appeared just before the device. Was there a way stone hidden behind the walls? After a few seconds, the myst faded and… Judge Zargabaath appeared.

'Welcome to the Thirteenth, Judge Gabranth.'

Would all the floors be formally presented to me this way?

'Is anything wrong?' he asked, his legendary serene eyes laid on me.

'N… no, my Lord.'

'Then come.'

He set a foot forward then stopped and turned to me. He looked at his own armor – as he was wearing one – and then at my clothes.

'Weren't you wearing your armor today?'

'Y… yes, my Lord, but Judge Drace told me I had to remove it in this floor.'

'I see.'

He smiled and pursued his walk in the empty bright corridor.

'The "no-armor rule" only applies to the Twentieth and upper.'

Thanks Drace, I guess.

'But it is a good thing you're not wearing it – you'll be in a better condition to appreciate the last part of this visit.'

Tired of these mysteries, I followed him until we got to the other side of the hallway.

'There', he said, directing me to the open door with a nod.

I entered what looked like a bedroom.

The first – and only – striking thing was a two-meter high opening in the wall, a perfectly unprotected window almost as tall as the floor itself. Black and white abstract art paintings were hung on the walls. Several cupboards of various sizes were standing between them, as well as a few metal coat rails. The floor was carpeted with grey wool, while the walls were painted in pastel yellow. On the right side, close to the giant window, just before a path to additional rooms, was a large bed with untidy sheets and scattered pillows on it. On the other side of the door, the costume hung unmistakably showed who ruled that place.

'With all due respect, my Lord… did Lord Vayne allow you to enter his bedroom in his absence?'

The question was clumsy but I had to ask it. This made no sense.

'With all due respect, Gabranth', he replied, 'do you think there's a single matter that Lord Vayne does not allow me here?'

Dumbstruck, I let him walk through the other corners of Vayne's apartments before returning to their entrance.

'See that wall over there?'

He was showing me an old wooden cupboard. I looked at him without replying.

He made a few paces to reach it and opened its door.

'Can you push the bottom?' he asked.

Still confused, I obeyed and pushed the surface, which was still solid.

'Can it move?'

'It cannot, my Lord. But I do not wish to break it.'

'Step back.'

Zargabaath closed his eyes and, with two fingers dancing in the air, performed what looked like a green magic spell. When his fingers pointed at the surface, a small creak could be heard.

'Push again.'

Repeating the same gesture, I was about to fall: the surface turned longitudinally, showing a passageway through the wall.

'It is an emergency hideout and exit – there's a portal behind.'

Impressed, I followed him back to the hallway, and listened to him boast about how the right wall of Vayne's room is completely soundproof. Then we arrived at the other side, exactly where we were in the beginning, in front of the lifts.

'There.'

The next bedroom was very different. At first glance, it looked smaller, but I soon realized that it was because of a quantity of toys thrown on the ground. Trains, soldiers, dolls, teddy bears… nothing was apparently enough for the room's owner.

'This is Lord Larsa's room', Zargabaath explained, although it was obvious.

'How old is he now?'

'3 years, 4 months and… 28 days.'

For some reason, the days were the most delicate elements of his sentence.

'Let's see the… oh…'

He was about to enter the remaining rooms of Larsa's space before stepping back.

'I assume Drace rid the floor just when the cleaners were beginning their work. The smell over there is not exactly… the most relevant part of the young lord's personality. It matters little; this part's design is very similar to Lord Vayne's.'

I followed him back to the hallway; the only unvisited part was the center. Zargabaath stopped in front of its door and remained still for a moment. His face had changed: his stillness had turned into some terrific unrest and sorrow. Imperial sorrow. A translucent stream was dancing on his grey eyes' surface, and his fist didn't seem close to unclenching.

I decided to speak:

'Is Judge Palnissen around?'

As I had expected, Zargabaath immediately regained his usual bonhomie. He loosened both hands, closed his eyes and smiled:

'If he was, he'd certainly die of jealousy.'

He stretched his arm to the door and focused on a second green magic spell, visibly much more elaborated than the first.

'This place has been formally locked for 3 years, 4 months and 24 days.'

He was pointing at an ancient gate covered with a sort of seaweed, and that had neither handle nor lock. After a while, it began to slightly vibrate and the details on the door appeared: long, very long snakes were carved on the wood, as well as spiders, cage bars and butterflies. The patterns were coming into view as Zargabaath's magic got stronger. After thirty full seconds of what seemed an energy-draining spell, the butterflies flew left and right of the door, disappearing as soon as they reached its perimeter; the cage bars broke; the spiders rapidly climbed up; and the snakes, in harmony, danced away until they followed the other elements beyond the edges of the gate. The latter, deprived of all its decoration, was no more an old ruin eaten by vegetation; it had turned into a reinforced metallic door, blessed with a lock.

'There we go again', gasped the Judge Magister, pulling a thin black thread out of his mail collar.

I carefully observed the item, expecting a pendant of some sort at its end… but it was a key.

'Welcome to the Thirteenth', he repeated after opening the heavy gate.

I stepped a foot inside the middle chambers and stayed astounded.

The bed was much closer to the entrance than the two other rooms. Actually, that place had nothing in common with the other ones, nor with any bedroom I had previously known of. Covered with fluffy pink blankets and sheets, it was the largest bed I had ever seen: three meters tall for five meters wide, with a base raising it at sixty or seventy centimeters above the ground, which was also covered in wool. Turning again at the mesmerizing bed, I noticed curtain track rails around it, proving the huge furniture used to be a canopy bed. The room also had a window, but unlike Vayne's, it was protected by heavy magenta curtains that looked relatively new. However, it still was bare of any glass. What was this family made of? Was there a way they were bothered by neither cold nor noise?

'Lord Vayne used to spend about half of his life here, instead of his own rooms. This time, the other corners are worthy of interest. Come.'

In the little corridor, a piano stood, as well as a few violins on the wall. Did warmongers like music?

'This is where she – or they – used to bathe and relax.'

I perfectly knew I had no right to ask for the reason he was making me gradually embarrassed of visiting the Solidors' most private spaces, and it was frustrating. All around the luxurious pool, big and small towels were meticulously folded, as well as some accessories that looked like aquatic arm and headrests. On the right was a spacious dressing room.

'It was such a challenge and such a delight to design this floor, twenty eight years ago. I suppose His Excellency wanted to test my abilities aside law and battle; and looking back at it, I think it was a very good idea, because I had no architecture experience prior to that, apart from aircrafts. The most amusing part was that, at the time I began working on them, I was far from imagining the usage that would be made of these spaces.'

I took a last look around what was certainly the most intimate area of the Imperial Palace, and then turned to him, expecting him to leave and release me from this ridiculous tour.

'Come here. What you are about to see was only used by her. Lord Vayne, amidst all the time he spent here, completely ignores that such a place exists.'

I tried to guess what I had to do. He was showing me a wall. Was it some obscure mechanism like the one in Vayne's room? I joined him and waited. Once again, green magic was formed and left his hands, and this time, the spell duration was much shorter than both previous ones. When he was done, an item pulled itself from the wall, something sober like a fixed lantern.

'Come here', he repeated.

Confused, I did another pace towards him, although I was almost touching his armor.

'Put your hand here.'

That time, I decided to be cautious. What was that plan? Did he want to lock me into the wall? But before I could think further, he gripped my wrist and touched the lantern himself. The second after, we were in another place.