“I am pretty sure that we’re not watched before we came in.” Kate was sitting on her bed, drinking Chinese plum wine from a glass: “And I am pretty certain that our energy signature suppression artifacts are not faulty. I triple checked them before we departed, and I checked them again when we parked.”
“And I can confirm that our energy signature leaks are minimal, by any measures we should be no different than any civilians.” Natalie’s voice was slightly muffled, because she was lying face down on the floor, with her palms touching the carpet and her face buried in a soft and furry rug.
“Regardless, we should still go out and start looking for it, the sooner the better..” Carmen said while chugging from a bottle of Chinese plum wine from the bottle: “There’s not that many rooms here, I think we can search one by one by one night. What else can you sense, Nat?”
Natalie was silent for a few seconds, then she answered: “The protective energy is particularly strong from under us - I think we should start from the ground floor and maybe the basement. But the lounge is still occupied - that man is still there.”
“We will need to create a distraction then.” Carmen wiped her mouth with her hand directly and said: “I can do that, I can start a fire in the kitchen, or I can light up the garden out there. Just give me a minute.”
“No - no. Don’t do that.” Natalie raised her head and said: “That man’s energy signature is pretty unusual, before we know what he’s capable of, we should tread with caution.”
“I agree, Carmen, this place is very different from the previous places we’ve been to.” Kate said: “The man already knows that we are not civilians, so I would imagine the owner would know about us as well. Since we don’t know how many non-civilians are staying here, if we were to use magic to create distractions, then we for sure need to find someone to take the blame, or at least to share the blame.”
“Alright, alright.” Carmen sighed and shook her plum wine bottle, then put it back on the night stand because it was empty : “How about this? Kate, you and I go and search the basement and the kitchen, Nat, you order something and maybe chat up the man and keep him here?”
“Sounds like a reasonable plan.” Kate handed Carmen her bottle and said: “Nat, you can do that right? You can probe him a little on how he knows we are not civilians, or ask him about some random things like the history of this inn, the clientele, or about the owner … ”
“Or you can just bust out the goods.” Carmen finished the entire bottle from Kate, then deliberately pulled down the collar of her shirt and joked: “You can do it, I believe you.”
“I will do no such thing.” Natalie stood up from the ground and sighed: “But yeah, I will try to stall him and keep him here. You just tell me when you want to do it.”
“Oh, then right now.” Carmen smiled, shuffled her shoulders and picked up the phone: “We will head out now, and call for room service when we’re gone.”
“Okay.” Natalie sighed and picked up the phone.
When Carmen and Kate left the room, Natalie dialed the “room service” number.
“Hello, front desk, what can I do for you?” it was Rash’s voice that came from the phone.
“Hi, hello.” Natalie stammered: “I - I was wondering if I could order something, we’re out of food… I mean … any food is okay, and we would like some more plum wine.”
“Hi, unfortunately we don’t have any food.” Rash said: “There should be some paper menus for takeout, maybe you can order from some of those. It is kinda late, so some of them might not be open, but there’s got to be some menus from places that are open 24/7. I can deliver you some more plum wine in a minute, how much would you like?”
“Three bottles please.” Natalie thought for a short moment then answered.
After only around half a minute, Rash, who was at the reception’s desk with a white fur ball on his shoulder came knocking at the door: “Hello, Miss. I am here to deliver the plum wine you ordered.”
“Thanks.” Natalie took the three bottles served in three ice buckets along with three glasses, and immediately called out to the man when he was about to leave: “Wait! Wait! My friends just went out there - can you stay for a while and just - just talk to me? You can talk to me about anything - like - like - like that fur ball on your shoulder, or the history of this inn! Or, or tell me about you? How about it?”
“Umm - ” Rash looked a bit confused: “I’ve never got a request like that before - I don’t know how I can help you with that, maybe I need to ask Boss...”
“Nonono! Please just come in.” Natalie put down the three bottles in ice buckets and grabbed the man by the arm: “Just - just come in here, and just chat with me.”
“Uh - okay, miss. But I am not sure how I can help you with anything.” Rash was dragged into the room in an awkward way and kept looking around for a place to stand or sit.
“Then treat this as a special request then - ” Natalie sat on her bed and opened a bottle of plum wine and poured herself and Rash each a glass: “Here, have a drink with me, tell me a little about the inn. I am just fascinated by this place, who designed it?”
“Oh! That I could help you with.” Rash took the glass of plum wine but held it in his hand and did not do anything with it: “This place is designed and built from the ground up by the owner, Mr. Jianmen Yu.”
“Mr. Jianmen Yu? I think I may have heard of this name.” Natalie started thinking: “And is he known for something? Is he a famous designer? Because the design of this place is quite amazing.”
“I don’t think I can give you a very good answer to that. I am not familiar with the generally accepted standard of measuring what is ‘famous’.” Rash nodded: “But I can agree to your sentiment that this place is amazing. The bricks and wood pillars and panels were all hand-crafted by the owner. He laid them down all by himself. And he picked the carpeting and the lights by himself as well. He really wanted to make sure that all our guests would feel comfortable during their stay.”
“Sounds amazing.” Natalie chuckled, then she was reminded of something so she decided to ask: “Now - I have another question - I know that you know - that we’re not civilians. But I was wondering, how did you tell?”
“That I could help you as well, seeing as you’re trying to blend in with the civilian world. It’s actually not that hard.” Rash chuckled: “First of all, most of the civilian guests we have are younger people, like college students on road trips or families. And there’s one thing I noticed - ”
“Which is?”
“Magic wielders - especially female magic wielders. They like to have color themes that match their magical powers in their outfits, and a lot of the time, magic wielders have physical manifestations of their magical power as well.”
“Huh.” Natalie stroked her hair: “Guess we hadn’t thought this civilian thing through.”
“There’s another thing.” Rash tried to snap his fingers in a clumsy way but he ended up just rubbing his fingers and not making a sound: “When you came in, there was an aura around you. It only happens to guests with powers - it could help you rest and restore your power slightly more quickly - it’s not much, but it’s enough to make our guests more comfortable.”
