ONE POINT FIVE (1.5 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 29

Prin's POV

The gardener led us both to the room where the cake had been taken from the building. It was only the three of us, which made me feel a little more comfortable. I didn't care too much that we were still able to see the party, and thus they could see us. I knew that the rest of the village would be on the gardener's side if anything happened, but I took it that he was trying to comfort us by having an audience. It was somewhat private. If someone was on the other side of the wall, just hidden out of my sight, I was sure that someone could hear.

"Now, I do believe that we have something very important to talk about." The gardener couldn't have looked more awkward if he tried. It was as though he was trying to be serious, but he really wasn't the type. It was as though the entire village wasn't used to being serious. Maybe this was Darman's words getting to me. I wanted to relax, and I thought that I was doing a pretty good job at trying to be casual, but I really wasn't sure. I didn't know if I was a good actress in any way, shape, or form.

"I suppose you know what happened?" Sarphi asked hopefully, a rather adorable sheepish grin coming to her face. "I'm really hoping that's the case." I was on the same boat.

The gardener sighed and nodded. "I am aware of what happened. To be honest, I had been told that there was something wrong several hours ago. That is why I asked where Ka was and wished for her to come back here. I wasn't sure of what had happened."

I nodded slowly, trying my hardest to be respectable. "She genuinely thought that she was playing a game, I think." Once more, I didn't know if I was any good at lying.

Sarphi chimed in once more, which told me I wasn't very good at lying. "It was really fun to hang out with her, she came up to us nearly as soon as we got to the party and asked us to play dolls with her." That wasn't too much of a lie, just twisting the truth.

I nodded. "Yeah, then Niko got sick, and we were worried about him. We still don't know what happened."

The gardener nodded and waved a hand. "I know what happened. Though, it is rather unfortunate that the cake had to face the back end of this issue." I didn't recognise that phrase, but I guessed that it meant that the cake was no longer edible or available.

"We brought another one?" I said with a hopeful expression. "Maybe that'll be enough to tide everyone over? We could try and decorate it in time, or maybe get something else to go with it?" I was a little lost when it came to what we could actually do to fix this besides hurriedly decorate.

"No, no, that would be far too boring," the gardener disagreed, voice getting a little more worried than it had been a few moments ago. "They will think that Ka had done something wrong, to warrant a punishment."

I couldn't help laughing. "My father locked me in a prison under the ground as a punishment. I would've adored a poorly decorated cake as a replacement."

Sarphi nodded in agreement. "I don't even want to begin with where my mother would've started with punishment."

The gardener looked absolutely horrified by our casual discussion of childhood punishments. He cleared his throat and rubbed his hands together. "I-I just got the stick," he mumbled under his breath. "Anyway, I don't know what to do."

"Maybe we could let Ka decorate it?" I suggested after a few moments of silence. "She said she was interested, and it might be fun for her and the other children."

"Oh, but the sugar," the gardener wailed as though it was the worst idea he'd ever heard. "It'll be so full of sugar; the children will be flying."

"I don't see anything wrong with flying," Sarphi said playfully.