Once Echo had wandered off to join someone else in the crowd of investigators, I decided to do some wandering and investigating of my own. The remainder of the mansion was as colossal and ornate as the entryway had led me to expect. Down the left and right hallways of the foyer, it turned out, were lodging rooms – ten of them on each side. I was informed of this by way of chatter coming from those who had already been down those hallways. I hadn’t bothered to look into them myself; instead, I decided to venture forward into the area that lied ahead.

For me to describe the floor plan of this structure in detail could potentially be a novel of its own, so I’ll attempt to remain brief. The area I stepped into next had similar lighting and gilded décor as the foyer. The room was filled with seating – chairs and sofas, bookended by small tables. There was a large fireplace built into one of the walls, creating the appearance of a rather cozy atmosphere. Branching off from this lounge were the various other rooms that this massive floor contained – a grand dining room with seating that could accommodate hundreds of diners, a sophisticated library bursting with books in immaculate condition, a charming courtyard that could have been the picture of paradise if it hadn’t been overshadowed by the looming trees, just to name a few.

After spending an indiscernible amount of time exploring the rooms and being bewildered by the intricate décor and impeccable cleanliness, I made my way back to the entryway.

“All of the other floors are just lodging rooms,” I heard Lynx explain to someone else. “A total of six floors, just like we thought. Sixty rooms on each of those five upper floors, plus the twenty rooms down here, makes three hundred and twenty rooms. That’s more than enough for everyone – especially once you consider the handful of married couples within our guild who will be sharing rooms.”

“If you don’t mind,” the man he spoke with replied, “would it be alright if I have a room on the ground floor? I know you didn’t want to allow anyone to have a first-floor room until you can determine a fair way to dole them out, but my wife doesn’t do too well with stairs. I’m hoping to bring her in to live here with me…” The main trailed off.

“That sounds fair to me!” Lynx patted the man on the back. “Go right ahead, Blue.”

I turned away from the conversation and directed my attention to the stairs, where everyone was swarming to find their room. As I began my ascent to the lodging floors, I noticed that the largest swarms were clamoring to claim rooms on the second and sixth floors – the lowest and highest. Never one to follow the crowd, I decided to head for the fourth floor – one that seemed utterly undesirable to the vast majority.

Well, I suppose I’m here, I thought to myself. Claiming my room in the mansion. I wondered how long I would stay. At least until I get bored of this, I decided.

The stairs were quite fascinating in their design. They were relatively close to the center of the building on the ground floor, but as they approached the second floor, they spread out a great deal to either side, and by the third floor, each staircase had reached opposing ends of the building.

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As I had heard before, there were sixty rooms on this floor – thirty on each side, each one with its own number. At the top of the staircase, I looked to my left and saw room 401. To my right, across the hallway, was room 431. Realizing that anyone arriving on this floor would gravitate toward a room on the end, closer to the stairs, I headed toward the center, and found room 415 unoccupied with pleasantly few neighbors around.

“I knew I would find you hear.” November’s voice stopped me with my hand hovering near the doorknob of the room I had chosen.

I turned around to face her. “Yes, well. I imagine it couldn’t do me too much harm to stick around here a few days. I would rather not have to make the journey back home yet, anyway.”

“Understood.” She nodded. “Is that your room?”

“I believe so.” I looked back at the room in front of me. “It seems secluded enough.”

“Well, isn’t that quite the coincidence.” She grinned and grabbed the doorknob of room 445, directly across the hall from me. “This one is mine.”

“Very well.” I certainly wouldn’t argue with having November as my neighbor. That only reduced the odds of ending up with someone unbearable lodging near me.

She pushed her door open and stepped inside, and I did likewise with my own room.

As I entered, I marveled at the sheer size of the room – though I shouldn’t have been so surprised, given the size of the rest of the building. The room was at least as large as my entire cabin, and very possibly even a little larger – of course, that isn’t saying too much, given that my cabin is but a humble shack – yet I was quite impressed with my accommodations. It was less of a room and more of a full set of living quarters.

I found that it had all the same amenities that my cabin possessed – like a bed, a dining area, and a cooking area – and even some that I didn’t have the luxury of at home – including two small, cozy sofas, an indoor bathtub and chamber pot, and of course those enchanted lanterns.

I noticed a faucet near the cooking area, and was amazed to realize that this mansion was set up with running water that, upon my testing, was in working order. I wasn’t fortunate enough to have indoor plumbing installed in my own home – typically, I relied on the large creek running through the woods for my water-related needs, and a large bucket to transport it back to the cabin.

Although the indoor plumbing dazzled me, it also added to my suspicions. In all of the villages I had visited lately, indoor pluming was still a relatively new and modern innovation – why would a building this old and abandoned for so many years have it installed?

“Halfairo Rouden?”

I froze. It was Lynx’s thundering that had broken my focus. But how did he…

Very slowly, I turned to face the man standing in the open doorway, my eyes narrowed. “I haven’t heard that name in many years.”

“But that is your name, isn’t it?” He raised an eyebrow.

“My name is Arrow. We’ve been over this,” I hissed. A long, silent moment passed as I glared at Lynx, and he only returned my gaze with an amused smile, his eyebrow still raised. “Where did you hear that name, anyway?”

“What? Half-arrow Rodent?” He burst into laughter while I marched toward him, prepared to give him a piece of my mind. Just as I reached him, however, he pointed sharply at my door.

Sure enough, my given name seemed to have been carved into the door, on the side that faced the hallway:

Halfairo Rouden.