TOOAFP Chapter 107: Prince Arthur’s Tomb (2)

In the deepest, dampest corner of the imperial family's vast underground necropolis — the section reserved for emperors' concubines and the family's more disgraced members — visitors were almost unheard of.

Caretakers stopped by once or twice a month, if that. Today, however, that forgotten wing rang with peculiar sounds.

Screech. Crash.

With a deep, grinding sound, the heavy stone lid of a small sarcophagus toppled and struck the floor.

Archduke Ossilotte, who had been wrestling with it for over an hour, peered into the opened casket with unconcealed delight.

"There! It's here!"

Inside lay the skeletal remains of a child, draped in the scraps of a burial garment long since rotted to near nothing. Whatever damage the body had sustained in death — the records were grim — had long since been reduced to something more neutral by the simple process of becoming bones.

"Prince Arthur — I've come…