A couple of cups of hot chocolate and two cozy jackets later, my girlfriends were getting quite warmed up. Em had given me my leather jacket back as well, luckily so because the room was getting a bit colder as time went on.

Aileen had noticed it too. “Alessia, is somethin’ on with the central heatin’? It’s getting pretty cold.” 

“One of the geothermal heat pumps has been acting up. We’ve ordered replacement parts for it, but there’s been a delay in shipping. Sorry for the inconvenience.” 

“Guess it’s hard to maintain a castle.” I said after taking another sip from my glass. 

“Definitely, I will have to teach you quite a lot to keep this place in working order.” Alessia nodded as she signed to Claudia.

“I almost forgot you’d made me your successor.” 

“You’ll do fine.” Em reassured me. 

“We’re here to help you too, Rora!” Ria did so too after drinking from her chocolate milk, it did leave her with a whipped cream moustache. 

Claudia came back with the first plates of dessert. “Crème brûlée.” She put down plates in front of Alessia, Ria and Myself before a couple of other waiters served the rest. 

“Oh, yummy!” Ria softly clapped her hands in happiness. The crème brûlée didn’t last long on her plate, and to be honest, mine was gone a bit sooner than I expected too, although Ria did help me a bit with that. 

 

After everyone was done eating, Alessia stood up and addressed the room. “Friends, both old and new, after having had this wonderful dessert, I’d like to thank you all for coming to the conclave. We don’t have anything else planned for the evening, so feel free to excuse yourself.”

A couple of the others stood up and thanked Alessia for the evening, and then walked off to the hallway. In the end it was only me, my girlfriends, Aileen, Alessia, Viktor and Alex left.

“I think I’ll also leave for the night.” Aileen slowly stood up from her chair. 

“Are you going to hit up some nightclubs?” Alex asked. 

“Quite probably.” Aileen smirked. 

“Mind if I come with?” 

“Go ahead, I aint stopping ya.”

“What about you, Viktor?” Alex asked. 

“I don’t know.” He looked at me. “I’ve not talked a lot with Aurora today.” 

“I don’t think Aurora minds, Viktor.” Alessia said. 

“True, these are your friends, right? You should hang out with them if you want to, we can take care of ourselves.”

Viktor smiled and nodded. “Then I’ll come along.” 

“Alright, I’ll be grabbin’ somethin’ real fast from my room. Meet eachother outside in five?” 

Alex and Viktor agreed and the three of them left the room. 

“And what are you three going to do?” Alessia asked us next. 

“Hmm, maybe an evening walk or something like that, after that a shower and then bed?” I replied. 

“Oh, I’d love to take an evening walk. But I’d like to put on some other clothes first, though.” Em said. 

“Your luggage should be in your room, want me to take you there?” 

“Might be for the best, I kinda already forgot where our room was.” I scratched the back of my head. 

“Are you also coming, Ria?” Em stood up and walked over to our girlfriend, offering her hand. 

“Of course.” She smiled.

“I guess we are ready then, Alessia.” I stood up too and waited for our hostess to lead us on. 

“Good, follow me.” Alessia stood up, smiled and took us with her.

 

It actually didn’t take as long as I remembered to get to our room.

“If you want to go outside, just go down the stairs and follow the left wall and the right wall and up the stairs when you come back. So you won’t get lost.” Alessia fished the key to our room from her pocket and gave it to me.

“Right, thanks, that’s a pretty useful tip.”

“If you get lost anyway, I’ll give you a couple of telephone numbers, including my own, so you can call for help.” She also handed me a card with five telephone numbers. 

I laughed. “You really did think of everything, didn't you?” 

“That’s my job.” She winked. “Anyhow, I wish you all a very nice evening and a good night.” Alessia waved goodbye to me and my girlfriends.

“For you too!” Ria said as we all waved her goodbye as well.

Once she turned the corner, I turned around and put the key in the lock and turned it open. “Let’s see what this room is all about.” 

When I opened the door, my mouth almost hit the floor, even Emma and Ria were visibly impressed.

“Wow.” We said in choir. 

Immediately at the beginning of our room, there was a sizable sitting area arranged around a majestic fireplace. There were a couple of dark wooden bookcases put against the wall next to it, filled with old, expensive-looking books. The sofas of the sitting area were made out of very soft-looking purple fabric. Further in the room was probably the crown piece of the suite, the outright massive bed, which even had purple privacy curtains that were neatly tied up to the darkwood posts. Where the floor wasn’t covered with fluffy looking rugs, it had very nicely polished wood that was slightly lighter than the wood used for the furniture. The moonlight coming in from the majestic window next to the bed reflected very nicely on it. 

“Wow…” I repeated as I flicked on the light. 

“Is that the bathroom, Rora?” Ria pointed at a door in between the ‘bedroom’ and the ‘reading area’

“Uh, probably.” I looked around and gasped at a big wall tapestry on my left. “W-wanna go take a look?” 

“This really feels like exploring your hotel room on holiday, doesn’t it?” Em giggled. 

“Probably, I wouldn’t know.” I laughed and headed over to the closed door. When I opened it, I was greeted with another door on my left and a door in front of me. Ria went ahead and opened the latter. 

“Ah, this is the toilet.” She peaked in. 

“And then this is the bathroom itself, I guess.” I opened the door on my left and was left completely speechless until Em and Ria joined me.

“Holy Goddess….” Em said as she slowly walked in. 

To our right was a normal bath, a walk-in shower and two washing tables. These were separated by a wall and a glass door from the most impressive thing I’d ever seen. Some kind of bubble bath overlooking the valley. 

Em opened the glass door and crouched down next to the bubble bath, putting her hand in it. “The water’s already warm….” 

“Will be good for when we come back from our walk.” 

“But Roraaaaa!” Ria put up her complainy voice. She had already found her way to the bath and was crouched next to Emma. “We should get in, noooooooow!” 

“It’ll feel much better after an evening stroll, though.” Em backed me up and walked past me into the main living room. 

“You sportsy people with your outdoorsy stuff.” Ria pouted.

“The sooner you get dressed, the sooner we can take a walk and the sooner we can all get into the hottub. How does that sound?”

“Hmmm.” She continued pouting. 

“What if I give you a massage as well?” 

Her face immediately brightened. “Yes! Deal!” She got up and ran past me. 

“Hey! Auro! That’s unfair! I want a massage too!” Em complained, she’d already opened up her suitcase to get some more comfy clothes on. 

“Of course. I wouldn’t have offered it to Ria otherwise.” I smiled and closed the bathroom door behind me. 

 

“Aren’t you going to change, Auro?” Em asked while she was tying up her sneakers. She’d put on a pink hoodie and some comfy looking sweatpants. 

“Nah, I want to walk in these shoes a bit more. Plus, this outfit is already comfy enough.” 

“I should’ve gone for the suit as well.” Em sighed.

“Eh, you look really cute in the dress as well.” 

Her cheeks blushed red. “M-mhmm”

“I’d love to see Emma in a suit too!” Ria said as she zipped up her jacket. She’d gone for the sneaker, tights, skirt combo.

“M-maybe next time.” 

Once Ria had tied her shoes as well, we were all ready for our late-evening stroll.

“Got your key?” Em asked as she opened the door. 

“Yep, it’s right here.” I dangled them around in front of me.

“You should give the reserve keys to me and Ria, just in case you lose it.” 

“Good idea.” I took two of the four keys off and handed one to Ria and one to Em. 

“Oh! Give me a second!” Ria ran back to her suitcase and came back with three little bears in different colours. 

“I got these from my bear collection, and I wanted to give them to you as a present.” She handed the yellow one to Emma and the Blue one to me, keeping the pink one to herself. “That way we match.” 

“Awh, Ria, that’s really cute.” Em hugged our girlfriend. 

“Goddess, Ria, you are going to kill me one day with your wholesomeness.” The little bears all had an iron ring attached to them, making them perfect for keys. I also gave her a hug once Em had released her from hers. Afterwards I quickly attached my keys to the little unbearably cute keychain. 

Em and Ria did the same.

“Now, let’s go before she kills us with even more cuteness.” Em took Ria’s hand and started following the left wall. 

I could just hear Ria giggle as I locked the door behind us with a big smile. “Yeah, that sounds like a plan.”