"I still can't believe how many statues of Marcy have been put up here in Newtopia...", Luz says incredulously, "I mean, sure, there are people everywhere who have done great things, and should perhaps be honored with a statue... But four of them? Seriously?"
"Four that we know of...", Maddie adds.
"Thank you, Maddie...", Luz grits her teeth, "Oh, by the way, did you hear Iva come home yesterday? I'd love to know if she was successful in getting us access to the university library..."
"Nah, as far as I know, she didn't come home yesterday. But even if we don't have the official permission, we could check out Iva's private library first... What do you think?"
"I like the way you think.", Luz compliments her.
Luz and Maddie are back at Iva's house making breakfast after coming home exhausted from their trip around town yesterday. Maddie pours herself grilled flies in an empty bowl, while Luz makes herself an unexciting sandwich.
Yesterday was an overall great day for both of them. They explored the city, popped into a few stores but didn't spend any money in them, and ended up going to the museum, which Luz was completely in awe with. In the end, they both just fell onto their respective mattresses and fell asleep immediately.
Suddenly Iva enters the apartment. Well, entering might be an understatement: she kicks the door open and falls face first to the ground. Luz, who is standing between the kitchen and the living room, watches this and tries really hard to suppress a loud laugh. Maddie comes in, not quite understanding what Luz finds funny about it. Maddie walks over to Iva.
"Long night?"
"Mmm...", Iva hums into the floor.
"We were wondering when you would be coming home. Have you had any success with the library?"
Instead of answering, Iva pulls out two small, but thick pieces of paper. At the top it says 'University of Newtopia' in bold letters and immediately below it says 'Library - Guest Access'.
"Thank you, Iva. Luz, we can start right away-", Maddie calls in the direction of the kitchen.
"No!", Iva interrupts Maddie, who has just rolled onto her back, "you can't go there today."
"Why not?", Maddie asks.
"The university is closed today, that's why I'm coming home just now. I worked through the night to be able to enjoy the day today.", Iva explains. Luz sticks her head out of the kitchen after grinning away her fit of laughter.
"Is there anything special today?", she asks.
"Oh right, you can't know that…", Iva begins to explain, "Today is King Andrias' birthday, and there is a huge celebration and parades all throughout in the city. It's one of the few days where he's mingling himself with us normal people."
Luz peeks out from the kitchen and frowns upon hearing this, thinking 'Hopefully not another one...'
"This Andrias guy... What's he like?", she asks.
"I ran into him a few times when I was still working at the Royal Library. He always made quite a relaxed and friendly impression on me, even though we had never talked before. He spends most of his time in his palace and only comes to town very rarely, usually only for special events. Like today, for example...", Iva explains sounding excited. A rather nasty grin just emerges on Luz' face. She leans over to Maddie.
"I know exactly what we're going to do today..."
Iva looks back and forth between the two girls in turn.
"I think... I don't want to know what you guys are planning. I'm going to hit the hay though, and should you not plan on breaking into the palace later, I can highly recommend checking out the parade. I'll go watch the evening parade later...", Iva keeps talking, while she is already climbing the stairs to the upper floor and at some point, she can no longer be heard. Luz turns back to Maddie.
"Uhuhu, this opportunity is perfect. We sneak into the palace while no one is there, find the Royal Library, and can spend the whole day there undisturbed before everyone comes back and realizes we shouldn't be there. Easy."
"You've broken into somewhere before, haven't you?", Maddie wonders, to which Luz replies with extra excitement.
"Yes. Into a prison. Twice."
"You broke into a prison? Well, never mind. We should probably make some invisibility glyphs, just in case-", Maddie cuts herself off as Luz is waving several sheets of paper in front of her, "I see you're prepared for anything... How long have you been planning-"
"-breaking into the palace? Ever since I knew there was something in the palace that I wanted. Why do you ask?", Luz asks, to which Maddie merely shakes her head dismissively.
"I'd also like to suggest for once that we fly up instead of walking. Not only are we faster that way, I'd hate to have to walk so much for two days in a row...", Maddie groans, "These roads aren't very pleasant in the long run."
"Have you ever thought about getting shoes?", Luz asks curiously.
"Back home in Wartwood, shoes are more of a hindrance than a help. The ground is pretty soft there, but here... Maybe. But I don't think I have enough coppers on me for that...", Maddie digs around in her bag a bit while Luz calls Owlbert over, who also has her backpack with her. Luz emptied out all of its contents on the living room table to make room for books she might want to 'borrow' later.
"I didn't say anything about buying-", Luz says with a wink before mumbling to herself, "… Oh- my god, Eda really had a terrible influence on me..."
Immediately outside the front door, quite a few people can be heard cheering and shouting in a muffled manner. And just as Luz and Maddie are leaving Iva's house, they are met by the sight of hundreds, if not thousands, of city residents gathered all along the street. Luz recognizes several talented acrobats passing by, followed by several floats designed in various themes, representing the life of King Andrias and all the good deeds he has done for the people of Amphibia. The floats are pulled by four beetles each, and on top of the floats are newts throwing stuff into the cheering crowd.
Since Maddie is not tall enough to see over the heads of all the celebrants like Luz can, Luz offers to let her jump on her shoulders if she wants to watch the parade. She hesitates at first, but eventually accepts Luz's offer, just in time for the float with King Andrias himself to come into view.
"Uh, uh. I can see King Andrias over there.", Maddie observes.
"What, where?", Luz asks.
"All the way in the back. You should be able to see him in a minute. He's sitting on one of the floats waving to people.", Maddie explains pointed in his direction.
"Oh yeah, you're right. Whoa... he's huge... Do you know how tall he is?", Luz asks the frog standing on her shoulders.
"Seven to nine meters, depending on which source you look it up in...", Maddie guesses.
"I'm... I would say that I would be impressed... But I don't think that word is really appropriate.", Luz says with a hint of discomfort in her voice as his float approaches.
King Andrias' float, like the others before him, is being pulled by giant beetles. He sits there on a replica of his throne, ornamented with golden corals, waving and greeting the people he passes until he is about to pass Luz and Maddie. For an uncomfortably long time, his gaze is fixed firmly on Luz. When the float has passed, and eye contact is broken, he waves to the crowd again, smiling. Visibly uncomfortable, Luz turns to Maddie.
"We should go. Now."
Maddie jumps off Luz's shoulders and they both head down a secluded alleyway, away from the parade.
"Is something wrong?", Maddie asks curiously.
"That Andrias guy. Did you see the way he was looking at me?"
"I saw THAT he was looking at you, but unfortunately not HOW...", Maddie says sarcastically, at which point Luz gives her a frustrated look. "I'm sorry"
"The way he looked at me gave me a feeling I've had before, when I first met Belos. Unlike him, Andrias may seem nice, but my intuition tells me that I shouldn't trust him.", Maddie is unsure how to react appropriately to this.
"Well, how lucky that we want to break into his palace now...", Luz can't help but giggle as she mounts her staff with Maddie behind her.
"Say, Maddie... How long can you hold your breath?", Luz asks as she pulls out an invisibility glyph.
"Long enough.", she answers confidently and Luz uses the glyph on herself, turning herself, Maddie, and her staff invisible. With a powerful push, Luz pushes herself off the ground, and quickly flies up into the air towards the palace, as fast as possible, avoiding having to remain invisible and hold her breath any longer than necessary. The two girls stop near a window and take a deep breath, breaking the invisibility. Luz flies closer to the window to see what's behind it. Oddly enough, there is a single, small room, without any other windows or doors. The window next to it leads into an identical room. The next few windows lead to various corridors and larger rooms, but there is no trace of the Royal Library.
Luz and Maddie fly around the palace several times after discovering several quite interesting locations, but not what they are actually looking for: several bedrooms, a kitchen, a tall room that appears to be the throne room and so on…
"Luz, we've been flying around the palace for twenty minutes now. I think we should have thought this through better...", Maddie remarks, a little frustrated, and thinking that maybe the whole thing was a mistake after all.
"Hmm... maybe. But since the palace is mostly empty, I'd like to try something. Hold your breath!" Luz orders, bursting with self-confidence.
Luz flies in front of the open window, activates an invisibility glyph and shoots through an empty hallway at high speed, coming out of another window on the opposite side. With the same speed, Luz flies in a circle and flies again through the middle of the palace on the next floor.
After a few more attempts, Luz suddenly stops in mid-air in the middle of the palace, and they both become visible again.
"This looks like a library, doesn't it?", Luz comments, while Maddie falls off the staff. "MADDIE!".
After a brief moment of shock, Maddie gets back up, but still has visible difficulties in keeping on her feet. Luz dismounts from her staff and helps Maddie stand up.
"Oh Maddie, I'm so, so sorry-", Luz apologizes, who is cut short by Maddie who is still trying to regain her balance.
"Apparently it's not good for me to fly for so long and so fast, especially without breathing. I… I just need a minute...", Maddie assures Luz.
While Maddie is still kneeling on the floor waiting for the corridor to stop spinning, Luz checks to see if the library doors are somehow locked. To Luz's surprise, they aren't, which she finds weird, considering that the whole palace looks abandoned.
Luz opens one of the double doors. Her eyes widen and she marvels at the gigantic variety of books. A large room, with some free-standing, meter-high bookshelves, so high that they cover two floors. There are also slightly smaller bookshelves on the walls, on both floors, and there are also a few secluded reading nooks scattered around.
As Luz wanders the room in awe, Maddie feels better in that she no longer has to worry about losing her balance trying to stand up. She follows Luz into the library and quietly closes the door behind her. A small adjoining room appeared next to the now closed door.
"Hey Luz, come over here. I found something here that might interest you..."
"Uh, what is it?"
"Read for yourself!"
"'Marcy Wu's Recommendations'? How nice that- ... No way!", Luz gasps heavily, "THE GOOD WITCH AZURA EXISTS HERE TOO?"
"Pssst!", Maddie warns her.
"Oops, sorry. I just can't believe it. This series is originally from Earth, but I found it on the Boiling Isles as well."
"Maybe that's an interdimensional constant...", Maddie suspects.
"A what?"
"An interdimensional constant. Or interplanetary constant, depending on how you like to think of it. These are objects, or even people, versions of which can exist on multiple worlds at the same time. Like your book series, for example. However, since it is extremely difficult to find evidence for such things, so far it was only a theory until-", Maddie explains, just before stopping herself, "Luz? You weren't listening to me, were you?"
Luz grins at Maddie in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry. I was listening until 'Interplanetary Constant', but then I saw that Marcy has 'Cynthia Coven' here as well. I can't stand the author, but-"
"Ugh... Luz! Focus!", Maddie orders her with an annoyed look.
"Right right, I'm focusing. We're looking for something on interdimensional travel... I'll go upstairs and see what I can find there."
After a few hours of searching, the two girls sat down in one of the reading nooks downstairs, along with stacks of books they'd picked up from everywhere. Luckily, the shelves were organized by theme as well as alphabetically. That made the whole search a little easier, which nonetheless took two hours.
Scattered around Luz and Maddie are various books on history, astronomy, geology, physics, a short series of novels about lovers from different worlds, and also two children's books. Maddie and Luz are each sitting on a beanbag, each with an open book on their laps, and a snack that the two have passed back and forth. Neither of them shows interest in talking, and there is a comfortable silence in the room. Only a few distant sounds of the celebration on the streets of Newtopia can be heard.
A couple more hours pass before Luz breaks the comfortable silence. She closes the book that is still on her lap and sighs.
"There's nothing about interdimensional travel in the sixth book either. How about you, Maddie? Found anything?"
"Nothing yet either. This is about astronomy, but whoever wrote this didn't even consider the possibility that there might be life on other planets", Maddie says, to which Luz snorts.
"To be honest, I'd be surprised if we actually found anything useful here... But regardless, I'm having a great time", Luz admits with a smile.
"Really? How comes?", Maddie asks curiously.
"Well, I'm in a library in a huge palace, and I have the opportunity to spend time here with an amazing friend. And you smuggled in snacks", Luz smiles happily, "I would even go so far as to say that is the best day since I arrived in Amphibia"
"Thank you, Luz. It means a lot to me to hear that"
"I really enjoy your company", Luz says, who is about to get up, "But for now, I'm leaving you and sort back some of the books we've already finished"
"You will do no such thing!", a previously unfamiliar voice orders her, at which Luz shrieks for a second, before she realizes that someone is standing in front of her. A female aquamarine newt with blue hair. She wears a dress that consists of a scale pattern in the upper half, the color of which fades smoothly from yellow to purple, and has a wave pattern in different shades of white in the lower half. Two guards are standing next to her.
After noticing and eyeing Luz, her expression changes from annoyance to surprise.
"Another Human? Interesting…", the newt says, "Normally you would be sent to the dungeons for trespassing in the Royal Library- However, by order of Master Marcy Wu, all humans and their companions are to be taken to her.", Luz's eyes widen as she hears Marcy's name. "However, since Master Marcy is not present at the moment, the two of you will spend the time until then, in one of the guest quarters. Follow me."
Maddie slowly stands up and she and Luz exchange different looks.
"That was not a request!", the newt says in a determined tone. Without saying anything, they both make their way to the newt, with the guards behind them.
"Who are you?", Luz asks.
"My name is Lady Olivia, and I am responsible for everything that happens in and around the palace. Your names are of no interest at this time.", she explains.
"Oh, okay. You just said that Marcy isn't here at the moment-", Luz repeats, but is interrupted by Lady Olivia.
"That's correct. She is currently on an important mission to protect the city and its residents"
"Yeah, I see... We couldn't miss all the statues of her in the city... One question: when is she expected back?", Luz asks.
"She is expected back in up to seven days. However, past experience has shown her ability to complete her quests early. She may even return tomorrow. As a friend of Master Marcy, you may have a better idea of her abilities ...", Luz doesn't reply to that statement and lets her mind merely spin in confusion.
"How did you actually know we were here? I thought everyone here was at the party in town...", Luz wonders.
"Even on an occasion like this, the palace always requires a minimum of staff. Also, all the paintings in the palace hung askew, except for those in front of the Royal Library. I can't explain how you did that, and I don't want to know at the moment either. I actually have more important things to do than taking care of you."
The group walks through the palace for quite a while, before stopping in front of an inconspicuous door, and Lady Olivia turns to Luz and Maddie.
"You will remain in this room for the next few days until Master Marcy returns, and a decision is made on how to deal with this situation. You are not allowed to leave this room. You will be provided with food and drinks on a regular basis. These guards here will be your contacts. If you have any questions, comments, or requests, talk to them. Do you have any questions for me for now?"
Luz and Maddie shake their heads and Lady Olivia opens the door and shoos both girls into the room, before shutting and locking the door behind them.
"Perfect. Have a pleasant stay"
"Okay, that was weird.", Maddie notes after a few seconds of silence.
"Definitely. Say, remember earlier when you told me to better think things through? The painting thing was pretty obvious in retrospect..."
"I was actually thinking more about what she said about Marcy. I don't think she knows that you don't know her at all."
"That's right. She probably doesn't even know that there are four humans in Amphibia... Does this knowledge help us in any way?", Luz wonders.
"I don't think so.", Maddie answers.
"Hmm...What are we going to do in the meantime, while we're waiting here for Marcy? I mean, obviously we can't go to the library anymore..."
"We could experiment with glyphs. If for some reason we need to go invisible again, it would be nice not to have to hold our breath to do so...", Maddie suggests while Luz can't help but giggle at that.
"Alright. What about Iva? Should we tell her we won't be back for a few days?"
"Hmm... I don't want other people to know about her... Maybe tomorrow you can sneak out and fly to her to let her know"
"I like that plan."
Later at night, in a gloomy place:
"My Lord, I have news to report. One of Marcy's friends is already here in Newtopia. I saw her at the festivities today-"
No!
"What do you mean 'No', my lord?"
Heart and Strength have not arrived yet.
"With all due respect, my lord, I saw a human girl earlier today..."
Unknown variable. Negligible. No adjustment of plans necessary.
"I understand."