Midstreet hotel was vast.
Viewing it from outside it appeared like a twenty floors skyscraper but if I knew anything, that was just one amongst many of its illusions.
I had spent almost the entire night perusing through several of caretaker's books.
It hadn't taken me long to realize Octava had been right at least in one thing. His book or that of any other caretaker before the year 2000 was not of much help to me.
I mean before this point, Midstreet wasn't in existence. At least not in its current form of a modern hotel.
So I had narrowed down to those records within that time frame. Sadly, out of the fifteen tenure that had passed within that time, only five were recorded.
Even worse, from those five, I had only managed to acquire a handful of information from them. Things like code of conducts of a caretaker. As if I needed to be told how to preserve my life. How to handle and interact with the previous caretakers now in a different form, delegating duties.
Eventually tired and frustrated I had shoved the books one after another into the shelf, not caring whether they were supposed to be in any particular order.
It is either the writers did not know how to write at all, or they were purposely leaving out the important bits. I found it hard to believe that all of them were just forgetting to explain the important stuff.
Like, how to contact these guests. How to handle them.
Of course they had included one or two interactions with some guests but from what I had read none had even recorded interactions with the big fishes above the hierarchy.
None had even mentioned how far they had gone before their contracts were terminated. It was like they were afraid that another caretaker would summon them for interrogation every time they were facing a challenge.
Actually, that sounded like the main reason. Now that I was thinking about it, I would not want my peace always disturbed by a caretaker. Especially if they had not chosen to offer me their clemency.
This I realized was their bargaining power. Simply, if you wanted information from them you just had to get it from them.
'Or they just want no part in your failure.'
My inner voice pointed out an alternative reason. I had to agree there was a solid point there.
If you advise someone and they relied on your ideas so much, then if they came to a pitfall, it would be you they blamed even more than their own self.
'Crap.'
It felt like I was being blocked from plagiarising another caretaker's mistake or success. It was me and myself.
I was standing inside one of the level one guest rooms. This one was the midrange sort. Not entirely plain but not exactly deluxe either.
I reached for the dull golden curtain and peeled them aside.
It was a bit too early, around six to be exact and the sun was not up yet.
Before me the Neutral Zone rolled spread in all directions.
This was yet another illusion.
Before being caught up in all this, I had known Midstreet occupied a sizable chunk of city land. But from outside you could not tell it was this big.
Even now standing on the first floor I still could not see past the gigantic trees that covered this side of the hotel. Maybe from the second floor one might be able to see the end but I would have to unlock that first to confirm it.
From the look of things, if the Neutral Zone was free to all supernaturals, then even now, there could be some of them in these woods somewhere.
The hotel was a business offering high end hospitality for those who opted for it. It was not a mandatory rule to use our services, so there could be those who still opted for the open air spaces away from the vicinity of the hotel.
The thing is, as the main marketing agent for the hotel it was now my duty to hunt them down and convince them that using the hotel was indeed in their best interest. How on earth I would do that, I would soon find out.
"Sire is up early."
I was snapped out of my morning contemplation by Maya's sudden arrival. She was standing at the room's entrance, seemingly having just appeared there.
It made me feel pretty useless around here. It looked like I was the only one with no ability. I however reminded myself that they all must have started this way. Not to mention I was the only one without a ceiling above me. At least not yet.
Still I could not help feeling impatient. I needed to achieve the first task as soon as possible and unlock the room control ability. Minor or not, it would give me the momentum I needed.
I noticed she was now wearing white robes instead of the black she had on yesterday.
"I thought white was for the catering department."
She nodded looking quite upbeat. "Madam Arizona agreed to let Maya join her department."
"What did the black mean?" I asked just out of curiosity since my clothes too were completely black.
"I was the one in charge still. But sire is now here, there cannot be two blacks. Maya likes catering department."
Not that I knew her well enough to tell, but she probably liked Madam Arizona more than the catering bit. I did not press though.
I smiled while nodding my approval. "It is one of the best departments."
Maya eagerly beamed at my compliments.
"Maya came to bring sire's breakfast. Maya found sire had already left."
Well, I could not recall whether I had left the bedroom door open or she had burst in to find out.
"Thought I would catch the morning sun from this room," I said turning to leave, "but I think I lost track of time. It is still too early."
We could have easily taken the elevator to the ground floor but Maya was already bouncing ahead, headed for the stairs so I followed.
"If sire is fast, he may still catch the sunrise ."
We were already at the ground floor when it occurred to me that this was the best opportunity to hear her side of the story.
"Maya, if you don't mind..."
We came to an abrupt stop.
A loud bang had come from somewhere in the room. I was trying to figure where it had come from but Maya was already moving.
"We have guests sire."