“Dammit, Natalie, just tell us what you have told them. What the hell are you even worried about?” locked inside of their own room Carmen questioned Natalie with a harsh and even slightly threatening tone: “They haven’t put a gag curse on you have they?”

 

“No they haven’t. It’s just - I really can't, okay?” Natalie curled up in her bed with tears in her eyes: “We just should have never come here! And we should have never tried to steal from the owner or spy on him. We’ve made a big mistake.”

 

“A mistake would be to not try.” Carmen said: “You know and we know that the codex is mostly likely here, and not somewhere inside a Division vault. Imagine what our rewards would be, if we not only reported to Lady Vyn about its location but actually brought it back to her. Aren’t you a little tired of the hand-me-down spell books and second rated materials for experiment? Aren’t you even a little tired of being stuck in the third tier?”

 

“We cannot advance unless we make some truly substantial contributions.” Kate said from the side: “We would still have a chance to make this right - to get out of here. But we cannot unless you tell us everything you told them.”

 

“Nothing … nothing major.” Natalie sniffled: “The gag curse is still in place here. But they know that we’re spies now, and that you weren’t just looking around touring the place.”

 

“What did they do to you?” Kate laid her hand on Natalie’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort and console her: “They didn’t … they didn’t use force to make you talk right?”

 

“No...” Natalie shook her head, then she turned to Kate: “And we’re not getting outta here.”

 

“Why? They can’t keep us here forever!” Carmen said: “Just be ready to break out! Come on, Kate, we’ve gotta be ready. They made a horrible mistake not placing restraining spells on us.”

 

“How strong is the receptionist?” Kate asked Natalie with a frown: “If we work together and we have the element of surprise, do you think we can subdue him?”

 

“No.” Natalie shook her head, and the lock on their door to their room clicked, someone was about to come in.

 

Carmen and Kate jumped from the positions, their spells and magical artifacts completely ready to strike. But when the door swung open and a man on a wheelchair appeared behind the door, their spells and artifacts instantly lost all of their energy and power, as if something just “scooped” their energy away out of nowhere.

 

“What the - ” “Fuck!”

 

“Hello there, unfriendly spies, and Ms. Natalie.” the man came into the room with a smile: “Don’t bother trying that again - unless you would like to contribute more to the running and maintenance of my inn. What you just did will be keeping the lights in the inn on for … a couple more minutes. ”

 

“Who are you?” Carmen reached behind her waist and asked.

 

“My name is Jianmen, or you can call me Mr. Yu. I am the owner of … ” the man smiled, but Carmen did not give him a chance and just threw a knife at him.

 

The knife’s trajectory curved up as if something was attracting it from above, and it banged on a high position of the wall behind Jianmen, then bounced on the ceiling and flew back at Carmen. Before Carmen could even move her body to attempt to evade, the knife just hit her on her left shoulder, with the tip of its blade sunk into her skin and muscle, while the entirety of the knife just stood straight like a birthday candle on a cake, or a car’s side-view mirror.

 

“Oh geez...” Carmen trembled and almost fell onto the ground due to fear-induced paralysis: “Kate - the antidote, now!”

 

“No need. ” Jianmen snapped his fingers and then the knife just jumped out of the wound, and Carmen started bleeding from her shoulder - though the wound did not appear to be serious at all.

 

Kate rushed to Carmen’s side and tore off a part of the clothing on Carmen’s shoulder, the wound was bleeding fresh red blood, but there were no dark patches, no abnormal swollen tissues or any other sign of poison near the wound.

 

Kate fed Carmen a couple of pills, then took out a small bottle of ointment and rubbed it on the wound: “I don’t understand - I thought it’s coated - ”

 

“One of the rules of my inn: no toxic shit inside the inn, unless you’re intentionally using it on yourself.” Jianmen chuckled and said: “Normally guests won't get hurt either. But you’re not exactly guests, so a lesson could be taught.”

 

“What do you want?” Kate watched as the ointment took effect and Carmen’s wound healed up: “And who are you?”

 

“I told you, I am the owner of this inn.” Jianmen smiled: “And you could leave, unharmed and with everything you brought here with you, minus a few days’ room charges of course, if you could tell me everything - what you came here for, who your employer is.”

 

“We can’t, we’re under a gag curse.” Carmen grabbed her left shoulder and said.

 

“And our families are held by our employer. You know what would happen if we talked.” Kate said.

 

“I can help you with the first thing.” Jianmen pulled three dolls made of dried grass and small rattan branches out from his pocket: “I was told that the gag curse was placed on your throat and in your head, but not fully attached to your soul, right?”

 

“What?” Carmen and Kate asked at the same time.

 

“Yes.” Natalie answered after wiping her eyes and nose: “It’s done via a mixture of blood from some snakes, toads and a concoction from some herbs - I don’t know what the exact ingredients are, because they never told us. But I can tell it does not bind the soul.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, sorry, just out of caution,  old habit.” Jianmen chuckled, then placed the three dolls on the nightstand near Kate’s bed: “Okay, now, all I need is just a drop of your blood on one of these dolls.”

 

“No!” Carmen refused right away: “Don’t even think about - ”

 

Natalie jumped over, and dripped a drop of her blood from the tip of her left index finger.