I shrugged and started forward. "Who knows? The founders could have been a bunch of alcoholics."
"Nora."
I laughed at her offense taken. "I honestly have no clue. Maybe the room was converted after the house was built or they thought it was such an improbable location, no one would look. It's not like the fact that they exist are a secret."
"If the information we're taught is true, it wouldn't matter. Each tunnel is accessible from multiple points—other family homes, the council's chamber... This door doesn't even have a lock."
"Who could get past the Council to reach a founding family's home?"
"It isn't impossible."
"It is still unlikely," I said and paused just long enough to open the arched door and step through. As we descended the dimly lit, winding stairs, I felt Maible's apprehension rise, though she continued to follow me likely only because she was too nervous to go up alone. "It gets better."
"It feels like we are heading into a dungeon." Maible sneezed, then sniffled. "Musty."
"Yeah. That's what I felt when I went exploring," I said and fought a shiver from the memory of the cells. "It probably was at some point."
"Why do you say that?"
"We reached the gray dirt landing that had an alcove behind the stairs with only a wood frame entry. I glanced at Maible, then entere3d the massive open-layout room beyond. If Maible hadn't want to backtrack alone, I assumed she wouldn't want to stay at the landing in solitude. My suspicion was confirmed when I heard her suck in a breath behind me.
"There are actually cells down here?" Maible asked, her voice high-pitched. "Like for actual prisoners?"
"Isn't that their purpose?"
"Yeah, but... We live here."
"The founding families lived in the tunnels. They had to have had some form of punishment. Being locked up is better than being stripped of abilities or death."
"It seems wrong now."
"I'm sure they no longer get used." I stopped at the table in the middle of the room and glanced up to see the two cells on the left.
A wave of dizziness hit me. I swayed and reached out, catching the edge of one of the three tables arranged in a semi-circle to balance myself. In a blink, the surroundings changed. Maible disappeared. The cells became larger and duplicated to four, and became occupied, not with past prisoners but my friends. Maible, Islene, Calin, Nancy and her parents, Julian. Each pounded against the bars, growing old until they fell to the floor and died.
"Are you okay?" Maible put her hand on my shoulder. "Nora?"
"Huh?" I shook my head and looked at Maible, my eyes briefly straying past her to the two tunnels on the right-hand side of the too-large room. "I'm sorry. They, uh... freak me out. The cells, I mean."
Maible dropped her hand. "Oh, I get it." She stepped away and turned in a circle. "This isn't somewhere I'd be able to get comfortable. I'd be too creeped out to even try practicing magic down here, which is exactly what it seems set up for."
"I'm scared of rats and those cells."
"The tunnels are cool."
"I figured you'd like it down here because of the history," I said, eyeing the work tables without being obvious.
"So? What do you think the tunnels lead to?"
I moved my gaze away, back to Maible, and then the tunnels. "I don't know. Let's go—Ah!"