The Innkeeper



Lex was sitting on a wooden bench atop Midnight mountain, looking out at the Inn. He was playing with an extremely deadly weapon laced with the most lethal poisons available on the market in his hand. Its original name was quite intimidating, but Lex himself decided to call it the 'Fidget spinner of doom' because, well, in Lex's extremely difficult to cut hands, it was naught more than a fidget spinner.

If anyone else were to try the same, their fingers would get sliced off! The only safe way to even use the weapon was using a secondary device that came with the fidget spinner of doom that both held it and propelled it forward like a sling.

He had already finished all his shopping, and now was just waiting for Miranda to give him the locator. Since he had a bit of spare time, he took a seat on this bench and allowed himself to reminisce. Sure, he could get some work done during this brief time, but he was only human. Right now, he didn't feel like working. So he did nothing and allowed his thoughts to wander.

His thoughts wandered to his parents. They were weird, that was for sure. But they had never been bad parents. Sure, they homeschooled him and took him around with them as they traveled for work, and became way too clingy during his teenage years when he wanted to explore with his friends. But wasn't that normal parents' stuff? They never mistreated him or made him feel left out, which is why learning that they might have been keeping secrets from him felt like such a betrayal.

Then his thoughts went to his sisters. Belle was a brute who liked nothing more than bullying others and wrestling. She was extremely intimidating and did not hesitate to pick a fight with anyone, their parents included. But at the same time, she never allowed her siblings to be bullied either.

It was one of the reasons Lex took so long to develop his sense of protectiveness towards his own workers. It was because he had never felt the need to be protective of his sisters, for who on god's green earth would pick a fight with that maniac of a sister that he had?

Then came Liz. Like Lex, she too had been named by Belle.

He paused for a moment when he realized even the youngest, Moon, had been named by Belle. Had his parents even done anything?

Shaking his head, his thoughts drifted back to Liz. Out of all the siblings, she was the most introverted. People assumed it was because she was shy, but that wasn't it. Lex did not pretend to understand her reasoning, but she was the most selective of whom she spent her time with. Other than the siblings, there was barely anyone she was comfortable with - their parents included!

Then came Moon. She was the youngest, the most spoiled, loved, and extroverted of them all. She had more friends than Lex had acquaintances, and she found it impossible to sit still.

He wondered what they would think if they saw the Inn? Lex had no plans of divulging his identity as the Innkeeper, even to them. But even still, he couldn't help but wonder what they would think.

Belle would scoff and call it pedantic. Liz would find herself a hut somewhere far away from the crowds. Moon, well, the crowd would be around her wherever she went.

For all the irritation Lex felt at them, in that moment, he couldn't help but smile.

A short while later, his hologram popped up. Miranda had the locator ready.

He put on his Clark Kent glasses and teleported to the meeting room. Miranda looked somewhat better, with her arm in a makeshift cast, but it was clear from her haphazard clothes that she hadn't spent much time doing much of anything else.

"This is it," she said, handing him a device that looked like a clock.

"It runs on spirit energy so you'll have to power it yourself. I didn't have time to fashion a working battery. But that should locate the facility. Once there, whoever you're sending will have to find someone called Major Gilbert - he's in charge of the facility."

She slid forward a letter on the table.

"You'll have to give him this letter to get him to cooperate. If you don't have the letter, he won't acknowledge you, and chances are he'll resist. But, once he's been convinced, he'll lead you to the servers. The facility is large, and there are a lot of servers. There's also no way of knowing which one the relevant information is stored on, so you'll have to bring all of them back"

"Got it," said Leo, receiving the letter and the locator. The letter vanished inside his bangle, which he had covered by his shirt. He could really have people recognizing that, so he always kept it hidden from sight. The locator he simply grabbed, and would strap on later.

"Can you tell me now how the Inn will help us?" Although the woman had initially tried to put up a strong front, she was barely holding on now. Fortunately, Lex had no plans to dangle the information any longer.

"It's simple, really. Do you remember the Midnight Games? How the Inn was able to turn parts of the battlefield on Vegus Minima into an event?"

Realization dawned on Miranda, and she suddenly couldn't believe that she hadn't recalled the matter sooner!

"Is the Inn going to do that again?" she asked, barely able to suppress the excitement in her voice.

"No!" said Leo firmly. "That was a one-time event. The Inn will not do anything of the sort again. However, that does not mean that you can't host such an event yourself. It will take some work as you'll have to designate a battlefield or many, and you'll have to think of an incentive to get others to fight the battles. But I'm sure you can figure something out."