“Toss it out.”
“Just…out?”
“Yeah, just throw it all out.”
The dwarf shrugged and then picked up the first slab of whatever that had been blocking the windows. He had started working from the Innkeeper’s Room and decided to make his way through there. Now, when he was comfortable enough with the idea that ‘the ground was gone’, he was helping me with my little waste disposal demonstration.
“Will it not all fall down?” Poltrick brought up a very good, very smart point.
“Gregson, will you just throw it out?”
“Well, it’s your fault if it does fall down. Don’t tell me I didn’t tell ya!”
He pulled his hands back to generate some unnecessary force and then threw the slab out of the inn’s main door. The black slab floated off noiselessly, breaking out of the almost non-existent gravity of the Northflame to reach the space outside. Once it was far enough away, I raised my hand and aimed it at the object.
The blast left my hands connected to the object, and it burst into flames. I wasn’t sure what else to do, but this would work. Right?
The Magic did not really need oxygen to work, so it was not following science there. It was only using the energy from the mana fueling it to do its job. Just like how it had not behaved like fire in the Secret Room, it would surely do its job here.
Surely, is what I thought.
But before I knew it, the slab was hurling back towards us. Uncontrollably spinning in circles, as if being pulled in by the Northflame once more, it raced straight for my face. Poltrick screamed and moved out of harm’s way, but I did not have that luxury. If it came back in, it would start burning the entire inn.
So, I raised my hand once more and did not think twice about what happened next. Gritting my teeth and hoping it worked, a pulse of uncontrolled blue light rippled out of my hand and hit the slab, blasting into small pieces that flew out of the inn’s range due to the sheer pressure of the attack.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and collapsed on the inn’s floor.
Alright. So, the big plan to dispose of waste had not worked. No big deal. We’d just have to…figure out another one.
“That’s some confidence, isn’t it!? Are you sure you want me to keep removing these, or are you going to keep embarrassing us in front of everyone else?”
“Gregson, please do continue your work. The cat awaits.” I shook my head and sat up, looking back at the dwarf. “Also, what do you mean by everyone el-”
Oh.
The moment I turned back, I noticed everyone. Earnest and Carol in the Kitchen had a direct view of the main door. Old Man Dom peeked from the First Floor, but then immediately hid his head. The Twins had been watching from the spiral staircase, which also gave them a small glimpse of the main door. Nathan and Fera must have been in the Bar and Restaurant, because they were right next to Carol.
And worst of all, Bella. The elf was not just up on the First Floor, or hiding behind some boxes to spy on me. No. She was sitting right in the centre of the middle couch of the Lobby. The others had just happened to catch me in the act. She had been willingly spectating the entire thing.
Earnest cleared his throat and got back to working the moment my eyes landed on him. Carol decided that helping him was really important. The twins’ heads vanished back into the Second Floor. Nathan and Fera also looked away with some embarrassment and headed back into the Bar and Restaurant. But the elf remained.
She remained for some time, until she finally stood up and walked up to me.
“Whoa, hello. How do you do, Ms. Garlove?” I asked. “Have things been…fine?”
“I…” She mumbled and then gulped to hide her anxiety. “I don’t know much about Magic, really. I am, like, really bad. I don’t even have the biology that allows it to work. So, like, I am completely divorced from the concept itself.”
“Yeah, well, that’s mighty helpful. What do you want us to do with all that information, then?” The dwarf snarled in anger and then walked off to continue his work.
“Ignore him. Go on.”
She watched Poltrick as he vanished into the Bar and Restaurant, and then looked down in shame. Twiddling her thumbs, she whispered. “I…I don’t know anything. I cannot be sure, then, if what I’m saying is right. But, innkeeper. I think that you should focus on the name of the Magic itself.”
“Uh, what?”
“I…I don’t know!”
With that, and a short yelp, she ran away. Up the stairs and round the corridor with the speed of the wind, Bella Garlove was gone. She had apparently just given me an important clue and then run off.
Focus on the name of the Magic itself. What did she mean? I could have understood if I had the capacity to read the books in the Secret Room, but that was clearly not going to happen. As the Editor had explained, their translation algorithms were not all that great, and all of those shelves were proof of that.
Now, without them, I had embarrassed myself with Magic so bad that it had forced the shy elf to try and help me out. How sad was that?
Dejected at the failure, but thinking about what she had said, I decided to head to the Innkeeper’s Room. The name of the Magic, apparently, was important. Unraveling Magic. That is what she meant, unless there was some other name. No. There wasn’t any other name. Even in the books, Unraveling and Conjoining were the only two names associated with Magic.
What did she mean?
Back in the room, I lay down on the bed and kept thinking. The main door was still open. What if someone walked out? No. That was not going to happen. Shut it. Now, the Magic. Unraveling Magic? What if the cat walked out? Gazpacho didn’t know any better. No! Earnest and Carol were there. Un…raveling? What was the clue there?
It would look disastrous if someone walked out the door. That would not be pretty. Horrifying death. They would even stop looping. Nope! Please, don’t think about that. Better things to do, like figuring out Bella’s clu-
“Ah.”
It clicked, and I picked up the scraps of cloth that Carol had left for me on the bedside table. Was that what she meant? I sat up and started thinking about it. Maybe. Maybe.
_____________
The scraps had worked out. I prayed that it worked with a larger object, too.
Poltrick, standing beside me once more, threw the slab out with full force. Letting it roll out of the inn’s gravity field once more, I held out my hand and aimed it at the object. Bella had been more than helpful with her clue. She had told me in a single sentence what the Magician in 001 hadn’t told me in all his time.
The principles of Unraveling were quite close to, as I had realized, an exothermic reaction. I was only really telling the atoms where to go after adding some kinetic energy to them. Until now, it had been to either rip apart or burst into flames. But logically, the Magic allowed for more. It allowed for so much more than just destruction.
After all, as she had said, it was not called Destruction Magic. It was not called Blow Your Enemies into Pieces Magic. Nope, none of that violent stuff. It was elegant, composed, and structural. It was unraveling. Like a knot or a thread that needed to be repurposed. It was closer to searing a piece of meat on a hot pan to let its structure relax. It was like popping open a pod of peas to separate them.
Unraveling Magic was the means. Until now, though, I had only been using it as an end.
I imagined the slab unraveling. I let the atoms drift apart and turn into whatever made them stable. Liquid or gas didn’t matter. As long as it was not solid, it was not particularly harmful or a major pollutant. As long as the atoms broke away from each other and turned invisible, it would work. It had worked with the scraps.
“If it comes back around again, I’m not even gonna be staying just in case. I’m halfway through the Kitchen now, and don’t fancy dying, got it?”
I rolled my eyes and ignored him. Doing this required so much more patience and energy than just asking it to burst into flames. Maybe that is what the Magician in 001 had meant by asking me to practice. At the end of the day, this is what was going to help me get better. So, I focused. I let Poltrick’s random comments drift away with the slab, and replayed the image of what I wanted on repeat.
I kept thinking, until it happened. A thin blue wave started to slither out of my hand and towards the object. Slowly, it swirled around the slab and connected to every edge of the material. Then, I let go, and the Magic did the rest of the work. I wasn’t sure how that worked, but it just did. There was no time to think about all of that.
The slab floated around quietly for some time. Nothing happened for a few seconds. But then, out of nowhere, it…disappeared. It began with the edges where the blue wave had first touched it, and then slowly spread to the middle. The entire structure, little by little, looked like it was turning transparent. Then, before you knew it, the entire thing had turned transparent.
The entire thing had vanished into nothing.
Inert gases were, after all, invisible. That was what had happened to it. It had been like a crocheted scarf being pulled by the thread. String by string, loop by loop, every sign of its existence was gone. Just like that.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“I do not know what that means, but I agree.” An awestruck Poltrick nodded with his mouth wide open. “Do it again, innkeeper! Come on. Let me throw it and call the others to show them. You can do it after all.”
Full of enthusiasm, he waddled to the next slab, picked it up, and came back to the main door.
“Ready, innkeeper?”
“No…” I whispered and sat back down, yawning. “I…need to sleep.”
“What? Done already? We have dozens of these, and that’s just the Ground Floor. You better not blame me for not doing the job later.”
“Just go do it, Greg…son.”
“Whatever you say.”
I pushed myself up, but tumbled instantly. Even walking was difficult. What had just happened? Using it on the scraps in my room had been fine. I had been able to handle all of them without any issues. This one had drained me completely. There was not even an inch of will left in my bones.
Lunch was done, too. Nobody was in the Kitchen anymore. I hadn’t eaten my Lunch. I think I had even denied it when Carol came to ask. Nice job, Laura. Great job. Now, I couldn’t even walk to my own room. I stumbled around, getting to the Receptionist’s Desk before using it as support to stand. Just a little bit more.
I pushed myself to the stairs and then used the railing there to stay on my feet. My vision blurred. Unraveling sucked. It was the worst. I liked Blow Your Enemies into Pieces Magic better. That was the best. Pushing myself using the railing, I landed on the couches in the middle of the Lobby.
Soft. So soft. I liked these. Better than Unraveling Magic. Couldn’t think, anyway.
My eyes closed before I even knew if I was standing, sitting, or lying down.
_____________
You remember the preference scale? You know, from all the back in Chapter 1? We’re bringing that back for a moment, so bear with me.
Waking up to someone licking my face was probably dead last. All the way back in position seven hundred and seventy-three. In fact, it probably wasn’t even on the list. Forget 773. It was…zero. Nothing. Nada. It did not even factor into my preferences.
That is to say that I was quite angry when I felt someone’s tongue on my cheeks. Thankfully, that rage was unfounded. Opening my eyes, I noticed that it was a little black cutie doing the licking.
“Gazpacho?” I mumbled.
“Meow.” Gazpacho very elegantly replied.
“Good boy.” Putting a finger under his chin, I gave a few scratches before he purred and jumped off my chest.
Then, I noticed the face behind him. Bella Garlove. Ugh. As if all the shame earlier had not been enough. I did not even know if I looked good sleeping here right now. She was going to kill me by making my face go red before the mold did.
“Look, everyone’s here. How about we do another one of those magic tricks, innkeeper?!”
“Gregson, I’m going to kick you in the…shins.”
“Wow, the innkeeper is a feisty o…aawooksh!”
“Watch your tongue, Trev.”
“Uh…is she fine?” Fera’s voice called out to Bella.
The elf looked down at me and nodded. “Seems to be. Alright, innkeeper?”
“Should I cook something up for you, innkeeper?”
“I saw you sleeping, sitting on the floor with your head on the couch, so I put you up. I hope that’s alright.”
“That’s quite amazing, Carol.” I gave her a thumbs up.
“Alright, so why are we here?” That must have been Nathan. I had never heard him speak before.
“Yeah. There better be some meat involved. Got that, chef?”
Great. All of them were here just on time. The only one who hadn’t shown up with all of her energy was me. Either way, it looked like it was time for some horror stories around the campfire.
Yeah, that had been my great evening event. Scary stories in the dark.