There was a knock at the door, followed by the sound of it opening.

Someone flicks on the light, and shakes Amity.

“It’s time!” They said in a sing-song manner.

Amity felt her head pounding, rolled over, rubbed her eyes, and sat up.

“Oh shoot, thanks!”

“You’re welcome! You might want to wake up your friends, I have a small line at the front, so I’m gonna go handle them.”

Amity said she would, so the lady left the room, shutting the door.

Amity put her feet on the solid floor next to her, hand on her head, near the bump and scab from the mines. She had fallen asleep in her new dress, they hadn’t exactly gotten pajamas. She drowsily walked towards the other side of the room, putting her hand on each person’s shoulder to shake them awake, allowing them some time to sit up before dragging them out of the room.

“Come on, we should probably get something to eat. It’s been like, 12 hours since I last had anything.”

Raleigh grabbed his phone, looking at the time. It was indeed 2 o’clock, and it was still the 21st, showing that his eyes didn’t deceive him the previous night. He lamented, deciding not to tell Amity, as well as the rest of the group, that it had been a bit longer.

He stood up, leading everyone who hadn’t already, and went for the door.

They all stepped out, still a little tired, and made their way to the cafe immediately next to the inn. Himiko commented on the area, saying “I didn’t exactly expect this place to have cafes and stuff, this is kinda cool,” just as they walked in.

A waiter directed them to a booth, and they all shuffled in and began discussing their plan to get back to home.

“Okay, from what I know, we have to get to this island right here to get home.” Amity pulled a pamphlet off the wall with maps, seemingly from the Human Age, and pointed at an island between the two upper landmasses.

“There should be a way to get out of here from there, but we need to get a few things from around the other islands.”

She had Raleigh pull up the images of the artifacts, and used a crayon from the center, probably meant for any kids, to sketch out exactly where everything was.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A waiter approached while she was doing this, and began to take everyone’s orders.

Himiko got a classic, eggs and bacon. Katie picked the deal of the day, a relatively fancy looking sample plate of every breakfast food on the menu. Raleigh had a food he hasn’t ever thought of, which showed up decently cheap here, the sirloin steak omelet. Amity barely looked at the menu, immediately going with a hefty sandwich with eggs, sausage, and bacon, as well as a few more things. It looked similar enough to what she always got at her diner at home, Venny’s, so she didn’t think much of the pick.

The waiter left, going to deliver the order to the chef.

“Here’s my proposal; we should go to the bottom island, grab the artifact - this one is a new rock we might need - from the far left, then swing by and pick up Copper from her holding cell. Then-”

Himiko interrupted. “Who’s that?”

Amity tried to formulate a response, before Kaiya responds for her.

“It’s a girl we met on our way to the Broken Divine facility you were at. She used a wind illusion to find us, and we have to rescue her.”

Himiko accepts this answer, and Amity continues.

“We should get into this Broken Divine base here, on the right side of the same island. It has a key to the temple that the door is in. Then, another castle on this island on the right. I’m hoping to get their materials diplomatically.”

Amity stops to take a breath.

“We could always fight, if need be. Then, it’s a straight shot home, pretty much.”

Amity felt her head rage as she spoke so much, and the end of the final sentence made it flare up just so much harder.

She pressed her head into her hand, the pressure momentarily relieving her before it flooded back.

“Shit- Kaiya, do they have like, earth-style hotels here?”

“Uh, I think so. There might be one in this very plaza, actually.”

“Can I please get you to book us a room there? My head is freaking pounding, I think because of something that happened yesterday. It’s why I had blood running down my face when you met me.”

“You didn’t have blood down your… That purple stuff, was that your blood?”

“It’s weird, I know, just please get me a room, I probably just need to sleep this off.”

Kaiya still didn’t fully understand, but she handed Amity a bit of money to book a big enough room for them all to be in, and sent her on her way.

Amity stepped out of the diner, looking around for a hotel, eventually finding a place that looked exactly like a hotel at home. It was called “Earth-Style Hotel”, and she stepped inside, thinking how there were so many better names. The door rang and the desk clerk greeted her.

“Welcome!”

Amity walked up to the desk.

“Hey, can I get a room for 5 people? The rest of my group isn’t here yet.”

“Of course. That’s 75 dollars for today.”

Amity handed 100 dollars to the clerk, and she handed her back 25 along with a key.

“You have room 918, we don’t actually have that many rooms though, so it’s only 2 floors up. Elevator is over there.” She pointed to a door, which Amity thanked her before walking to. The door opened and a smartly dressed man walked out along with a man in a classic lab coat, but she didn’t pay attention to them as she hit the button for floor 3. The door slid closed and the elevator began rising, Amity feeling her head somehow get even more pained as she rose.

The elevator opened, and she walked past a good 10 rooms before spotting hers, near the end of the hall. She used her key to open the door, before solidly collapsing onto the first of a few beds lined up against the wall.

She sighed, her head still pounding as she fell asleep.