Here's one of your two bonus chapters! I'll just post these right now instead of waiting, I guess. I hope you enjoy it! Comment, vote, and I'll see you in the next one!

The Palace of Secrets lived up to its name. As the royals' trust in me grew, they started to reveal some of their secrets. I was finding secret passageways in the palace everywhere, to my delight. It was a pleasant distraction from the monotony of studying and my classes.

When I was twelve or so, I found a hall beneath the throne room. When I came out the other end of the passage, I appeared behind the thrones— which my parents were currently occupying. They were speaking to Hutchins, and thankfully not a foreign ambassador or whatnot. I was usually forbidden from seeing them, not that I had the time, anyway.

They looked down and spotted me, probably because I was struggling to pry open the trapdoor.

Mother glanced back at me, and my face heated up. I was sure that she could see my embarrassment even underneath the heavy layers of makeup and face paint. I was going to be in huge trouble—

But she merely nodded at me, and Father looked over as well. He didn't lift an eyebrow, raise his voice, or show any signs of disappointment as he said, "The trapdoor sounds a bit rusted, Hutchins. And Harumi." His voice was firm and emotionless as usual, and my hand shook as I clung to the ladder. He spoke my name like a statement, though he might as well have been asking me what I was doing down there in those two words.

"Yes, Father?" I whispered, my voice cracking against my will.

"Is everything in order down there? I haven't been there for ages," he added wistfully. "No crumbling walls, rats, anything?" he asked. I shook my head, astounded.

They weren't mad? I wasn't going to be punished?

"Check the leftmost library ladder, pull the topmost rung upwards and to the left. Let me know if it's still functional and safe." With that, Father turned back around and continued his talk with Mother and Hutchins.

So I found the library passage and many more. The way to get in and out were rather similar, and not very difficult to break into. Some had locks, but I easily learned how to pick them. The secret passageways, nooks, and storm shelters were just the start of my parents' secrets.

Most importantly they began telling me about things I had never heard of before, such as the Oni Masks. To be fair, as the princess, I knew the full and complete history of Ninjago. The Oni Masks were never mentioned, so I never really had to know about them.

One day the Emperor showed me the Oni Mask of Deception. It was showcased in a glass box, which I noticed was locked with a simple three-number padlock.

"Ugh," I muttered. "Only a face a mother could love."

The mask was an earthy orange, two spiraled storm-grey horns sharper than Hutchin's katanas. The expression on the face was a cruel smile, fangs protruding from its lip, and each feature was in high definition.

For a second, I thought the face changed, but it was exactly the same. It was just deceiving my mind- a clever illusion, I realized, upon moving around the glass to get a better look at the mask. It was like one of those 3-D pictures with the ridges, and when you rubbed your nails across it, it made a weird squeaky noise like a record scratch? Yes, that one. I got in trouble for that because I was ruining my nails.

Well, the mask was like that, except the surface was smooth and matte, not showing any fingerprints or blemishes on it. The face jeered at me from behind the mask, and it bothered me.

"Do not underestimate the Mask of Deception. It is a powerful relic, with magic even I cannot fathom." Father glanced at me, rather judgmentally, and I whispered, "Sorry, Father."

He went on to tell me about the other two Oni Masks. "We don't know the locations of the other masks," he told me, "especially to the third one. Very few alive know of these masks, and none know of all three masks' locations. You are to guard this with your life and never tell a single soul."

Something about the Mask bothered me. It was repulsing me, but at the same time pulling me to it. It was intriguing. When I asked my mentor what their powers were, he said, "They each have a different ability, Princess. These abilities are unknown, just like their different locations. There is a reason they are kept apart- alone, they are dangerous. But when they were together, they were just about indestructible. They must never be reunited. But you need not worry yourself over this."

My mental gears were spinning. Being dangerous sounded pretty good to me, with the bonus of indestructibility. "Well, it's not like I ever want to reunite them, Hutchins," I lied. "Imagine the destruction and chaos they will bring!"

Hutchins grimly nodded and left the room, probably to polish his helmet or something. 'Course, he didn't catch the fact that I said "will bring". If he did, well... I wouldn't be here today. Let's just put it that way.

With that little bit of information, I began to plan the future of Ninjago, but it wasn't exactly the picture-perfect future my parents may have dreamed. For one, they weren't in it.

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The story of the Oni Masks was inspiring, in a way. I had learned to admire and respect history over the years, and the fact that the three powerful masks remained hidden for hundreds and hundreds of years was astounding.

Once Father showed it to me, he kept the mask in plain sight, which happened to be on the glass podium. The ancient showroom was near my sleeping quarters, and I got to look at its beautiful face every single day.

I could almost feel a surrounding shield around the Mask of Deception. After Father showed it to me and Hutchins explained more about them, something about the mask changed. If I went too close to it, I started feeling dizzy. Hutchins and the Emperor didn't seem to have an issue nearing it, though, and I started to believe that there was a reason why the mask was choosing to do this to me.