Hotel Selten

Elevating Situations

“What was that?!”

A lot of them panicked, some went into their houses, especially those who have panic attacks and easily shocked. The others who are relaxing in the public bath back out. 

“Calm down everyone.” While the others make the panicking children and people calm, Ophelia looks around. ‘That wasn’t an explosion by something from me, I never encountered that.’ She started to walk around and investigating what exploded. 

“Was that you, Ophelia?” She shook her head in response, “Most explosions that I create, or at least ‘I’ created, if it’s really me, don’t really have that resounding boom, mostly they are clanks of tin cracking or glass breaking.” Miss Eve went silent, she was thinking where and who created the explosion or at least, the sound.

“The sound isn’t too loud here… And nothing really happened.” The lady looked at a teenage boy, “Armond, investigate the ones who were here.” “Roger that, Miss Eve.” He jokingly saluted the lady who just giggled at her antics. “Come, Ophelia. Let us investigate in the training ground, there is a huge chance it came from there.” The teenage girl with her nods and they went on their way to the training ground which is just a few walks away. 

“Have you heard the sound?” Miss Eve asks the ones who trained just earlier. They all agreed, “Yet, there’s no one of us that created an explosion.” A mid-20s looking male said. “And, it is a bit loud and shook the ground we are standing on.” “Nice observation, Lucrece, do you guys have a clue where it came from?”

“Miss… I might have a clue where it came from… Judging how strong it is, is just near here, and the force came from the underground since I felt it was moving upwards, it may be at the center of the hotel.” A female with short blond hair explained, who seems the one who been throwing sharp-pointed rocks earlier at a dummy. “Center… Center…” Miss Eve’s face lighten up and went to a bush. She crouched and lifts something, Ophelia followed. 

It was the entrance of the place that they called the underground hall, where Ophelia came from. The dark and creepy hallway underground. Miss Eve goes down the hallway, she twisted something in the wall and the place went bright. ‘Jeez, there was a light there? The torch goes in vain.’ The lady looked at her nods, inviting her to enter. She enters, the lights were produced by rocks looking like bulbs. ‘What a technology.’

They continued farther down the hallway. They passed by the path she took the earlier morning. Just near her room’s trapdoor, approximately 5 meters away, there was a door there. The scent of smoke can be smelled by both of them, which made them cough. Miss Eve knocked on the door. It opened and it revealed another teenager that looks like the same age as Ophelia. He has blonde hair with safety goggles resting, a bit chubby freckly face and body, with his brown eyes looking at them. He is all sweaty and seemed to pant.

“Yes.” He said while panting, the boy in front of them seems to know why they are here. He wipes his sweat on his forehead. “It was the project I am working on, I…” He huffed, “I am sorry if I scared anyone or…” Miss Eve smiled. “I knew it. How was your project anyway, Blaise?” They went inside his little—scratch that, big underground machine lab. “I am experimenting a lot, Miss. The one today is a failure, yet a big step for me.”  Ophelia wanders around, looking at the gears and the little projects that are displayed on a long counter. Some of them exist in the outside world, just like the amplifier. ‘Why would he display this or even uh… Invent this?’

“The explosion earlier was from this machine, it creates an alternative cloaking barrier for the hotel. Since I observed that most of the breaches that we had were because of the cloaking barrier suddenly disappearing or fading away since it uses the power and energy of the leader or the one who currently leads the hotel of some sort. Just an example for Mister Augustus, he became ill and, you know what happened.”

“Mister Augustus?” Ophelia asked. “The one he is talking about is the former leader of the hotel. He fell ill and the barrier weakened, the explanation is what Blaise said.” Miss Eve walks around the machine as Blaise nods, “Yep, so I made an alternative! It still uses magic, the normal way summoning a barrier needs pure energy from the one who summoned it. In that case, if the summoner felt weak, the barrier can not be saved by someone other than the summoner itself, but he is weak, so it is the end game for it unless the summoner went well and fixed the problem. Now, this machine can convert almost different types of energy and magic and make it into one pure magic that is called neutrality.”

He clicked some buttons and looks at them. “I collected some bits of magic from everyone and conserve it in every test so I would not disturb them a lot.” He grabs an iPad-like gadget and taps on its screen several times before showing it to them, “These are my findings, and seems earlier at my 89th test, I installed a little bit too much magic into the machine.” He started typing on his notes, “It’s not possible the reaction of different magic since I removed and noted some that don’t go too well, so it's the quantity, not the quality.”

Ophelia is amazed by how tech genius he is, base on his attitude and words, maybe that already-invented-technology-in-the-outside-world she saw has something on it, which made her curiosity grew more. 

“This project is imperfect, but I will make sure that it will be successful to preserve and protect the hotel better.” Miss Eve smiled, “I appreciate your efforts, Blaise, you have done a lot since you discovered your ability.” Blaise blushed a bit and scratches his head, he laughs awkwardly. “It is my duty miss, don’t mention it.” He hid his gadget and looks at Ophelia who was looking elsewhere. “Hey, newcomer, since I am not really quite going out of my lab, what is your name?”

“Huh?” Ophelia looked at him, she was faded out of her thoughts. “Oh… Uh… I am Ophelia Hutchinson, you can call me Ophelia or anything.” She smiled. “I guess you already know what they call me, but as a courtesy to a lady like you, I am Blaise Roberts, the tech genius of this hotel.” He winked. 

“Oh… Nice to meet you.” Miss Eve giggled, “Blaise, you and your antics again.” “Sorry miss, it has been a habit.” They both laugh and Ophelia joined as well with an awkward laugh.  “Anyways, Ophelia, can I get a bit of your magic, what is your ability?” Blaise politely asked, “Well, I still don’t quite know.”

“I may have a hunch she has some sort of water powers or if I am wrong, it’s telekinesis.” Miss Eve suggested, which made Blaise draw his trusty gadget again. He taps several times and slides his fingers up and down. “If she has water, I may have needed her for a bit, if she has the telekinesis one, it may cause another problem, since mind type magic doesn’t fairly work on other magic, they are on their own. So, we have 50-50 percent chances that the 90th testing will succeed or fail, respectively.” He is typing what he is saying right now. 

Ophelia Hutchinson

Water???

Telekinesis???

Let’s see what happens.

“Alright, come with me, Miss Ophelia.” He hid his gadget as he moved his index finger, saying to come near him. Once Ophelia went nearer, he walks away and she follows him.

They stopped in front of a door and Blaise opened it. “Ladies first.” Ophelia just smiled went into the room. It was like a dental clinic-like room, with its white walls and white floor, there was a dental chair, but the types of equipment are less dental-ish. 

“Please take a seat, and well, lay.” She did, she gets comfy to the chair she is in. Blaise then walks to her side and clicks and holds some things that she doesn’t even know what does it do. “May I?” He looks at her right arm. “Yeah, sure.” “Thank you.” He then put a cold metal bracelet on her wrist. It was tight for her, “Don’t worry about the tightness, just relax and don’t be angry or be shock or anything. Just be calm. You might overcharge this machine of mine.” She nods and heaved a sigh to calm herself down and fixed her position into a comfy one. 

“This doesn’t hurt, trust me.” He turned to the main part of the device and pulled a lever down. Seconds later, she giggled as she feels a tingly sensation on her wrist. Blaise is busy clicking on some more buttons and pushes the lever up after a minute. He draws his gadget again and types his observation again.

Extract magic, done.

Nothing happened, it went well.

He then unattached the metal bracelet on her wrist, Ophelia rises from the chair and stands on the floor. Blaise pulled a seeming glass test tube, but it’s glowing blue. They can both notice the gaseous-like substance that is in it.

“Alright, time to test this.” They both went out of the room. Miss Eve is still standing near the machine Blaise is testing for several times. The genius tech manipulated some gears and buttons in the machine. “Machine starting up…” He continues to click more buttons and flips some switches. The women in the room set aside a little bit far from the machine to let him do his thing.

“Miss Eve?” The lady turns her head to her. “Hmm…?” “I am gonna ask a really really dumb question.” Ophelia scratched her head as Miss Eve giggled. “Ask it now, don’t be shy.”

“Well, is this hotel the only one that shelters these kinds of people? I mean, are there any other hotels or even villages that have these kinds of you know… Set up?” The question made the lady think and held her hands together in her back. “If you are asking about another place where some of our types live. I don’t know any except one.”

“Where is it?” “It was the Martin Mansion… It’s in France. Some of the ones living here today came from there. It is the only one I know, there might be several ones out there, we don’t know. They are so great at hiding, which is good, that we, even we can understand them, don’t know where they are. We don’t really attempt to find them, it’s better to stay and just hide here.”

Their conversation got interrupted with the sound of the engine of Blaise’s project. He was now typing on his gadget. “Kind of getting noisy, but I think it’s just because of what happened earlier. Don’t worry, I can fix this.” He assured them as he clicks more buttons. 

He pulled a strand of his hair and inserted it on the machine. He clicks several buttons and pulled a lever. The machine starts to calm down and he smiled at them. He then draws his attention to his gadget and starts tapping. “Initial problem solve.” He hid his gadget back and gets the test tube containing Ophelia’s magic. He takes a deep breath and looks at them, “Well, this is it.”

He clicked a button and a place holder specialized for the test tube goes out of the machine. He puts in it there and puts it back in. He clicked on several buttons. He looks at a certain red button and dramatically pushes it. He walks back a bit as they watch the machine slowly glows. Blaise smiles and almost squeals in excitement. The light gets brighter and brighter. Ophelia and her company covered their eyes.

Ophelia felt a force and pushed her in the wall hard.

Bright, yet darkness consumed her.

Her limbs fall on the floor weakly.