I was off the wall, hand reaching for the gun right after hearing that voice. My hand was around the grip pulling it out when the Night Manager stated “If you so much as aim that at me, you are dead.”

The Night Manager did look like the idea of a hotel manager, middle-aged, with glasses perched on her nose well-dressed in a suit. Black hair streaked with grey in a bun, azure eyes glared in a gaze that seemed like it had bored her way to our hiding spot itself. She was in one of the tunnel entrances to this chamber, and she wasn’t alone.

There were eight of them in total, mostly dressed in what looked like uniforms. Another random piece of information slid into my head as I saw them. An annoyingly vague one. I had no idea what a bellhop was but apparently, that’s what they were dressed as.

Outside the uniforms, they certainly were equipped to kill, most had revolvers in hand. Two with rifles. Knives at belts, except one that had what looked like a glaive for some reason.

That was held by someone who looked like they should be manning an elevator, young, brown-haired, looking uncomfortably like a teenager. The two towards the front were a guy with horns sticking out and a rifle pointed directly at me, and a woman with a pistol and a very disconcerting smile. Cheshire cat my mind informed me, and I did not need an info dump in there right now, but after a second it seemed none would come.

Now I get to be free from that? I thought irritably, backing towards the center of the room. Not that it being gone should be irritating, it should be welcome. But it felt strange that it would suddenly cut out like that.

The others were in a loose line, as I slid right into the middle between Ildat on the left and Sofi on the right. The far right was anchored by Karvek, the left by Molk.

They all had weapons of their own drawn, a pistol for Sofi, a sword and pistol for Karvek, a pistol for Ildat, and Molk had what I could only describe as a cannon.

An inch wide, the barrel of his rifles could probably take most of someone’s chest away if the shell hit there. Could he even fire that without the recoil ripping it out of his hand? Eight feet of muscle or not, it still looked oversized in his hand.

Someone else was missing and more conspicuous considering how large he was. “Where did Helvor go?” I muttered out of the corner of my mouth as the Night Manager took a confident step inside the chamber.

“Don’t worry,” Ildat whispered back while Sofi called out to the Night Manager

“I see you have decided to bring Marsa down this time. You know she despises coming down here, even if she will not remember you puppeteering her after.”

The Night Manager rolled her eyes. “That is what you choose to address?”

“I address what I want,” Sofi snapped back. “Among that is your gross mismanagement of this hotel. Financial negligence. Lying to the Owner. Fixing the books.”

“Baseless, and if you had proof you would not be skulking around the tunnels with an armed party of malcontents and a debtor to the hotel. On that note, Ms. Indigo, or Ms. Farscraw, or whatever you are choosing to call yourself now, you can take this opportunity to surrender. Your debt with us will be spared if you agree to go with the Chainer’s quietly.”

“I don’t suppose claiming I know nothing about any of this will help me?” More than likely no, but it was worth a shot to ask.

“Even if such a transparent lie were true, the answer would be no. I want you out of my hotel, and it is luck that the Chainer’s are willing to pay for the damages you caused.”

“She claims to have amnesia. So far it has been a very convincing act,” Sofi explained.

“Irrelevant. For the rest of us, I suggest we attempt to talk this out since all of us possess the means to kill each other but it would be inconvenient to do so. We can all lower our weapons,” The Night Manager said.

“Inconvenient?” I asked.

“Yes. It’s easier to justify killing evicted guests or rogue low-level employees. The death of a department manager might be looked into by the Owner,” She stated flatly.

“That’s code for she couldn’t give two craps about the rest of you.” The Horned one added, lowering his rifle. Just enough to technically qualify. Everyone else followed his example.

No one wanted to be unprepared when the shooting did start.

“If anyone else dies, I will not hesitate before sending you down the elevator shaft, Sfizish,” Sofi said

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“No need for dramatics Sofi. I am merely here to talk to you all,” The Night Manager said “Sfizish, restrain yourself for now.”

The horned one decided to take that as a sign he should lower his rifle a little more, which I’d take as a comforting sign. Still didn’t think she just wanted to talk of course.

“We not important enough to get you to come down here then, Narsiza? Had to take control of an employee and have her act as your eyes and mouth down here then?” Ildat had a tight grip on his own weapons, hands pale from the effort.

“No one is important enough for me to venture my own physical body down here Undermanager,” She responded coldly. “Besides, as much of a hit as it might be to the ego of the two of you, you are not the most important thing going on in the hotel today.”

“What I’m hearing is you aren’t too keen on risking your own skin down here,” I commented.

“Of course not, it’s much too dangerous to do so,” The Night Manager replied “It’s not worth risking myself down here.”

That got her a side-eye look from the horned staff member and the one with the tats, although the others seemed to either not notice or not mind. I looked inquisitively over to Sofi, who shook her head “Don’t bother.” She whispers “She’d just counter any offer we give with more money. It wouldn’t be that hard even.”

I didn’t agree with that entirely, since I was pretty sure no amount of money could completely smother signs of discontent. I mean, knowing your boss didn’t even care to make an effort at valuing you had to hurt right?

Helvor took a step to the side, slowly. No reaction from anyone across the cavern, so him and Karvek moved closer to the rest of us.

“Ignoring the comments from my companions,” Sofi said. “I have to reject your terms, but I can offer some of my own in return, the first among them-”

I tuned Sofi out, taking a few tentative steps toward Ildat. The others had slowly moved towards him throughout the conversation, now only a few paces away each. I got close enough to tough him if I wanted to.

“Anything I should know about any of them?” I whispered to Ildat

“None of them can cast that I know of, none of them are particularly augmented. Sfizish, the one with the horns, he’s got some more muscle than you would expect him to have.” He whispered back “Weapons don’t look particularly special but as your weapon proves, that doesn’t mean too much. Glaive’s probably enchanted, but the owner looks like he lucked into getting it.”

“Hilmar can cast. Earth magic. He’s a newer hire,” Karvek muttered. Ildat gave her an inquisitive glance. “We talked a bit when I went up to deliver laundry a few days back. When the elevators broke down. One with the halberd.”

“Not sensing a gift,” Ildat dismissed. “Likely he was boasting.”

“Dracia, the smiling woman, she’s not an employee,” Helvor inclined his head towards the Cheshire grinner slightly. “Not sure how she got out of it but I know here from very far down. She is vicious.”

“Alright,” I muttered back, reflexively tightening my grip on the said pistol as I thought back to the first time using it. Did I want to use it, knowing what it did? If these people threatened to kill me yes, but at the same time I could still hear the screams from that first time. I might hesitate the first time, and that could mean death. If I shoot someone with this, do they come back? Supposedly no one dies but this compresses you into a hole. Do you just stay like that forever? There was a horrifying thought.

“What are you talking about?” The one with the horns said, raising his rifle a bit as he barked the demand out. Molk and Karvek responded in turn. Weapons were back up all around as I froze.

“The practicalities of instituting communism in this place,” I responded, getting a confused look in response.

“Instituting what?” Sfiszish snarled, a long tongue flicking out as he said it, tasting the air.

Well, it shouldn’t surprise me after hearing what this place’s creator was like. Hell, I shouldn’t even bring up the concepts of unions.

“Long diverging tangent.” I said, as Sofi and the Night Manager joined the number currently looking at me, which made me feel even more self-conscious “I’m going to be honest it just popped into my head and until the rest of the theory does I’m not going to bother.”

I thankfully did not have any large books or anything currently unloading their contents in my skull. Just a base surface-level understanding that had popped in along with the word. Lucky, considering I really didn’t need extraneous crap rattling around inside my skull.

“Distractions.” The Night Manager said disdainfully “Last offer Sofi. You turn over your new acquaintance. You get demoted to Deputy Manager. I get a soul lock put on you with your consent and we sign a new contract of my choosing, independent of the manager. I send one of my people down to take over. You are allowed to advise, but you will have no real power. In maybe a few decades we discuss you getting your old position back.”

I looked at Sofi, and she had half turned her face to consider me. My eyes went to the pistol, then back to Sofi, and she seemed to get the message, eyes flickering first to the puppet of the Night Manager before back to me then blinking.

That didn’t go unnoticed, as the Night Manager’s eyes narrowed. “Shoot them n-“

Her order to shoot us was interrupted by the sound of my own gun barking, the ringing sound echoing across my ears only to be matched by the sound of crunching flesh and bone and the rush of wind being sucked into the hole. I’d nailed her right in the shoulder.

There was no screaming this time as someone was being pulled in. The Night Manager stared at me in distaste before with a snap her neck broke towards that shoulder. Half her head began to collapse towards it, bone snapping and flesh sinking. A jet of crimson gore blew out of her nose and ear as more of her was drawn into the hole in the world I’d created.

That’s when everything went straight to hell. The earth rumbled underneath my feet, and then moved all around, walls of stone bursting all around me, cutting everyone else off from sight as they rose, heading towards the ceiling of the cavern.

Underneath me the floor sank, falling as the stone moved like water to feed the walls. We were cut off from each other.