Day 1 part 2

"Oh- my- goodness -this- is -so- awesome!" Llama Girl shouted, gazing around the inside of the Palace.

"Yes," Aurum said proudly. "Quill, Nyx, Barnswallow, Llama Girl, Fidelity, Nightfall, Autumn Artist, Heroes, Aqua, Ella Starburst, PygmyOwl. . .Welcome to my humble abode."

The entire hall was not gold, ("It hurts your eyes after a while," Aurum explained), instead, it was a shining marble. Plants rested everywhere and birds flew freely above the arched ceiling. It was all open to the outside, and servants rushed everywhere. Strange smells of cooking emenated from all around.

"I'll show you your rooms," Aurum said. She led the CBers down halls, and up stairs, all marble. Elaborate tapestries adorned the walls in some places, showing scenes of fantastic battles. Everywhere was decorated, everything was beautiful. 

"Quill, aqua, Ella, Barnswallow, you're in here." Aurum opened a door with a gold orchid on it to reveal a nice bedroom with four beds, a sunny window, and air conditioning. They breathed a sigh of relief. It was beautiful, but it was hot.

Aurum led the rest of them to another door and ushered Nyx, Llama Girl, Sterling, and PygmyOwl inside. Then the rest of them folllowed her up to more floors. "You get the top room," Aurum said. "Best view."  

Nightfall, Autumn Artist and Heroes stepped in, and gazed out the gigantic window. Everything was bathed in sunset. 

"Hey Fidelity, isn't this great?" Heroes breathed. No answer came. 

Fidelity wasn't there.

"Um, Aurum, where's Fidelity?" Autumn Artist asked nervously. Aurum frowned.

"I could've sworn she was just here. Maybe she took a wrong turn down the way. . ." Aurum ran back down the hall, restracing her steps. Heroes, Nightfall, and Autumn Artist exchanged worried glances and followed. The found Aurum at the top of one of the staircases they had taken, looking down. They followed her gaze.

Fidelity lay on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, sprawled out. Her limbs lay at wrong angles, and her eyes were wide open, glazed over. 

"Fidelity," Nightfall whispered. 

"She's gone," Aurum said. Her face was stone-hard. "I'll need you to go back to your room immediately."

Doors were opening all down the hall. "What's going on?" Sterling said.

"It's Fidelity," Aurum said sadly. The CBers gasped at the body at the bottom of the staircase.  

"For your own good, you have to go back to your rooms," Aurum said. "It's safer in groups. Be on your guard."

With that, she went down the staircase, leaving the Chatterboxers in a worried, huddled group. 

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Dead: 1

Alive: 12

Suspected: ???

Day 2, part 3

The CBers didn't sleep much that night. No one did. Fidelity's body had been removed, and Aurum had attempted to cheer the rest of the Chatterboxers up during dinner, to no avail. 

"I'll tell you what," she said, "I'll take you on a tour of the Royal gardens tomorrow, or maybe we'll go ziplining. The jungle view is fantastic. I'm sure we could all use some cheering up, after the. . . Events of earlier."

The CBers nodded, their smiles not reaching their eyes. 

After dinner they went back to their rooms, urged by Aurum to get a good night's sleep. As Sterling climbed into bed, pulling a book from her suitcase, she said, "I wonder who did it."

"Don't we all," PygmyOwl said, laying back against the wall and scribbling something down in her notebook. "It looked like she. . .Fidelity. . .never mind, it's not plausible." She shook her head.

"What?" Nyx asked. 

"It looked like she fell," PygmyOwl finished. "But a flight of stairs is not enough to kill a person. It would have had to be higher. . ."

"Were there balconies?" Sterling said.

"I don't know. Tomorrow we should check. Maybe Aurum would let us in to check the body, see if there are clues. . .But how would she even have gotten up to the balconies in the first place?"

"I don't know," Llama Girl said, "But I am super tired. Teleporting into a golden city really zaps a person. See you all in the morning." She turned over and went to sleep. 

PygmyOwl worriedly jotted down a few more hurried notes, and climbed into bed. 

"Goodnight, all," Nyx said, clicking off the lamp.

And while everyone slept, somewhere in the building, the murderer was planning their next move.

*                           *                     *

Barnswallow did not sleep well. She had had bad dreams all night, images of Fidelity's body swimming through her head, only Fidelity was made of gold, and a dark shape stood over her. It said something, but she didn't hear. 

"What?" She asked. 

"Wake up!" The shape shouted. Barnswallow jolted awake to find Ella Starburst standing over her. 

"It took you long enough," she said, then proceeded to blast Hamilton music out of her phone. 

Barnswallow groggily got up, and got dressed, nearly tempted to just climb back into bed and fall back asleep. Yesterday had been too exhausting. She was actually about to do just that , when a gong sounded. The noise was huge, there was no other way to describe it, and rang out over everything, shaking the whole room. 

"Breakfast, girls!" She heard Aurum call. Barnswallow reluctantly followed Quill, aqua, and Ella down the many marble stairs. They got a bit lost once or twice, but the staff was everywhere, and someone always told them how to get back on track. They found Aurum waiting down the last flight of stairs, a mere three feet away from the spot of Fidelity's death. Barnswallow felt sick. 

"Hello!" Aurum said cheerfully. She was dressed differently today, less elaborate. She wore a feathered skirt and a white tunic, and gold bracelets adorned her arms. "I hope you girls are feeling better, considering yesterday. The cooks have prepared breakfast, goodness knows what it is this time. . ."

She led them into the huge hall where they had entered earlier. All the other CBers were already there, sitting in a circle of mats made of reeds on the floor.  Aurum directed Barnswalllow and the others to their spots. 

"I'll get the food," she said. "Just wait here, and be careful."

The CBers did as she said, talking and laughing. Heroes and Nyx were locked in a debate over  the correct pronounciation of the word pecan, and Nightfall was amusing herself with her glowing necklace. PygmyOwl wrote furiously in her notebook.

"Watcha writing about?" Autumn Artist asked, leaning over Quill to see. 

"She's trying to figure out the cause of Fidelity's death," Sterling explained. "Been at it for a while."

Almost instantly, the room went quiet. A  cloud seemed to settled over everything.

 "I have breakfast!" Aurum called, breaking the gloomy fog. She came out of a swinging door to the CBers left, balancing plates all over her arms. She handed one to each person. 

Each plate contained three odd almost pancake-looking things, except they were the color of raspberries and jiggled when you touched them. Beside them was bacon and a slice of watermelon. Ella started humming Watermelon Sugar almost instantly, and therefore got it stuck in everyone's heads for the rest of the day. 

Everyone took their plates a little tentatively, examining the odd pancake-things. 

"The cooks tried a new recipe," Aurum explained. "I think it's. . .Passionfruit?" She took a fork and poked hers. It bounced up and down. She shrugged and took a bite. The Chatterboxers watched her intently. 

"Not bad," she said. "Tastes a little like jello, if someone also mixed it with fruit, and maybe bread pudding."

The CBers found it was in fact quite good and finished it quickly.

As soon as they were done, Aurum stood up and said, "Okay, guys! What should we do for the first day of your vacation? I've got a Royal Garden tour, filled with exotic and sometimes man-eating plants, or I've got zip-lining. You choose."  

*                                                         *                                               *

No especially exciting things today, but the next part should be more interesting. Thank you for reading this admins, sorry it's so long. 

And i have a question:

Garden Tour or Zip-Lining?

Expect part 4 sometime in the near future.