The group spent the next hour carefully exploring the first floor of the manor. The children were gleefully running around and Sunny was taking inventory of the kitchens. Meanwhile, Howard and Catherine were going from room to room using a laser measure and notepad to find any voids in the walls large enough for a hidden room.

After they found one such void between the library and the morning room, the duo located a closet with a false back. However, the cobwebs made it painfully obvious that they had not used the small room for quite some time. Besides, it turned out that most of the area was filled up by the backs of two enormous fireplaces and their chimneys.

"Well, that was disappointing," Howard groused.

"That's not to say that the room isn't usable for storage," Catherine noted. "Although it would become quite warm if both fireplaces were lit at the same time."

"I doubt that would happen since the manor has central air conditioning and heating," Howard noted. "Besides, the fireplaces were all changed over to natural gas a long time ago."

It turned out that there were no other large voids on the first floor, despite their best efforts to locate one.

"Well, that leaves two other floors and a cellar," Howard reported. "But I am tired and famished."

"Do you want to take a break?" Catherine asked.

In response, Howard shook his head and pulled a tiny vial out of his breast pocket. After checking the color of the glass flask's cap, he quickly opened and drank the contents of the small bottle.

"What was that?" Catherine asked.

"Thinblood," Howard reported in a husky voice.

"You sure you don't want to use Fledgeling?" the Lady asked. "We still have a lot of rooms to explore."

"No, the last thing I want is to look any younger than I already do," he explained. "Even drinking the Thinblood tonic I will lose a few months. As it is, I look half my natural age."

"Well, it's not like you walk around advertising that you are in your sixties."

"True."

----

After taking the tonic, the two proceeded to the second floor. Working much more quickly than before, they measured all ten bedrooms, including the master suite, in thirty minutes. Yet again, they were disappointed with their results. While there were many minor discrepancies where small cubbyholes might eventually be found, there was nothing large enough to house an alchemical laboratory.

"Now it's time for the servants' quarters and attics," Howard announced before heading up the Northernmost ornate stairway.

Things progressed a little differently this time from Howard's first tour of the premises. Before, the bedrooms had still been occupied. Now all the servants had moved out of the building. Thus, they could tour each of the rooms individually.

All the bedrooms were extremely clean with their doors open and unlocked. However, one particular room had been locked, whilst all the others had been unlocked. Howard was immediately suspicious that something was amiss.

After unlocking the door with the Manor's master key, They proceeded inside. Like the other servants' quarters, the room was simple, containing little more than a single bed, a nightstand, and a highboy dresser. There was also another doorway at the far end of the room, which presumably led to a closet like it did in the other bedrooms.

"I wonder why this room was locked and unused," Howard remarked.

"If you remember one room had two single beds in it, so why didn't they simply house one of those servants in here?" Catherine remarked. "There must be some reason they did not use this room."

"Then let's take a closer look then."

Howard immediately went over to the closet door and went to open it. Much to his surprise it too was locked.

"That's odd. Did any of the other bedrooms have a lock on their closet doors?"

"No, they didn't," came Catherine's prompt reply.

Howard went to open the door only to find out that the "master" key did not work.

"Well, I think we may be on to something," Howard commented as he once again broke out his lock picks for the second time that evening.

"I will do a quick scan for magic while you try to pick the lock," Catherine announced as she put her hand against the nondescript door. "Howard, this is a steel door."

"Why is there a steel closet door in the servant's quarters? This keeps getting weirder and weirder."

"Well, there is no trace of magic at least," Catherine announced.

After about ten minutes of unsuccessfully trying to pick the lock, Howard finally admitted, "I can't unlock it. It's a top-quality lock."

"Move aside, I have this," the Lady announced.

"Don't rip it off its hinges," Howard protested.

"I won't."

With that, the young woman grabbed the doorknob with one dainty hand and turned it, although it was still locked. There was a loud "pinging" sound followed by a click as she disengaged the lock.

"See, that was a lot quicker than calling a locksmith. Besides, it would be daylight by the time one got here and opened the door. Plus, who knows what we will find in there?"

"True," Howard admitted. "Let's take a look."

With that, the duo slowly opened the door only to find the inside of an empty closet.

----

"Another false back?" Howard asked.

"Probably," Catherine responded as she began rapping on the walls inside the closet. Almost immediately, a hollow sound could be heard, indicating the presence of a secret door.

"Now, let's search for the door release," Howard said.

"Sunrise is only a couple of hours from now," Catherine pointed out. "Do you really want to spend time looking for the door release when we could instead use that time exploring the laboratory once we locate it?"

After a few moments' thought, Howard said, "You have a point. Just try to be neat about it."

"Of course."

Lady Catherine cocked her dainty hand back and shoved her fist through the door to the secret room. After repeating this process a dozen times, the way stood open.

A little of the outer room's light filtered through the demolished doorway, dimly illuminating the interior of the secret room. However, neither Howard nor Catherine had any trouble seeing as they walked into what had to be the long-lost alchemical laboratory.

----

"It is larger than I expected," Howard observed. In truth, it ran the entire width of the third floor.

"I want to know how he managed to get to the servants' rooms often enough to use the laboratory, considering where it is located," Catherine said.

"Oh, that's quite simple," Howard responded. "I am sure that the attendants had set times they gathered in the servants' hall for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All he had to do was to enter at breakfast and leave at lunch. After all, he could take his meals whenever he desired, and the servants had to rearrange their schedules around his."

"So that's how it works during the daytime. I knew they all dined in the servants' hall, but I didn't know about the mealtimes," Catherine admitted.

"You learn something new every night," Howard said with a smile. Then he proceeded to look for a light switch so that he could see things in the dark room in greater detail. It only took him a moment to find such a switch. Moments later, the room was flooded with light from lamps scattered around the chamber.

"Now this room is what I call a mess," Catherine admitted as she looked around.

At a glance, it was easy for Howard to see what she meant. There were books scattered around the room in disarray, despite the fact that there were empty bookshelves around the perimeter of the room.

"You can tell that Mr. Wiltshire didn't let the servants clean up in here," Howard said. "I think his butler Olson would have had a heart attack if he saw the state of this room."

As he was glancing around the untidy room, he caught sight of an alchemical sigil scrawled in chalk in one corner of the room. It consisted of a five-pointed star enclosed in a pair of concentric circles. The area between the circles was also scrawled in chalk, but the alphabet used looked nothing like runes, or Enochian, or any alphabet with which Howard was acquainted.

As he approached the sigil, he could feel a strong feeling of magical force. It was as if the outer circle of the pair contained an immense amount of concentrated mana. As he approached, the sigil began to glow a bright blue. Then a figure, as transparent as a hologram, formed in the inner circle. While definitely human and male, the features were too transparent to make out the figure's identity.

"Father? Have you finally returned?" it asked in a voice still familiar from their days as teenagers and young adults.

"Nathan!?" Howard whispered. "By the gods, Mr. Wiltshire. What have you done?"