I stared at the empty rotting pier in front of me. Not a single ship was docked at the desolate pier. A solitary rotting cargo crane towered over nothing but open water. Outside that, nothing else dotted the area surrounding me except a single warehouse. It would be intimidating if one wall wasn’t collapsed on the inside of the building. The half of it still standing looked a little better. At least the rotted wood hadn’t collapsed under it’s own weight yet.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Ildat asked, then chuckled.

“If this is the condition you keep everything in, I’m rethinking our deal,” I muttered in response, taking a tentative step on a rotten board. It snapped in half immediately, sending my boot ankle-deep in the mud beneath. I immediately yanked it out with a loud slurp, glaring at the layer of mud covering it.

“Nah, the lake had shifted over the years. This was one of the first wharves built, back when the water level was higher. Since then, the draft is too shallow. We closed most of the initial wharves, but this one was left because the ground is too soft.” Ildat took a confident step on the next rotten plank, which held his weight without even creaking.

He continued on while I eyed the plank and then stepped on it. Crack.

I caught back up after freeing my other boot, Ildat chuckling as I fell back in beside him.

“How do you do that?” I asked, looking back at the several ruined planks behind use. I eventually managed to move across on the edges.

“Special skill,” He said. “Not typically used for that, but it’s nice to avoid the muck.”

“Can you teach me?”

“Depends, can you afford it?”

“Forget it then. Maybe later. When I figure out how money here works,” I cocked my head as we approached the rotten warehouse, which was split in half. Half of it had collapsed into rotten kindling, the rest still sturdy. “Rest of the group is still in here?”

“Makes for a good place to rendezvous. No one has a good reason to come here, but as one of Sofi’s assistants, I can always say I’m trying to figure out what we do with this. Moved the people we trust the most as a construction team.” Ildat stopped next to a wooden door on the side of the warehouse still standing and rapped on it with his knuckles. The response was instantaneous.

The door flung open, a gun barrel shoved in Ildat’s face. “Password?” A voice growled from within the darkness of the warehouse, guttural and thick.

“Larveck, I pay your salary. Shoot me and I’ll dock it for this week, after I tear you limb from limb,” Ildat observed, sounding like he was having a mild verbal argument. Not like he had a gun right in his face.

Without a word the barrel of the gun switched to me. A long rusty barrel held a steady position an inch in front of my face and between my eyes. Yellow eyes glowed from the shadows inside the warehouse at me, serpentine slits narrowed. “And you, password?”

“I’m his plus one. Also if you shoot me I’ll…” I couldn’t think of a good threat “shove you inside my suitcase?”

“We have your suitcase in here, witch,” The voice snapped. “Is the Suitcase Killer really part of the team now Ildat?”

“Yes. We cut a deal. Although she isn’t exactly the Suitcase Killer anymore.”

“If she claims she found religion, just let me shoot her now and bury her and save us the trouble.”

“I didn’t find religion! I don’t have my memories!”

“That’s even less believable. Let me shoot her.”

“Don’t shoot her Larveck. She’s telling the truth. As far as she can tell. We’ve got a verbal agreement, we’ll sign the papers as soon as the boss is done. Now put down the gun and let us inside.”

The gun barrel wavered before finally dropping. A lamp came to life inside, revealing a small room, maybe a few feet across and deep. In the middle, a strange creature hung from the ceiling. The closest thing they looked like was a three-limbed lizard, one limb firmly embedded in the ceiling while the other two caressed a rusted musket. Serpentine eyes stared into my own from a face that looked like a dinosaur. Could those horns punch through skin?

“Hi,” I said, as cheerfully as I could muster.

“Piss off, you spoiled rotten nutcase,” Laverck spat back.

Well, it was still a better greeting than most people I’d met so far.

“Laverck was part of the group who came up when you demanded the people responsible for your laundry,” Ildat mock whispered to me.

“You really think she’s lost her memories Ildat?” Laverck hissed.

“I believe I already said yes. Don’t worry, if it proves wrong, the contract will compel her.”

Ah, that sounded like more strange magic from that goddess enforcing everything. Perfect.

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“She hasn’t signed it-”

“Soon, when Sofi gets a chance to come down here. Has everyone else shown up?”

“Helvor arrived a few minutes before you. He’s going to need Sofi to get Draskell off of his case. Some people are beginning to wonder why it’s taken so long to start work here. I told you we should try to make it look more convincing.”

“Well, things moved slower than expected. No longer. Sofi wants everyone ready tonight.”

“Wait, you didn’t tell me we were overthrowing the Night Manager tonight,”

“He didn’t tell us either. What’s the reason for suddenly deciding on it now Ildat?”

“We go in motion tonight. Overthrowing will be later. Look, we can have this conversation now, or we can go inside and have it one time. I hate repeating myself.”

Laverck was quiet, expression gone contemplative. It was strange, it was definitely what I would consider contemplative on a human, but I seemed to just know what emotion it meant on their face.

“Alright.”

Through one more door, down a long hallway lit by lamps, it easily a minute to reach the end. By the time we reached the end of the hallway, a thought had occurred to me. How had he existed in shadows? Everything I had seen was either festooned in lights or had to deal with whatever was living in the shadows. More questions.

The final door was different from the rotting wood so far, a solid metal plate with a handle. Past that, a brightly lit room, another four people waiting inside.

One of them looked normal. By which I meant they looked like a young woman, tanned and lean, and with three eyes. Outside that, a lanky person with four arms in a suit, a porcelain white mask in the form of a skull over their head, a large hulking person, and…

“Didn’t I send you off the side of the hotel?”

“Excuse me?”

The person I was talking to was a dead ringer for the ogre who had tried to kill me on the fire escape. Although now that I had a few seconds longer..this person’s jawline was slightly different, same with their eyes.

“Sorry, I mistook you for someone else, that’s my bad.” Their eyes narrowed in response, but before they could say anything Ildat started talking.

“She doesn’t mean anything by it Molk. I’m decently sure of that. Everyone, meet Indigo, who may or may not be the Suitcase Killer. Indigo, meet the crew.”

“Hi-” My greeting got cut off by the three-eyed woman.

“What do you mean, may or may not be?”

“She claimed at the door she has no memories,” Laverck said, glaring at me. He clung to that strange gun of his like it was a security blanket. It added to the palpable tension in the room. Could I meet someone here who wasn’t immediately suspicious of me?

“I really don’t. I woke up without any memories in a bathtub,” I said.

“A likely story,” she responded.

“As unlikely as it sounds, Karvek, both I and Sofi are pretty confident in its veracity,”

It was weird. Half an hour ago I wanted to deck Ildat for nearly killing me, now he was the shield from these people’s suspicion. Was this what every ally down here would be like? I certainly hoped not.

“Let’s not turn this into a fight unless we need to. Mostly because I doubt it would go well for our newest recruit,” Ildat went to one of the chairs, gesturing for me to sit down. After a second I did. I doubted me being on my feet would help in any way if they did try anything.

“So, the three-eyed lady doubting your story is Karvek, the one who freaked you out is Molk, the large tall grim fellow is Helvor, and the four-armed person with the white mask is Kostnikov. He doesn’t talk much.” Ildat said, pointing each out in turn.

“For good reason,” Kosnitkov said in a shrill, high voice.

“Yeah, that’s about as much as he says in a day. Loyal to a fault. Less backchat than the rest of you.”

There was a sudden hammering on the door, and without a word, Laverck got up and went through it. There was muffled talking from the other side, then the door shifted open just enough for me to hear what was being said.

A familiar voice came from the entrance. “Laverck, the password is something you made up since we appointed you in charge of security here. You are supposed to keep people you do not recognize out. It has been a trying day. Let me inside.”

With a grumble about people not respecting how dangerous this was, Laverck led Sofi into the room.

“Any problems dealing with the operations, Sofi?” Ildat asked.

“Not this time. The rainstorm was particularly badly timed, but outside of that glaring issue, everything was already in place. I explained I would be taking a one-day sabbatical. They were not suspicious. It should keep suspicion off of our activities for a day or so. Has anything occurred here while I dealt with that?”

“They’ve spent the entire time debating my existence. I think the conclusion is still that I’m the Suitcase Killer in disguise ready to kill you all,” I said to Sofi.

“You got a contract for her to sign, boss?” Larveck had returned to his same perch. The gun was unapologetically pointed my way still.

“I do. We can handle it later in the meeting. Before anyone gets concerned, her tools are stored away. She has been acting differently than all accounts. She also let Ildat hit her so hard her skull cracked without managing to injure him,”

That’s not how I would have put that. Also, skull cracked open? I glared at Ildat, only getting a slight grin in return.

“It all could be an act,” Karvek said. One of their arms stroked the handle of the sword on the table. “And if their memories are gone, how much do they have to offer?”

“How much do you have to offer, Karvek? Your overreliance on a sharpened piece of metal when most people have weapons that can hit you at ten times the distance?” Ildat grinned as Karvek’s face darkened, the hand tightening the grip of the sword before eventually letting go.

“Any of us could be traitors if the Night Manager paid high enough,” Helvor observed. “If anything, the price on her head by the Night Manager gives her less of a reason to sell us out. Not more. Everyone should calm down. Sofi, you wanted to talk about something else?”

Sofi nodded her thanks to the two of them, while I kept the reply I had formed to Karvek inside my throat for now. As much as it irked me to keep my mouth shut, I was in dangerous waters still.

“Our first order of business, you have all been very patient waiting for me and Ildat to find the right opportunity to put our plan in motion. It has arrived. Sun-in-the-Eyes has made his own move, and this will give us our-”

Sofi was cut off by a crackling that ripped through the meeting room. The speakers again. I couldn’t even spot where one could be, but when the Night Manager spoke it sounded like one was in the room with us.

“It has come to the attention of Management that not only is the Suitcase Killer being hidden in Underneath, but that members of the department have been plotting action against the Hotel. Management has decided to issue a reward for any employee who aids in their disarmament. The members of the group are as followers, Underneath Manager Sofi Zerkotuples-”Well fuck.