Into the Maelstrom

Returning through the door to the previous corridor, we now reach the point where the corridor is met by another corridor running toward the south. This corridor is actually an extension of the corridor to the north that leads to the council chamber; however, it is broken by the court.

Following it south, you will first pass, on your left, the [chapel]. This is a chamber intended for use by anyone, residents or visitors, who seeks a place of quiet contemplation or prayer. Like the royal chapel in Koretia, it is filled with foreign aids to prayer, but most often it used for public recitations of law passages by devotees of the Chara and his law. At other times, palace residents may be found here during their breaks from work, quietly reading law books.

Further along, on the left, is the treasury. As you might imagine, this chamber is well guarded, though much of the Chara's wealth is spread across the empire, often in the form of land. The royal treasurer plays an important role in the Emorian government, authorizing payments for the Chara's many projects. He does not take well to attempted bribes.

Further down, again on your left, is the chamber of the Chara's clerk. Behind this unassuming door is one of the largest sets of rooms in the palace, where dozens of scribes prepare the documents that track the workings of Emor's vast bureaucracy. Behind the scribal rooms is a corridor to the Chara's documents room, followed by the actual chamber of the Chara's clerk. If you are tempted to break into either room to steal a document, you might wish to keep in mind that nearly all of the scribes are boys. You may be able to creep past dozens of prankish boys without being detected; I have never managed this.

[Translator's note: Just why a chapel exists in the notoriously nontheistic land of Emor is explained in Law-Lover. To visit the chamber of the Chara's clerk, read Breached Boundaries. To visit the documents room, read Empty Dagger Hand.]