Chapter 14 - Mirages

The hunt was over and now Holly was the proud owner of

272

somethings…

“I don't know how much this is,” said the zalavan. She smiled at the little dark display; even under the light of a nearby streetlamp, she could barely make out what was on the screen. Despite this, a sense of pride welled up in her as she stared at the three digits.

The hunt had gone well. Nobody died or even got hurt. They went in, killed some Scherzando, and left richer for their efforts. Now the only problem was Holly was back to being on her own and she had no clue what on Riterra she was supposed to do.

The MA office manager mentioned something about a hotel, but she had no idea where one was. At this point, all she wanted to do was sleep. It had been an extremely long day and it was all catching up with her.

With that in mind, she began to walk the streets of Pietri once again. Unlike before where the sun kept her company, her nighttime stroll was graced by the light of Luna that hung ever present in the inky darkness of the sky.

She was thankful that Maelish appeared to be the standard language here. She knew of the other language, Naturalian, but wasn’t sure where that was used outside of spellcasting. Either way, many of the signs in the coastal city were dark at night, so she didn’t have to waste time on those.

Surely there’d be a hotel open at this late hour that’d take her in. She had money now and everything!

As Holly walked, the poor girl’s heart rate steadily climbed. Not from the exertion of the seemingly endless wandering, but from a slowly growing sense of dread that crept into her chest. She really didn’t want to sleep outside. The thought of it brought a primordial sense of terror to the little plant. Despite her being alone on the streets, she felt like she was being watched. She palmed some cacao, hoping her paltry seed count would be enough to get her out of trouble.

She walked for what seemed like forever until she happened to spot another person outside what was labeled as a “hostal” more specifically named the “Sandspur Hostal”

“That’s kind of like a hotel…” Holly mumbled to herself. Either way, it was the first person she had seen since she began her aimless wandering and the only thing that looked like what she was looking for. Wanting to ease her racing heart, she gave it a shot – her desperation over not wanting to sleep outside winning over her weak willpower.

“Excuse me!” she cried out to the person.

Upon reaching them, she realized they were a fellow Resonator. They were dressed kind of plainly. What wasn’t plain was their messy red hair where medium-sized circular ears poked out from. Thin fur graced their ears and a matching short bushy tail hung behind them.

They took a drag on their cigarette before addressing the little plant. “What?” he asked gruffly.

“I was looking for somewhere to stay for the night and I think this is a place to stay.” Holly inadvertently made her eyes bigger as she pleaded with the fire element.

The Resonator man scoffed. “This is a business, not a charity.” Before he could tell her to get lost, she held her arm up.

“It’s okay Mister! I have money! I just finished helping the nice people hunt lotsa Scherzando!” the zalavan beamed.

The claim drew suspicion from the fire element, but money was money. “Since it’s after check-in time, I’ll need to book you for today and tomorrow,” he warned.

“That’s okay! I wanted to stay here for a little bit longer to get more money,” said the chipper plant.
“Hmph.” The fire element crushed his cigarette in hand and flicked it away. “Come in,” he motioned with his head for her to follow.

They walked up a set of wood stairs onto a deck before walking into a small space. It was a little office with a counter and one of those screens Holly had seen. Other than that, it was pretty utilitarian; nothing more than the screen, the counter, and the white chipped paint barely clinging to the four walls.

While the fire element clacked away in front of the screen, Holly sought to sate a curiosity.

“What kind of Resonator are you?”
“Fire-Slashing Chinchilla,” he said as if he had answered the question a million times before. He did shoot a glance up at the little plant. “What are you supposed to be?” he asked, his own curiosity piqued for once.

“I’m Holly, a uhh… Nature uhhh holly?” She wasn’t sure how to articulate what she was in the same way he had. “I’m a zalavan,” she decided the simplest way was just blunt honesty.

“Ah, a mirage, don’t see many of you around, ‘specially alone,” he noted before returning to his screen.

There were a few questions in Holly’s mind, but there was one that percolated her curiosity more vividly than the others, and it was the second time she had heard the phrase tonight. “What do you mean ‘mirage’?” she asked.

The chinchilla shot the girl an appraising look. She did look quite young but…

“Mirage Resonators are ones like you, extremely rare and oftentimes they break the rules of what it means to be a Resonator,” he mumbled.

“Eh?” Holly tilted her head.

The chinchilla looked to the door, then to another device sitting on his counter before paying the plant the answer to the implicit question.

“Right, so you’re a nature element. That plays nice with the element wheel, but your attribute isn’t like the standard six, you kinda just do your own thing,” he told her.

“Attribute?” She furrowed her brow. There was something that her books in Inverna hadn’t ever mentioned. But according to this man, it was a common Resonator rule?

“Every Resonator has an element and attribute. The attribute determines how basic magic is cast. So like since I’m a slashing attribute, my Lanciafiamme comes out in a bladed shape, like I’m slashing my target,” he explained. “Slashing magic cleaves through Piercing magic, which penetrates Crushing magic, which breaks Slashing.”

“It’s a triangle!” Holly chimed helpfully.

The chinchilla chuckled. “Yeah, that’s one way to think of it. Healing, Shielding, and Null magic do their own things and don’t interact with the weapon triangle. I assume neither does the uh, whatever the heck attribute you are.”

“Holly is a holly!” she cheered.
“I guess so.” The fire element motioned to a grey pad embedded in the counter. “That’ll be sixty notes for two nights,” he said as the pad illuminated and let out a soft chime.

Holly intuited that was where she had to put her bracelet and held out her wrist. The device beeped in confirmation and the bracelet buzzed.

“Huh,” the chinchilla hummed. “Didn’t expect that to work.”

With the matter of payment settled, he stepped around the counter. “Follow me, I’ll show you to your room.”

---

After everything she had been through, Holly could finally rest. The room admittedly was way smaller than she had expected. There was a modest dresser in the corner, and the bed took up a good three-quarters of the total floor space.

There was a single attached room, which she discovered was a bathroom. A sink, a toilet, and a standing shower.

“Finally,” she spoke in her true cadence. First thing off was her boots, then her leggings. Her feet were sore from all the running around she had done all day. The room was a touch warm, so she shed her jacket as well, leaving only her shirt and her trademark skirt as her sleep clothes.

Lighter for her efforts, she fell backward onto the bed, allowing her arms to spread on the plush comforters. “Ah…”

She lifted her arm and tapped her bracelet, a “210” graced the display. “So, they use notes too…” she breathed out. “Who is trading with Inverna?” pondered the plant as her eyelids fell against her will.

Holly wondered just how tired she had been, as next her eyes opened, night had passed to a bright sunny day.

“I guess I needed that,” she groaned, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She made her way to the window and parted the curtains. “Damn, I really did wander all over creation,” she noted.

From her vantage point in the hostal, she bore witness to the majesty of the Pietri beaches in all their full crowded glory. It reminded her of Inverna at noontime. Was this a similar ritual for humans?

Nah, the beach was just plain beautiful; Holly understood the appeal. There was part of her that wished she knew how to swim so she could really understand more of the allure of the sandy shores. At least she did have a way to enjoy the water from the comfort of this tiny room.

Drawing the curtains shut, Holly skipped to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Parting with the last vestiges of her clothing she stepped into the shower. “Huh?”

Rather than a simple switch to turn on the water it looked like she had options? Wasn’t water just water? What was there to pick from?

“Oh,” she squeaked fearfully.

There were four total choices:

Off was the current state of the shower.
Cold dispensed cold water.
Hot dispensed hot water.

That was easy enough to intuit from the names.

BUT WHAT IN SAGE LANVI’S GREEN RITERRA DID THE “FIRE” OPTION DO?!

“Riterran society is horrifying,” the zalavan gulped as she stood defenseless against what could possibly be a grisly end. “Okay Holly, think. They wouldn’t just let me shoot fire at myself, right? Only fire elements would be immune to that. Other nature elements have to use these,” she reasoned.

The fire option was the far left option, with the knob currently on the opposite side.

“Let’s start slow.” She flipped it to the cold option. Surprisingly, this was what she was used to when she took showers back home. “Ah…” it was nice to have the comforts of familiarity splashing against her. She shook her head, allowing her roots to bathe in the cool waters.

Though her itchy curiosity sought to get her into trouble. What did “hot” do? How “hot” was “hot”?”

She slowly turned the knob and a warmth rapidly built until it reached its peak. And Holly…

“Ahhh… I’m melting…” she cooed. It was so comfortable; she could fall asleep like this. She had no idea warm water could feel so heavenly. She couldn’t be sure how long she took in the warmth of the shower but decided she had business on the town; She turned off the water, stepped out of the shower, and toweled herself down.

Unfortunately, her nagging desire to know had to rear its troubling head. She reached up and smacked the showerhead to face the wall away from her. She spun the dial, attempting to turn it to “fire”, but found it didn’t go past hot. “Huh?” She blinked.

No matter how much she tried to, it wouldn't turn past hot to the fire setting. Peeking around the knob she found there was a whole little maze to solve. “Hrm.”

Holly was nothing but determined in her pursuit of knowledge. From her observation, it appeared like she could push and pull the knob to clear the barrier. Against her better judgment, she followed the maze and engaged the fire option. She winced as it finally clicked into place.

Almost instantly the bathroom flooded with hot steam. “Eep!” the plant yelped as the bathroom rapidly grew unbearably warm. “Okay, I’m good! I’m good!” she cried, desperately trying to turn the knob back. It went back a lot easier than it took to engage it. Upon hitting the hot setting, she heard a clunk and the rest of the way to off was much easier.

“Whew. So, it’s just scalding hot water, noted.”