The stairs didn't open up a slide like it did for the Queen, so we were left walking down each step of the great tall ball room. Magic exhaustion and the normal exhaustion teamed up on Stella because she was practically falling down the stairs a single step at a time.
When we got to the bottom we took a second to catch our breath.
"H- H- Heo- what…" Stella coughed. "Was that the banshee?"
"I wouldn't know? If we have a dream tonight maybe."
"What are we doing now?"
"The cake."
"Oh." Stella raised herself off her legs. "I almost forgot about it."
"Yeah this past week has been strange. Normally it shouldn't be this strange for a new adventurer right?"
"I don't know."
"First the sphere, then that skelly, pure magic control, applestones, the Queen of the Night, the actual Queen, getting trained by the knight of the Fayhian Queen, how skills and magic points have caps." I looked over at Stella. "Now we have to get a cake for an evil, kidnapping Queen that has no relation to Fayhian Queen."
"Bizarre definitely."
We got to the door where it actually opened when we walked up. The tall guard we now know is Avez from Jace looked down at us.
"Whoa, what did he do to you kids?"
"We fought him, met the Queen and walked down a flight of a thousand stairs completely drained, and now we are grabbing the most expensive cake in the world." We walked past her. She stood there, no expression on her helmet.
The bakery looked older as if the fog was covering its age before. The door swung open releasing the richest smell of Fayha with it. The smell of food never made me hunger, until today.
"We might need to buy the entire menu…"
"You might be right." Stella's face blazed with hunger.
"Anyways."
I shook my head and threw off most of my hunger. The restaurant was packed full but did have a lot of people in it. Very festive people. Full sets of knight armor, costumes, pajamas, there was even another pirate in the store. Everyone turned towards the door and directly at me.
Is it a crime to not be dressed up? We walked to the counter and with a small push of the curtain the old man returned.
"You guys left the money right?" His voice came out tired.
"Yes! Was it still there?"
"It was."
"So…"
The man went back behind the curtain and returned with a cake. I wouldn't have seen anything if we weren't just with Paukena, but the cake was warm. He pulled out a light orange box with three runes on it. He opened the box and let the cake slide seamlessly into the box and stopped perfectly before hitting any walls.
"I appreciate you guys wanting to try my cake." He leaned in slightly. "I know you're new to Fayha, and I don't truly mind, but others do about you guys coming in with the festive knights."
"Well. We're sorry." Stella said.
He pulled back and a light smile illuminated his tired face. "Now get out of here. Oh and if you don't eat all of the cake, place it back in the box. Don't eat it all at once."
We walked towards the hotel we stayed at carrying the large cake. I didn't even realize that's why no one came in but we did. We can't even finish the cake within a month with how large it is. We got a few strange looks for two new adventurers holding the most expensive food in the country.
We placed the cake on the small coffee table in the hotel room. The cake almost stretched end to end.
"So. We'll take it out now, right?" I pulled the card out with the riddle on it. If you wish to seek the night Queen you must be more than happy, and follow the inside at next. Though a light must be on doesn't mean that you're home. If you were to recite perceptive, doubt, I'm, You're, follow, and joy you could find my truth, but your eye might turn a show and the world shall shrink.
"I really don't know."
"Maybe eating it will lead to the next clue or something like that?"
"Possibly, I really just want to eat this." I carefully took the cake out. It still looked warm. With one of two daggers I had from the goblin I washed it in the sink.
"Heo, that's nasty cutting it with that."
"Stella, what else are we gonna cut this huge cake with? We don't even have knives."
"Uhh." Stella looked somber at the cake. "Fine but I don't trust you. Give me the knife."
"Dagger." I handed it to her. She scoffed and went to take a slice out of the cake. The blade was less than an inch away before a perfect cut went through the cake and slid out.
"Oh-" Stella staggered back slightly with the dagger clutched in her hand.
"Damn, who's the real knight between us?"
"Yeah…" Stella went to cut another slice and the same thing happened. "Well, it's not too late to change magic points right?"
"I don't know."
"How do I refund my stats? Actually, how do I refund a job skill class?"
"I don't know. Definitely some mythical item can do it."
"Where do we find it?"
"Probably a very deep part in a dangerous dungeon full of the terrors of all kinds."
"Heo can we can probably get down there now."
"Yeah- wait."
"Huh?" I pointed at the cake box where a rune dulled.
"Cut it again." Stella did and the rune flashed orange after a couple of seconds it slowly started to fade. "Nevermind your staying a mage."
We both tried the cake. It had an orange base with flakes of carrots in it. The icing was both orange and white with it cutting though the base of the cake in three areas. The icing swirled up around the bottom edges and the top of the cake. Flames of carrot were sprinkled on the swirled up areas along with cinnamon. In the middle of the cake, an elaborate carrot pattern was written in very small detail.
We both glanced at each other and back at the card where the riddle was on before we took a bite. Stella threw her head back and I went to follow. I kicked the ground and fell onto the floor.
"This is too good to be eating in a hotel room!"
"Heo we need more than a single cake!" Stella looked down towards me, her eyes dancing between colors.
"Your eyes!" We both yelled in unison. We laughed and jumped around. The thin walls of the hotel did not hold back our appreciation of the cake.
I cleared my throat after a few more seconds. "Alright so that was the right place but I don't really know anything else we should do."
"Well the people in the restaurant all had on outfits, maybe that's the key?"
"It could be but I don't have anything to wear."
"Neither do I." We both sat and pondered.
"Stella, you're a pirate…"
"Oh yeah." Stella grabbed onto her jacket and dusted it off with a bright smile.
"So we need outfits." I looked at the cash we had in our room. "We need to get a quest that's gonna feed us for a bit while also getting me an outfit."
It was already late. We wouldn't be able to get a quest and complete it before the end of the day. Though we didn't need to stop at night.
"Let's go on a long quest."
"What about our room? We can't pay for more than a day or two."
"Umm…" I looked around. We had nothing really in our room, we were broke besides the expensive cake that sat on our table.
"Well… let's take the cake with us."