The Retired Abyss Innkeeper-Chapter 73: She Apologized. I Was Nearly Done With The Room Assignment
The broth was working. ๐๐ซ๐๐ฒ๐จ๐๐๐๐๐ฏ๐๐น.๐๐จ๐บ
I could tell from behind the counter. The bowls coming back from the twenty-five were cleaner than the first batch. Not empty. These werenโt guests who ate in any sense I had a word for. But the level was lower. That mattered. Something in the lighter base was getting through to them the right way.
I made a note on the recipe.
Then I went back to watching the corridor entrance. Iโd been doing that off and on since Vassara and Brenne went downstairs.
Brenne first. Her two behind her.
You notice when somethingโs different. Itโs a habit you develop running an inn.
Her feathers were right again. The compound had done exactly what Torvel said it would. I marked that down as an interesting point for the cart situation in general. The feathers were sitting flat along her spine smoothly. Just like they had been the first time she walked through my door, before the sewer had gotten involved.
Her hair had come out well too.
The light around her head was back to its normal level. The steady sort. It ran at a slightly different register than the hearth light.
Her two looked the same kind of tired they always did.
Clean, now. But the tired stayed.
Iโd figured that out by now. It wasnโt sewer-related. It was the permanent variety.
I wrote product effective under Torvelโs cart entry as a separate note.
Worth knowing.
Brenne came up to the counter.
Not to order anything.
She just came up and stood there. The posture was different from the ordering kind. Her feathers were folded tight along her back. The light around her head was steady.
After a moment she placed both hands flat on the counter.
Even. She didnโt adjust them after.
"The bath worked," she said.
"I thought it might," I said. "I had it listed as a question since the product was new to me. But the building already seemed to know what it was for."
I moved the cloth to the other side of the counter.
"Bram went down this morning without the right tools," I added. "So he didnโt get a proper look at the plumbing."
I shrugged slightly.
"The report I got earlier was very not standard. Which is Bramโs version of a detailed assessment."
She held there for a moment. Hands still on the counter.
"I wanted to speak with you," she said.
"Of course," I said.
"We havenโt," she said. "Not properly. Since I arrived, Iโve been..."
She stopped.
Then she tried again.
"I came here with a position. A mandate. And Iโve been working from that. Which means Iโve been in your kitchen. At your tables. I helped you with the bread once."
"You did," I said. "You have a decent hand in a kitchen."
"And Iโve spent," she said.
She paused again. This one had texture to it.
"A considerable amount of time in this room. And I havenโt once come to the counter and spoken to you the way a guest speaks to the innkeeper of the place theyโre staying."
She looked directly at me.
"That was rude. I want to apologize for it."
She meant it.
You can tell the difference between someone performing an apology and someone delivering one. This was the second type.
"Thereโs nothing to apologize for," I said. "I run a guest agreement here. The general principle is that my guestsโ arrangements are their own unless they turn into a shared maintenance concern."
I wrung out the cloth.
"Yours havenโt become a shared maintenance concern."
She gave me a particular look.
Iโd seen that look a few times across the previous day. It was the one she used when she was trying to determine whether something Iโd said was a direct answer or a polite way of stepping around the question.
It was a very good look for that purpose.
"You knew what I was doing," she said.
"You werenโt exactly sly about it, but yes, I noticed you were doing something," I said. "Most guests are. I run an inn. People come here with purposes."
I set the cloth aside.
"As long as the purpose doesnโt affect the linen, I donโt tend to ask many questions about it."
There was a small silence.
That part belonged to her.
"My order," she said eventually, "sent me because someone needed to be present. Situations like this arenโt left unwatched."
"Makes sense," I said. "I keep a lamp schedule for similar reasons."
I folded my arms loosely on the counter.
"Things you watch early stay manageable. Things you donโt tend to form opinions before you get the chance to address them."
She looked at me for a moment.
"Thatโs not what I expected you to say."
"What were you expecting?"
"A question about what my order specifically watches for."
"I assumed Iโd hear about it if it became relevant to the rooms," I said. "Otherwise it seemed like your business."
From somewhere in the middle of the common room, the Walker said,
"Good morning."
It was mid-afternoon.
Two of the twenty-five shifted their fog slightly toward him. The Entity of Note adjusted the angle of its head by about a degree.
Brenne glanced briefly toward them.
Then she looked back at me.
"The stay," she said. "I donโt have a fixed end date."
"I have an open-ended category," I said. "Itโs smaller than it sounds."
I leaned slightly on the counter.
"Usually itโs guests who have a situation rather than a schedule. It works out fine. I just bake more bread."
She looked at me.
"Thatโs not a facetious answer," I said. "Open-ended guests develop preferences faster than guests on fixed stays."
I tapped the counter once.
"The preferences travel from the person to the bread before anyone consciously decides thatโs whatโs happening. Iโve found itโs easier to get ahead of it."
"Iโll keep that in mind," she said.
She sounded like she actually might.
"The east rooms on the second floor are ready," I said. "Bram finished the floor yesterday."
I reached for the ledger.
"Good frames. Good light. With the caveat that the light comes in from the wrong angle."
I opened the book.
"I mention that to everyone. Depending on what youโre used to, it may or may not matter."
I flipped to the correct page.
"I need to confirm the room count before we go up," I said. "Iโve had it listed as three rooms since you arrived."
I glanced at her.
"But I didnโt ask the question properly then because the morning was what it was. So Iโm asking now."
She straightened slightly.
"One room for me," she said. "One for them together."
"Good," I said. "Two rooms."
I wrote it down and drew a line through the bracket.
That bracket had been sitting on the list since Iโd first written and couldnโt close it without asking the question.
Getting rid of it felt like the stair bracket.
A job that had waited long enough to start feeling structural, finished in about a minute once I actually did it.
"The question," I said as I closed the ledger, "takes a bit of nerve to ask."
I set the book down.
"In case you were wondering why it took this long."
"I wasnโt wondering," she said.
"Some guests think asking means you assumed something," I said. "Other guests think not asking means you didnโt think to."
I straightened the ledger.
"There isnโt a version of the question that reads as neutral to everyone."
I remembered something.
"I had a pair once. Regulars. Came back three times."
I leaned on the counter again.
"I got it wrong twice in the same direction. On the third visit I asked directly."
I shrugged.
"One of them said โIโm glad you askedโ in a tone that made it clear the previous two visits had been a difficulty they were too polite to mention."
"That must have been frustrating," she said.
"The second time was," I said. "The first time I assumed Iโd simply misread them."
I reached up and took the second key ring down from the hook.
"The second time I knew Iโd misread them. And then did it again anyway."
I paused.
"Thatโs a different category of error entirely."
We went upstairs.
Her two followed behind us.
The tired they carried was exactly the same on the stairs as it had been in the common room.
The lobby upstairs looked as it always did.
Couch. Armchairs sitting at the angle Bram had placed them. The bar counter built into the east wall running clean and straight.
The northwest draft was back.
"Thereโs a draft," I said. "Northwest corner."
I gestured toward it.
"Iโve checked it enough times and havenโt found anything that accounts for it."
The air shifted slightly across the lobby.
"It enters from that corner and crosses the room diagonally."
I watched it move.
"Which at least suggests it has a destination. Even if it refuses to say how itโs getting there."
She looked at the corner.
"I mention it to everyone who comes up here," I said. "At this point not mentioning it would feel like withholding information."
We went into the east corridor.
The second shadow was there along the left wall at knee height. The light was still sitting at its Abyss-facing angle. The first east room door was shut.
I walked past it and stopped at the second door.
"This oneโs yours," I said.
I unlocked it.
The room looked exactly the way it should.
Frames solid. Bed against the north wall. Washstand in the corner. The window letting in light at the usual odd angle.
"The third room for your two is just past..."
The floor moved.
The boards didnโt crack.
The building held.
But something discharged from the direction of the first east room. It traveled up through the soles of my feet and into the back of my teeth.
The corridor lamp flared white once.
Then it returned to normal.
The second shadow along the left wall stretched out to twice its usual length.
Then it pulled back.
For a moment the air in the corridor became the wrong temperature.
Then it corrected itself.
I stood there holding the keys.
The first east room door was still shut.
[SYSTEM LOG]
East corridor, first east room. Mana discharge, uncontrolled. Duration brief.
Environmental effects: corridor lamp, output spike, single instance. Second shadow, range extension, one instance, resolved. Ambient temperature, deviation, resolved.
Structural integrity: holding.
Source: ritual working, in progress. Specific mechanism: pending classification. Filed under Form 9-A, Appendix A, amendment seven.
