Guess what, guys! 

I'm going to start posting these in a timely manner! So maybe we'll be finished before this is two year old! Yay!!

Day five, part four

For the first time in forever, Simul announced as she tried to sing the Disney song, everyone was going back to their lessons today after lunch. Well, everyone except Sea Glass, who would stay in xyr dormitory and rest. That information was only a footnote in all of Simul’s announcements, but she knew what it would mean to one of the guests, their ears surely alert for any clue of how to carry out their plans.

Lunch that day was something of a celebration, which made for a nice change. Simul seemed to offer a bigger variety of food- and a very large helping of desserts, too. There were plenty of fun conversations had; Gracia and Boo played a very weird game of truth or dare, Porcelain, Nihil and Darkking talked about video games, Reese, Devin and Artimerrx sampled the weirdest-looking foods on the table, and Catsquill recounted his funniest D&D stories to Mor, Win, Far, and anyone else who would listen. Alex and Estrella, still saddened from the deaths of Jwyn and Song, sat at the far end of the table and ate quietly, but they did smile to see the others having a good time.

Viola? made sure to save some food to bring to Sea Glass, who was still in xyr dormitory, though xe planned on coming to dinner. It would be a nice surprise for the other guests to see Sea Glass again and talk with xyr. 

As Viola? and Sea Glass talked in the Fire dormitory, the rest of the guests made their way to magic lessons. Maybe it was all due to their enthusiasm, but a lot of them seemed to be getting better results. Vita was grinning as he watched Gracia grow a lovely daisy out of the floor and Bean twist a vine between her fingers. Caeli giggled as Porcelain blew her (Caeli's) around her face. Aqua encouraged Wren as she slowly gathered water into a small sphere. Even Terra nodded his approval as Leeli showered the ground with pebbles, and Ingus watched carefully as Wendy absent-mindedly made smoke curl up around her fingers- though that probably wasn't out of pride. Lots of them began to advance in their magical abilities that day, and at that moment, Magicae Palace felt as it should have been; nothing terrible around the corner, the guests learning magic and having fun together.

But that was hardly how everything truly should have been, and one guest had to set it right.

Sea Glass was sitting in xyr bed, propped up on several pillows, reading a book and toying with xyr bracelets. A small smile danced around the corners of xyr mouth. Xe was back, xe was safe...

But not for long.

~~~~~

Nymph was staring blankly ahead, presumably at a wall she could hardly see. Her form kept jumping and changing, like it was fidgeting, though her body was eerily still. A soft knock at the door made her jump.

"Go away," she said flatly.

"Hi, Nymph," said AW through the door, "We just want to-"

"Go away? Good plan," she spat.

"Nymph." Now it was Viola?. There was silence for a moment. "Let me in."

Nymph considered this for a while. "I won't let you in," she said slowly, "But we can talk."

~~~~~

In a quiet library near the Life dorm, Estrella sat across from Alex, both of them holding very large Fantasy volumes. It was silent other than the turning of pages, the occasional fidgeting, and the low hum of the air conditioning. It was just how both of them liked it; quiet, with plenty of books and space to think. Neither of them minded the other, and they didn't find it awkward; they were both sad, tired, and ready to be left alone. At least they were alone together, and as content as possible for what had happened to them.

Truth be told, neither of them were reading with anything near their usual concentration. Their books were just devices used to disguise their thoughts and the time they wanted to mull over them. The funeral for Jwyn was going to be after dinner, combined with that for Sea Glass. Then, of course, the two of them thought of their situation in a sort of deep and contemplative way: how death was becoming something regular and how fear was too, how fear was the murderer's greatest weapon, how the murderer had almost infinite power over them with fear dangling over the group in a tight fist, how the murderer was disguised and unsuspected as they were all friends, how the murderer themselves could be sitting across the table...

It was both unsettling and somehow very calming at the same time. They were uneasy, yet they hadn't felt this content in a while. It was a strange balance, but neither of the AEs were sad about it. They were sad, and concerned, and fearful; and yet, it was a moment of peace for the both of them.

~~~~~

"How's Nymph?" Gracia asked Win, Marigold, Mor, Porcelain, and Boo, who were coming down a flight of stairs.

"Viola?'s with her," Porcelain assured her.

"Kind ooff," Boo added.

"They're on opposite sides of the door, talking," said Marigold. "It's kind of lovely in a weird way."

"Hmm, well," Gracia said, "That's good to know. I think I'm going for a walk. I just need the fresh air. Anyone want to come with?"

Porcelain and Mor agreed to it. "Don't forget about the fence," Marigold reminded them.

"Wwee wont," Mor promised as they pulled open the massive door and walked out onto the drawbridge.

It was only as the door closed that Marigold considered the idea that one- or two- or all of them might not return from that walk. 

oh. my. goodness. SO GOOD! @Soren, you should publish this. Seriously. It's literally that good. So interesting and mysterious and perfect! Cant wait to find out what happens ahhhhh

Heros and Quill, thank you so much! ^^

Day five part five

However, to Marigold's relief, all three of them returned safe and sound, chatting about Roleplays and having a good time. It seemed odd to Catsquill that Marigold would breathe a sigh of relief like that just to see Porcelain, Gracia and Mor walk through the door, but, he supposed, it was good to be careful, and thoughtful of her to be concerned. 

Viola? and Nymph reportedly would not be coming to dinner; they were still sitting on either side of the door to the Air dorm, talking together. It was so melancholy, yet so sweet at the same time; bittersweet, thought Wendy, though she took the more bitter route of thinking.

Simul provided a meal just as incredible as all the rest, with plenty of variety, but as usual most of it went untouched. Wren thought it was sad how much went to waste because of their lack of appetite; but then, the source of that was all the murderer. As it always seemed to be. A way of life they had adjusted to, only because it was necessary; none of this was chosen by any of the guests.

Not even the murderer.

At the moment, they were just as solemn as the rest; they were also worn out and tired of their volatile mood. The mystery sickened them, but they had to tolerate it. They knew what would happen if they didn't.

It frustrated the murderer that nobody else knew what they were trying to save. At least, none of the other guests did. But they knew, because of the knowledge they were never supposed to bear, that it was good none of the others shared in it. Still, that didn't take away their loneliness or longing.

As the guests finished their dinners, they slowly left the dining room and went outside behind the castle for for Jwyn and Sea Glass's funerals. Catsquill, Nihil, Far, and Caspian watched as Vita procured flowers and put them by the tombstones of all the guests. It was sort of melancholy, lovely, and bittersweet rolled into one drearily hopeful mess of emotions.

The ceremony was short, somber, and dreary. Just before at lunch and during lessons, there was so much joy, and then it disappeared; another fault of the murderer. Except it wasn't. In fact, the murderer was doing them a sickening favor; leading on the ski lodge as a true ski lodge, drawing the focus to their actions and identity instead of what lay beyond all of that...

The sky darkened above the group, and they slowly marched back up to the castle.

~~~~~

A storm rumbled outside as the group in Earth- Estrella, Leeli, Darkking, Caspian and Catsquill- tried valiantly to play cards. Estrella was clearly not having it and was unintentionally being rude to everyone, Catsquill was sarcastic as a result, and Leeli kept rolling her eyes. Caspian hid the awkwardness of the situation behind a toothy smile and extreme degrees of charisma, but Darkking kept making comments such as "Well, I didn't think cards were this boring" and "Welp, this is pretty awkward!", which of course did nothing to help the situation. Estrella was the first to quit and the rest quickly followed.

In fact, the night went similarly in all of the dorms. It was gloomy both outside and in, and nobody was in the mood for a real game or, in fact, anything fun. Everyone sat under the popcorn ceilings and beside the windows with their curtains drawn tight and next to the beds where their companions and friends should have been and just felt sad.

The night was silent up until midnight when Simul and the murderer met up with L and C.

~~~~~

The murderer closed the door so quietly Simul thought at first that it hadn't closed at all. A flash in the murderer's eyes told her that they were ready to go, and so they did.  Across the drawbridge, where the water under it looked ominous and black, and onto the shockingly green lawn, where two shadowy women were waiting for them.

"Nice to see ya," whispered Simul; nobody but her knew if she really meant it by the odd tone of her voice. "Wanna walk and talk?"

Simul started towards one of the trails before they could respond. The two women raised their eyebrows at each other. The murderer followed without question, or at least, not a truly implied one. 

Simul's silver dress rippled without wind as the four moved quietly. They were silent for a while.

"So," started Simul after a longer pause than they could really afford, "What do y'all want to talk about?"

"Well, lots of things," started L. "There are plenty of subject to hit on."

"None of which are pleasant," added C.

"First, let's talk about the fence," said L.

"What about it though?" asked Simul. "It's holding up fine and none of the guests are bothering with it."

"But the thing is that it won't be effective for much longer. The whole island's deteriorating," C explained.

"What's there to do about it?" the murderer asked in a husky voice.

L looked at them, slightly surprised, though not at the question. "Not much. That's mostly me and C's problem. We'll have to do some meddling with that. You could try reeeeaally hard not to ever plot stuff in the vicinity of someone you're not trying to kill, though. They'd find out stuff."

"Like with Jwyn," the murderer whispered. Remembering that confrontation still sent shivers down their spine. Just the look in her face, knowing her fate and accepting it because of the truth that was thrown upon her shoulders...

Nevermind that. The fence was still being discussed. Something about how L and C were going to contain the damage. The discussion was dropped.

"What about how I'm sometimes under the mystery's control and sometimes not?" the murderer questioned.

"That has to do with the malfunction," C replied. "Usually, the murderer is in a sort of... trance. their actions are decided for them, but they can't detect or know of the Mystery. You know that something hasn't quite happened like this before. We've seen the Mystery been threatened and near destroyed- actually, it was destroyed- but it's never messed up like this before, really."

"Reassuring!" Simul cried sarcastically. The murderer glared at her. She decided it was best to shut up.

"Anyways," C said hastily, "There's nothing really to be done about the headaches you're both having. Sorry."

"No prob," Simul mumbled, "My headaches are... uh... shoot, I was going to say something witty there but I couldn't think of anything." The murderer rolled their eyes, L giggled, and C raised an eyebrow. It was one of several awkward moments in the conversation.

"It would help if you guys tried to keep the conversation about the Mystery to a minimum," C added after a while.

"Help with what, exactly?" asked the murderer.

"With the stability of Magicae Palace. With the overall wellbeing of this ski lodge and everyone in it," replied L. Simul nodded along.

"When will we meet again, to talk about things like this?" asked Simul.

"How about at the end of the first week? The halfway point?" Suggested C.

And so they agreed to meet up again in the same way at the same time on the night of the seventh day.

Little did they know the things that would happen in the time between... 

Top top top!! :)

Day six part one~

Leeli got up early that morning,  but didn't dare venture beyond the Earth dormitory. She had a mission that she was going to execute, no matter what kind of obstacles she was faced with. She wanted to get TAMPS back together again.

She tiptoed around her bed and over to her luggage and dug out her sketchbook and mechanical pencils, going over to the nightstand next to her bed and writing, hoping she wouldn't wake anyone up. She began to write, pausing every once in a while to think, and once breaking the tip of her mechanical pencil and looking around swiftly to make sure she hadn't woken anybody up.

It took a while, and she was frustrated by how imperfect it was, but it was done, she had papers to hand out and a survey to give, and her mind was set. That was all that mattered about it.

~~~~~

Nihil silently ate a scone while Porcelain beside her talked with Darkking and Catsquill about D&D. They might've been comparing their stats or something; Nihil wasn't quite sure. Anyways, she was paying more attention to Leeli, who was shifting around in her seat and was looking around the dining room without eating much at all. Nihil kept that in mind.

Leeli was restless; she could be handing over something important to the murderer with this plan. She tried not to bend the papers, but she was clutching them so hard in her hands it was difficult not to. When Wren asked her what was wrong, she just shook her head. "Later," she told her AE.

Lunch was short and uneventful, as it always seemed to be. But at the end of it, Leeli cleared her throat. Only a few guests- Wren, Bean, Reese, and Winter- heard her, so they called the attention to her. She stood.

"Hi, everyone," she said, then was suddenly reminded of when her friend Leafy did the same thing. She cleared her throat quickly, then continued, "I'll get right to the point, and that is that I want to get TAMPS back together."

She paused and let that sink in while she gathered her courage back up. "Those who were in it before are automatically back in unless they tell me otherwise. After breakfast I'll be in the popcorn room. It you want to join, come see me. I'll have to ask you questions to make sure you're not the murderer. If you pass, I'll give you information about our first meeting. Okay?"

There were a few nods from various people around the table, so Leeli decided she was satisfied and sat back down.

The murderer saw both red lights and a blinding opportunity. Investigating could still bring the ski lodge to an awful turn, but now they could join TAMPS and end their operation for good. They ate a little more slowly so they could properly formulate a plan.

People began to trickle into the popcorn room once they had finished, and now the murderer was among them. Leeli greeted each one of the guests, then surveyed them.

"Where were you when Secret, Leafy, Jwyn, and Sea Glass were murdered?"

"Why do you want to be in TAMPS?"

"What do you think of Simul and the elemental instructors?"

"Who do you suspect may be the murderer?"

"Did you ever go and look for Sea Glass when xe was kidnapped?"

"What do you think the murderer's motive may be?"

The questions went on. One thing Leeli did not mention was that she was going to search all of the rooms again for weapons, but that would have been fine by the murderer; most of them were still with Simul and a few daggers were carried on their person. They lied with ease about some of the questions and managed to pass the inspection.

They were given the meeting information; the group was supposed to meet in a library on the same hallway as the Earth dormitory a little while before lunch.

The murderer knew their plan. That meeting would never take place.

~~~~~

The murderer sat, alone, in the darkness of a dusty and gloomy room, their plans scattered around them and their sanity askew. The Mystery had a fierce grip on them and their eyes were looking around wildly for something to hold on to, but it was too late. They were setting targets in their mind. They had to find Leeli now, and they all had to see that TAMPS could never defeat them. That the idea they could be stopped had to be banished from their minds altogether. Nothing could happen properly until they did this.

They jolted up in a fury and marched through the door, so focused they didn't even notice Gracia walking behind them along the same hallway. 

Gracia began to call out to them, but her shout became stuck in her throat when a thousand truths slammed into her mind and made her gasp with pain and shock. She stumbled where she was and placed a hand to her forehead.

When she got up, the murderer had rounded a corner and vanished.

~~~~~

Leeli heard a rustling behind her and stiffened. She was alone in the Earth classroom- or, had been. It sounded to her like someone else was there.

"Who is it?" she asked boldly, her voice trembling. She was too scared to turn around.

There was a small pause. "A well-wisher," came a familiar voice, gruff and shadowy. Something lurched horribly in her stomach, but the feeling was soon forgotten when a blinding pain pierced her in the back and left her growing cold.

The murderer tugged the sword from Leeli's back. Just like hers, their plan was now in motion. 

Top top top!! :)

TOOOOOOP!

TOPTOPTOP!

Oh dear, this does not look good for anyone...

Day six, part two

Gracia quickly found a small closet and entered it so as to recover and sort out her thoughts.

So that was who the murderer was, and that was why, and that's what they were up against? Gracia's head spun at all the thoughts that had just been thrown into her face without warning or mercy. She was now the mistaken bearer of all the Mystery's secrets. 

She could barely wrap her mind around the fact of who the murderer really was... but, there they were, marching down the hallway with a glint in their eyes and a sword in hand.

She sat with her knees level with her eyes and her breath forced into being slow while her heart and mind raced faster than she dared try to know.

~~~~~

Mor, Wendy, Reese, Darkking and Nihil were playing Monopoly on the floor of an airy room when Porcelain and Winter knocked on the door.

"... can't just refuse to pay me, Wendy. Cough up," Reese was demanding. Wendy was already loosing badly and had no idea how to play the game properly, but DK made sure she paid properly.

"Guys!" Winter interrupted. "Have you seen Leeli?" All of them shook their heads, then looked on with concern.

"She said she would be in the Earth classroom," Porcelain explained, "But Artimerrx checked a few minutes ago and she wasn't there."

"So, we got worried," AW finished.

"Doyou want usto help look frher?" Mor asked.

"No, that's okay," Porcelain said. "Okay, well, we'll tell you if we..." 

She trailed off and finished by simply nodding at them. Win closed the door behind them.

"Ihope shes okay," Nihil said softly.

"Me too," Darkking replied.

~~~~~

Porcelain and Win would find Leeli sooner than they thought they would, in just the way they feared they might. Leeli was dead and found in the popcorn room. There were several notes attached to her shirt. Winter stood back with her hands over her face as Porcelain slowly removed them from her shirt, biting her lip. Her hand shook the tiniest bit as she held them up.

"Another one from the murderer?" AW guessed in a voice that was sad and sickened and trying not to be either. Porcelain only nodded. She looked around uneasily before reading aloud from the first of them:

"Dear Chatterboxers,

I assure you that Leeli's death and the tragedies that are soon to follow it will not be the only ones of their kind if this business with an Anti-murderer force continues. This is your first and only warning, and you're lucky to be getting it.

Because you're so desperate to know a little bit about me, I'll just assure you now, I'm not Simul or any of the elemental instructors. I am one of you. 

Now, in the wake of Leeli's attempt to revive a force against me and now the price she has paid for it-" Porcelain tried not to snarl the horrible statement- "I believe I should treat you to another one of my games.

"The rules will be simple. You will be split up into teams of twos and threes, mostly out of my graciousness to minimize the number of additional deaths today." Porcelain's voice pitched an octave higher than usual when she spoke that sentence. "They will be given one of these envelopes, which contain the name of a location in the Palace, a challenge, and supplies. Once a team has met their goal, they will return here to the popcorn room. Once all the teams but one have returned, the game will end, and the final team will face their misfortune at my hand. Oh, and I'll be checking on how everyone did with their challenges, so if you decided not to do it or follow your instructions, you'll be going the same way as the losers.

"The best of luck to you all.

"-the murderer"

Win and Porcelain stared at each other in horror.

~~~~~Duh duh duuuuh