Author: Lurina

051: The Die Falls (𒐁) - The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere | Royal Road

Abbey House | ??? | Third Day

How naive we'd been, in that moment, to believe we were in control of anything whatsoever.

Linos and I took down our barriers for just a moment, and our group departed the room, upon which I recast mine and we set off down the hallway. Nothing had changed - the guesthouse was still relatively well-lit, warm, and homely. But it felt infinitely more threatening than it had a moment ago. Every flicker of light or creak from the floorboards set my teeth on edge.

"Actually, there's something I'd like to check, if we're going this way regardless," Kamrusepa said, as we walked down the hall. "I want to see if the eris pools are still operational or not."

"It, ah, doesn't seem like they would be, does it?" Theo said, furrowing his brow. "Rather, if the eris supply was cut, then wouldn't that be a component?"

"Ehh, I guess I wouldn't call it a sure thing," Fang said, their hands stuck in their pockets. "I mean, we're still breathing. Stuff's still going on with the Power, so it's just a matter of what they consider the essentials?"

I detected a hint of annoyance in Kamrusepa's expression from having Fang agree with her, but she nodded. "Indeed. So, it would be best to confirm it, would it not?"

No one objected. We ducked into the side room adjacent to the stairs after turning the corner. But it was no good - even from a glance, it was obvious the eris pool was depowered, all light gone from it. Presumably because she wanted to be certain, Kam stepped forward and pressed the ignition switch, which did nothing.

She clicked her tongue. "Blast it. Then what we have in our scepters is it, then." She held a finger to her lip. "We'll have to be economical about our casting."

"From how Linos described it, it sounded as though things in the research tower should still be working normally," I said. "So... It might not be an issue."

"Optimism is all well and good," Kamrusepa retorted, "but let's not get caught in our undergarments."

"She's right," Ran said. "If we're attacked on the way to the tower, we'll need everything we can get."

I glanced down at the dial on my scepter, which was sitting at around 85%, and nodded.

We left, headed up the stairs, and then moved down the hallway until we reached the larger set of doors leading into the game room. Stepping inside, it looked largely unchanged from how it had appeared the previous day - there were some signs some other people had used it, like a xiangqi board which had been left on the table, but nothing major. And the logic engine was turned off, but considering the time of night, that was probably to be expected.

My eyes wandered to the left, where Linos had described the drawer we were looking for.

Internally, I was cursing myself a bit. I'd asked Kam to come along to this because I'd realized, in that moment, that it seemed pretty vital to catch up with her about what we'd seen in the 'armory' now that this had happened. To establish if, in accord with what we'd agreed, it had been explained to everyone else at some point.

But though that premise had made sense in concept, now that we were actually doing it, I was realizing how little chance there would be to do such a thing discretely. After all, we were a big group, and only doing something quick and specific.

"Uh, Fang, Theo, can you watch the door and balcony, just in case?"

"Sure!" Fang said. Theo nodded, moving to the other side of the room.

Okay, now I just need to get Kam on her own without Ran, I thought, stepping over to the cabinet. Well, if this is even worth trying to be secretive about.

I leaned down and pulled at the drawer. Obviously, it gave instantly, but because I'm shitty at improvising, I pretended it was stuck, rattling it about a bit. "Uh, give me a hand with this, Kam."

What the fuck are you doing, my brain said. Why would you ever ask for a specific person in this situation. You're acting incredibly suspicious.

I couldn't see if there were any strange looks exchanged, but Kamrusepa approached regardless. I quickly spoke up as she put her hands on the drawer, my tone hushed.

"Kam, don't ask why I don't know this already," I said, speaking as quickly as I could, "but did we end up talking about what we discovered last night, yesterday?"

Her eyes boggled a bit. "E-Er, what?"

"The body, Kam," I said, through gritted teeth. I had to push in the drawer as she took hold on the handle to stop her from opening the thing. "Did we tell people about it?"

She looked completely taken off guard by what was happening. "Su, this is bizarre."

"Kam!" I hissed.

"No, I didn't-- We didn't!" she said, quieting her voice in turn.

"What? Why not?!"

"Because there was never a good time!" she said, defensive. "It was one bloody thing after another, and you never brought it up! I mean-- Why didn't you say anything, hm? You never even told me if your business was done or not, was I supposed to have just assumed?"

It was getting really hard to navigate this without mentioning the whole missing-6-hours-of-memories stuff, though I was starting to get irritated with the apparent irresponsibility of my past self. "You said you'd find some way to make it work!" I nevertheless objected.

"Well, things didn't pan out that way! It was practically the dead of night by the time we had dinner!" she said. "What was I supposed to say to get up there without making it look suspicious?"

"Hey, uh, so!" Fang said, from over by the door. "This is kind of super awkward, and y'know, I don't wanna be that person, but. I can actually kind of hear what you two are saying? It's kind of a big room, and, like. There's no other sound in this place. Anybody else? Theo, Ran?"

"Mm-hmm," Ran hummed.

"I, ah. I think I might've got a good chunk of it," Theo said.

My face grew rapidly flushed. I stared intensely at the cabinet in front of me, feeling that it was vaguely possible my body could burst into flames if I turned to look at their expressions. It occurred to me that, strictly speaking, it was not impossible that a quantum miracle could cause me to spontaneously develop supernatural teleportation powers if I tensed my muscles and focused really, really hard.

"Also. I think I heard you say 'the body'? And, y'know, I don't wanna take things out of context-- 'cause you could've meant a body of water, or something. Ysaran is a crazy language, and stuff. But, it sounds like maybe you're talking about something pretty serious. And it's kind of uncomfortable? I mean, with the whole murderer-on-the-loose thing."

Kamrusepa, I noticed, was now glaring at me with a combination of annoyance and sardonic distaste, her lips curled into a deep frown.

Why the hell did you think this would even work, my brain continued to scold me. That was a herculean quantity of bad decisions to have made in the space of a minute. Aren't you supposed to be smart?

I forced myself to turn and look at their expressions. Fang looked like they were feeling awkward for having said anything, rubbing their arms together. Theo looked baffled. Ran was also glaring at me, but seemed more concerned than upset.

I grunted, and made a decision. Any punishment we'd get at this point probably wouldn't even matter in the face of what was happening now, and this was the last time to be keeping more weird secrets than absolutely necessary. It was a life-or-death situation. We had to stay on the same page.

"Ran," I said, looking towards her. "You remember when Kam and I were looking for the room the note told us about. When we were taking the tour."

"For fuck's sake," she said, rubbing her eyes.

Kamrusepa didn't look exactly happy about what was happening, but she seemed to recognize the ship on making us look bad had now sailed, and was resigned to the result. She didn't try and stop me.

"When we went off on our own, we didn't exactly find an archive, but we did find something," I explained. "There was a... I don't know what to call it. A secret door, I suppose, hidden behind a bookcase, leading to this room - well, I guess it was more of a supply closet." I scratched my head hesitantly. "There was some regular stuff there, but also a, uh, lot of guns. Modern ones."

"How many are we talking?" Fang asked, eyebrows raised.

"34 rifles, 19 pistols, and I think 21 sets of explosives," I said. "We ended up leaving pretty quick, so I might've missed stuff, too.

They whistled.

"That's insane," Ran stated. "That's half way to arming a small battalion."

"It looked like it wasn't fully stocked, either," I said, glancing to the side. "Anyway, that's not the important part. At the back of one side of the room, there was this hatch open in the floor, and it looked like gunshot had been fired over it. It looked like it led all the way down to the basement, and at the bottom... Was, well, a body."

They gaped at us for a moment.

"You found a body," Ran said tersely, "and you didn't say anything about it."

"S-Su, if you tell the story like that, you're going to make us sound even worse," Kamrusepa said, with a combination of anger and anxiety. "I wish you'd bloody spoken to me instead of just doing what you please--Listen," she said, sharply pivoting her attention towards the others, like she was cutting herself off. "I know this looks bad, but listen. I'm sure you're going to accuse me of making idiotic decisions in service of my record, but--"

"Get to the point, Kam," Ran said.

"Everything about the scene pointed to a suicide," she hastily explained. "The shot was low but angled straight ahead. She'd fallen back-first, so she must've been facing the direction it came from. The pistol was down there with her... And most vitally, we found a note." She rummaged through her bags, then produced the same piece of parchment we'd seen yesterday.

Ran, Theo and Fang all approached at once to take a look, so Kam just flipped the object around, displaying it.

"And so..." she continued, as they read. "We decided that it would be better not to bring it up until after our presentations were done, in fear it would ruin the whole event." She bit her lip. "Now, I'm aware that looks a little foolish in retrospect, but if you consider our perspective at the time..."

"First impression here, but: The way this is written is really reminding me of the two big 'we're gonna murder you' speeches," Fang said. "I mean, there's none of the you're-defying-the-gods or the treating-death-as-an-actual-deity stuff, but it's got the same vibe. All this stuff about atonement."

I nodded. "That's part of why I was trying to talk to her about it."

"Again, I'm aware that, now, our initial assessment bodes re-examination," Kamrusepa said. "But you can see how I came to the original conclusion!"

"Gods," Ran said, rubbing her eyes. "I knew something had happened back there, after you never brought it up again, but I didn't think it would be this bad. How did you let Kam drag you into something this stupid, Su?"

"Again, I don't think I was being unreasonable!" Kamrusepa objected. "It was a complicated situation! There were a lot of competing concerns!"

"Actually, never mind," Ran said, ignoring Kamrusepa and rubbing her eyes. "Thinking about it for more than a second, it's not hard to trace your thought process."

I scratched the back of my head, looking downward in shame. I could tell her how much I'd doubted the decision and panicked over it after the fact, but it wasn't like it would change anything.

"Er, putting aside that connection, this all seems, ah. Rather implicating of something, don't you think?" Theo asked, furrowing his brow. "Talking about 'cruelties', the 'damage they've done', 'this insanity'... It makes it sound like the order was doing something, well. Criminal."

"Kam and I talked about that a little," I said, nodding.

"I'm surprised that's your first thought, and not the fact that it's basically predicting what's happening now," Ran said. "Specifics aside, the whole letter is basically one giant warning. Put that on top of the note Su found in the morning that seemingly led to this--"

"That's a tenuous connection," Kamrusepa interjected. "There are a lot of abnormalities!"

"--and the result is that we look like fools who can't take a hint to literally save our lives," Ran finished.

"Sorry, but I think I might be missing something..." Theo said, with an uneasy look. "To be clear, there were two notes, not just this one?"

"Uh, that's right, Theo," I said, nodding. "I found the first one in a book that the coordinator lent me before we set off. But it was really short, and only really said that we were in danger, to not trust anyone from the council, and to look for a hidden archive on the third floor of the inner sanctum." I hesitated. "But... When Kam tried examining it with the Power, it turned out that it'd been written years ago. So we all ended up just assuming it was probably something unrelated left there by mistake, and only really made a token effort to look into it what it said..."

"Stupid. I'm so goddamn stupid," Ran said, biting the rim of her thumb as she cursed to herself. "I'd written it off when you told me that, too. But if we'd just pooled all our information from the start, there was more than enough grounds to call this whole thing off and evacuate. That first note, this second one, the warning message snuck on your logic engine, Kam-- You can draw a clean line between all of them. Hell, maybe some of the others saw even more signs, but haven't mentioned them either." She clicked her tongue. "We've walked straight into the tiger's mouth."

Fang was still looking at the parchment, pensive. "Do you have that first note with you now, Su?" they asked, their tone casual.

"Uh, no," I said, shaking my head. "It must still be in my other clothes."

"If it s-said not to trust the inner circle," Theo said, adjusting his glasses. "That means they're the ones behind this...?"

"Let's not jump to any conclusions like that," Kamrusepa said sternly. "Even if it seems like this all connects, it doesn't change that the first note makes no sense if taken literally. With the facts as we know them, it couldn't have been written with all this in mind. Regardless of all else, we're missing some bigger picture, right now."

Theo looked uncomfortable, rubbing his arms together. "Maybe."

"Su, Kam," Fang said, speaking up again. "Can you tell me more about the body you saw, maybe?"

"They were Viraaki, most likely," Kamrusepa said, before I had a chance to speak. "And a woman. Su thought they were the cook who's apparently missing - Vijana, her name was. The initials could be right, but the content doesn't gel well with the hypothesis, since she would have been just, well..."

"A cook, yeah," Fang said, nodding.

"More shit we should have all shared," Ran muttered.

"Guess we better talk to your dad about it, Theo," Fang said, looking to him. "Whatever the note says, it doesn't seem likely to me that he's the killer. I mean, he would've had a really good chance to get rid of Su and Lilith that he didn't take, so that's a big point in his favor. And he could probably give us a lot of information about what's going on."

Theo looked uncertain how to respond to this, his face somewhere between offense at even the idea of his father being weighed as a potential murderer, and sheer exhaustion.

Ran looked to me, and we shared a glance. She was probably thinking something like, 'Can we trust Linos?' which was a pretty good question. We knew for a fact that he'd lied to us about at least one thing to do with the order. But that didn't, per-se, implicate him in what was going on now.

"Aaaactually, we should probably save going any deeper into this until we're back downstairs just in general, otherwise we're just going to end up repeating ourselves," Fang went on. "Besides, if we're up here for too long, we're gonna start freaking people out." They looked to me. "Su, can you grab the box?"

I blinked. Amidst everything, I'd almost forgotten why were actually here. I nodded, and knelt back down at the drawer, pulling it open and revealing, among other few knick-knacks, a wooden box a bit larger than a square foot. I flicked it open, and as soon as I saw what looked to be a folded-up map, I shut it and lifted it out, putting it under my arm.

"I'm not looking forward to having to justify myself to everyone, but I suppose there's no denying it was foolhardy, now," Kam said, dejected. "Perhaps I do bear a measure of responsibility for allowing this to have happened."

Kam admitting fault again. Lightning really was striking twice this weekend.

It's your fault too, my brain reminded me.

"It still just such an unthinkable situation to me," Kam continued. "That after all these years of having evaded detection... And that even a grandmaster arcanist was... Well..."

"I have it," I said, interrupting Kam and standing up. I didn't want to think more about Neferuaten's death.

"Great!" Fang said, with a smile. It was amazing they were managing to keep their carefree attitude even at a time like this, as though they believed they held the entire situation in the palm of their hand. "Let's get back, then!"

"There's another thing I really need to check with the rest of you," Ran said, glancing to something on the opposite shelf. "But Fang's right. It can wait a couple minutes."

I turned and left with them, sparing a look towards the balcony as I departed. There didn't seem to be anything out there, not that I'd expected otherwise.

But something told me I needed to be keeping an eye open for small details.

We headed back out into the hallway and towards the stairs. On the way, I decided to bring up something that had been in the back of my mind for the last twenty minutes or so, but felt too incidental to waste everyone's time with.

Actually, I wasn't really sure why my mind was on it at all.

"I was thinking..." I said. "Before, everyone was acting as though the message we saw over the logic bridge was like a continuation of the one at the conclave, but I'm not sure they quite fit together."

"How do you mean, Utsu...?" Theo asked.

"Well..." I furrowed my brow. "This will sound sort of silly, but the main thing is the way they, uh, gendered death."

"Oohhh, I noticed that too," Fang commented. "Wasn't sure what to make of it, though."

"When the woman who appeared during the conclave was giving her speech, they explicitly referred to whatever they were talking about as 'my mistress'. But in Aruru's case, they used 'my master'." I looked downwards as we began to descend the stairs. "That wasn't the only difference, either. It felt like the second message was a lot more explicit that it was talking about, well, capital-d Death. And It seemed to reference real religious tradition a lot more than just using generalities, talking about it like it was a servant of the gods, and not a god unto itself."

"The first one did seem subtly more reverent," Kamrusepa said, nodding. "Now that you put it in those words, it does seem rather curious."

"Yeah," I said. "I'm not sure what to make of it, though."

"I mean, personally, I can't imagine Death is too bothered about that kinda stuff?" Fang offered. "If it were me, I'd be too busy with the whole being-literally-everywhere-at-once thing. Plus, y'know, a walking skeleton isn't gonna be rocking much, one way or the other?"

Kamrusepa rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, to be serious about it," Fang digressed. "Best guess I could make is that there are multiple people doing this, and they're not quite on the same page. That would explain the differences with the note, too. Or, to flip it around," they made a little flipping motion with their hands, "maybe it's one person copying a style from another, but not quite getting it."

I frowned, nodding. "This all feels so complicated, I can't even tell what's worth thinking about. It feels like trying to grasp a shadow."

"Eh, this part might not even matter," Fang said, making a dismissive gesture. "You don't have to know what's going on in a bear's circulatory system to know how to get the upper hand on it. Just gotta focus on what's worth thinking about!"

Right now, that doesn't seem easy to separate from what isn't, I thought.

Though it wasn't bad advice. Maybe it was because I'd read too many mystery novels, but it was tempting to think of this whole situation as a puzzle to be picked open. But that was childish. What it was was a situation to be survived. It didn't matter what specifically was going on so long as we made it out with our lives.

We returned to Bardiya's room, which was more or less as we'd left it. Ptolema and Ophelia were talking on the bed, Mehit was trying to comfort Lilith by the logic bridge (a gesture to which she seemed largely unresponsive), Seth seemed to be sitting uncomfortably in the corner, Bardiya was talking to Linos. Ezekiel, who seemed to have appointed himself as door guard, leveled his scepter at us upon our entry, before lowering it.

"Ah, good, I was starting to get worried," Linos said, with a gentle smile. "Did you find it?"

"I think so," I said, as he lowered his barrier. I stepped over and placed the box on the table. "Is this right?"

"I think so," he said, as he recast it and popped the lid open. "Ah-- Yep, this is it for certain. Good job." He gestured inwardly. "Alright, everyone gather around. We'll go over what we're going to do."

It seemed than since we'd left, Linos had managed to seize the spirit of leadership quite a bit stronger than he had been earlier. Maybe the real reason he'd sent us away, more than to look for these supplies, was just to have an excuse to stall everyone and clear his head.

Everyone stepped forward - or leaned forward, in the case of Ptolema and Ophelia - looking down at the table as Linos unfolded the map. It was actually pretty big - at a glance, it appeared to show a total of nine separate boxed images, depicting the sanctuary in its totality, each of the bioenclosures, and finally their underground components, some of which - notably under the research tower and main building - were much more extensive than others.

"Now, look here," Linos said, pointing to our current position. "To get to the research tower, we can take a path through either the inner sanctum bioenclosure, or through the arboretum. We know that using the Power is currently blocked in the former, while the latter is still uncertain. Still, ambiguity is better than a certain disadvantage, so that's what I think we should go with."

I'm curious to know why whoever is doing this would block it in some places, but not all of them, I thought, but decided it would be better not to derail the explanation with a speculative tangent.

"I'm not certain I understand your thinking, mister Melanthos," Mehit said, still extremely tense. "Would it not be safer to take the route where we couldn't be subject to an ambush with transmundane techniques?"

"I understand your concerns completely, Ms. Eshkalon," Linos said. "But, as someone who knows a great deal about arcane scholarship, we'll be far safer under a barrier and with our incantations at our disposal than we would be without them. Even if it seems overwhelming to the uninitiated, there's only so much that can be done with the Power, and everything has a hard counter. On the other hand, if we go without, anyone with a refractor rifle and a good angle to shoot it from could wipe us all out in seconds." He smiled sadly. "It's not as if we have proper armor lying around here, sadly."

She didn't seem wholly convinced of this, still frowning, but didn't push the point further.

"In any event," he said, eyes turning back downward. "We could go overland, but as I'm sure you've noticed, both this bioenclosure and the arboretum are full of nasty hiding spots; behind trees, in bushes, all sorts. So..." His finger flicked over to the underground portion for this bioenclosure. "We'll take this passage. It leads from the Gynaikeian gateway to the Nittaimalaru, which'll put us right in front of the research tower. It's a straight shot - clear line of sight all the way down. So there's no chance of an ambush."

"Couldn't someone, uh, rip a hole into the tunnel...?" Ptolema suggested.

Linos shook his head. "It's not likely. All of the underground passages here are warded. You can't use the Power to tear them open without an absolutely absurd amount of force-- You'd probably need multiple arcanists, and even then it would take time and make a lot of noise." His finger moved to the next bioenclosure. "From there, it's only a couple of minutes in the open to the entrance of the research tower."

"And what then?" Bardiya asked.

"I'll use the logic bridge to try and contact anyone else inside. After that, regardless of what happens, we head to the administrative core. Then, if we can get a gateway open, we'll head back the way we came and shore up our defenses until we can leave." He sighed. "Hopefully, it won't be any more complicated than that."

Somehow, I was feeling deeply skeptical.

"I don't really know why we needed the map for this," Seth said. "It seems like a pretty simple plan."

"Well, this isn't the main reason I wanted this brought down here," Linos said. He reached back into the box and withdrew a set of keys it contained, then set them down on top of the map. After this, he folded it around them into a little package, then withdrew his scepter and began incanting, his eyes narrow.

M a t t e r - R e p l i c a t i n g

"𒈪𒊬𒄴𒌔𒁺𒄀𒈬𒉺, 𒌷𒊓𒊒𒄷𒍣𒆭𒌍𒀸𒄿𒄿𒊹."

One after another, copies of the items appeared alongside each other, until there was one set for everyone in the room.

"I won't mince words... It's possible that something will go wrong," Linos admitted. "For that reason, I think it's best if everyone has the most resources as feasible for navigating this situation. So I wanted everyone to have a copy, as well as these keys, which will open most of the regular doors in the sanctuary. They're labelled." He looked downward. "That's the most I can do here, unfortunately."

"Dunno if this makes me feel better or worse..." Ptolema said, reaching to take one of the sets.

"No, it's wise," Bardiya said, as he took his. "Even if it ends up serving no functional purpose, in a situation like this, a sense of control can do much for ones ability to remain logical in ones thinking. For all we know, that could be the coil which binds us together."

"Yeah," Seth muttered. "Well said."

Ezekiel rolled his eyes, making sure Bardiya saw it.

Everyone else followed one after another. Even Lilith took a set, despite the fact that I wasn't sure you could pry Mehit from her with a crowbar.

"Forgive me if I'm mistaken," Kamrusepa said. "But I don't think we ever reached a decision on if we're going to be traveling as one group, or if some are remaining behind. It's as Ptolema was saying before we received the summoning. We can't take Ophelia where she might encounter Balthazar."

"I, ah, can wear my veil and stay near the back, if needs must," Ophelia said, although she was clearly not comfortable with the possibility. "With warning, it's not too hard to avoid..."

"I would prefer to stay here with my daughter," Mehit said. "...but only if enough people remain behind that we can be sure that the building will be well-defended. If that isn't the case, then... I suppose going would be the best option."

Linos considered this, holding a hand to his chin. "Well-- Here's what we'll do. We'll go over the inscriptions on everyone's scepter, and get a sense of what we're capable of, and if it's even viable to make two groups with a balanced range of defenses. That should make it simpler to make a decision - although at this point, I really am leaning towards staying together in general." He set his hands in his palms. "Before that, though, I think we should head to dining room. I want to pick up some more mundane supplies, and to be honest, I don't think being packed into this room like rats in a cage is doing any of us much good."

"Glad someone said it," Ezekiel muttered. "I feel like I need a shower at this point."

We collectively filed out of the room, making sure to stay within the confines of Linos's barrier. He hadn't asked me to put mine back up, so I hadn't - the overlapping ones had probably been an excessive measure that had more value in cooling everyone's heads than anything practical. Unless we were attacked by an army, it wouldn't make much of a difference.

"...there's something I need to confirm," Ran said, as we walked. "With everyone, preferably."

This must be whatever she'd waited to talk about a few minutes ago, I thought. It had to be at least potentially serious. Ran wasn't the type to speak up to a whole group unless there was due cause.

"Go ahead, miss Hoa-Trinh," Linos said, as Theo pushed him down the hall.

"The last time you all looked at a clock," she said, her gaze intent. "Was it working?"

At this, most people stopped, turning to look at her.

"...no," Kamrusepa said, carefully. "I believe the one in my room was stopped."

"At what time?" Ran asked.

"I think it was just after one in the morning," she clarified, wary.

This was one of those situations where verbal communication wasn't even really necessary to get everyone on the same page; you could see what had happened just by their expressions. But still, I spoke up. "The one at my bedside was just like that, too."

"Same here," Fang said, holding up a hand.

"The one in the lounge stopped about then," Seth said, pointing. "Thought the water just needed changing."

"...the one in my chambers was also at around the same time," Mehit said. "I didn't realize it had stopped."

"Fuck me. I must be completely retarded, too," Ezekiel said, rubbing his eyes. He looked to Baridya. "Rhunbard, why didn't you have a clock in your room? We would have all noticed ages ago."

"Clocks make it difficult for me to sleep," Bardiya explained flatly. "I've had some ill experiences living on a tight schedule."

Wow, him too? Huh.

"Of course you'd have some neurotic explanation for it," Ezekiel murmured in disgust.

"Kamrusepa, if you don't mind, please confirm the time," Linos said, a little thrown off by this strange revelation.

She nodded. "Of course, sir." Her hand went to her scepter, and she looked to the people closest to her, which happened to me and Theo. "You two, take my hand. In the circumstances, it's better we don't leave any doubts when establishing facts."

"I trust you, Kamrusepa," Linos said.

"That's very kind of you, sir," she replied. "But I would rather not have any grounds for suspicion upon myself."

Preemptive damage control for what we're going to talk about in a few minutes, presumably. We took her hand, and she began incanting.

T i m e - I n f e r r i n g

"...𒇲𒉎𒅇, 𒍥𒀭, 𒀀𒀀, 𒊹."

She blinked, then looked back to the group. "It would appear that it's 5:21 AM," she said.

"I can confirm it," I said. Theo nodded in turn.

"Geez," Ptolema said. "Lot later than I was figuring. Must be 'cause it's so dark..."

Seth scratched the back of his head, his face curled into a frown. "How the hell could this have happened?"

"Well... To speak, in Ran's words, as the 'time expert'," Kamrusepa said, "it doesn't seem like any of the clocks here are connected to a system. They're all just water-driven or mechanical; wind up, rather. So..."

"Someone could've just gone room-to-room, doing this on purpose, if they knew enough about clocks," I said. "Set it up so they'd all wind down or the water would have fully circled at around the same time."

"That's bonkers, though!" Ptolema said.

"Um..." Ophelia said quietly. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to interject... But, I feel that I should say that I don't think that anything was wrong with the clock in my room. When I left, it said it was nearly five, and I think it was still ticking..."

Ran raised her eyebrows, a little surprised.

Linos turned to regard her. "You're certain about this?"

"I... I'm pretty sure, yes," she said, hesitant. "We can go back up and check, if you like..."

"In that case, this makes even less sense than before," Seth said. rubbing his forehead. "Like, sure-- If you're doing something crazy like this, maybe you wanna mess with all the clocks to fuck with people's perceptions of time, for some reason. But what the hell is the point if you miss one?"

"P-Perhaps they just overlooked it...?" Ophelia suggested.

"We can't get mired in going over this," Linos said, rubbing his eyes. "Miss Hoa-Trinh, I appreciate you bringing this to everyone's attention. But we should keep moving and get to the dining room."

"I agree," she said.

We resumed walking and quickly arrived, throwing open the doors. The room was, like the game room, more or less unchanged since Bardiya and Durvasa's argument, save that the tablecloth had been changed and there were no golems. Presumably they withdrew them all to some location during the night.

"I've expanded my barrier a little to keep the whole area protected, so some of you should go into the kitchen and gather up food and the like. Get some oil, too."

"I, uh, suppose I'll go," Theo said, stepping back a bit.

"I will accompany him," Bardiya said, with a resolute nod.

"Me too, I guess..." Ptolema said. Seth followed behind them as well.

"Alright," Linos said, taking a deep breath. "Everyone get out your scepters. We'll go over it alphabetically."

"Um... Bardiya just stepped away," Ophelia said.

He clicked his tongue. "Right. We'll skip one, then." He looked to Ezekiel. "Mister Ilaadbat, if you would?"

Ezekiel looked irritated, but nevertheless flipped over his scepter. He was, as I mentioned, at least usually deferential to authority figures. "Let's see. Obviously, I have the three beguilements--"

Suddenly, there was a sharp bang from outside the room, somewhere down the way we'd came, accompanied by a flash of light visible underneath the door. Everyone turned their heads.

And that was when things truly began to fall apart.