The door hit some jingling chimes as she stepped through the threshold.

A few worn-down sofas, a low table with some scattered books on it. A single small desk put up against a random wall. An empty table with seven chairs pushed in. Loud clattering in a kitchen through a door in the back. The musty, mana-filled smell of a room with poor ventilation. A portrait painting of a lightly armored elven woman with a knightly smile hanging above the unmanned service counter.

And... a creature standing on all fours in front of her. The size of a small bear cub, but hairless, with gray skin and no eyes. It growled at Amelia like she threatened the safety of the entire building.

The woman at the bar, book in hand and hair in a bun, perked her ears up at the sound of a new guest and jerked her head towards the entrance.

“Otto!” she shouted, causing the beast to scurry away from the door. “Stop being mean to Hummer. Go lay down and—”

She interrupted herself with silence. Her pink, very pink eyes opened wide at the sight of this new guest.

Whether or not the woman’s surprise was good or bad was not yet clear. But her staring struck Amelia as a different sort than the many people she usually encountered. For whatever reason, she did not seem to take one bit of notice of Amelia’s face.

“You...” That was all the elf said before she closed her mouth again.

“I’d like a room,” Amelia said.

She did not answer for some time, just continued staring.

“I’d, um, like a room,” she repeated. “If you have one,” she added.

“You, you, you,” the girl finally managed to stutter out. “A new guest! Wow!”

The elf stood up from her desk and put her book down, spine-up. She was short, thin, kind of cute with her patchwork dress filled with pockets, but cute in the way that most people would forget about the moment she left their eyesight. “Please, make yourself at home. I’ll go pour some tea.”

“No need,” Amelia said. “I don’t drink tea.” Or anything, for that matter.

“Oh, okay, that’s fine.” The woman took a closer look at Amelia—finally paying attention to her less standard features. “Wait, you’re an adventurer, aren’t you?” She literally clasped her hands together in excitement.

“Ah, no. I’m just a traveler—”

“It’s been so long since we’ve had an adventurer here!” the girl exclaimed. “Usually everyone just stays at that place by the station. But I promise you, the best service is right here at the Beechhurst International Co-Lodging House! BICLH for short.”

“Uh-huh.” What Amelia didn’t say is that if she realized there was a place by the station, she probably would have gone there first. Especially over a place with an acronym like... that.

“Anyway, I’m Mino Maelion,” she said. “I’ll be your host, Miss...”

“Amelia Bluewood.”

“Amelia Bluewood... What a lovely name.”

“Thank you. I chose it myself.”

“Aw.” Immediately, Mino switched into business mode and scurried over to the service desk. She ruffled through some papers as she spoke: “Room and board is thirteen silver a night. We have breakfast from five to eight every morning, and dinner from eighteen to twenty, but not on weekends, sorry; I’m busy at the night markets then. If you need any maps, or restaurant recommendations, or any of that, just ask. And I can arrange dungeon tours if you’re a newcomer. I’m certified for the first three floors, you know!”

Otto, the eyeless creature, walked over to the service counter and began to sniff Amelia’s feet. But when she shifted her legs to avoid it, it freaked out and ran off to another room in a haste.

“Dungeon tours...” This woman was already throwing stuff out far beyond her minimal understanding about this city. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know about any of that. I’d just like a room, and a post box if you have one.”

“We do! Each bed gets a box, but it’s an extra two silver a night, and if you lose the key, that’s forty-five. Sorry, but it’s expensive to replace those.”

“Okay. How long will this get me?” Amelia asked.

She pulled her change purse out of her rucksack and slammed the whole thing on the counter with a bright chattering of coins.

Inside, as the elf soon learned, were about a hundred gold coins, plus a few silvers and coppers scattered about. Whatever Amelia had gotten from the necromancer in Berryward and from the many odd jobs she worked on her way across the continent. She never kept track, because she always had enough.

Once again, the girl was floored. “Y-you want all of this on your... your account?”

“Sure thing. I have some more for spending.” All she really needed to survive was clothes, souls, and water. Souls were the tricky part, but as far as she knew, they were perfectly available somewhere in Fleettwixt, legal or otherwise.

“More.”

“Not much. But I don’t need much else.”

“Well, um, if I’m doing my math right...” Mino leaned down over her desk and scribbled some numbers on a spare piece of paper as she double-checked the coins. “I don’t know, nine months? Depends if you want to pitch in for the spring festival float or if you’ll be purchasing any of the bonus amenities like the river tour or... Let’s just say nine months now, and I’ll work out the details later. Sorry I can’t give you an exact date. This is, uh, a lot more than anyone’s ever paid me before. A lot more gold coins than I’ve ever seen all in one purse, honestly.”

“That’s fine,” Amelia said. It was not as if she expected to be here more than a month or two at the most. In a best-case scenario, she would be out of here in a week and reunited with her girlfriend for good. Everything else was little more than a donation. She only hoped it was worth it, as this place seemed, well, homely, to put it politely. She had been in muddy fishing villages with nicer lodging than this.

“Great! Then I’ll be your host. Probably your only one unless Milca gets back from that trip overseas. Ask me anything, and I can help you out. I’m really good at this, not to brag or anything.”

“Got it.”

“It’s so exciting having an adventurer in the hostel again. You know, Beechhurst is a great place, I promise you that. We’ve fallen on some hard times since that hero came through Fleettwixt, but we’ve got a real opportunity to expand, and—”

“I’m sorry. Where’s my room?”

“Oh, yes.” Mino rummaged through a drawer and brought out a key. “This is to your locker. You can put all your... uh, belongings in it. If you buy any.” She looked at Amelia’s near-empty rucksack with more than a little confusion. “You’re in room 2, and you can choose bunk 2A, 2B, or 2D. Do you like top bunk or bottom?”

“Bunk beds... Do I have roommates?”

“Yeah,” she said, “I try to keep the rooms to a minimum. I’m the only one working, so cleaning gets hard when there’s lots of rooms taken. But only one roommate, just Aeo. She’s in and out a lot but she stays here most nights. Nice gal. My best friend forever, honestly. She’s cooking in the kitchen right now, actually. Want me to call—”

“No thank you,” Amelia said. “How many people are here, in total?”

“Well there’s you, and Aeo. There’s Gruzut, but she’s already asleep because she works dusk shift at the docks in Portside...” Mino looked up in concentration, as if it took her a real effort to remember her own guests. “And Phelia. She’s a kobold, if you can believe it, and a real go-getter too. Hummer’s here but she checks out in a week or two, though that’s what she’s been saying for months. Uh... There was that guy Philip here, but I think he left. Pretty sure he left. Yeah, after that thing with him and Phelia. So awkward. Oh, and me. So that’s...” She began counting on her hands, and at this point Amelia regretted ever asking. “Six people, soon to be five.”

This was a three-story building. There were probably ten or twelve bedrooms, each with several bunks, but only six guests, in presumably just two rooms. Beechhurst really was falling on hard times, after all.

“Thank you,” Amelia said. “And good night.”

She started upstairs for the room, but Mino asked, “Wait, dinner’s almost ready. You can eat with us. Aeo and I’d love to get to know you.”

“You don’t want to meet me,” she said, turning her head away from the elf just as she saw her ears droop. “Stay out of my way, and we’ll be just fine.”

“Well, uh, the baths are open if you... Well, they’re always open if you need it.”

She did not respond. She simply went to her room, set her rucksack up on a coat rack, and dropped her body directly on the soft mattress of the bottom bunk.

It had been eight days since she last slept—or, entered power-saving mode, that is. A nice rest might finally help her fix some oncoming errors before they ended up killing her.

Maybe she was rude to Mino. But Amelia did not want such a nice girl hurt by what she was about to do. A lot of bad people were going to die in these coming days and weeks. Amelia needed no friends—or, more accurately, potential targets. All she needed was Ed back in her arms, and this would all have been worth it.

She imagined it right here and now. Her girlfriends’s head resting on her shoulder, their hands held together as they watched the frigid sunrise. A little glimmer in Amelia’s eye as she gave a quiet, tear-free sob. Happiness so poignant it made her cry.

Here in this bed, alone but closer to Ed than she’d been in so long, she sobbed a little too. But eventually she allowed herself that special vulnerability and passed into rest.