The platform dropped her even lower, into a massive cavern of a room. In the center was a much larger platform, and suspended high in the air was what she suspected was Elroy's atelier, at long last. He'd certainly given her a runaround to get this far.

Stepping onto the familiar green marble, she walked towards the center where there was an indentation that perfectly matched the key. She retrieved it from her pouch, kneeling so she could slot it into place with a satisfying click. It glowed brightly before sinking down and vanishing into the flooring.

There was a moment of quiet creaking overhead, and she looked up to find the bottom of the strange atelier had detached into a small triangular platform that lowered to the ground. She waited until it stopped moving to step onto it, finding herself being carried up into the atelier.

The building's construction was strange. She'd seen a diamond-like shape from the outside, but somehow she'd been expecting something a little more... normal, on the inside. Far from, three sets of steep stairs climbed the sides leading up to actual rooms. It wasn't the worst thing to explore, especially after the mazes, but it wasn't very practical. Then again, a lot of the older magicians were as driven by aesthetics as practicality, possibly more so.

The first room had wide, old wood desks taking up most of the space, bright columns of illuminated crystal providing light in the corners. It was almost entirely empty, but for a small bookshelf and a single item sitting on the far end of the desk. She approached to get a better look, examining it closely. It was some sort of tiara, though too small for her to wear, which was a shame; it was a stunning piece, gold with a ringing of amethysts and pearl at the top. As if she needed any help deciding whether or not to take it, there was a vague sense of enchantment to it; odds were good it had some use. She tucked it away in her pack, checked around and under the desks, then went back to the bookshelf. It was hard to say what Klaus would find important, and she couldn't read the centuries-old language anyway. She grabbed up some of the papers on the desk and called it good, leaving the room to investigate the next.

There was another set of wooden desks, as well as some scattered tools, but one thing caught her eye immediately – there was an ornate golden cube sitting out on one of the desks, practically radiating magic. She had no idea what it was or how to use it, but it was unquestionably important to take back.

Unfortunately, it took up enough room in her pack that she had to tie the tiara to her belt instead of being able to carry both in there. Still, it was secure enough to leave it be.

The last room appeared to be some sort of meditation chamber, with a pillar of energy flowing up through the center of the room. She didn't get too close to it, not wanting to press her luck with an unknown energy, but it was impressive. But there wasn't anything else for her to take, so she made a quick circuit around the room to get one more look at it before leaving back to the middle. There didn't seem anything else to get, unless some of those books were actually important. Klaus could always send her back if they were, she knew the way now.

The bottom of the atelier detached once more with a little stomping encouragement, going down to let her out again. Now all she had to do was collect Rue and get them out of here and back to Klaus. Piece of cake.

Only someone was waiting for her. A familiar lean figure in the East Heaven silks, smirking faintly. "Hello, Mint."

Mint's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the older woman. "Belle. Haven't seen you since I threw you out of the inn last year."

Belle's smirk hardened. "You would remember it that way. It doesn't matter now. We're not confined by polite society here."

"Milady, if you'll allow me, I'll take her on myself," Duke said, stepping in front of her. "I'll make her tell us everything she knows about the [relic]."

"Oh, you two think you're gonna get the [relic] from me?" Mint said. "That's cute. You're welcome to try."

"You don't stand a chance against his acts," Belle said.

"Scared to face me yourself?" Mint asked. "I guess you are getting awful old to be fighting a young thing like me."

"Old?" Belle snarled, fire curling into a ball in her palm. "I'll beat you myself."

"You're welcome to try." Mint bowed, swinging her hoops up. Magic came to her call effortlessly, energy tingling warmly through her arms down to her fingertips, a brilliant golden glow gleaming off her hoops as they began to spin.

Belle smirked, waving a hand, and was promptly surrounded by balls of energy, each easily the size of a melon, spinning in a ring around her so fast they almost blurred. She'd always preferred straight energy manipulation, where Mint had leaned heavily into elemental arts. They'd sparred some, in training. But never like this. Mint had never lost, never had anything to lose before, and she didn't plan to start now.

Mint's hoops gleamed in the odd light of the cavern and she reached, feeling a prickle of heat moments before fire streamed from her outstretched hands. It was deflected by Belle's barrier, the energy balls sending off arcs of power to block her attack, but she'd expected that. It was still worth checking.

"Gonna need more than that, your highness," Belle taunted. She flung out a hand, light coalescing into a gleaming amber diamond that hurtled towards her through the air. When Mint dodged, she smirked faintly. "Agile as ever. Still not enough to save you."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself, Belle." Mint grinned, feeling a rush of adrenaline. Sure, the guardians had been intense fights, but they were just mindless, hyper focused beasts. This? This could be good, even if Belle didn't really have a chance to take her down. It would be a nice chance to work herself out some.

They circled each other a bit, seeing if there were any clear weaknesses to exploit. Anything overlooked. But it hadn't been so long that they'd forgotten what it was like to face each other, that they didn't know what to guard against. They were both predictable, in their own ways.

Which meant Mint just had to think outside the box. Belle was expecting a ranged stand-off, pure magic. And against anyone else, Mint might well have stuck to that, aiming to overpower them. But even if she was a less accomplished mage, Belle had power. And outdoing her that way would leave Mint tired, and vulnerable to any monsters she ran across later. Even assuming Rue would be recovered and ready to help, that simply wouldn't do. So another angle was needed.

Mint switched up to flashier energy attacks, slowly circling closer with each pass, taking advantage of her superior speed to fire off lots of rapid little attacks – not enough to take her out, by any means, annoyances more than anything. But she wasn't trying that, that wasn't the goal at all. What she needed was a distraction. Because as soon as she got closer enough, Mint charged.

Surprise flashed across Belle's face, and she jerked back, avoiding the flying kick but not the swing of her hoops. Sure, they were for focusing her magic, but they were still very solid, decently weighted pieces, and getting struck across the face and neck was enough to send anyone staggering. Concentration broken by her shock, her shield flickered, and Mint took immediate advantage to get closer, slamming her down to the ground. They grappled a moment before Belle managed to kick her off. Mint retaliated with a spray of fireballs, barely blocked in time by her renewed energy shield. "How do you like that?"

"You're something else," Belle admitted, standing up stiffly. But she was grinning, a smug look that didn't make any sense.

"I'm winning," Mint retorted. "You don't have anything to smile about."

"Don't I? Sure, you're strong. I'll be feeling that for a while," Belle conceded. "But you're as careless as ever."

Mint's eyes went wide as Belle held out a hand, the tiara dangling from her fingertips. "Hey, that's mine!"

"Not anymore it's not." Belle grinned, spinning it slowly, the headpiece twinkling in the light cast by her energy.

Mint snarled and rushed her again, grabbing for it, but Belle moved too fast, back over to Duke. "Give it back!"

"Not a chance, Princess." Belle chuckled. "We'll play later and see who gets to keep what. Because I imagine you need this, don't you? It's a nice bit of leverage."

"Like hell it is, I'll beat you to a bloody pulp and take it back!" Mint growled.

"Sure you will." She looked entirely too pleased with herself. "But not today. Let's go, Duke."

"Yes, Milady." He smiled faintly, inclining his head, and they both moved back to the access platform, taking it back out and leaving Mint to wait for it to come back down. They'd be long gone by the time she got up.

Seething, she waited for the platform to return, and stormed back out. Distracted by indignant fury, she almost didn't recognize the ominous tingle of magic. But there was no overlooking the furious screeching from the guardian. She'd assumed it was dead, but realistically you couldn't kill something that wasn't properly alive. She'd just beaten it, possibly – temporarily – run down the magic it was running on. But it had clearly had enough time to recover, and it was coming for her.

She was not going to stop and fight the damn thing again, taking off at a run back towards the hall where she'd left Rue. But it chased her, fireballs zooming past her, close enough to feel the heat as she zigzagged in an attempt to keep it from locking onto her. It was too dumb for pattern recognition, simply aiming wherever she was when it loosed each blast, instead of aiming ahead to where she was going to be. Which was fine with her, she did not want to take one of those blows head on.

She kept going, running as fast as she could, but it was starting to gain ground on her. She could tell just from hearing it, and how much closer the attacks were coming, having less distance to cross. Something like panic gripped her chest with icy fingers and she debated stopping and grabbing at her hoops to fight it back. But the path was narrower, there wasn't room to evade it in an all-out fight, not here. Her mind raced, trying to figure out what to do, how to fight, or at least get away, and she was coming up blank again and again, with no choice –

"Mint, duck!"

She hit the ground, feeling something go flying by, then hearing a horrible, keening cry from behind her. She wanted to look back, but she didn't move, staying pressed to the floor as she heard a series of impacts, followed by the loud clatter of the guardian collapsing on itself, the oppressive weight of the possessive magic fading to a low thrum.

"It's safe, now," Rue said, boots quiet on stone as he returned to offer her a hand up.

Mint heaved a sigh of relief, getting up. "Great. Thanks."

He nodded, smiling faintly. "Of course. That was the guardian?"

"Yeah. Jerk can't stay down long," she said. "We ought to get out of here."

"You found Grand Magician Elroy's atelier and got things, then?" He checked.

"Yeah, piece of cake." She nodded. "I ran into Belle and Duke, though, and that hag stole something from me. Hopefully we won't need it, but they'll be around trying to get more from me so we can always track them down and steal it back."

Rue nodded. "Later, then. For now... let's get out of here."

She nodded, startling a little when he swayed. "Hey, you alright?"

"A little unsteady, still," he said, blinking slowly and shaking his head. "I'll be fine, I just need a little more time to heal."

"Guess it's a good thing it didn't take any sort of accuracy to hack away at that big a target," Mint said dryly. "Come on, let's get you out of here."