“No.”
The reply was instantaneous. All alone in the Bar and Restaurant with me, with one of the round tables between us, Bella did not try to waste my time with fake stories. Instead, refusing to look me in the eye, she stated her case with an authoritative certainty.
“I know…” I whispered once more. “I know you don’t like to use. I don’t know why, but I know you don’t. And still, I also know that you used it when push came to shove during the huge mold monster attack, alright? Bella, people are in danger. The mold could…”
“Do what?” She finally snapped. “I’m sorry, innkeeper. I stated my case, and yet you pretend not to listen. I cannot use Magic, and that’s the end of it. As for your…delusions…about the mold attacking us? That is not going to happen. It’s just a weird fungus of some sort.”
“Yeah, and it’s eating through the wood, forms literal walls as barriers, and turns into humanoid things. Whatever they’re called. Are you serious?”
“What things, innkeeper? I cannot keep up with whatever you’re trying to sell to me.”
“I’m not trying to sell you anything. You were…actually, never mind. Just get to the point. Will you help me break the mold, or will you not?”
“Will you ask me to use my Magic?”
“Well…”
“No.”
I considered the rejection. The determination in her eyes was real, and so were the fists that had been forcefully curled up on the tabletop. Still slightly shaking at even the mention of Magic, Bella looked like she was on the verge of crying. Simultaneously, she was on the verge of actually using the Magic to blast my head off instead.
And then again, I didn’t really need her, did I? A little bit of research in the Secret Room, and I would be able to find out what to do. I could just learn the Magic myself, right? All of those books were for that exact reason. But then again, I didn’t know what the parameters of learning the art even were. What if you needed to belong to that planet to be compatible? What if you nee-
“Anything else?” My defeated brain bowed down on the table, groveling in front of the elf girl to get her to help me out with this. “Can you help me in any other way? Anything will do, really. Honestly. I’m not familiar with this place at all, and I just need someone I can trust to help me out for some time.”
“Oh…”
She seemed a little taken aback. And then she even physically pushed herself backwards a bit to get away from my pathetic self. Her face cringed, probably at the messy hair and eyebag-fueled expression that I was providing her with.
To be completely honest? All power to her for that. I respect Bella for standing up and quickly taking a few more steps away from me to remain safe. For all she knew, I was about to leap up like a feral cat and bite her shoes off in an attempt to get some help.
And yet, even at that distance, she weakly nodded and meekly replied.
“Tomorrow? Will tomorrow do, innkeeper?”
“Y-yeah. Perfect! Tomorrow works great. As soon as the sun rises, I’ll be in the Lobby. Or, well, as soon as it is…supposed to rise. I’ll be there in t-”
“Lobby, yeah.” She completed my ramblings for me. “Also, we won’t be having dinner. Quite, uh…quite full from that amazing lunch. Thank you, innkeeper.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re totally welcome. Thank you so much t-”
And she was gone. The elf that I had dragged all the way over here with much confidence and immense hope in her abilities was just gone. Like that. Leaving me mid-sentence. Even then, I’d say, all power to her. Good job avoiding the pathetic, whiny Laura Mason.
_____________
Thankfully, that pathetic whiner did not live for long. She had to meet her ultimate nemesis – a good night of sleep. Enough of that, and it basically killed all the sad cells in my body. No more groveling for you!
Once I freshened up in the washroom adjoining the Innkeeper’s Room, the first thing I had to do was look for a bath. A bath which I very rudely found out was actually in that same washroom, but just locked away in a different corner. Not very spacious, and almost an afterthought in its execution, the only saving grace of the tub was that it managed to stay clean and smell good.
Thinking about it, though, that was to be expected. Given that, you know, all the other rooms apparently had their own bathrooms.
Did the original innkeeper trade hers for that secret surveillance room? Was the original Innkeeper’s Room that big? Or, ooh, maybe the bathroom of the Innkeeper’s Room was just that big. I could get behind something like that. Very much loved the idea. Maybe I could renovate it someday…
Shutting those delusions with immediate effect, I headed to the Lobby. To my surprise, Bella was already waiting.
Sitting on one of the couches surrounding the hearth, she was wearing a blue dress this time around. But not as blue as mine, obviously. Hers was a more cloudy, more ethereal color that blended some whites as both accents and color dampeners. In fact, the effect of the whites was so strong that when you moved down to the regular blue of the dress, it almost felt too much.
She stood up the moment I walked in and wished me good morning. In case you are wondering, yes, I was still wearing the same blue clothes. I checked the closet in the Innkeeper’s Room, and blue clothes were all they had. Perfectly my size, too, for some reason…
“Alright. Shall we get to it? I was thinking maybe try water. Or fire. Something like that. Last time…” I almost slipped right back into mentioning the last time that she seemed to have been avoiding for some reason, and then quickly backtracked. “I mean…we could try, maybe, chilies. People hate chili…so we could try that…I think…”
Bella did not reply. Instead, she just looked down at her dress, and then at me. I wasn’t sure why she would do something like that, but I guessed it was some sort of elf ritual. Was I supposed to compliment her dress? I hadn’t done the first two days, so I didn’t think it was important in any way. So, I waited for her to mention if that was the case.
What I got in return was another repeat of that exact movement. Bella looked at her dress, and then at me.
“I really don’t follow. Sorry, I am not well-versed in elf…stuff.”
“No!” She cried, groaning. “Look at my dress! I’m soaked.”
“What? Did you fall somewhere? Did some water fall on you?” I raised my eyebrow as the realization hit me. “Oh, my god. Was it Poltrick?”
Following that question, for the second time in less than twelve hours, the cute elf girl got angry at me. And I was so proud of it. To have made her angry at something so stupid had been worth it, even if it meant having to listen to the cute story from her mouth directly.
“No! Come on. I…I tried on my own. Not what you wanted yesterday, of course. I woke up earlier in the morning, and I tried dousing the mold with water and scraping it off. I tried some fire with the twins, but it didn’t work. We even put some oil on it, but it all just slips off instantly. Even swords and knives can’t pierce the thing.”
If only we had something that contained the power to actually break it. If only a certain someone had been open to being a good sport…
I shook my head, wiping those thoughts from my mind. She was doing her best. That thing with Poltrick, when she had finally used her Magic, had been no joke. I had no right or reason to be making fun of someone who had stopped using her powers for a clearly personal reason.
“What are we gonna do, then?” I got to it instantly. “If we can’t remove the mold, then they die. It’s as simple as that, Bella. We can’t let them die!”
“I know. I know…” She nodded and then took a deep breath. “And that’s why I have an idea. But you’re not gonna like the idea. Actually, nobody in this place is going to like that idea.”
“Look, as long as it’s not particularly degrading or disgusting, I’ll do anything to help them out.” I made my boundaries clear. “I am not doing this for fun or out of pity. I…like saving people, alright?”
“No, yeah. I am also the same. I do wanna help them. What I mean by the idea is that it’s just a bit…rude.”
Oh.
Just a bit…rude?
Oh.
“I see.” I nodded. “Bring it on, then. Who gives a shit?”
_____________
Room 001.
The locked room on the Ground Floor belonged to a resident. That’s what Bella told me. A man who had apparently been living in the inn ever since it was created. Now, I knew that part to be horseradish because of course not. Let’s be real here. But there had to be some truth to what she said. It had been a legend for ages now, apparently, and nobody was ever given this room to rent out.
What was more? The man living inside was insane. He was insane…and a renowned Magician. One of the best, even.
“And this man is going to do what, exactly?” I looked at the elf; both of us standing stationary in front of the door.
“Magic.” She nodded. “He is going to use his Magic and blast the mold open. Simple enough, right?”
“Right. That’s amazing. But I think this knock will make it the, oh…I don’t know…twenty-seventh one?”
The elf looked straight at me with a serious expression and then gave the twenty-seventh knock either way. Just like before, just as expected, it was met with complete silence. Not even a single creak made its way out of the room.
“Maybe he’s just sleeping,” Bella noted, shrugging. “We could try later.”
“Right…we could try later.” I wasn’t sure why I was going along with this, especially when the room was very clearly empty. “Let’s try then, Bella. See you.”
“See me?”
“Yeah. See you. Goodbye until later, I guess.”
“Um…what about breakfast, innkeeper?”
_____________
Beans and toast.
As much as I would love to go through the particulars of every single dish that I ever made for the residents of the Northflame Inn during the time I spent there, that is just impossible. Mainly because most of them would boil down to something simple like this. At the end of the day, an inn is not meant to be fancy, and that is the feeling I usually go for.
On some days, beans and toast was the best thing you could get. A slightly spicy, slightly sweet topping on crunchy, buttery toast. The perfect hearty breakfast, really. The only real ‘issue’ was that the beans here got really black, even lightly cooked. So, at the end of the day, it really did look like they were eating some sort of hell juice with the bread.
Anyway, once that was done, I headed back to the Secret Room. While the idea of learning Magic myself had been stupid, I still decided to go through the books about the art. Just the fact that they were meant to be restricted to a certain group of people made them worth going through.
On top of that, all of the books were in English, so it would be dumb not to read them. Not that I understood much of them despite the lack of a language barrier, but still. All of the terms that I did not know, I could just guess. And yes, the fact that they had no right being in English had not escaped me, but I just did not have the patience to hunt down the answer to that just yet.
By the time afternoon rolled around, though, Bella knocked on the door once more. If I was not wrong, she had actually spent most of the time after lunch in the Lobby itself. Now, she was here. And since she was here, we headed to Room 001 once more.
She knocked.
“Hey, bozo!”
Look, I had hit my limit, alright?
“Bozo! Get out here already. What’s all that brain for if you’re not gonna use it where you should, huh? Are you stupid?”
“I think that’s a bit rude, innkeeper.” Bella calmed me down, and then knocked again.
Then she knocked again. Then she knocked again. She knocked again. Knocked. Again. And again. And then again, over and over.
Just standing there, staring at a soulless wooden door being banged at without remorse or reply, I realized that maybe I did not have the patience to be in this role. Happy late realization, I know. But I really had started thinking that I could save those people, you know? Instead, here I was. The mold did not move, the books were half-illegible to me, and Bella was knocking on a door.
“I think we should try again later, innkeeper. I know there is a magician in here. He is apparently from a very renowned family, too!”
“Yeah. Ok. Sure. Bye. See you late-”
“Um…”
“Bella.” My shoulder drooped. “Don’t say it.”
“I’m sorry, innkeeper. I know we are being obnoxious, but…but Poltrick was asking. He wanted to know when lunc-“
_____________
Just like breakfast, the twins did not show up. Neither did Fera and her fiancée, as I had found out. Now that I remembered, in fact, the board in the Banquet Hall had been for them back then. Nathan and Fera. They hadn’t ended up getting married, I guess. Given the mold and all that. Hopefully, that ended up going well soon.
But since they didn’t show up to have their food today at all, they had pissed me off just a bit. Ignoring them and their absence, I headed back to the Secret Room once more. The more and more I visited it, the more and more I really felt drawn to it.
Now, I had not forgotten that someone else also had access to it. In fact, it was the main reason why I stayed inside. Perhaps, if I stayed right there, I might be able to catch them appearing here. Or that was the plan, at least. Because nothing happened. Absolutely nothing.
Not until Bella knocked on the door.
“Look, it’s not helping!” I spoke up the moment I opened it up for her. “There’s no one in there, Bella, and I really want to find an actual way of getting them out. We’ve wasted this whole day, and we’re running out of time!”
“Y-yeah!” She looked down at the floor, clearly embarrassed and hurt. Gulping, she shuddered. “But, just…once more? Please?”
I looked at her, her form. I heard her voice. And being completely honest, I did not have the heart to reject it. Nothing would happen, but it would be a matter of minutes. I could entertain her, and then get back to reading and trying to understand all of those books.
So, following her, I reached Room 001 once more, and we knocked on the door. Nothing happened.
“Oh, look, nothing seems to have happened!” I groaned.
“Uh…”
The elf knocked once more, only to be met with more silence. She certainly had more perseverance than I ever could. Especially when it came to things like these. So, she knocked a third time.
“Look, Bella, I appreciate the conc-”
Something hit my foot, and the elf was almost instantly taken aback. Quite literally stepping backwards in shock, she just watched as a piece of paper slid out from under the door.
Someone was in there after all. This supposed genius Magician.
I picked up the paper.
Who are you?
It made me scoff, and groan, and roll my eyes. After all this time, this was what he had decided to go with? Finally deciding to take advantage of my position. “I am your innkeeper! Is that enough of an answer? I…I order you to open the door!”
Almost instantly, another paper was slid out from under the door.
No, you’re not. What do you want?
“How dare you question my aut-” I paused midway, taking a look at the piece of paper once more, and then at the door. A man who had supposedly been in this inn since its very first day? I gulped and knocked on the door in a panic.
“Wait! Do you know who it is? Do you know who the real innkeeper is!? Tell me. Please, come on, tell me. I-”
A paper slid out once more. This time, however, it was more concise.
What do you want?
“I…” I scoffed, looking at the still-surprised Bella to share the audacity of this guy. The elf, however, was not even sure if what was happening was real. So, letting her go, I turned to the door once more. “What do you mean by that? I…I need you to answer the damn question. Who is the innkeeper of this place? You know that, don’t you? So, spill. I just need to kn-”
What do you want?
“The answer to my question is what I want!”
But nothing happened. And once nothing happened, the realization that I could have angered him by asking that question set in. Don’t get me wrong. I want to find out what is going on, but there was a part of me that needed to prioritize the people on the Third Floor first.
“Alright, fine. We need your help to break the wall of mold on the staircase going from the Se-”
Almost instantly, a paper flew out.
Cannot.
“Wha!?” I threw it back and stepped forward, knocking on the door once more. “Are you insane? People could die! Two of them, in fact. What’s wrong with all of you!? One wants to be a drama queen and not use her powers. One wants to stay locked inside his room as if stepping out will kill him. Just give me the damn powers, and I’ll do it myself! If I had the Magic…I wouldn’t hesitate like you idiots!”
I stopped, stepped back, and took a moment to catch my breath. Post rant, what followed was another long silence. For a minute there, the assumption that I might have changed his mind did come to me. But then I threw it away. That was never going to happen.
There was no way he was goin-
The door opened.
Just slightly, but it opened. About three centimeters ajar, it gave me a small peek into the warmly lit room on the inside. But I didn’t have time to look at it. A small wrinkly hand appeared from behind the door and pointed downwards. It did that and withdrew once more.
On the floor, where it had been pointing, was a vial. A small glass vial with a strange purple liquid inside it. The moment I grabbed it and pulled my hands back, the door shut with a bang.
From beyond the closed door came a croaking, slightly high-pitched male voice.
“Do it. Drink the vial, and you should be able to use Magic.” He proclaimed. “But if you do, then it will be your duty to inform me of the results. Do you understand that?”
“Results? What is this? An experiment? You want me to be part of some sick experiment of yours? How do I know if this will let me use Magic!?”
No reply came.
No matter how many times I tried. Not a single word.
I was left standing there with a vial of magical purple liquid in my hands. That, and an invitation to trust this man and get the same powers as Bella Garlove.
_____________
The Lobby