6.44 – Doorways


    When Zoey returned to her room, Delta was waiting inside, sprawled out on her bed, shirt riding up to reveal a hint of her stomach. At the sound of Zoey''s arrival, she sat up, fox ears pointing upward and twitching in a disy Zoey had learned meant excitement—though she could have read that on her face without the help.


    She waved a slip of paper at her even as she finished closing the door. "You better appreciate how much restraint it took."


    "Huh?"


    "You got a gift from our favorite princess."


    Blinking, Zoey walked forward and took the note from Delta. It read, in Rosalie''s handwriting, <em>Closet, underneath the nket. You''ll see it. </em>


    "What''s this?"


    "That''s what I''ve been dying to find out. But it''s a gift for you, or something like that, so I wasn''t gonna barge in and find out myself." She wrinkled her nose and jabbed a finger at her. "But only because I like you. It took a lot of restraint."


    "I like you too," Zoey said, amused. "And thanks. But, a gift? From Rosalie?"


    Zoey was already walking toward the closet, and Delta jumped up to join her. When Zoey opened one of therge double doors to the walk-in room, Delta slipped in first. She bee-lined for the obvious stand-out: the nket-covered object—piece of furniture?—tucked out of the way, which had definitely not been there earlier.


    It was tall, thin, and rectangr, at least by how the fabric was draped across it. Definitely not a typical ''gift'', but then again, Zoey hadn''t expected it to be. Honestly, she didn''t know <em>what</em> to expect, with Rosalie having, with no exnation, deposited some piece of furniture into her closet.


    "Can I?" Delta asked, her hand already gripping the cover nket.


    "Go ahead."


    Without fanfare, the palpably curious foxgirl yanked the covering away, revealing the object underneath.


    It was … a door?


    A wooden door that could be found just about anywhere, distinctly not ornate or grand like the ones in the d''Celestin manor. It was fixed inside a doorframe, not standalone, which made it an even odder sight.


    "Huh?" Delta said. "The heck is this?"


    "Open it."


    She didn''t need to be told twice. She gripped the knob, turned, and pulled the door open.


    Zoey had already had a suspicion of what it would be, so she was only half surprised to see a shimmering ck portal appear, as they would find at a shard entrance.


    "Woah," Delta said. "I''m going in."


    "We should—"


    But she''d already stepped through.


    Zoey sighed, more exasperated than annoyed, and followed after. She sank into the cool liquid. Within a single step, she had arrived somewherepletely different.


    Well. Notpletely. They were still inside the d''Celestin manor, it looked like, just in a new bedroom. One with far less frippery than the one Zoey, Delta, and the others had been staying in. Though still nice, still spacious, clean, and clearly of wealthy construction—onlycking the ostentatiousness.


    Sitting in the corner of the room was Rosalie. She stood as Zoey and Delta arrived, obviously having been waiting for them.


    "Wait," Delta said. "Our rooms are nicer than <em>yours?"</em>


    "Of course," Rosalie said. "You''re in the guest quarters, which is where we host influential parties when they have business in Mantle. We have a reputation to maintain when ites to the presentation of those rooms. But that doesn''t mean <em>we</em> prefer such gaudiness."


    "I … guess that makes sense," Delta said, though she sounded surprised. She looked around Rosalie''s bedroom—as Zoey did—though there weren''t any indicators of it being <em>her </em>room. But that was because she hadn''t grown up here; she was as new to this manor as they themselves were. The implication, though, was that their Haven estate was designed under simr principles. unt their wealth to the dignitaries, but simpler living for themselves.


    Well. ''Simpler.'' It was still a rich person''s room.


    "What''s up with the portal?" Zoey asked. She looked back; behind her, an identical copy of the door stood, a ck void shimmering inside. "I didn''t know you <em>could </em>make portals between ces."


    "A very expensive set of artifacts from one of my father''s shard explorations." She paused. "Or, I assume it came from my father. I took it from the family vault, since I was informed by a certain someone," she gave a dry look to Zoey, "that I would, under no circumstances, be allowed to spend my nights away from her."


    Zoey smiled. Rosalie had worked quickly on that problem. There <em>had </em>been a logistical concern about keeping their secrecy while continuing their rtionship, but portals helped take a few steps toward solving that.


    "Family vault?" Delta asked. "What else is in there?"


    "How''s the door work?" Zoey asked at the same time. "And how expensive is expensive?"


    "Priceless," Rosalie said. "Or rather, rare enough that naming a price would be pure conjecture, or vary wildly on the buyer. It only works for short distances, so it has limited real use." She winced. "Normally I would need to sign out such items, but I smuggled it. Let''s hope he doesn''t notice. I''m not sure if inventories are done on the vault, either. Not that there''s any reason he would be suspicious." She didn''t seem <em>entirely </em>sure of that, but mostly confident.


    How had she smuggled out two entire <em>doors</em>, along with their frames anyway? The answer came quickly: her inventory. Even after so much time in this world, her thoughts didn''t always go to those convenient magical abilities. Hard to shake a lifetime of living in—well, a <em>non-</em>magical world.


    "Vault?" Delta repeated. "With lots of cool artifacts?"


    Rosalie spared an amused look for her. "Yes, Delta. You''ll get to see it eventually, since we''ll be equipping ourselves there before our next shard. Though the usefulness of doing so is dubious, with how often our inventories are robbed. And, to bepletely frank, even the normal items we''re receiving are of extremely high quality, so we might not even need to."


    "Would still be cool to look through."


    Rosalie shrugged. "There''ll be time." She gestured at the portal door. "Close that, please."


    Zoey did so.


    "There''s a cloaking function as well," she said. "Not built in, but I had it arranged. You might have seen it. A small slip of paper attached on the bottom right. You can activate it to make the door go invisible."


    "Really?" Zoey leaned down to see, indeed, that there was a paper with someplex magical form on it. She tentatively reached out and tapped on it—her only intuition—and the door vanished.


    "I didn''t deliver it to you already invisible so you could actually find the thing," Rosalie said. "But you''ll want to keep it hidden, in case someone searches your room." She pursed her lips. "But to be honest, if my father is following us or otherwise spying, then he''ll find out sooner rather thanter—and probably not through us having linked doorways. There''s not much we can do to stop a man of his means."


    "And you don''t think that''ll be a problem?" Delta asked.


    "Whatever reservations you have about him, we trust each other," she said. "I''m poised to inherit his empire, so it would be rather strange if he didn''t. So no. I don''t think he''s spying on me, as it would be a vition of that trust. Or even any of my allies, though I''m … less sure about that. If still mostly sure." She nced at the now invisible door. "None of that is to say we shouldn''t take obvious precautions. Being <em>identally </em>discovered is more than possible."


    "Huh," Zoey said.


    Delta had started walking around Rosalie''s room, peering at the living space. "Anyway," she said, turning around. "It''s kinda funny how quickly you figured out how to smuggle us in. Do I get a door too?"


    "You can use Zoey''s."


    "But then I''ll be seen sneaking away into <em>her </em>room every night. There''ll be rumors."


    Rosalie arched an eyebrow. "He''s aware you two have a rtionship, just not …" she paused. "Us three."


    "Us four," Delta corrected. "Or are we ignoring how happily you had your face between Maddy''s legs, yesterday? Is that something you do with all your friends?"


    Rosalie''s cheeks colored. "That was a matter of shard exploration and team dynamics."


    Delta gave her an impressed look, and Zoeyughed.


    "The walls are soundproofed as well," Rosalie said, choosing to keep talking to move past the rather ridiculous thing she had said. "So we should be … fine. For, you know, whatever."


    That was the wrong thing to follow up with, because Delta only grinned wider.


    "Worried we might be getting loud, huh?" She fluttered her eyshes. "Doing what, pray tell? I thought you just wanted some nighttime cuddles. You aren''t expecting <em>more</em>, are you?"


    Rosalie ignored her. She faced Zoey. "So yes, everything should be sorted. How was your talk with Aria?"


    "Ah," Zoey said.


    She''d been casually checking out the room, but now she went and sat on Rosalie''s bed. The blonde joined her; Delta plopped down next, to the other side of Zoey.


    "Interesting," Zoey said after a few moments.


    Something in Zoey''s tone gave away that they''d discussed more than just her holy energy skill and the temple business, because Rosalie tilted her head. "Is there something you want to talk about?"


    Honestly, yes. Not just because the whole ''breeding'' thing had been on her mind for personal reasons, but because it was something that her girlfriends ought to have some input on too.


    The question was, how did she segue into <em>that </em>conversation?