The Restoration Protocol

13 || puppeteer

Company.

A vague and ominous term for a person which they could not yet see, nor of whom Mariko can be certain is even what she thinks they are. Confusingly enough. The point is, she's quickly picked up on the details sprinkled about the whole situation. Obscure as they may be. Lotus hadn't mentioned Riis at all in the time they were at the Greenhouse Manor. Not even in that brief period in the garden before they parted ways. Perhaps there was a reason. Mariko finds it hard to believe he could just forget something like that.

She can't help but notice the lingering draft in the hallway. A distinct chill, as though the roof of the entire castle had been blown clear off, and now they're breathing in the same stale and foggy air they trekked through to get here in the first place. Through Hollowmire's miserable shambles. The walls are still here. The ceiling is still here. As they all head down the hall back the way they had come, Mariko scans her surroundings with eyes like a hawk. Just in case something may be lying in wait behind the doors they passed by on the way here. No, but there was no one. She shakes her head. They checked all these rooms, and there was no one inside. No windows, either.

So where is this intense chill coming from?

"Did we...go the wrong way?"

They've stopped walking. It takes Mariko a second to realize it, but just before she would have run into Sebastian's back, she catches herself. Inquisitive eyes peer up at the man in question.

"No," he says in late reply to Julian, "we definitely came this way."

"Oh? Then where are the stairs, pray tell? There were stairs here. We walked up stairs to get here, Sebby. I don't know if you recall."

"Yeah, yeah, I recall..."

Oh. Mariko furrows her brow as she slowly lets go of Boey's hand. She steps to the side to get a better look at what's ahead of them — or, what would be more appropriate to say, what isn't ahead of them. The stone staircase. It's gone. In the back of her mind, she thought they had been walking for a bit too long, but she couldn't have fathomed a staircase would up and disappear on them.

"Okay, okay, nobody panic..."

With a deep inhale and a swift swing of his foot, Sebastian spins himself around and faces the group with about as much confidence as someone who clearly doesn't know what he's doing. He does an awfully good job of making it look convincing, though.

"So what, if the castle's got some titty tricks," he begins, waving his hand as if to dismiss his own doubts. "I've been to funhouses. It's all just surface layer spooks. All you gotta do is flip the coin around, you know what I'm saying?"

Soleil squints. Her head tilts to one side. "Titty...tricks?"

"Booby traps," Julian mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose. "That's...such a stupid joke..."

"Hey, I've made worse."

"You have made worse."

"Can we really call it a trap if it just vanished, though??" Boey points out. He throws his hand out towards the nonexistent stairs. And Mariko agrees. He has a point. They certainly walked up them to get here.

"Maybe he moved them," Soleil suggests.

"He?" Mariko says instinctively. She knows who she meant.

"Jugo," Soleil continues. "He is a sorcerer, just like that woman we met at the diner said." Her pensive gaze falls on the ground where Mariko believes the stairs had been — or close to it. "No doubt his powers are amplified here being that this is his domain. We best remain calm and look for another escape route."