I had to abandon the rabbit tacos.
Can you blame a girl? The diary of Andrea Donatella was in my hands, and it appeared to be locked. On the metal frame that stopped me from opening it was a weird set of squiggles and patterns arranged in a circle. A magic circle, if I had to guess. So, I did the logical thing to do in the late hours of this night.
“Sir! Are you in there?”
“W-who is it!?” The voice of the recluse crackled out of the room with an intense rage. He yawned as the sounds of his feet shuffling closer to the door made his position clear.
I sighed and apologized to him in my head. I understood that I wasn’t being very kind with my timing, but this was something that required hasty attention. With the book in my hand, I considered my next words carefully. There were many different ways this could go, and some of them were not desirable to me.
The first option would be to slowly lead him to the reveal. Who knew how he might react to me directly mentioning Donatella’s name? The last time I had pressed him on the woman, he had gone silent. I did not want that to repeat. The issue with that formula was that the man was already angry. Treating him like he was a child would only anger him more.
The second option was to ask him for help, and then let him see the name of Andrea Donatella himself. But that risked him never returning it to me. I would need to strike this deal as equals if I wanted to know what was inside this thing. If I just gave it to him without stating its importance, I would be the one at a disadvantage.
“Are you going to speak up or not!?”
“Sorry, yeah!” The realization that the thinking had been going on in real time hit me with a rude callout. “Look, I found something in that burnt room right above yours, but it appears to be locked. There’s some…magic circle on it. Can you help me unlock it?”
“The Meeting Room? What did you get?”
Meeting Room? That burnt wasteland of a room that looked like someone had had a massive fight, there was a place for people to sit down and talk? Forgive me if I couldn’t see the resemblance. There was a bit too much soot involved for my taste.
“It’s a diary, but as I said, it’s locked with a magic circle. Can you help me unlock it, or not?”
“A Magic Conduit is what it is.” The man replied in his trademark rasp. “Don’t use that amateurish diminutive term. And yes, of course I can unlock it. It’s Andrea’s diary, isn’t it?”
Well, that was easier than expected. The man already knew what I found. That begged the question of how, but I let it slide for now. Getting to know what was written in this was of the utmost importance right now. Maybe I could get some clues about what was truly going on here.
“Y-yeah. Didn’t know about the entire Conduit, Circle, whatever thing. That’s my mistake. How long do you think it will take?”
The door swung open just a little, creaking to a halt after a while. With enough space to let the book through, he placed his hand on the other side.
“I don’t know how long, but not too long. Andrea was not particularly good at Conduits, so it is probably childish work at best. Come back tomorrow morn-…NO!”
Something brushed past my feet. A black, fluffy cloud that had escaped from Room 001 stopped at the end of the corridor and looked back. A cute little cat with the most beautiful, royal black fur stared back at me with large eyes and a pitiful face. Then, with a little mew, it ran out into the Ground Floor and disappeared.
“G-get him back…” The recluse whispered, taking the book and closing the door. “Please? Do it for me, and I’ll try to get this done faster than the morning. I’ll even come to your room myself to deliver it, alright? Just go and bring him back.”
“Uh, ok.” I looked out towards the Lobby, wondering how long it would take to even find that thing in such a massive building. “I didn’t know you had a cat in there with you. Is that who was dropping all of that glass?”
“What glass?!” He asked. “He is well-behaved and doesn’t break any glass. Now, just go and get him. Be quick about it.”
With that, he went silent once more. Had the glass thing been last loop? That was probably the case. It made sense, I think. This time, I had only really talked to this man once in the morning yesterday. That was when he had first told me Andrea’s name. Now, he was helping me unlock her diary.
Time moved fast when you had so much of it at your disposal.
Turning to find the little critter, I took off. The most obvious places were ruled off first. He was not the Kitchen or the Bar and Restaurant. He could not have been in the washrooms or the Innkeeper’s Room because the doors to those were closed. Thus, I decided to check out the Lobby first.
There, however, the only person I found was Old Man Dom. He had come down from his room with the empty trays and plate in his hands, and a wide smile on his face.
“Why, hello, innkeeper.” He remarked. “The food was fantastic, I must repeat. But I sorely missed that performance of yours. What happened?”
“Oh, uh…just some work. I am so sorry about that, sir. I hope you understand. Have you seen a cat?”
“Don’t worry about it, young lady. I understand. You are the innkeeper, so you’ve always got work around here. Also, what cat? We have a cat in this place? Please, please keep it away from me. I am deathly afraid of those things!”
“Ah, well, sure!” I smiled and nodded. “You got it. No cats near Room 102, as requested. You can leave the plates on the, uh, the…platform. Just leave it anywhere, and I’ll take care of it. Have a good sleep, yeah?”
Waving him a good night, I walked past the man and to the stairs. If the cat had been in the Lobby, he probably would have freaked out about it. That meant that he wasn’t here either. The furball had already somehow made his way to the upper floors. Who knew how much further he would go before I was finally able to find him?
Running up the stairs, I reached the First Floor, only to find Poltrick Gregson standing in front of his room with his hand on his head.
“Innkeeper!” The dwarf called out to me. “What was that damned noise, eh? I didn’t know you allowed such an abysmal racket to go on at times like these. It’s scared my sleep off!”
“N-nothing major. It’s an old place, you see, so it tends to groan here and there. Don’t worry about it, Gregson. It won’t happen again. Anyway, you seen a cat around here?”
“Cat?!” He asked, wide-eyed. “That’s what was causing the mess, wasn’t it? Running around unsupervised, for sure. Who brought that cat in? I…I’ll find it. I’ll take the thing and make sure it does not get out of my room. In fact, I’ll keep an eye on that cute…no, I mean…devilish thing!”
I paused and waited for him to continue. The two of us stood there for a minute, staring at each other with blank expressions until Poltrick cleared his throat and looked away. He could try his best, but he clearly could not contain his excitement at the mere presence of a cat. That was when I decided that under no circumstances could the black ball of joy end up in this dwarf’s hands.
“No, Gregson,” I assured him. “I think it will be fine. You really should get some sleep. I insist.”
“Nay. I’ll look for it. I’ll help you, innkeeper. Come on, let’s look for it together, and then I’ll take it off your hands. Too much trouble, clearly.”
“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll be fine. Not all that troublesome, really.”
“Ay. I don’t believe that at all. Please, let me he-”
“I said…!” I raised my voice and pointed at his room. “Go back to your room, Gregson! I’ll take the cat, and I don’t need help. Got it? Don’t trouble the other guests at such a late hour.”
“Oh.” The dwarf went silent and almost shrank down in a slight shame. “Sorry, innkeeper. I didn’t mean to be like that. But you could’ve been kind. What’s wrong with kids these days? No respect for other people. No kindness and understanding in their hearts…”
“Yeah, right.”
I ignored the dwarf from then on and checked the rest of the First Floor. He was not in the Meeting Room, and he wasn’t in the other parts of the corridor either. Moving all the way to Room 103, I tried my best not to make too much noise there. Once all of those places had been checked, I returned to the Garden.
To my surprise, Poltrick had actually been nice enough to go back to his room and leave me alone. That was a small victory on its own. Even if this was all going to reset in the next loop, I was happy to have some peace this time around. Going up the spiral stairs, I headed to the Second Floor once the First Floor had been thoroughly checked.
There, once I made my way to the top, I stepped out into the main corridor, only to find someone I really didn’t want to see.
“You!”
“Who…wah!”
Grabbing one of the torches off the wall, I walked up to the singular twin standing in front of Room 202. Pushing the flame close to his face, I checked his eyes to note that the irises were pitch black.
“Trev, is it?” I put the torch back down. “I really wasn’t in the mood earlier, but explain yourself. What were you doing in Nathan and Fera’s room? Also, have you seen a black cat?”
“If you’re talking about the metaphorical black cat of misfortune, then I see one in front of my eyes right now!”
“You want your legs broken!?” I snarled. “What’s wrong with them? Why aren’t they opening their doors, and why are they not coming down to eat?”
“Look, I…” He muttered and stuttered his way through his words as he did. “I don’t know, alright? It’s really not my place to be speaking about any of that. I’m just a pawn of a pawn of a…knight. It’s complicated to explain, innkeeper, but I’m trying my best. My brother’s gonna kinda kill me if I say anything. Also, are you serious about the cat?”
“A pawn of a pawn of a knight? What is that even supposed to mean? You’re trying to waste my time, aren’t you? I swear to Don, I will do things to you that you will not like very much. And yes, I am serious about the cat. It’s run out, and I don’t know where it is.”
“Well, to be completely honest, innkeeper.” Trev closed his eyes and raised his hands. “I might not actually dislike whatever you’re planning. Anyway, the cat is clearly upstairs. Can you not hear it?”
“I’m actually going to kill you. Never say those things again. Also, don’t try to get out of this with false promises. You heard nothing.”
“No, I totally did. Just shut up and listen. It’s meowing upstairs!”
I stopped speaking and raised my head upwards. Somehow, sure enough, Trev had not been lying. It was a soft meow, but audible. It was on the Third Floor. That was bad. The third day would begin in a few hours, and the mold was probably starting to act up by now.
Warning the twin not to move, I went and put the torch back in its place. By the time I did and turned around, Trev had already gone back into Room 202 and locked the door. Cursing him, I walked past their room and ran up the stairs leading to the Third Floor.
Up them and through the corridor, I reached the Third Floor once more, only to find the cat in the hands of the second person I didn’t really want to see. The number one person that I really, really wasn’t prepared to see just yet.
Standing with the cat in her hands, petting it with a smile as she mumbled sweet words, was Bella Garlove. She had her back to me and was looking at the Luxury Suite door. The moment I got into range, however, she turned to look at me. The cat meowed once more, then yawned before jumping out of the elf’s hands and running up to me.”
“I’ll do it, innkeeper.” She declared.
“What?” I picked the cat up, giving him some pets before locking him tight in my hands. “You will do what? Also, I am sorry about the morning. I know it’s not enough to say it, but I really am. I was out of line and said things that I should not have sai-”
“No, innkeeper!” Bella shook her head. “You were right. If people are truly going to die, then I have no choice. I need to use the powers I have, and I can’t keep lying to you about it. I’ll do it, then. You said twenty-four hours, right? We’re running out of time. We should do it while we can.”
“You mean right now?”
The elf nodded, raising her hands and letting that familiar blue light them up with a melancholic smile. What exactly had she been doing in her room all day? What journey had this girl been on in the last twelve hours to get here? Either way, I kept the cat down and let the blue glow out of my own hands, too.
The little feline friend of ours stepped to the side, grooming himself while keeping us in sight.
“Let’s do it, then.” She whispered. “We can’t waste any more time, right? Let’s just get it done before I change my mind again.”
“I mean, yeah. I just hadn’t-” I hadn’t expected it to be this easy. I hadn’t even considered that Bella could change her mind, too. But she was right. There was no time to waste. “Let’s do it.”
I nodded and stepped up to her, leaving the cat behind. She gave me a smile, still unsure, and then turned with me to look at the Luxury Suite door.
The mold had already overgrown, reaching out to the Resplendent Roundabout and covering its walls with black tendrils. Soon, the monsters would start growing out of it and begin their rampage. There was no time to wonder about timing, or pacing, or buildup. I had the chance, and I was going to take it.
The elf raised her hand and closed her eyes first. I then did the same. Even in the darkness, the bright light appearing out of her hands shone through my eyelids. My own hands throbbed with energy as the attack visually formed in my brain. I had not been ready for this. It had come out of nowhere. It made no sense. Something didn’t feel right.
But none of that mattered. I was going to do this. We were going to do this. Thanks to the cat, we had been reunited when it mattered most. This was it. The light from her hands grew brighter and brighter. Too bright. So bright that it started stinging my eyelids. Why was she being this ridiculous with her attack?
I opened my eyes, hoping to stop her from doing what she was doing. But she had done the same. She had thought that I was the one with the brighter attack, and turned to check. Our own hands were still burning with the same blue glow as always. The light was not ours at all. But right as the blast was about to leave my hands, I noted the origin of the light.
The place where it was coming from was downstairs.
The Secret Room.
“What the fuck!? It’s just the second da-”
_____________
Here’s a haiku to explain what happened next –
I woke up, screaming.
Very obviously raging.
In Innkeeper’s Room.