Snow

I couldn't stop myself from grinning. If anyone was watching above, it must have pitied me. I was sure no one else was staying on this floor, that was why I chose this room. The army must have been using the room for information exchange, or whatever the term used for that shit.

''You are happy because you have a valid excuse to rent the room, aren't you?'' The fox said.

''Even you can't spoil my mood right now,'' I said after waiting for the footsteps to disappear completely. I didn't know when the recipient would arrive and I had to be fast, but getting caught wouldn't do me any good.

I quietly opened the door, ''Oops,'' I had forgotten clothes. Anyhow, I didn't have a second to waste. I sat down in front of the other door and began to examine its lock, as if I knew how to unlock it.

A door without a key in my hand was like an impossible wall for me. The person who taught me how to track had offered to teach me how to unlock basic locks. I said no. ''Damn, I wish Ender was here. I'd murder to summon him here.''

I stopped staring at the lock and leaned my cheek to the ground to look through the gap under the door. My heart was beating fast enough to hear its beating, from the fear of hearing the footsteps coming up. I tried to think of an excuse, I forgot my keys and clothes inside and I was kneeling because, umm, something. Heck, it wasn't my room.

There was a little finger-sized space between the door and the floor. Hoping to touch the letter, I reach out my finger under the door. I felt the tip of my finger touch the paper, but it was away from the door than I could pull.

''Air... wind. Please help me. Please,'' I whispered and sighed in relief when I felt the wind caressing my hair. It pushed the letter towards me. Looking at the sealed letter, I wondered what to do next.

First I went back to my room and closed the door. Clearly, it was a better option than waiting half-naked in the hallway with a secretly transported letter in my hand. I could pretend the soldiers had thrown the letter under the wrong door.

I looked at the seal on the letter. It was shaped like a pretty detailed snowflake. If I broke the seal, there was no way I could imitate it. I could remove the seal with a sharp knife without breaking it, but it was forbidden to bring a weapon to the hotel.

I looked at my nails and smiled. I could compete with a wolf's claws and wouldn't lose easily. My nails looked really sexy with red nail polish, but they had other uses as well. I carefully removed the wax seal, without breaking it. If I had a knife it would be faster, but better than nothing.

I took the letter out of the envelope and used the system to record what I saw, instead of wasting time reading it. I fold the letter into the shape I found and put it back in the envelope. Now I just had to melt the underside of the seal without distorting the shape of the snowflake on the seal.

''Fire, would you come?'' I waited for a second and nothing happened. Once again the fire didn't answer my call. I didn't know why the fire avoiding me, but I had more urgent issues than worrying about my affinity to the elements.

I went to the bathroom and set the water to the hottest temperature possible. There was no kitchen in the hotel room, and I could not think of any other heat source where I could melt the wax.

After waiting for a minute, I put the wax on the metal showerhead, which was hot enough to burn human skin, and immediately lifted it back, fearing the snowflake shape would distort. I put the seal that started to melt already on the letter and threw it under the door of the opposite room, without even waiting for it to cool down.

After returning to my own room and closing the door, before half a minute passed I heard footsteps. I tried to use all the breathing techniques I know, to calm my heartbeat, but it was useless. Adrenaline was in control, not logic. ''Run, run, run,'' My most primitive instincts were screaming. Run? Where? The hallway had only one exit.

Footsteps stopped, I heard the key enter the lock, the door opened, closed. I put on the shirt and skirt, grabbed the leather bag, and got out of the hotel room without wasting time with buttoning and tying the skirt's laces.

When I started to think again, I was walking through the snow not knowing where to go. I was creating all kinds of scenarios. Was the seal broken? Did I leave a fingerprint? Damn, they don't need fingerprints, they would learn my name if they looked at who kept the other room on the floor.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. I was sure I didn't spoil the snowflake shape. Beeswax cools down fast, as long as one didn't check to see if it was particularly lukewarm, it wouldn't be a problem. I was careful not to leave fingerprints. The only mistake I made was to escape from the crime scene.

''Fuck. If I could hear the door opening and closing and footsteps, the person in the other room could hear my footsteps.'' I was stupid to run, but I couldn't go back anymore. I didn't even think to ask the light and shadow to hide me. ''I'm definitely not a spy material.''

I tried to remember if there was anyone to see me when I'm leaving the hotel. Even if they found my name from the records, my concocted last name wouldn't get them anywhere. But someone who saw my face could cause trouble. I had not seen the guard I encountered while entering the hotel, I was wondering where was he?

****

Meanwhile, the hotel's guard was snoring under the sleeping dust. A few floors above, a man in snowflake carved armor moved the envelope to his nose. Honey? How?

He looked at the seal carefully, it was intact. At least it looked intact. Instead of breaking the seal, he removed the seal with his knife. The underside of the seal was still soft. Strange, he thought. Remembering the running steps he had just heard, he cursed silently and went out into the hallway. But it was too late.

Without hesitation, he crouched and unlike Sora, he unlocked the door with with tools as thin as a needle he pulled out of his pocket. Searching the hotel room properly, he found the wax residues on the showerhead. The honey smell in the bathroom was obvious.

He had been trained to find hidden things. Luckily, Sora did use the room for only a few hours and she had no time to leave evidence to cause her to be diagnosed. The man, dressed as a soldier, looked at the stick in his hand, which had protrusions that resembled rabbit ears.

"..."