Gerta leads you up the stairs, her heavy footsteps surprisingly quiet despite her size. On the second floor, you notice a couple of people standing guard in the hallway. Gerta leans in close and whispers, [b]"I always keep my tenants' security in mind, darlin'."[/b]

She guides you past the doors where paying patrons sleep, their rooms silent behind closed doors. Then up another flight to the third floor, into a more internal area of the building.

[b]"This here's for me and the help,"[/b] Gerta explains softly.

She opens a door to reveal a small room. There's a nice bed, which immediately catches your exhausted attention, but the rest of the space is cluttered with cleaning supplies. Brooms lean against one corner, and old rags are piled near a bucket. The smell of damp cloth fills the air, musty and unpleasant.

[b]"Tomorrow we can get all this mess cleared out if you're plannin' on stayin',"[/b] Gerta says apologetically. [b]"A room like this would be way cheaper than the patron rooms anyhow. And if you can't pay for your stay, well, I've got plenty of work that needs doin'. But we don't need to discuss all that now. You just need to sleep."[/b]

She points back down the corridor. [b]"That's my room right there. If anything happens, anything at all, you come knock on my door and call for me. You hear?"[/b]

You nod, grateful beyond words.

Gerta gives you one last warm smile before closing the door softly behind her.

You're alone. Finally alone.

The bed calls to you, and despite the smell of damp rags, you collapse onto it. Your body sinks into the mattress, and exhaustion crashes over you like a wave.

Sleep takes you almost instantly.

[hr]

At first, there is only darkness. Warm, endless darkness that feels like floating in deep water.

Then the stars appear.

Not above you. Around you. Thousands of pinpricks of light surrounding you on all sides, as if you've been placed in the center of the night sky itself. They pulse gently, breathing with a rhythm that matches your heartbeat.

One star grows brighter than the others. Larger. It descends toward you, or perhaps you rise toward it. The light doesn't hurt your eyes. Instead, it feels curious, examining you.

The star shifts. Its light ripples and changes, becoming something else. Smoke. Blue-gray smoke that coils and dances in the void, forming shapes that almost make sense before dissolving again.

A voice speaks, though you can't tell if you're hearing it with your ears or feeling it resonate through your bones.

[i]"Three wishes, freely given. Three gifts, freely taken."[/i]

The smoke forms the shape of hands, cupped together as if holding water. Then the hands open, and liquid fire pours out, the same sensation you felt coursing through your veins when you woke in the alley.

[i]"Distance. Truth. Power."[/i]

The smoke shifts again, becoming the outline of your mother's face, cold and distant. Then Leila's face, somewhere far away, looking over her shoulder as if hearing someone call her name. Then your own face, eyes wide with newly awakened magic.

[i]"All things have a price. All debts must be paid."[/i]

The smoke coalesces into a single point of brilliant blue light directly in front of you. It pulses once, twice, three times.

[i]"When I call, you will answer."[/i]

The light explodes outward, filling everything, and you feel yourself falling, falling, falling through stars and smoke and..

You jolt awake, gasping, your body drenched in sweat. Your heart hammers in your chest.

Your hand is clutching something tightly against your chest. A bottle. You don't remember having it before you fell asleep.

[hider=OOC]Can you describe what Kalila's genie vessel (the bottle) looks like?[/hider]

[h3][i]BANG BANG BANG![/i][/h3]

Someone's pounding on your door.

[b]"Kalila! You awake in there, sugar?"[/b] Gerta's voice, loud and cheerful despite the hour.

You sit up, disoriented, your mind still tangled in the dream. The room smells of damp rags. The bed beneath you is unfamiliar. For a moment, you don't remember where you are.

Then it all comes rushing back. Thornwood. The Panther's Rest. Six hundred miles from home.

You stumble to the small window and look out. The third floor gives you a view over some of the neighboring buildings, but the sky is still dark. No hint of dawn yet.

[b]"Come on, honey! Time for breakfast with the rest of the team before we start settin' up for the day!"[/b] Gerta calls through the door. [b]"Can't have the patrons starvin' when they wake up!"[/b]

[hr]
[b]What do you do?[/b]