The unknown entity vanished, and the palace remained.
None of the nine moved at first.
They stood in a great hall large enough to accommodate hundreds of people, with three enormous crystal chandeliers hanging overhead and statues of faceless men and women lining both sides. At the far end, a double staircase rose to the second floor, while doors set between the columns opened onto corridors whose ends they could not see.
The light was warm, the carpet spotless, and the scent of wax and polished wood so realistic that, for a moment, Ravian almost forgot that none of it belonged to the world he had come from.
But the silence ruined the illusion.
Dozens of servants stood around the edges of the hall like living statues. Some carried silver trays, while others held brooms or the guests’ luggage, yet not one of them blinked or breathed. Beyond the glass doors leading to the courtyard, some raindrops hung motionless in the air without ever reaching the ground, while others simply continued on their way and struck the earth.
’One of the most absurd things I’ve seen since arriving in this ridiculously beautiful world.’
As always, Ravian used sarcasm to take the edge off the tension and anxiety of the situation, but this time, it failed to calm him completely.
He would not be at ease until he got out of here... at any cost.
Just as the unknown entity had told them, the palace was waiting for the White Bell to signal the start of the day.
"Everyone should read their position aloud. If we’re going to work in the same place, there’s no reason to hide them," Garrick said.
Everyone turned to him, as he was the first to break the silence.
"Would... reading our positions aloud count as communication between us?" Sylvan asked.
Aldric answered before anyone else could. "If we read them as public announcements directed at no one in particular, it won’t count as communication, just as that entity said. But it would be best not to test the boundaries of those definitions too much in the first few minutes."
Garrick looked at the old man, then said to the empty space before him, "My position is gatekeeper and baggage porter."
No change occurred in the mist or their surroundings.
"Waiter in the Eastern Dining Hall. It seems my experience keeping rich people happy will remain useful even after my soul has been torn away," Kaiden said.
"Keeper of the gardens and stables," Bran said.
Sylvan read from his window with a frown. "Storeroom and cellar inventory clerk."
"Kitchen supervisor," Elena said.
Then Talia spoke. "Chambermaid for the rooms and North Wing."
Aldric raised his eyes from his window. "Keeper of the keys and palace records."
Mirai remained silent a moment longer than necessary before saying, "Head servant."
Several gazes turned toward her at once.
Her position was the only one that granted its holder direct authority over the duties of the others. The keys hanging from her shoulder were not merely decorative, and the black notebook that had appeared in her hand listed all nine of their names on its first page.
As for Ravian, he said without addressing anyone in particular, "Correspondence and accounts clerk."
Mirai ran her fingers over the cover of her notebook before raising it for everyone to see.
"I have a schedule of tasks for each of you, and I can redistribute some duties among the servants. I don’t know whether the positions were chosen randomly or according to our roles, but ignoring them would not be the best choice and might even get us killed."
"And giving you the power to assign our work makes you the most dangerous person here," Sylvan said, once again in his detached tone.
This drew a slight frown from Ravian.
’What the hell is he doing?’
"Or the easiest person to accuse," Mirai replied. "Any order I give someone will count as communication if it is directed at them, and any document I receive may make me the last person to have communicated with its owner."
She did not defend herself by denying the danger; instead, she laid out how it threatened her. That did not prove her innocence, but it was better than simply trying to portray herself as a victim.
Garrick stepped toward her, then stopped before he came close enough for his approach to be interpreted as an intent to attack.
"You won’t change any of our positions on your own. Every order will be given in front of everyone."
Mirai met his gaze steadily. "If the palace’s tasks allow it, I will. But if the mirage orders me otherwise, I will not die just so you can feel reassured and feed your ridiculous ego."
Mirai did not care in the slightest what Garrick had to say.
And if he did not like it?
Let him try to attack her if he had the courage, and he would become the first person to die before the first day had even begun.
Before Garrick could reply, a single chime rang out from somewhere far away.
It was not loud, yet it traveled through the palace as though the walls themselves had produced it.
The flames in the chandeliers turned from yellow to white.
Every raindrop suspended beyond the glass fell at once, and the servants resumed their movements at that same instant. One of them took two steps forward with a tray in hand, a maid bowed before Mirai, and the main door swung open as cold air swept inside, carrying the clatter of carriage wheels.
The first day began.
Guests entered the palace as though the gathering had already been underway for hours.
Nobles in lavish attire, ladies carrying ornate fans, officers, children, and a fat man laughing loudly at a story whose beginning no one had heard streamed into the hall. Within minutes, they had filled it, and the mirage servants took their coats and luggage without displaying anything unnatural.
Yet Ravian noticed the small details.
The fat man repeated the exact same laugh exactly seventeen seconds later. A little girl with golden hair passed in front of him twice, emerging from a different door each time while carrying the same doll in the same hand. And in the tall mirror mounted near the staircase, one lady’s reflection moved before the woman herself turned her head.
The mirage was not trying to appear flawless to those who knew its true nature. It was only trying to be convincing enough to force them to deal with it.
Yet some figures displayed no flaws at all, and Ravian had yet to understand what distinguished those particular ones from the others.
Then violet words appeared above Mirai’s notebook.
{Begin assigning the morning tasks.}
A long list appeared beneath them.
Mirai raised her voice so that everyone could hear without addressing anyone in particular.
"We will carry out the duties as written. We will meet at noon in the servants’ dining room unless the palace prevents us. Until then, everyone will record any one-on-one communication they have with another participant."
Then she began calling out their names one after another.
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