Arabella's worries all evaporated the instant her feet had crossed the threshold of the map room.
The shelves tracing and adhering to the cylindrical walls, almost reaching the ceiling, enclosed everything at the very center, and were stacked with thousands of long, rolled up papers.
The chronological order in which the maps had been arranged was more than clear as the age of a map was closely tied to the color of the special paper utilized; the darker the shade, the older was the map.
That was common knowledge to every cartographer or historian worth their golden stripes.
Arabella was neither but was well aware of the phenomenon.
Her eyes then fluttered towards the three, lone objects separating the shelves from each other; the three enormous silver globes that stood by the walls, at ninety degrees apart from each other, upon which detailed renders of the world they ambled were embossed in various styles.
She neared one of the spheres and lay a hand on its shell before giving it a gentle push to spin the body in the slowest pace possible. The young woman took her sweet time sweeping every inch of that place with those beautiful gemstones on her.
The next thing that had whisked her attention was the crowded desk at the heart of the room. One map on top of another, they were sprawled all over the wooden surface, paper spilling over the edges as it failed to contain all of them.
A geological map lay beneath a navigational map which, in turn, hid behind a physical one, but on the very top, a chart of a familiar place rested, fresh ink marking a precise point on it.
"Does geography incite predilection just as much as history does in you?"
Arabella had been so consumed by the treasures held in that room, even the creaking of the door as it opened had escaped her.
Silas' voice had jostled her out of the fantasy, "Oh!" she straightened her stance and faced him, "I am aware that history and geography often go hand in hand however, my love for one far surpasses the other," she cleared her throat, "A book in hand is much easier to justify than a map, I suppose,"
"I can imagine," hands behind his back, he approached the desk and Arabella by the same occasion.
While Arabella paid no mind to the radiant beam adorning her visage, it had been the first thing that Silas' eyes fell upon the moment he'd walked through the door.
Though it had dimmed down a notch once she realized the room included him too.
"Can you read maps?" he asked.
"I can tell their different types apart, but I am less confident of my ability to read them," she grimaced a smile, glancing at one of the maps on the desk.
"And do you have the slightest idea as to why I have summoned you here?"
"Well…," She bit on her bottom lip and turned towards the table, "Based on the map crowning the rest, I can only assume you have more questions about the tunnels…," she half asked before trailing off at the end.
"Correct," he walked even closer to her and was alleviated to note she hadn't taken any steps away from him, "You've mentioned that a number of tunnels lay forgotten or perhaps omitted on purpose,"
The young woman merely nodded.
"Well, I'd like you to mark the tunnels that weren't accounted for in the history logs back in Lustris," he paused before adding, "Those you recall, of course,"
She smiled faintly and nodded again, "That I can do," Arabella then turned towards the maps once more, "In fact, I remember quite a few tunnels that had caught my attention, but I'd eventually had to discard them due to the long distance between their exit and your property,"
Arabella lifted the map of the Eleazar property first, "May I have a map of the entirety of Umbraria, please?"
"One is right beneath the one you've picked," he said.
The moment her eyes had fallen on the paper, the features translating her state of mind relaxed. The heart beating in her chest also slowed to match her outlook.
"Once I had added the number of tunnels mentioned in the history books together, I'd found that there were at least 211 tracts leading from Lustris to Umbraria, but upon checking the history logs, only about 187 were sealed," she moved the map to point at a specific point on it, "For example, besides the tunnel near your property there's a tunnel south of KasselMonn,"
"That one has been discovered and sealed during the war," said Silas.
"One of them has been found and sealed," Arabella put emphasis on the word "one" as she spoke, "See, the book I read claimed that KasselMoon, more notably the southern side of it, had been such an active war zone, and a quite fervent one at that… That one of the commanders came up with the idea to dig two tunnels and let one be more visible than the other with the goal of thwarting the enemy by instilling a false sense of security in them as once they discover the first, they'd move on to a different area in search for more," only at the end of her sentence did she remember to breathe. After a deep inhale, Arabella continued, "Thus only one was marked sealed in the ledgers while the second appears on the map right next to the first,"
Static in place, Silas merely watched as Arabella picked the quill and dipped it into the ink jar before gracefully marking the tunnel she'd spoken about.
The vampire said nothing, allowing her to go on branding the potential pits one at a time on the sheet of paper before her at distinct points.