Goldie~ I just finished catching up with this, and it's so good! I thought the murderer was Strawberri up until now. My main suspects are Win and Dusk.

As for whoever or whatever is locked in the turret... I don't know. Goldie has been saying she wants to keep the guests safe and this is how she thinks she'll do it, but I'm not sure if that's misguided or the thing in the tower is actually harmful. As for the murderer, they're trying to set it free either to be nice or to harm everyone...

Oh wait- theory! I just remembered Goldie had a picture frame on her desk, and someone else was torn out of the picture- they're probably the one in the tower, weather they did something to Goldie or Goldie did something to them. That's why the turret would only be built in recent years! :O

Part Thirty-Two

~

When Gracia and Agent Winter entered the library, they found the other CBers deep in quiet concentration. They all had their noses buried in books, but looked up when the two entered the room.

“How did it go?” Dusk asked, closing her book.

Win shrugged uncomfortably. “Well… it didn’t really go as expected.”

“What do you mean?” Jubilee asked. “Did she try to hurt you or something?”

Gracia and Win looked at one another. “No,” Gracia said slowly. “Actually, she said she’s not the murderer.”

There was a confused uproar.

“What do you mean, not the murderer?” Strawberri said, flushed and angry. “She tried to end me!”

“That’s what I said!” Win exclaimed, and Gracia elbowed her.

“So what should we do?” Bluebell asked.

Gracia shrugged. “We left her in there for now. Maybe we should take a vote? Who believes her and who doesn’t? Then we can go from there.”

The others agreed, and the vote was counted. Strawberri, Agent Winter, and Jubilee didn’t believe Ever- they thought it was a trick or a lie to get them to trust her. Gracia, Bluebell, Hollyshock, and Dusk all thought Evergreen was telling the truth.

In the end, they decided to leave their decision for later- it wouldn’t do her much harm to stay locked up while they figured things out, and after all, if she really was the murderer, letting her out could do them quite a bit of harm.

“So,” Win said, sitting down in an armchair. “Did you guys find anything while we were gone?”

Bluebell shook her head. “Nothing. There are surprisingly few books about the palace itself, so we basically resorted to looking through glossaries for any mention of it in other books.”

“Which didn’t work very well,” Dusk added.

“We about to call it quits when you guys came back,” Jubilee said.

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts about what was going on. It was all very strange, and to some of them, there seemed to be more than one mystery in the Golden Palace.

“What do you all think is going on with Goldie?” Bluebell asked suddenly.

The other CBers shrugged- they’d all witnessed the host’s strange behavior at some time or other during the vacation.

“I’m not sure,” Agent Winter said. “I mean, she’s always acted a little strange, but I’ve definitely noticed some weird stuff in the past few days.”

“Me too! When I went to tell her about Evergreen, her room was an absolute mess,” Bluebell said. “It looked like a tornado had gone though it- or maybe an earthquake would be more appropriate,” she added, thinking of the other strange occurrence.

“That must be why she wouldn’t let us in the other day!” Dusk remarked to Gracia. “She was being really strange then, too.”

“That’s when I noticed it,” Strawberri agreed. “I found her looking for something, but she wouldn’t tell me what. And she seemed really distracted.”

“I just can’t understand what Goldie has to do with any of this,” Gracia said with a frustrated sigh. “None of it makes any sense.”

“We could ask her about it,” Dusk suggested.

“Or,” Jubi said, a mischievous look in their eyes, “we could follow her.”

“Follow her?” Holly echoed, looking alarmed. “That sounds like a really bad idea, Jubi.”

“I think it sounds like a great idea,” Win said. “She keeps avoiding us for some reason, so why not find out why?”

“You probably shouldn’t go alone,” Gracia pointed out.

Jubi grinned and threw their arm around Holly’s shoulders. “That’s why Holly’s coming with me!”

A while later, after much protesting on Holly’s part, the two CBers were approaching the door to Goldie’s bedffice. It was ajar, and they could hear loud noises coming from inside, meaning Goldie was there.

“So what do we do? Just wait for her to come out?” Holly whispered.

Almost immediately after she finished speaking, the door swung all the way open. Jubilee pulled Holly quickly behind a tapestry hanging on the wall, and they stood there with bated breath until the sound of footsteps was almost gone.

Jubi poked their head out and gave the all clear. “She’s gone! She turned right, come on!” They started down the hallway, Holly close behind.

“I still think this is a bad idea,” she said. “What if she catches us? What if we follow her around all day and nothing happens? Or worse, what if we see something we don’t want to?”

Jubilee slowed down and looked questioningly at her. “What do you mean, something we don’t want to? Isn’t that the whole point?”

Holly tugged at her sleeve. “I don’t know. I just- it sort of seems like Goldie’s trying to… I don’t know… protect us from something?”

Before Jubi could respond, they reached the point where the hallway turned. Quickly, they peeked around the corner to check if Goldie was there. They spotted her rounding another corner, this time going left.

“All clear?” Holly asked, and Jubi nodded.

“Yeah, let’s go so we don’t lose her!”

The two tailed the Palace Keeper in this way until finally she reached a place of some interest. Watching around the corner of a wall, Jubilee and Hollyshock saw Goldie approach a spiraling staircase that neither of them recognized. It seemed entirely unremarkable. The host began to climb the stairs, soon vanishing from sight.

“What do you think is up there?” Jubi whispered. “I didn’t think the palace had a third floor.”

“One of the turrets, maybe?” Holly suggested. “I don’t know. So I guess we just wait until she comes back down?”

Jubi nodded, and so they waited. It was nearly twenty minutes before Goldie returned, and now that they could see her face, it seemed her expression was grim, but also slightly relieved. After taking a few deep breaths, she set off again, thankfully not in the direction of the two CBers. Again, they followed her.

After a few minutes, it seemed that Goldie was headed back in the direction of the library. Holly and Jubi realized this at the same time, looking at one another in dismay. If Goldie were to find all the CBers in the library except for them, she would probably wonder where they were, and it would look a little suspicious if they walked in right after her.

However, before reaching the library, the Palace Keeper turned down another hallway. Once again, Holly and Jubi peered around the corner to watch what she was doing. The hallway was dark, darker than the rest of the palace, and lit only by candles mounted on the walls. After a short ways, it stopped in a dead end. Goldie was staring up at something on the wall, some kind of painting.

“What should I do?” she was saying desperately. “I wish you were here. This wasn’t supposed to happen… None of it was.”

While the host was speaking, Holly nudged Jubi with her elbow and pointed down the hallway to the library doors. “Let’s go now, while her back is turned!” she whispered.

“But-” Jubi started, clearly wanting to stay and hear more. Then they nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

The two CBers broke cover, sprinting for the library. In their haste, they failed to hear the soft sobs echoing down the hallway.

~~~

@Luna, thank you so much! Those are some really great theories, it's awesome to hear your thoughts!

Part Thirty-Three

~

Jubilee and Hollyshock burst through the doors, out of breath. Holly let the door swing shut behind her, catching it to make sure it closed softly, then jumped into a nearby armchair.

“If anyone asks, we were here the whole time!” Jubi said.

“How did it go?” Win asked.

Holly shook her head. “Goldie’s right outsi-” she started, but her words were cut off abruptly by the doors opening again.

“Hello, everyone!” Goldie said, striding in. She seemed to be every but her usual self, but the CBers weren’t fooled. No amount of pretending could convince them anymore that everything was fine.

“Hi, Goldie,” Bluebell said to humor her. “Do you need something?”

Goldie beamed. “Nope! I just wanted to check in with you wonderful CBers!”

“Because that’s not suspicious at all,” Win muttered.

“Sorry, did you say something?” Goldie asked, then continued without waiting for an answer. “You know what? We should do something fun today! Maybe something outside? The weather is gorgeous!”

“That actually sounds really nice!” Dusk said, nodding. “What should we do?”

“Oh, there are a number of things to do! We could hike, go swimming again, work in the garden-”

“That sounds like fun!” Strawberri said.

“Perfect!” Goldie agreed, smiling. “Then how about I meet you all at the front doors in, say, ten minutes?” She left, whistling cheerily.

“Well, that was convincing,” Win said sarcastically.

“Oh, come on, she’s trying,” Gracia admonished. “And gardening sounds like fun! We need to do something to de-stress.”

Dusk turned to Jubilee and Holly. “So, what did you two see? Anything interesting?”

“We followed her around for a bit, and at one point she went up this staircase and didn’t come down for a while,” Jubilee said. “That was kind of strange.”

Bluebell exchanged looks with both Dusk and Gracia in turn, but none of them said anything.

“Then after that, she came in the direction of the library,” Holly continued, “but she made a detour down this weird dead-end hallway and talked to a painting.”

“Oh!” Gracia said. “Bluebell and I found that hallway the other day! A dead end, lit by candles, and with a portrait of an old man, right?”

“We didn’t see what the portrait was, but the rest sounds right,” Jubi confirmed.

“You said she talked to it?” Bluebell asked curiously. “What did she say?”

Jubi shrugged. “I don’t know, something like oh no, what should I do, none of this was supposed to happen!”

“Bluebell, was there anything about an old man in your books?” Dusk asked.

She shook her head. “No, most of the books I found were blueprints or maps, not actual history of the palace. There was one I saw in the card catalogue called A Long and Detailed History of the Castle or something like that, but I couldn’t find it on the shelf.”

“Do you think someone took it?” Winter asked.

“Like who? Goldie?” Strawberri asked.

Win shrugged. “I guess. We know she’s hiding something, and maybe the palace’s history has something to do with it.”

“This is all very, very strange,” Gracia stated, and everyone had to agree with her.

After chatting about the palace and Goldie and whatnot for a little while longer, the CBers left the library and made their way to the entrance. Goldie was there waiting for them, holding a large wicker basket of gardening supplies.

“There you are!” she said, hurrying over to them excitedly. “Are you ready to garden?”

They all nodded, smiling. False or not, the host’s enthusiasm was rubbing off on them.

“What are we gardening?” Dusk asked as they all walked outside.

“Oh, I figured we’d start a new one!” Goldie responded. “There’s a nice plot of land with nothing planted, which seemed just about perfect!”

They soon reached said land, and found rows of raised wooden boxes filled with soil. Goldie set down her basket and reached in.

“Alright, everyone take a trowel,” she said, passing them around. “Then come pick your seeds! There’s some of just about everything.”

The CBers crowded forward to choose what seeds they wanted to plant. Gracia chose tomatoes, Win chose mint, Dusk chose sunflowers, Strawberri chose peppers, Bluebell chose bluebells, Holly chose lavender, and Jubilee chose to plant an assortment of seeds and just see what happened to grow. Goldie would intermittently chaperone and plant watermelon.

The sun shined bright on their backs as they worked, and all their problems seemed to melt away. As they all methodically planted, digging their hands into the warm dirt, their minds drifted into the realm of pleasant thoughts and fantastical ideas. They were able to breathe deeply for the first time in days, able to let go of their worries and woes.

All but one.

One CBer’s mind was quickly and decisively flipping through plans, dangers, precautions. They knew what they had to do, and that they needed to avoid anything at all going wrong. It was all coming together, the pieces of the puzzle at last clicking into place. They couldn’t afford to fail now. No, they couldn’t.

When the sun threatened to sink below the horizon and the breeze blew with a more pronounced chill, the CBers and Goldie headed back up to the palace, all thoroughly pleased with the day’s work. They ate a quick dinner, talking and joking like they’d done back in what they’d come to think of as the good old days., before the murder and mystery. Even Goldie stopped acting strange and suspicious, and seemed to be her usual cheery self once again.

After dinner, Goldie left to return to her bedffice, and the CBers climbed the stairs to their rooms- or rather, room, since at the moment they were all occupying one. When they reached the hallway, Gracia made a beeline to check the lock on the Tanzanite Room, and Win, Dusk, and Jubi stooped to pick up their bags from the floor.

“All good,” Gracia reported. “Maybe we should set guards tonight, though.”

Bluebell nodded. “Good idea. I can take the first watch.”

Jubilee heaved their bag onto their shoulder, and gave a small gasp when the strap ripped. Their belongings spilled onto the ground, and everyone scrambled to pick things up.

“Thanks, guys,” Jubi said as everything was replaced in the bag. “Oh, hey!” They bent over and picked up a large pinecone.

“What was that doing in your bag?” Holly asked, confused.

Win was looking at the pinecone with recognition. “Wait a minute, is that-”

“The Official Tree Race Trophy!” Jubilee finished, grinning broadly. “I forgot I had this!”

Bluebell quickly explained to Holly, who hadn’t been there, what the pinecone was. The rest of the CBers smiled fondly at the memory. The sense of tranquility from the garden was still upon them, now mixed with nostalgia. Jubi placed the trophy carefully back in their bag, then led the way into the Amethyst Room. Bluebell stayed outside of Tanzanite.

As she got ready to go to sleep, Gracia glanced at Agent Winter, sitting in a bed with her knees drawn up. Sitting in Dolphin’s bed. It was strange to see it occupied, after being empty for so long.

Win’s thoughts were along the same lines. She was painfully aware that it had been Dolphin’s bed, and although she firmly did not believe in ghosts, something about it felt… haunted. I’m sleeping in a dead person’s bed. She shivered, then lay back and did her best to dismiss the thought.

At midnight, Strawberri relieved a grateful Bluebell from guard duty. She stood outside the Tanzanite Room, hopping from foot to foot and shaking her head in an attempt to fully wake herself up. It was vaguely unsettling to be keeping watch over the person who had attempted to kill her, but she knew it had to be done.

As she thought this, she heard footsteps coming from down the hall. Her head snapped up, heart racing, but she relaxed when she saw who it was.

“Hi,” she said softly. “What are you doing up? I just relieved Bluebell.”

The other person said something, and Strawberri nodded.

“Yes, Ever’s in there. I still can’t…” She started to trail off, looking at the other person with growing unease. “Still can’t believe…” The other person closed in, and fear clouded Strawberri’s eyes. “You.” This time, she didn’t get a chance to scream.

Evergreen woke from a troubled sleep at the commotion outside the door. She gazed around for a moment, confused. The room was dark and still. Then she heard a voice, Strawberri’s voice, and she was filled with guilt. Guilt and shame, for giving in to the murderer. For trying to kill her friend. For helping hurt everyone…

Another voice chimed in, easily recognizable to Ever. It was the murderer. Anger, fear, and curiosity fought one another in her mind. Why were they here?

A moment later, she thought she knew why. There was a heavy thud, that of a body hitting the ground. It seemed the murderer had finished the job. She expected to hear retreating footsteps, but instead, the door opened. A shadowy figure stepped into the room.

“Why are-” Ever started, and the murderer gestured for her to keep her voice down. “Why are you here?” she whispered. Sudden hope gripped her. “Are you here to let me out?”

The murderer chuckled, and Ever knew instantly that she was mistaken. “I’m afraid not. See, while you don’t know everything, you know enough. I don’t trust you not to sing like a bird. I’d kill you afterwards, of course, but the damage would already be done. They’d know who I am, and that would make things quite a bit harder.”

The murderer started forward, and Ever pressed herself against the wall. “Don’t- don’t do this!” she stuttered.

“I’m sorry, Ever,” they said, but their face told a different story. “Your time is up.”