ONE POINT FIVE (1.5 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 19

Prin's POV

I had learned that Ka, the gardener's daughter, loved to play make believe. It's something which I used to my advantage with zero regrets. I was able to be completely honest with the two of them about Queenie and the plan to replace the cake. Of course, Ka had immediately gone to check on it, returning seconds later with a wrinkled nose.

"Yeah, it's icky," she confirmed in a very unhappy tone. "You didn't make it icky, did you? I trust you not to have made it icky." She hugged Sarphi's arm, which made Sarphi appear rather uncomfortable.

"We made it nice and pretty, with flowers and butterflies." I was more than a little miffed about the situation. "Okay, we need to find the actual cake, or at least find a way to prove what happened to it."

"We don't have spy magic here," Ka informed and pulled away from Sarphi, crossing her arms over her chest. "I told them that we needed it, but nope, apparently this place is so close together and 'controlled' that we don't need things to spy on people."

"You like people-watching?" I asked with a small laugh. I figured that was harmless enough, people could be interesting. Although, I wasn't too sure what she meant by spy magic, hopefully it wouldn't invade people's privacy too much and I didn't have the wrong idea. This little one could be out for blackmail for all I knew.

"Yeah." Ka nodded before taking our hands. "Let's go play outside, there's less people there. We'll be distracted from people-watching."

I opened my mouth to tell her that wasn't what I meant, but I closed it quickly as I understood what she was trying to do. I glanced around as we left, taking note of who was paying attention to our exit. The gardener gave me a nod and a smile, so I supposed he didn't have any issues with it. I nearly paused as my eyes came across the same man from last night, the one who had given me the warning. I blinked at him a few times, and all he did was stare. I wanted to move over and ask him if he knew about this, and how we could handle it, but I was being dragged pretty quickly. I didn't want to draw too much attention towards him.

"Here," Ka said as she stopped. She looked around, before looking at the closest window reaching out to close it. "Can't lock it from outside, gotta keep it closed."

Sarphi stepped forward. "I got it." She then used her tail to wrap around the window, pulling it closed. She winced slightly, but otherwise didn't' complain.

"Don't we have another way?" I asked with a frown, not wanting her to be hurt, but we were in a bit of a hurry to find out what happened to our cake, before it was eaten by the woman.

Sarphi shook her head, before looking down at Ka. "So, who would Queenie work with?"

"Well, she has a sister, but they hate each other." Ka was looking at the ground whilst she thought, so she didn't see Sarphi and I glancing at one another, that wasn't the most unpredictable thing I'd ever heard. "She's got quite a few friends though, I'm not sure which one of them would do this to me." I hadn't realised until now that this was also against Ka, as it was her birthday. I had forgotten that it might be seen as personal to the little girl as well.

"Hey, I think that Sarphi and I are the main enemy here," I said quietly as I crouched down a little. "I don't think that they're purposely sabotaging your birthday party. It was probably just convenient timing for the two of them."

Ka gave a sad nod and a sigh. "But I like cake." Her lips turned into a small pout.

"Don't worry darling, you'll get your cake." Sarphi reached out and gave Ka a small pat on the head. "Even if we have to remake it, for the fifth time."

I didn't know if that number was right, but I agreed with her quietly.

"Do you see any clues around here?" I asked, trying to distract her from what was being discussed. "Any footprints, perfume, or anything?"