No one from the sixth floor is allowed outside of the hotel at all, and the guards have doubled. Some of them…have hard hearts, and they frighten me. 

I told this to Coty, and she agreed. Neither of us know what is to happen now.

There have been a dozen Lupoiux attacks on the outlying areas.

My sisters…

Kellis is beside herself. She had been assigned to guard Cass specifically when she is in the hotel, but I suspect there are other, male, guards near. For once, Kellis is not complaining about Kierce being so overprotective.

They have assigned two guards to Coty and her sisters, so her time with me, outside of our rooms, has been greatly curbed.

A part of me is convinced that all of this ties to the goddess. How can it not?

The Lupoiux and Dardaptoans have been enemies for thousands of years, and now we are just supposed to accept each other? And all the things they have done to us?

My own aunt, Adelais, we suspect she was taken by Lupoiux and sold to slavers in a demon world somewhere. She is most likely dead now.

I miss her so much. Yet we are just supposed to forgive those who may have been involved?

I know there are good Lupoiux now—I have met a few here at the hotel—but how many of our people have had the same experiences? How many can just trust the goddess when she is literally in bed with the god of the Lupoiux?

And with what Coty and I overheard…

There has to be something we can do, but what that is, I don’t know yet.

It is late now, close to four a.m. I have my books spread out across my bed. Ambrea had called me this afternoon, said that she had seen something to do with me.

Said that if I keep looking, I will find what I am looking for tonight.

I hate it when she is that cryptic. It’s so annoying. She is a gifted seer, though she has told very few of that power. I suspect it will grow much stronger as she ages. She is in her early 100s now. Most don’t get the full strength of their gifts until twice that. 

It is always irritating when she refuses to tell you more, though.

The same with Theo. 

Why can’t they just tell you when there is something you need to do? Would it really change anything if you knew ahead of time?

I have the final book open now. It is the one that Riv found in the discard pile at the back of the most hushed up aisle of the Dardanos library.

It is very old. The author’s name is very obscured. Illegible.

But does the author of any book truly matter? Isn’t it what is  contained between the cover that matters most?

It felt so old, and battered, and…worthless in my hands.

It is easy to see why it had been discarded so easily. But…if I prescribe to the beliefs that Ambrea has taught me—beliefs the Woald Family crest even symbolizes—then everything happens for a reason.

I was given this book by my sister for a reason.

I just do not yet know what it is.

Just as I was given the computer I type this on now. 

It sits next to the cheap one provided to me by Theo when I first came to this hotel. I prefer the one given me by Nalik Black.

Mostly because everytime I use it I am reminded of ticking off Theo and Cormac that day. 

I know, petty of me, but…I have to have something stuck here, don’t I?

A part of me doesn’t want to open the book. I fear it might change things.

Silly, isn’t it? It is just…old paper and faded ink. 

Perhaps it is just my overactive imagination making me feel this way.

I can be a total…what is the human word?…dork sometimes.