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Day three, part four

That horrifying thing was Simul Stoicheio… wearing a long rainbow dress and rainbow headband to match her hair. But that, while rather harmful to the eyes, wasn’t the worst part. She was singing a song that was quite obviously far too high for her to even attempt… her screeching could make a Banshee cower and cover her ears in pure agony. Simul did this all as she twirled around in front of the castle with her eyes closed, always wavering dangerously close to the moat, but never falling into the water. 

Winter, Night, and Quill covered their ears, but Gracia, Bean, and Dewy endured it out of politeness- though they weren’t doing their ears any favors.

“Let’s just run for it and hope she doesn’t see us!” Quill whispered loudly. The others nodded vigorously. 

“One-two-threegonow!” hissed Night. The six girls sprinted to either the left or the right around their (possibly insane?) host, meeting together at the bridge over the moat. The group of CBettes tiptoed across the bridge and down the hill, then sighed with relief.

“That could have been… veeeery awkward,” commented Winter.

“Yeah, you said it,” agreed Bean. 

“Er,  why don’t we start on that path?” suggested Dewy, pointing to the path on the left. 

“Yeah, sure,” concurred Gracia. Together, the group set off.

~~~~~~~~~~

Far sat alone in a library, re(rererererere)reading The Hobbit, all of his thoughts to himself, when he heard the door creak open. His initial thought was, dear gods, the murderer’s coming, I’m done for! But then he saw, through the shadows of the bookshelves and cozy chairs,  that the figure was carrying a book. 

That doesn’t mean they’re not the murderer. Maybe they’re going to bludgeon me to death with that huge book!

But even as the thought occurred, it made less sense that he would be killed at that moment… He watched as Levana close the door behind her, then turn around and jump as she saw Far.

This doesn’t mean she’s not the killer. This could just be a stunt to make me think that she won’t hurt me. 

“Far!” Levana peeped, “I didn’t realize you were here.”

“It’s alright. Here, you can sit and read.”

I’m not going to die today.

This thought came from both of them… on high alert, the two intelligent AEs had never let their guard down since they had seen Soren hanging from the chandelier.

Better to be suspicious than sorry. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Wren sat around a table with Jwyn, Autumn, Viola?, and Sea Glass, each person making her/xyr own creation- the group had discovered a room devoted to art, then promptly scrambled inside, finding stone brick walls lined with canvases, tables stacked high with blank paper, and drawers filled with a wide variety of media. They didn’t even pause to think before choosing their materials and getting to work on their art. Sea Glass worked on another bracelet; Autumn Artist was folding origami; Jwyn was sculpting with clay; Viola? was drawing with brush pens; and Wren was doodling with a few pencils. 

“We have to tell everyone about this room. It’s amazing, it’s got everything we could ever want for art!” exclaimed Autumn. The others nodded their agreement. 

“Done!” Jwyn announced triumphantly, holding up a runny, blobby penguin made of clay. Its beak slipped off its head and and onto the table with a wet splat.

“Nevermind, I’m not done,” Jwyn grumbled. Wren and Viola? laughed.

Sea Glass continued to weave three pieces of pastel-colored string together, hardly noticing what was going around xyr. The soft yellow, baby blue, and off-white sort of reminded xyr of the beach. For a second, xe was filled with the longing for a long walk on the beach, and xe could feel the grains of sand in-between xyr toes, but then Sea Glass remembered that xe was on a vacation- a vacation that taught people how to use magic powers! No, xe was happy with xyr position, even with no beach near xyr.

Viola? took a peek at what Wren was drawing- it was Simul Stoicheio. “Wow, Wren, that great!” she complimented. Wren jumped slightly.

“O-oh! Thank you,” Wren stuttered quickly. 

“Oh, whatever!” Jwyn howled, squishing her droopy clay animal into a puddle of clay once more. “Y’know, I think I’ll make a collage instead.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The six guests, Gracia, Night, Dewy, Bean, Quill, and Winter, trooped through the forest in a disorganized line. Occasionally, they hd to jump over roots or duck under low-hanging branches, but the path was relatively clear and smooth.

“Have you guys wondered why Simul doesn’t have feet? I mean, she just looks weird, floating around in the air,” said Winter.

“Oh my gosh, yes,”  Gracia responded.

“Why is there just this castle in the middle of nowhere?” wondered Night.

“Yes, these are the questions…” added Bean.

“What magic does Simul have, exactly? It seems limitless,” questioned Quill.

“That’s a good one too,” Gracia told Quill.

“Why hasn’t she done more about the murderer?” exploded Dewy. There was a pause.

“Now that,” said Bean, “That really is the question.”

About half an hour later, the guests had gathered back on the main floor for lunch. Nihil kept teleporting from shadow to shadow, and Nymph had a ridiculously long dragonic tail that people kept tripping over, and Devin was playing on his Switch at full volume, so many of them were annoyed, but for the most part, content and happy.

“Where are Leeli and Leafy?” asked Artimerrx.

“There in the Earth room,” piped up Wendy, “They won’t be here for lunch, but they’ll go to magic lessons, they said.”

Marigold stared at her AE in wonder- Wendy almost never added bits to the conversation that were even slightly related to what everyone else was talking about.

Simul Stoicheio appeared through the doors to the dining hall.

“Come in, lovelies, come in!” she trilled. 

“She took that headband out, thank Kyngdom,” Night muttered to Gracia. They both smiled. Indeed, Simul had mercifully donned her usual silver dress. 

All of the guests entered the dining hall. A feast was awaiting them. The murderer blended into the crowd, not wanting to blow their new plan by dashing in first. It was so convenient that Nihil had brought poisonous plants… 

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*Takes another step away from Nihil* Wait, I forgot and am too lazy to go back and search - am I dead yet?

*Is watching intently* I'm being mentioned rather a lot here... That means either I'll die soon or - *Smiles, eyes glinting* I'm the murderer.

*Takes yet another large step away from Nihil* Murdered by your own CAPTCHAE... Imagine that! 

Day three, part five

Lunch was fairly enjoyable that day; Marigold started a game of Twenty questions with the majority of the guests (Levana, Alex, Nymph, Nihil, Wendy and Far opted to eat in silence) and the game took a rather hilarious twist when Devin chose a blobfish for the others to guess (it lead to questions such as “Is it uglier than my CBer?” and “Is it covered in slime? Why is it covered in slime?”). Mor made Darkking laugh so hard milk came out of his nose, and another food fight erupted at one point. Though it stopped when someone tried to throw a piece of watermelon at Jwyn but missed and hit Nymph instead. She went a little berserk and spewed out a number of threats (Sea Glass was almost in tears and xe didn’t even know why). 

About thirty minutes later, Quill and Autumn Artist died of poisoning.

The other guests and instructors had feared the worst when the two CBettes didn’t show up for lessons. Ingus and Aqua sent one student from their class to look for the missing guest of their element (Mor from fire and Viola? from water). Both found the CBette they were sent to search for dead. 

These findings did not start magic lessons off on a good note. However, the instructors were not going to give up the chance for a magic lesson- they were, after all, the whole reason behind the vacation. So when Mor came back and said “Atum dead!” and the other students began to gasp and shout and whisper, Ingus only gave the group a few seconds before she shouted, “Okay, okay.  Focus on the lessons now, idiots- I mean, my wonderful and positively delightful students! Or I’ll set your hair on fire!”

Nobody in the group doubted it Ingus would really do this- they had learned from yesterday’s lesson that she was the kind of person who would make you pay if you messed with her- so they quickly decided to discuss the matter later. 

“Right. Today we’re still focusing on the basics. Produce a small flame from your finger. Don’t burn anything or I’ll personally see that you’ll be punished brutally, this is my furniture,” Ingus instructed forcefully. Mor, Sea Glass, Devin, Artimerrx, and Wendey stared at their own fingers, eyebrows furrowed and faces screwed up in concentration. Well, Wendey not so much- her eyes kept gliding out of focus and wandering around the room. 

The same began in all of the other rooms- they all went quiet as the CBeings concentrated on producing their elemental object. There was a little more progress than the day before- Night Vision and Dewy both grew small sprouts from their palms, Rogue made a breeze ripple through Caeli’s hair, Leeli and Catsclaw procured pebbles from the floor, and Mor and Artimerrx made small flames blossom from their fingertips. However, most of the other guests became rather dejected by the sight of their classmates’ success. The instructors encouraged them not to give up- okay, well, maybe not all of the instructors- but that was the only progress made that day. 

Simul sighed. Magic lessons just got over. She was tired, even though it was only day three and she had had four cups of coffee.

“Dear me,” she said to herself, “I seem to be following in the footsteps of Lorelei Gilmore.” She chortled a little bit at the reference.

Her laughter was stifled, however, when her walkie-talkie crackled with static and the murderer’s voice. “Simul.”

Simul paused, closed her eyes, inwardly cursed, then picked up the walkie-talkie. “Yellow. By Coldplay. Weird song. I don’t know what I’m saying. Nevermind. What’s up, other than the sky?”

“You need serious help.”

“Noted.”

“Are you mentally stable?”

“What do you need.”

“Autumn Artist and Quill are dead, Simul.”

Simul stopped. Not only at the news itself, that two more guests were gone, but also that the murderer didn’t sound remotely happy about it. Indeed, they had a small lilt of sadness in their voice. Like they couldn’t help but regret what they’d done.

“You had to, you know. And you know the truth,” Simul said in a comforting tone.

“Yes, I know,” the murderer sighed. They were tired too. “I just wanted you to know.”

Simul bit her lip. She wanted to tell them how awful it was that they had to be chosen. That they didn’t deserve it. That the horrible things weren’t their fault. That she was sorry.

But then the walkie-talkie went silent. The conversation was over.

She sighed once more.

Simul felt bad for the killer.

~~~~~~~~~~

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