Chương 33: The Loophole of Custody

10 minutes after leaving Justinian buried behind his wall of custody slips, Gregor had located a maintenance hatch beside the RP-1 conduit. He was now underneath the polished marble floor of the Office of Royal Authenticity, following the thick brass pipe through a maintenance passage. Behind him, Bart and Thaddeus walked cautiously, their heads ducked beneath the low stone ceiling.

As they moved away from the temporary inspection Annex, the Archive updated the historian's legal status to ensure he remained protected beneath the city streets. AUDIT WITNESS TRANSIT PROTECTION Origin: Office of Royal Authenticity Inspection Annex Approved destination: Royal Private Archive - RP-1 Status: ACTIVE The area around the pipes became less polished underground. While Justinian's office had been a monument to cleanliness, this tunnel was a dirty mechanical artery.

Gregor seemed entirely in his element as he ran his fingers along the brass, noting the subtle inconsistencies. There were newer mounting brackets installed poorly beside ancient ones. There were repaired sections bearing uneven marks. The brass was heavily scratched near junctions, and several smaller offshoot pipes carried destination plaques that did not seem to match the direction of the tunnels. Thaddeus peered at one of the plaques, trying to read it in the dim light.

"The diagram says this line goes to the Ministry of Weights." Gregor glanced at the pipe disappearing in the completely opposite direction.

"The labels lie while the pipe doesn't," confirmed without looking back. He moved efficiently, occasionally checking the temperature of the brass recently used lines ran a slightly warmer from the transit enchantments or studying the angle of a junction. After 5 minutes of silence, Gregor stopped walking and stared into the darkness ahead, then tapped the side of the thick RP-1 pipe.

"Something still bothers me," the thief said.

"What?" Bart asked.

"11, 000 files." Gregor gestured toward the pipe.

"Why keep them?" Bart stopped walking and considered the question.

"What do you mean?."

"If you're the king, and you've already built this enormous golden building to replace the real history with your fake history..." Gregor trailed off, looking at the Royal Historian.

"Why not burn the real one? Why shove it down a secret tube into a hidden basement?" It seemed a very good question to Bart. A crude tyrant would simply burn the evidence, but Thaddeus answered quietly from the shadows.

"Because destroying a sovereign original creates a record." while both Bart and Gregor stared at him. Thaddeus sighed and rubbed his fingers together.

"Under Tremendian archival law, the Original Crown Record Destruction procedure is extremely rigorous. You require a formal destruction warrant, present two departmental witnesses and the king must provide authentication. A permanent destruction notation is entered into the public register, and a mandatory review must be conducted on whatever replacement record is generated."

"Burning the evidence creates evidence that you burned the evidence," Gregor summarised.

"Precisely," said Thaddeus. Bart pulled up the System's historical registration for the hidden archive they were hunting. ROYAL PRIVATE ARCHIVE - RP-1 Registered function: Sovereign Retention Repository Original-record destruction: RESTRICTED Private custodial retention: PERMITTED Custodial transfer authority: ROYAL SEAL Public access obligation: NONE And There it was, Aurelius's loophole.

Don't destroy the truth, the bureaucracy makes destroying things too difficult instead, simply move the truth somewhere nobody is allowed to inspect. It was genuinely clever., Aurelius had weaponised the concept of custody against the concept of transparency. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"So why not change the law and burn them anyway?" Gregor asked.

"He's the king."

"Because His Majesty occasionally needs the originals," Thaddeus said softly.

"Aurelius needs to know what actually happened," Thaddeus explained, his voice echoing faintly in the tunnel.

"If a military officer must be secretly punished, if a tax discrepancy must be investigated, if an old property boundary is contested by a powerful noble, or if a physician needs to be questioned... the fake public history is useless. The government still requires reality to function." Gregor let out a low whistle.

"So the king's official history is too inaccurate for the king to use."

"Most definitely," Thaddeus admitted. Bart pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Destroying the records would have left gaping holes in the state apparatus. Aurelius had done something much more sophisticated. He had created two histories. A public mythology he wanted everyone to believe, and a private, secret working memory containing what actually happened. Bart really disliked that considerably more than a simple book burning which was barbaric.

"Let's keep moving," Bart said. Gregor followed the pipe deeper beneath the city. Eventually, the passage widened, and the thick RP-1 conduit split. 3 identical brass pipes disappeared in three different directions into the stone wall. Thaddeus pulled a crumpled official route diagram from his pocket and squinted at it.

"The plans only show two branches here." Gregor crouched and did not look at the plans. The first two pipes were cold and when he placed a hand against the brass of the third, unlisted pipe it was hotter. It carried the faint vibration of recent traffic. Fresh oil marked one bracket, and the dust beneath it had been disturbed.

"That one," Gregor decided, pointing.

"It isn't on the plans," Thaddeus frowned. Gregor grinned beneath his goggles.

"Exactly." Gregor pointed at the 3rd pipe.

"That seems to go beneath the palace." Bart stared at it for a moment.

"Of course it does."

"Why?"

"Long standing precedent from my world involving plumbers and castles."

"What?" Gregor asked, flummoxed, Bart just said nothing and carried on! They followed the unlisted pipe for another ten minutes, moving deeper beneath the foundation of the royal palace. The tunnel grew colder. Finally, they reached what appeared to be a completely blank, solid stone wall. The brass pipe vanished directly into the rock. There was no door, a handle or an inscription in sight. Bart checked the Archive System.

"The assessment says there is an entrance." Gregor stepped up to the blank stone.

"There is, i can sense it""Where?" He stared at the wall for several long seconds, analysing the subtle mortar lines and the way the shadows fell across the rock. He ran his fingers lightly over a completely unremarkable patch of stone near the floor and pressed something tiny. Click. A large, rectangular section of the solid stone wall swung silently inward. It was a small space that seemed like a lobby. At the end of the lobby stood an imposing black and gold iron door.

A heavy plaque was bolted to the centre of the iron. ROYAL PRIVATE ARCHIVE SOVEREIGN RETENTION REPOSITORY UNAUTHORISED KNOWLEDGE OF CONTENTS PROHIBITED Gregor leaned against the stone wall.

"That's a strange thing to put on a sign." Bart tapped the iron. ON-SITE CUSTODIAL INSPECTION Site eligibility: ESTABLISHED Physical location: VERIFIED Inspection jurisdiction: AVAILABLE Current custodian: King Aurelius IV Activation requirement: Custodial access credential"What kind of credential?" Bart asked bemused.

Credential type: Sovereign Personal Memoranda Index Registered credential volume: The Private Journal of King Aurelius - Original Status: OVERDUE Bart closed his eyes for a moment as he read it aloud.

"Of course" Gregor looked back at the huge door.

"So the book isn't just evidence." No. The book now occupied four separate roles, all of them inconvenient. It was the overdue Archive holding that had caused the lien. It was the primary source needed to complete provenance checks. It was the physical access credential required to open the iron door and it was the index to the Royal Private Archive itself. Thaddeus let out a shaky breath.

"He deliberately indexed the repository through his private journal. The citations... B-67 for the courtyard embarrassment. R-12 for the rain proclamation. He carries the catalogue to the real history of his kingdom with him." It meant nobody could reliably retrieve a hidden document without access to Aurelius's private index. Suddenly, heavy, metallic footsteps echoed approaching through a side passage that did not appear on the plans while a narrow concealed door opened in the tunnel wall.

"GET AWAY FROM THAT DOOR!" King Aurelius's voice roared from the darkness. Gregor stared.

"Ah so this is how he gets here from the palace." Aurelius stepped through, flanked by the royal guards and the mage. The king was flushed, breathing heavily, and looking entirely furious. He was still clutching the leather bound journal tightly against his chest. Bart looked at the journal and back at the locked door. He looked back at his System. CUSTODIAL ACCESS CREDENTIAL DETECTED Bart adjusted his glasses. He turned slowly to face the king.

"Your Majesty," Bart said. Aurelius stopped abruptly and said "No, Still No…" before even Bart could say anything else while hugging the book tighter.