“Good work everyone. The last of our customers have finally left and it’s time to close up for the evening. You can all head back to your rooms. We'll finish cleaning up in the kitchen.”

Plinth poured coffee into a number of cups for everyone.

“Are you sure Plinth? We don’t mind helping.” Tasha said.

“That is very appreciated. But you’ve all had a long day and I think it would be good if you got some rest. You should head over to your room now. Don’t delay.” Plinth waved a hand.

“Okay. We’re heading out then.” Luke waved back.

Luke, Ash, Tasha, Ave, Rosy and Eins exited the restaurant.

“Plinth, did you let our new employees take it easy? Again?” Cophin grumbled.

#

The Blue Haired Lady shoved Rosy's luggage into the hallway. She wiped some dust off of her hands.

“There. That’s the last of it. Now the room is free.”

Rosy looked at her. “Did you throw our luggage out of the room?”

“Yes.” The older woman responded.

“Are you kicking us out?”

“Have you done something that I should kick you out for?”

"No. I don't think so. Have we?" Rosy looked at the others.

"Of course we haven't." Ave said.

"What would qualify?" Tasha asked.

“Is that a roach?” The Blue Haired Lady pointed at Tasha’s hair.

“... am not a roach. Am more crustacean… mmph-”

Tasha put a hand over Tripillli.

“It’s a decorative hair ornament.” Tasha said. “But ignoring that. If you’re kicking us out of our room where are we supposed to stay?”

#

"This is where you're staying now."

The Blue Haired Lady opened the door to a suite. The suite took up the entire second floor of an adjoining building that was next door to the restaurant. A staircase led up to the second floor. A balcony overlooked the E-teary’s courtyard.

"Look everyone. There are two beds." Tasha pointed.

"And a couch. We won't have to triple up on one bed tonight." Rosy said.

Ave flipped a switch. Lights flickered on in the room. “Installed arc-lamps. Very nice.”

The Blue Haired Lady toddled around the room. "Pillows are on the bed. Sheets are in the closet. Towels are in the bathroom next to the tub."

"There's an attached bathroom as well. This really is luxury." Tasha whistled.

*Knock*Knock*

Plinth poked his head in the room. “Ah good, Ms Starling. I see that you’ve moved the girls into a more spacious accommodation. That was very kind of you.”

“Hmmph.” Ms Starling humphed.

Rosy dropped her luggage on the floor. “I hate to bring this up now. But we were also working in the restaurant downstairs. I don’t know if Plinth has explained our financial situation to you…” She tilted her head.

Ms Starling waved a hand. “It’s fine. No one was renting this room anyway. You all can have it for the time being. But!” She made eye contact with the other women. "The only thing about this room I have to tell you is: don't open the curtains."

The three women exchanged a glance.

The Blue Haired Lady frowned at them.

"Why not?" Ave asked.

"The boarders across the street don't have curtains in their windows." Ms Starling shook a boney finger at the window next to the street..

"Yeah? So what?"

"So it means that you can see right into their rooms."

Ms Starling sneaked up to the street window. She pulled the curtain back ever so slightly and peeked through.

Ave looked at the others in confusion. "Couldn't we do that if their curtains were open?"

"Yes. But they don't have any curtains so you can see into their rooms all the time."

"But what if… I wanted to open the curtains for this room." Tasha asked.

"I'm telling you the people across the street don't have curtains. So leave the curtains for this room closed. Do you understand?" Ms Starling tapped her foot impatiently.

"Not even a little. What if we just don't look over at their apartment?" Rosy said.

"I keep trying to tell you they don't have curtains. If you look over there you will look into their rooms." Ms Starling said.

"So we won't look over there."

"They don't have curtains. So you can see into their rooms no matter what." Ms Starling explained.

"Why would I want to look into their rooms!?" Ave asked.

"Keep the curtains closed and you won't have to worry about it!"

#

Tasha and Rosy pushed their luggage up against the beds inside the suite. Ave threw a fitted sheet over the couch.

*Knock*Knock*

Ave opened the door of the suite.

"We figured it out!" Ash jammed his head inside the room.

"You did?" Ave stepped back.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"We figured it out." Luke jumped behind Ash. Eins padded in after them.

"What did you figure out?" Rosy looked over at the door.

Luke and Ash stopped in their tracks.

"Uh... we figured out, how to roll the silverware one handed?" Ash shrugged.

"That's... nice." Rosy nodded.

Ash tried to look nonchalant. "But yeah. We've figured out how to do that thing. So bring out the other thing we can get it open and finally get some answers."

"I don't have it." Ave said.

"You don't have it!?" Ash shrieked.

"I had to leave it behind. There were too many observers." Ave looked sideways at Rosy.

*Knock*Knock*

"Can I interest anyone in some bedtime pie?" Plinth stuck his head in the door.

"Thank you, but no thank you Plinth." Ash said.

"I'll take some." Luke said.

"Here you go." Plinth swiveled a plate of warm pie around the door into Luke's hands. "Anyone else? No. Okay. Goodnight."

Plinth left and closed the door.

Ave looked at Rosy. "Rosy? Can we have some privacy with the boys for a moment? We need to talk about something really quickly.”

Rosy looked at everyone else. "Of course. Secret late night conversations between young men and young women. I wouldn't want to get in the way." Rosy smiled and waggled her eyebrows.

"Rosy stop." Ave groaned.

"Okay... I'm going to go get some tea then. Don't have too much fun while I'm gone."

Rosy opened the door and slipped into the hallway.

"Okay now that she's gone we can stop talking in riddles. Did you figure out a way to open the case?" Ave asked.

"Yes. Maybe." Ash looked at Luke. "We think we have."

"Let's hear it."

Ash held up his hands. "Okay. Follow along with me here. Glitter." Ash wiggled his fingers.

"I don't follow." Ave's face was blank.

"We need to open the case with the Councilor's hand. But there's no way we can get him to put his hand on it with us standing there. But what if we don't need his entire hand? What if we only need a copy of his hand. That's what the glitter is for. To make a copy."

"I don’t know if glitter will be enough to open a secure case." Ave's mouth made a hard line.

"Hold on, that might actually work." Tasha sat up on her bed. "Every human has a unique skin pattern on their hands.” Tasha held up one of her hands. “If we ask how the case is determining when the owner is opening it versus a stranger, it might be because it is detecting the skin pattern of the owner's hand."

"Oh crap. Tasha, you're still here." Ash flinched.

Ave looked sideways at Tasha. "Tasha you don't have to stay if you don't want to be involved."

Tasha shrugged. "Yeah, that’s right but… Tripillli just fell asleep. I don't want to move and wake him. I'll cover my ears." Tasha barely covered her ears.

"... zzz..."

"But how is the case determining who's hand is touching it?" Luke asked.

Tasha uncovered her ears. "I don't know. Maybe the magic in the case can remember a person's handprint? But put that aside for now. How are you going to get the face part?"

Tasha put her hands back over her ears.

Luke grinned, pie crumbs stuck to his chin. "This one is my idea. We're going to use wax."

"You're going to chisel a wax sculpture of his face?" Ave asked.

"Not at all. We're going to melt it."

"Won't that only make it harder to chisel?"

"We're not going to chisel anything. We're going to melt it exactly like this." Luke held out his hand.

"A flower?"

"A candy flower. Made of wax. Using a mold. We get a mold of his head, fill it with wax, and then whoosh, we have a copy of his face."

Tasha cupped one of her hands over her ear. "That could work. Assuming that the face recognition magic of the case works the same as the hand recognition." She pointed at Ave. "Do we have the password?"

"Yes. I have the password." Ave said. “I made sure to hear it today.”

"Then all we, er, all you need is the case itself." Tasha grinned.

Ave crossed her arms. "It's not going to be so easy this time. The Councilor is in meetings all this week. His case will either be on his person or in the vault until he leaves town. We need to find some way of getting the case and then get enough time with it to get it open."

"We also need to get a mold of his face and cover him in glitter." Luke added.

"Yes. I remember the easy part of this plan." Ave raised an eyebrow. "If only we had some kind of distraction."

"Hmmm." Ash crossed his arms.

"Hmmm." Tasha teased one of her barrettes.

"Hmmm." Luke ate some more pie.

"Hmmm." Eins chewed a paw.

*Knock*Knock*

"Yes?" Ave looked up at the door.

The Blue Haired Lady poked her head into the room.

"I wanted to remind you children that this room is only being provided temporarily. You have to be out in ten days."

"Ten days? That's... generous." Tasha said.

"That's right. Ten days. That's when the Hundred Ought Hundred Aught Banner Event takes place."

"I see..." Ave looked at the others.

"That's right. The biggest event of the year. The gambling halls will be absolutely packed with tourists at that time. People coming and going. No way to keep track of them." The Blue Haired Lady twisted the doorknob a few times. "Anyway... ten days."

"Ten days, yes, we got it." Ash nodded. "Thanks for the heads up." He put a hand against the door.

"Ten days." The Blue Haired Lady shuffled out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Ash made sure the door was closed.

"That's a lucky break." Ash clapped his hands together. "That contest is the perfect time for us to slip in and grab the case."

Ave tapped her foot. "It's not a bad idea. The Councilor will want to stay for the event. But there shouldn't be any meetings that day. We might have enough time. But we might still need some kind of plan to get inside without being noticed."

Luke and Ash looked at each other.

"We might know someone.” Ash said.

“Who is it?” Tasha asked.

Ash pulled his sleeve. “There is this guy he’s… “

“A regular at the Ocean’s Bounty.” Luke said.

Ash nodded. “That’s right. We’ve seen him multiple times. He has a certain talent for getting into places he’s not wanted. He’s obsessed with some sort of revenge plan...”

“What was that?” Ave asked.

“I said that if we’re with him nobody will be paying attention to us. I’ll try to find him again and see if he can get us into the Gambling Hall.”

“What if we pretended to be Guards?” Luke asked. “If we disguised ourselves as soldiers we could slip in that way.”

“I can be a Guard.” Eins saluted.

“I bet you could.” Luke rustled the dog’s fur.

Ave looked at Eins. “As impressive as your impersonation is, the Guard is under a lot of scrutiny at the moment. There is apparently some hostility between the Councilor's escort and the local security for the resort. The head of security for the Ocean’s Bounty doesn't like the Guard. And she has a magic sword so she’s probably not someone we want to mess with.”

“Wait a minute. Did you say magic sword? Is she a short blocky woman, with pink hair?” Ash pointed to his hair.

“Why do you know that?” A dimple appeared on Ave’s forehead.

“Lucky guess. Also we are going to need disguises.” Ash pointed to Luke and himself.

Luke nodded. “Excellent. I’m liking this plan already. So we disguise ourselves, sneak inside during the event, and grab the case. But how do we get the case out of the vault?"

"Hmmm." Ash crossed his arms.

"Hmmm." Ave toyed with her braid.

Tasha and Eins looked at each other.

"That's... a good question. No idea." Eins sweated.

"No idea." Tasha ran a hand through her hair.

"... zzz, huh, wha... what's going on? Do I smell pie...?" Tripillli clicked from on top of Tasha's head.

*Knock*Knock*

Rosy opened the door and leaned inside the room.

"Hey guys, I just wanted to say that communication is important. Friendship is based on a foundation of mutual honesty and respect. We need that honesty for strong teamwork. We’re all part of a team now. A team of… servers, in a restaurant. Where we need good teamwork. That’s all that I’m talking about. About our restaurant service.”

“Thank you… Rosy.” Ash said.

“Yes. Thank you Rosy. For that.” Luke nodded.

“I only wanted you all to know… about teamwork.”

Rosy took a looong sip from a teacup she was holding.

“Okay. I’m going to get some more tea.”

“We should probably get back downstairs to our room.” Ash looked at the others.

“That’s right. See you in the morning everyone.” Luke opened the door.

“Goodnight everyone.”

“Goodnight.”