He arrives to an intense, overwhelming heat, as the sun's powerful rays strike him. There are sand dunes stretching on, reaching out in all directions. And then, a blinding glimmer of light from a skyscraper, visible as Feya turns around.

It's so hot. And bright. Why is it so hot and bright?

Is this a glamor? An illusion? He casts Negate again. It doesn't disappear. So the Open energy must have brought him somewhere else.

He casts Endure Elements. The desert heat still feels just as hot, but it loses its sting. He doesn't know a spell to negate the light.

He sees something glowing intensely with what appears like reflected sunlight, but he doesn't know of any place that has anything big enough to be visible from that far away, and rich enough to cover it in mirrors. Did he get teleported to the other continent? He supposes it's possible, if the amount of Open energy he was hit with was large enough. Really, he should be grateful he didn't get transported into the middle of the ocean. He doesn't know how to swim.

He will start walking towards the Very Bright Thing. How far away is it? Is it getting appreciably bigger as he walks towards it?

It's... very far away indeed, maybe a mile or so. It doesn't take long to realize that it's a very, very tall building, with beautiful blue windows all over it, one of many like it in a very shiny city. It seems bizarre for the city to be placed here, in such a desolate and barren place.

A mile isn't far away at all, to Feya. His caravan travels several miles daily – though fewer, if the road or weather is poor.

He does not interpret the very tall buildings to be residences, because he has never seen houses like that. In fact, he kind of has a bad feeling about it. Some of his friends at White Lake work as ruins excavators, and he has heard enough stories to know that one ought not approach such ruins blindly. The old, Cataclysm-weathered artifacts and wards can react badly to intrusion. And Negate has already failed him once – he is not going to tempt fate by relying on it again.

He's honestly kind of sad about that. He really thought his Negate was better than it was. Anyway, the ruins. He will stop about four-fifths of the way there. What does it look like, closer up?

Closer up, the sand turns into streets, with people occasionally walking around, always in the shade. The huge windows on the buildings extend all the way downwards, letting Feya get a view of some of the people inside. There are many storefronts along the streets, and the corner of some greenery barely visible in the distance.

Oh. It's not ruins. Or, the ruins has illusions or glamors put on it? No, it can't be that – his blessing would dispel them.

He is shocked at the amount of glass this place has! And how they manage to get glass that big and that flat, and without any inclusions or bubbles in them. His energy senses are thoroughly mediocre – Tranquil practitioner that he is – but he will try scanning for energy from a distance. He predicts the buildings are Fire artifice, or perhaps Tranquil artifice.

What do the people look like? What are they doing, what are they wearing? He is wearing a close-fitting white linen tunic and pants, also of linen, with both of them having vertical pinstripes. Despite his trek through the desert, no sand or dirt has stuck to them – they are still bright white.

People are similarly wearing white, mostly skirts with leggings, but men wear pants once in a while, and all colors are represented. Some women are just in leggings, with tight-fitting shirts, and Feya can rarely make out people wearing some kind of full-body suit with a helmet on their heads.

He does not recognize the fashion at all. Or the fabrics or materials in their clothes. He continues to stay far away from everyone, which entails mostly staying in the sun – he does not seem, and is indeed not, affected by this.

He tries looking for signs. Is there any writing anywhere? Can he read it? Advertisements, notices, storefronts, newspapers?

Yes, somehow. The signs are above shops of all kinds; there are more tailors than he'd expect from any normal settlement, and he can't see anywhere that's advertising food, whether prepared or food ingredients.

It would fit with how weird people's clothes are here. But having no food is so strange. Are the restaurants and grocers inside the buildings? He wants to enter one, but...it looks weird and scary so he will do Not That.

After a few minutes, he realizes that the glyphs do not correspond to any writing system he knows. That, in and of itself, is not alarming – True artificers can put enchantments on objects that put concepts directly into minds – but he cannot detect any True energy from the sign. Is it an Open effect? It seems like it would fit...though there isn't any of that either.

He casts Becalm on himself.

He wants to ask for help, but he doesn't want to accost the arbitrary people walking about. He will continue walking the streets and wait until he finds something that seems like a government office. He bears the mark of the Ancient and Charitable Society of Solace on himself and on his robe, and it is one of the oldest and most eminent of the Societies. If worst comes to worst, he can pay to send an Openetelegram and ask his Society to intercede on his behalf. 

Wait. If he's indeed on the other continent...this wouldn't work. But surely the other continent would still have a surviving lineage of the Society? The Way of Tranquility is the Way that endures, the Way that preserves, the Way that lasts, the Way that remains. Anyway, he can testify to the same under truth ritual. 

Walking around, it's impossible to find anything that looks like a government office! Everything is extremely tall, excluding the occassional wide swathes of green space constantly watered by sprinklers. There are kids and adults having fun, getting soaked and getting cooled off by playing in the streams of water.

The city looks really weird and the water things are New and Weird and Scary and he almost startles at the sight of them and the sound of the people playing, before he realizes it's some sort of fountain. In the desert. Okay.

He can feel himself getting overstimulated, so he casts Becalm again. It's relieving, but it's not sustainable. Already, he can feel himself getting more tired from it. Also he's super thirsty. He could cast Inedia, but it's super expensive to cast it. So he'd rather not.

Can he understand the people who are playing?

They're not talking much, mostly making exclamations about how much they love the water and how much they're enjoying themselves. But he can make out occasional words, mostly coming from the kids: about how excited they are to arrive here, and how much they like the new schools they're in, and how excited they are to start going on desert excursions.

And he still cannot detect any energy from them!!!!! He feels like he's going crazy.

He is going to approach the sprinklers and see if he is wetted. If he lets the water onto his tongue, does it taste like water? He will test for hallucination and treat dehydration with the same action. Such efficiency.

Water will not stick to his clothes – it will bead up and roll away – although it will stick to his skin.

The sprinkler does taste like water; it tastes a bit off, somehow, but it hydrates him perfectly! One of the women walk over to him worriedly. "Ahh, mister, that water isn't drinking-rated. It'll be fine, but it's a bit less clean than the water coming from proper drinking fountains, I think you should be using one of those."

People are talking to him and he can understand them!!!

"I don't know where those are," he says, after an uncomfortably long delay.

She points at a short, white building that's vaguely reminiscent of a bathtub. It has a kind of curved fence in front of it, with several white faucets placed following the curve of the fence. "If you use one of those, you get a fountain with water meant for drinking, mister!"

"Okay. Thank you," he says, after another uncomfortably long delay. Approaching the faucets, is it obvious how they are supposed to be operated?

There's an extremely visible button, a black ring surrounding a white circle, next to each faucet. It somehow manages to scream "I do something" at Feya.

Feya is Very Calm.

He will re-push the button after flinching away from it, and then drink of the water.

It tastes... healthy, and natural, and cool? It doesn't taste like it's not water, but it somehow tastes... far better, like the most refreshing and hydrating water Feya has ever had.

It is another Very Concerning and Weird and Scary thing but he is too thirsty to think about it.

He feels very frazzled. Can he find a place that is quiet, secluded, not in any building, and preferably shaded?

Yes, there are actually quite a few of those, in poorly trafficked streets beneath the shade of the gigantic buildings.

Thank the stars. He will get down and do sitting meditation. He will sit for half an hour unless there are any interruptions.

There are no interruptions; the people walking by respectfully let him sit in silence, even if they look at him with equal parts confusion and curiosity.

He feels that he hasn't fully recovered all of the Tranquil he spent, but being able to sit and meditate resolved a lot of his restless anxiety. So.

He is in some unknown place, perhaps on the other continent, in an unknown city. Despite this, he understands the language, both written and spoken, even though there are no effects on them that would permit him to understand. Indeed, he cannot detect any effects or energies anywhere, even though the buildings surely cannot have been made mundanely.

He still has his clothes. He still has his spells. He still has his Way. The Way of Tranquility is the Way that endures, the Way that preserves, the Way that lasts, the Way that remains. He has walked enough along the Way that, theoretically, he could survive without food, water, or shelter indefinitely. He has nothing to fear.

He will start exploring the city again. Is there any place that looks like a Openet office? They will have an eight pointed star at the front, and the building won't have a door, only an opening. Or a post office? He will keep trying to detect energies.

There is nothing like an Openet office, nor anything like a post office. The total absence of energy remains a constant. He can't even see any eight pointed stars anywhere.

Everything continues to be Very Strange and Energyless. Okay, time to accost random passers-by.

"I'm lost — do you have a map of the city?"

It's a woman dressed in tight leggings and a form-fitting top. "Yes, on my phone. Is there somewhere you want to go? It can get you directions."

What is a phone.

Yes, he wants to go home. He predicts the phone will not have directions home.

"I would like to find an inn. The cheap ones." He thinks he can sell his practice in lieu of cash.

"Well, sure? Not sure how cheap is cheap enough..." she taps on the phone, not even paying attention to what's on screen, before finding the closest hotel. There aren't a lot of short-term travelers, so it's still a fair distance away. "Here's an inn, as it were, that's inexpensive and not far from here? I can just tell you directions, if you want to go there."

"Thank you for your kindness. Do you think the inn will accept non-cash payment? I don't have any local money, but I'm a practitioner of the Way of Tranquility, and a member of the Society of Solace."

"... what money do you have, if not local money? Have you spent all your money on buying gold cards and commemmorative coins? That's insane..."

"I have..." he says, and he reaches into the pockets of his tunic to find...nothing.

"Sorry, I mean to say that I have no money at all, actually."

"Where did it all go, then? What did you spend it on? Are you a bankrupted criminal, do I have to call the authorities?" She takes a swift step back and raises a hand defensively.

Oh my stars.

"I was transported here by an errant Open ritual – wait, you don't recognize my clothes? Is the Society of Solace extant here?"

"No, I didn't recognize your clothes, I just thought you chose to dress differently. The" she produces a very strange and unnatural pair of syllables "Society of Solace ", pause, "does not exist anywhere in thomassia. It is an organization from a fictional book series, but you can't be part of it unless your name is Sima Chingyi. What are you doing here?"

"So, the Society of Solace is real, and I can testify to that under truth spell." He supposes that if the Society of Solace died out here during the Cataclysm, then him claiming to be from it would be dubious. And it explains why he isn't recognized.

"I was transported here by what I believe to be an errant Open effect, when I visited White Lake University. I can also testify to that under truth spell."

"Truth spells aren't a thing, dummy. I think you're trying to do something, here. Who are you, exactly? There's no point in trying to talk about fictional people and places."

He wants to terminate this unproductive and seemingly hostile conversation – not that he thinks he has anything to fear from her, even if she were to become violent – but also he has Pride™ and also the reputation of his Society to think about, regardless of whether or not she specifically recognizes him as being a part of it.

Is where they're standing on right now sand or soil?

They're standing on concrete.

Ugh, they're standing on stone. Fine. He was planning to throw stuff into the air and Arrest it, but he will instead do something else. He's working against his Way here: the Way of Tranquility is the Way of quiescence, the Way of humility, the Way of calm, the Way of stillness. It is against the Way to be flashy. Still...

He will cast Normalize in an area around himself. The air will suddenly become room temperature.

She gets confused by the suddenly much cooler air. "Did someone turn the aircon to 100?" She looks around, thinking about where the sudden shift in temperature could have been coming from.

"I cast Normalize. It causes conditions to return to a set value. This is one of the things I can do, as a practitioner of the Way of Tranquility. I can also remove the momentum of objects and become immune to hazardous environmental conditions." It's not a lie, but it's leaving out many many things. And also leaves out what he uses his practice for, which is healing. It's a lot harder and more invasive to demonstrate.

She looks at Feya utterly stunned. It takes maybe 15 seconds, before she blinks twice, very deliberately. "I think you should get to the inn that I showed you. Take some time to think, and get settled. I'll pay for the room for the night, just because you have nothing. Then I'll meet you again, once you have of an idea of what you might want to do here."

Wow! Who knew Tranquil practitioners were more charming than Flowery ones.

"I thank you for your kindness." He bows. "At what time tomorrow will you want to meet? Dawn, noon, dusk?"

"Noon, I believe. I'll have been awake for a while, so I'll be more clear-headed."

"Oh, I forgot. My name is Feya Pio Meyangchan Nuaiheya. Call me Feya."

"I will only call you Feya. Now, would you please follow me? I'll take you to the inn, and you can get some time with your thoughts."

Feya will follow. He feels that he has successfully convinced the woman that he isn't malicious...but it's also possible that she used the phone – he still has no idea what the phone can do, aside from show maps on its surface – to contact the police or something.

He's still really baffled by the fact that they don't seem to have any person that can cast truth spells here? It's one thing for all the practitioners here to have died during the Cataclysm, thus extinguishing all the Society lineages, but there would still be Geniuses – people that awaken spontaneously. So...where are they?

She walks him to the hotel, a good 15-minute walk, before ending up outside the first-floor lobby. It has a very high roof, together with a very inviting lounge. It doesn't seem like anyone's working at the hotel at the moment. She waks in and taps a few buttons on her phone, before walking over to what looks like a cargo elevator. "The room is up through here", she says.

He feels apprehensive about walking into the Strange Self-Opening Room alone with the woman, but he reminds himself that he is a Tranquil practitioner, and she is not.

What is the aesthetic of the hotel like? Is it decorated? Everything he's seen thus far feels Firey and Perfect. Does the aesthetic of the exterior match the interior?

The hotel is extremely undecorated; it's all in greyscale colors, with occasional symbols that have a very strange ability to "speak" to Feya. There's an arrow on a button, letting him know that the room in front somehow lets him head upwards. A different symbol informs him that the button it covers can be used to summon someone, if he wishes to speak to someone in person. Yet another symbol manages to communicate that devices can receive energy... from something. There's some kind of hole in the wall, near the ground, in the vicinity of that symbol.

Ah, it continues to give Perfect, though the greyscale colors remind him of Tranquil.

It seems that he can also understand their pictograms! He feels apprehension about the Heading Upwards, but it is what it is. He does not want to summon anyone! He does not have any limited-use artifacts that require charging.

He will calmly abide by the woman, which he realizes hasn't actually given him her name yet, but which he feels awkward about asking now, having forgotten to ask earlier.

Stepping in, they race upwards, only taking a few seconds to get what has to be at least 2 dozen stories above the ground. She walks over to one side of the elevator, pushing a button to make the elevator to reveal a corridor. She walks into, touching her phone to the doorknob and opening the door into one of the rooms nearest to the elevator. "This is a perfectly ordinary room that'll fit you fine." It has a wide bed, a window that's essentially the entire wall, and a door leading off someplace else. The room is fairly large for just one person, and especially the bed seems like it'd comfortably fit multiple people. It has a very open and inviting feeling.

Feya covers his mouth to suppress himself from screaming. It mostly works.

"Thank you very much for your kindness," he says again, while bowing.

The window is very majestic, but it also feels exposing. Does it have a curtain?

"I don't have a phone. How do I open the door, once you leave?"

She taps her head, realizing she had gotten so used to always having her phone ready. Then she walked in and found a key placed on the bed. "This is how you open the door once I leave." The key is almost perfectly cylindrical, and very thin. It has an incredibly smooth and even surface, which feels a bit uncanny in the hand. It almost looks featureless with how pristine it looks.

There are no curtains of any kind in the room.

He is familiar with the concept of keys, but he has never seen a key shaped like that before.

"I see, thank you. Suppose I have other questions, or questions about the room – who do I talk? Do I press the button from the other room to summon someone?"

The lack of curtains is very saddening!

"Well, yes. There is a button you can press, by the entrance, to let the staff know that you have questions." Next to the door, there are 3 buttons, one to ask for food and other services (cleaning? it doesn't "speak" as clearly as the other buttons), one to ask the staff for help or information, like the one in the lobby, and another one to let them know about an emergency that could prove life-threatening (it has a vaguely... serious aura).

This seems like a very good system! He has no idea how the buttons cause this to be communicated, again without the use of energy, but the part of his mind that is alarmed by out of context things has run out of juice and he honestly just feels numb about it.

"Thank you, that makes sense. How much does food cost?"

"It's very, very cheap. What are you thinking of having? Assuming that you're hungry."

He has no calibration about what 'very, very cheap' means!

"I don't know what there is to eat. I refrain from eating meat and would greatly prefer options that do not have meat. Were I home, I would have been planning to have peanut steamed buns for lunch. I don't eat a lot for lunch.

I do not mean to sound ungracious, but I worry about imposing on you too much. You don't have to feed me – I can survive without food. You are already doing me a big favor by paying for me to stay the night."

"I think I'd be a terrible guest to a stranger if you had to go without eating! I'm happy to send for some non-peanut steamed buns for you, assuming you wouldn't rather be going without food instead."

He wants to ask about the peanut thing but he's Tired so he doesn't.

"To elaborate, I refrain from eating animal products that require the killing to produce, which includes meat, lard, suet, and offal. I do not refrain from eating honey, milk, or unfertilized eggs. I would prefer to eat, but if the buns contain any of the former ingredients, then I would prefer not to eat, if there are not any other options."

Oh my stars he's literally being a choosing beggar this is MORTIFYING.

"The buns are made without having an animal killed in order for you to eat it, and they feature no animal products whatsoever. Which I believe means that you do, in fact, wish to eat them? Would that be correct?"

"Yes!" He smiles.

"Will there also be water? Does the inn have piped water, or do I need to go to the fountains to fetch it?" He wouldn't expect a cheap place at home to have piped water, but this is also the place that had the room that brought him up a dozen stories without any perceptible energy. So.

"Then I'll ask for some buns, and water. We have running water, that's the word for it. There's a sink you can drink from in the bath."

That is so good! It's an order of magnitude better than the places they stay at while caravanning.

"That's very good!" He is very pleased!

"When will the hotel ask for payment?"

"They ask for payment in advance, I sent them the money on the way over... that might be new to you. Here, people are very insistent on getting paid in advance. So they will, virtually always, be asking for the payment in advance."

??????????????????????????????????????????? there were no flying things coming from her on the way here ?????????????????????????????????????????????

Feya understands advance payment!!! He does not understand the other thing!!!

"How did you send the money? I didn't see anything. You didn't talk to anyone else on the way here."

"I used my phone for that! It keeps track of the money me and everyone else has, and lets me send money from me to them."

What is this phone such that it can do all of these things.

He feels so so so tired, and it's not even the tiredness of physical exhaustion, or the tiredness that arises from excessive Tranquil casting, but existential and social tiredness.

"Thank you for explaining," he says. "Is there anything else that you believe I should know?"

She looks at him awkardly for a moment. "You don't know the right word for running water. But you know what a flush toilet is, right?"

"Yes!"

After a pause, he adds, "Actually, may I trouble you to explain the bathroom to me? In the case it has stuff I don't know." Which there probably will be.

"Yes, I'd be happy to". She opened the door into the bathroom, revealing a room essentiallly split in half. There is a squarish toilet, placed against the right wall, and a smaller wall dividing the room in two parts to the left. Above the left side of the room, there are what looks like fine perforations in the ceiling, together with a handheld showerhead against the wall that's next to the door leading in. There is a sink in the left part of the room, with a round mirror and various thin slices of soap, as well as hand soap easily available.

"So, the way that this works is that you step into the tub here", she somewhat awkwardly steps over the low wall splitting the room in two, "and then you adjust the heat and the strength of the water, using the two knobs here". There are a pair of knobs placed under the handheld showerhead. "The one on the left controls the temperature, and the one on the right controls the flow of the shower. There's actually a ring that lets you control the flow into the smaller showerhead separately, next to the right knob. If you want a bath, you press the button with an image on a bathtub, and that starts filling up the tub. It goes quite fast! You take the black stopper out of the drain, when your bath is over and you want to drain all the water out. Do you think everything makes sense to you?"

"Yes. Please give me a moment, I'm going to cast Set Memory about it." His eyes glaze over for several seconds, then come back. He'll be able to remember her exact words later. He is very thankful that he can use his Way to shore up his normally terrible memory.

"It's a lot of features." He's never actually used a shower before, so it will be very exciting.

"It does make sense. Is the water potable? The sink water is potable, yes?"

"Yes, the sink water is drinking-rated! The water from the shower is also potable, although... it's noticeably less good."

He wants to ask why, but he is Very Tired.

"Thank you for explaining. When will the food arrive? Is it necessary for you to be the one to receive it, since you ordered it?"

"No, you can receive the food. You'll hear a chime outside the door when it's arrived, don't worry. This chime, to be unambiguous." It's the sound of some very beautiful bells ringing a few times. After a while of repeating normally, it moves on to ringing constantly, creating a sharp, almost whirring noise.

It's certainly very attention grabbing!

"I see! Thank you for explaining," he says again. He kind of wants to ask her to leave now, but he is unsure as to how to do that in a non-rude manner. 

Oh, and, "May I know your name?"

"My name is Hannah. I don't see why you'd ask. In any case, are you happy with me heading off now?"

???????? why would he not ??????????

Thank stars. It feels kind of bad wishing her to Go Away Now but that is what he is desiring right now.

"Yes, I don't need anything else. Once again, thank you for your help."

She bows at him. "Then I'm off." She slowly makes her way out of the hotel room, giving Feya plenty of time in case she was still needed for something.

Feya will let her leave without interruption!

He will return to sitting meditation until the food arrives – how long does it take?

It's actually just a few minutes after she had left.

That's fast! He will answer the door and receive the food.

Outside, there's a small robot carrying a box that screams, "pick me up". Lifting and removing the lid reveals the steamed buns that Feya had asked for, looking amazingly fresh and inviting.

It's a...he has no idea what it is. He appraises it for several seconds before picking up the box. He does not actually lift the lid just yet – rather, he puts the whole thing on an available surface, before going back and thanking the ?entity? and then closing the door behind him. And locking it. If there is any obvious sticking-out turning thing.

The robot is riding on several small wheels; the box on top was placed within a cargo bay with grooves at the sde, making it easy to grab the sides of the box. The door is locked easily enough.

Everything here is So Weird and So New and he is So Tired.

Okay. The door is locked now. Doing this feels...unnecessary...but it will placate his paranoia, so he thinks he ought to do it anyway. It's something he hasn't cast in some time, and now that he has this space, it's possible to cast it as a ritual rather than a spell. Which makes it way way cheaper! Rituals can use longer casting times, words, props, ingredients, environmental resonances, and assistants. This ritual has no props, ingredients, or words, and he has no assistants.

An environmental resonance is darkness, which he doesn't have, because no curtain. Actually, he's going to look closer, to see if there's some sort of hidden contraption that functions as a curtain? Many things here seem to move of their own accord. 

Thoroughly examining the room reveals a slider, not too far away from the glass wall. It has a pictogram of the sun and of the moon, with a bead that's black and white. It very clearly makes something dark, and judging by how close it is to the wall, it must be making it dark... in some sense.

He will slide it! Actually, he will cast Seamless Skin of Stone on his hand first, and then slide it! What happens?

All the windows that he can see in other buildings turn into black squares, before the window itself goes from looking out over the city to a pitch-black wall. There's still a bit of light coming from the lights in the ceiling, but everything is much, much darker now.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA did he just cause all the windows to change put it back put it back

It returns to a view of the beautiful city, and the endless parade of skyscrapers!

Sigh. So no darkness. Fortunately, the other environmental resonance is quiet, and he does have that! So he will start casting.

He takes off all his clothes – the ritual formulation suggests it – and then lies down on the floor. The ritual formulation suggests adopting the posture of a corpse, so he adopts a corpse like posture. Then the unpleasant part: the mental prompts. Every effect requires a clear and sustained mental state, and this ritual has unpleasant ones. It's part of the reason he doesn't cast it as often. Still, he has set his mind on this matter. So.

Everything ends – from dust you were and to dust you shall return – I am the void – I am nothing – vacuum – emptiness – gaping maw

He will cast the ritual Negentropy's Last Gasp, Lesser.

It takes a third of an hour. He is, as his title suggests, very efficient at ritual casting, and he barely spends any energy on it, compared to the spells he cast earlier.

Any effect – whether permanent artifice or ward or temporary enchantment – that might have been in the room ought to have been nullified, regardless of whether or not they have antiglamors on them that would have hidden them from his attention. Not that there would have been any – his blessing should have protected him from them.

He will finally eat the buns! Which will tragically be cold now, but. At least he can be assured that they are not buns that have hidden effects in them. Do the buns have any fillings? He expects not, given what Hannah said.

The spell has no effect whatsoever. The buns have cardamum filling! They taste very nice and sweet.

He has never had cardamom before! It's very good!

He will now flop onto the bed and pass out for ten hours.

Ten hours later, the sun is below the horizon, the city is far less bright, and the beautiful colors of twilight have started spreading over the sky.

Oh no, he passed out again. He will have to fix his sleep schedule. He needs more sleep than most people – this being another of his blessings. Well, """""blessings""""". The good thing about it is that he can recover Tranquil energy by just sleeping. Practitioners of other Ways do not recover energy as easily.

He wants to bathe. His clothes have Perfect artificing work done on them – they do not need to be cleaned – but he has no such protection.

He goes into the bathroom. Is there soap in an obvious place? Will he have to order it, like the food?

There are several soaps, in thin slices, placed on the sink. They're all bright, pretty colors, with images, and smells, of various fruits on them.

Amazing! The hotel even has fragrant soap!

He will try the shower. Actually...he will cast Trample On Coals With Bare Feet first, and then try the shower. It has both flow and temperature control! Such feature-richness!

Turning on the shower, a powerful stream of hot water flows all over Feya, spreading pleasant warmth throughout the entire room. The water seems to somehow track Feya, always keeping its stream perfectly aimed for comfort and luxuriating in.

That is way too hot for him, but the ritual he cast earlier means he isn't affected by it. He continues adjusting until it's at a good pressure and temperature. It feels so weird having the water constantly flow over you! It's like rain, but unnaturally warm rain.

He is deeply unnerved by the tracking water when he realizes it, and he turns off the shower. He is assured that it's not a practiced effect – it has to be entirely mundane – but this doesn't alleviate his anxiety about it.

Does the bathroom floor outside of the tub have a drain?

Yes, there is a small drain almost hidden in the floor next to the tub.

Okay! In that case, he will step out and soap his body, and then wash using the sink water, awkwardly. Does the sink water also have tracking. If it also has tracking he is going to be so upset.

The sink water simply flows when he turns the faucet on and off, without any kind of tracking involved. The steam from the water during the shower helps keep the room nice and hot, even if the stream of warm water from the actual shower was interrupted.

It's very pleasant! Though afterwards he feels Very Tired again, in the sense of having to contend with so many new things. This might be a good time to try casting Flatten Priors/Closing The Previous Chapter, but he doesn't know the spell or the ritual formulation for it. So he will have to integrate things the normal way.

He will flop onto the bed and just Exist in a half-sleeping state for an hour, before he realizes that he didn't establish a meeting place with Hannah, even if they set a time. Oops. Hopefully she just comes here so he doesn't have to go looking for her.

He's hungry again, but food is separate from the hotel cost, and he doesn't have any money with which to pre-pay, so. He will just not eat. It's fine. He will go and cast the ritual version of Inedia: Transcendence Of The Basal Urge. He is just pulling out all of the rarely cast rituals out of his repertoire, today. He is, once again, very efficient in its casting.

It's too soon since he last slept for him to go to sleep again, naturally, unless he decides to cast another ritual for it. Which he doesn't. He is Mentally Tired of ritual casting, even though energetically, he still has plenty in his reserves.

He could go exploring, but it's about to be nighttime, and he doesn't know how safe it is to be wandering around at night. He is an experienced practitioner of the Way of Tranquility, but like, he doesn't want to get into a fight or get stolen from. So he'd rather not. He also thinks about poking and prodding things in the hotel room, but he fears that it will be like the windows earlier, where it does something he really doesn't want it doing, or like the shower, where it's deeply unnerving or disturbing or upsetting.

He will decide to follow the Way of Tranquility, which entails continuing to lay in bed doing nothing. 

After thirty minutes of this, he realizes that if he sleeps according to his bodily urges, then he'll only end up sleeping several hours later, at which point going to sleep would mean he misses the noon meeting time. So, he ought to go to sleep now, such that he can guarantee that it will be before noon when he wakes up. Sigh.

It's very awkward casting sleep effects on one's self, but it's something he's very practiced in. He casts Rest and Repose very begrudgingly and very efficiently, and falls asleep.

Feya sleeps incredibly well, waking up feeling full to bursting with energy.