Chapter 14

On the bus, I realized that we had travelled to all of the cities except for two. Combining my time at Neocortex and the amount of cities left, I started to get upset. “What’s wrong?” Peyti urged. At this point, Peyti knew that I always get quiet when I’m confused or upset.

“I’m losing hope.” I sighed, “How can people settle here without knowing how they arrived and for what purpose?”

“You almost settled!” bro exclaimed, being still frustrated with my choices.

“I guess,” I shrugged. I knew Bro was right, but I wasn’t ready to admit it.

“Well I’m still hopeful!” Peyti said as she was trying to pull some optimism back into the conversation. “We have just narrowed it down now,” She smiled. Bro and I both nodded. I could feel a slight desire to rebuild the unity between us, but my overall feeling of being upset was still holding on.

Before we knew it, we were arriving at Avaritia. There wasn’t much different than the other cities. There was a difference in the size of buildings, but that wasn’t something that stood out necessarily. As soon as we walked into the city, I knew what was different though. The place was clean! Living in Socordia for so long made me accustomed to stingy air and trash. “Wow, we stink!” said Bro.

“Yeah,” Peyti and I agreed.

“Let’s find a place to clean up,” I said. Bro then pointed to a nearby hotel. It was huge. Once we walked up to it, we realized how big it really was. It had to have been 200 stories high or more. The sign on the front read “Babel: Never Enough.”

“That is a weird name,” Peyti said as she looked toward us to explain.

“It sounds familiar,” Bro answered, “But I can only guess it means ‘Never Enough’ or something along those lines.” He then looked to me for an assured answer. I nodded and shrugged. I was just as unsure and confused. Anyway, out of the convenience of not having to look elsewhere, we decided to go in and get a room. As we walked up the front desk, Bro asked the lady working, “Do you have any three bed rooms available for tonight?”

“We do,” she answered, “But we actually have you pay by the week instead of the night.”

“Why is that?” I asked, “And how much does it cost per week then?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” she said, “It is most likely just a business plan by the owner. We are the only hotel in Avaritia. Besides this hotel, you can actually buy the mansions in the upper district of the city, but judging by the smell of you three, you don’t have enough Coin for that.”

“Probably not,” I laughed as I was trying to shrug off the awkward remark. “But you still haven’t told us how much it costs.”

“Each floor has a different price. Most people, who come in, are moving up floors because the further up, the nicer it is. A three bed room starts at 5 Coin a week for the bottom floor. Every time that you move up a floor, the price doubles.”

“We’ll take a week then,” Said Bro. Then the lady gave us our key and pointed us toward our room which happened to be room number 1. We then took the next few hours to clean up.

While Bro was showering, I noticed a booklet about Babel. Inside there was floor layout plans. Our current room was laid out like a normal hotel room, but one level above had a kitchen, and the third level had a washer and dryer. As the levels progressed, the more features and square feet were added. The third level was definitely appealing as our clothes still were stinky. Since I had showered first, I decided to go look for a Laundromat nearby. I had taken our clothes, so I could do a favor for Bro and Peyti since they pulled me out of Socordia. Sure enough, there was a Laundromat right next to the hotel. Before I entered, I noticed a sign for help wanted. Now, I noticed that we didn’t necessarily want to stick around Avaritia very long unless we found our purpose, but I also knew that I wasted a lot of our money at Neocortex and I wanted to make it up to the others. When I turned in our clothes to be washed, I inquired about the job.

“We lose our workers here fast,” the manager said, “It isn’t because it is a bad job, but our workers often find better work, but we have an opening if you’d like to join us.”

“Do I need to interview? I have had a few jobs on the Island in different cities.” I asked.

“You seem reliable, and if you aren’t I will just have to fire you. Sound like a deal to you?” He replied, “If so, I can have you start tomorrow.”

“Ok, I’ll take it” I said as I shook her hand. “My friends call me Bro because I haven’t really picked out a name yet.”

“My name is Autarkia,” she returned.

“That is a different name, how did you come up with it? Does it mean anything specifically?”

“I don’t know really, it just sounded itself as I was filling out the name sheet, so if it means something then I’m not really sure of it.” She answered, “Well, I need to get to more work. I’ll see you in here tomorrow.”

“Bye,” I said as I walked out the door. After that, I decided I’d also pick up some food for the group. There was a restaurant nearby as well, I picked up some food for us, and then I headed back to the hotel.

When I got back, Bro and Peyti were done. “Where were you?” Bro exclaimed. I could tell he was still frustrated with me.

“I’m sorry,” I shared, “Not just for wandering, but for being a jerk to you guys in Socordia. I’m so thankful that you pulled me out of the city. I wanted to apologize, so I started by getting our laundry done and bought us some food.”

“How much was it?” Peyti asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” I continued. “I hope you guys except my apology.” They then gave me a big group hug.

“Brother, we forgive you! Thank you!” Bro smiled. We then sat down and ate. Afterwards, it was getting late and we decided to get an early rest.