Chapter Text
Martin was confident in saying that this was their worst gig so far (and hopefully ever.) It had started off with technical issues and an audience of three, only one of whom seemed excited to be there, and only gotten worse after that.
By the middle of their problem-filled set and with all their nerves frayed from the stress, the rumbles of a barfight were almost welcome to Martin – at least their few listeners weren’t going to hear their errors. At the end of the night, he regretted that thought. By the time they were packing up their instruments, Matic and his drums had been sprayed with beer, Kris’s guitar was busted, Bojan had the start of a black eye, Jan was getting blood on everything from a few cuts on his hand, and Martin was limping from a twisted ankle. Not to mention the few thousand euro worth of damages to the bar itself and their one fan leaving in tears with a bloody gash across her forehead.
“At least that’s over,” Martin said. Except, of course, it wasn’t. The worst was behind them but the day still had one more boot in the rear for them before their luck was to turn around.
“Wasn’t the car that way?” Bojan asked, pointing down the alley towards the road their van was parked on.
“Yeah,” Kris said, then “oh shit.”
Martin looked towards the entrance of the alley, now blocked with orange construction barriers with a large delivery truck parked right beyond it.
Fifteen minutes of lugging their equipment the long way around over poorly maintained cobblestones, they made it to within sight of Martin’s van.
“I don’t remember a door being there,” Matic said.
Martin didn’t remember parking in front of a door that evening either, but now the van was surrounded by people bustling in and out of a door in the stone wall on the other side of the sidewalk from the van.
“The other side of that wall is a park,” Kris said.
“What?” said Jan.
“So?” grumbled Bojan.
“Grand Hotel, Service Entrance,” Martin read.
“Grand Hotel, The Grand Hotel?” Bojan said, pained grumbles immediately replaced with excitement.
Grand Hotel was, safe to say, the most famous hotel in the world. It had spawned many non-magical or less-magical imitations around the world, including Ljubljana’s own, but none approached its allure, no matter how lavish the rooms or how exquisite the meals. This was because none of the other hotels could do what Grand Hotel could do. Grand Hotel could move. It moved not like a cruise ship, or a dirigible cruiser moved, but in the blink of an eye. One second Grand Hotel’s front doors would open onto the streets of Hong Kong, the next second it could be in Oslo or Montréal or Buenos Aires or Cape Town or some city or town Martin hadn’t even heard of. The magic that made this work was mind-boggling. Even Martin, who was top of his magic class in school couldn’t instantly summon anything larger or farther away than a textbook left on his desk at home (and he’d never dared to summon any living animal.) Teleporting oneself halfway around the world, and getting there still alive and healthy, was the domain only the most advanced magical practitioners, much less a huge building full of people. Rumor had it that not even the world’s military powers could replicate Grand Hotel’s magics (or stop it from appearing in their cities.)
Having Grand Hotel pop up in Slovenia, outside of Ljubljana as they were, was unprecedented. Since Martin was old enough to remember, Grand Hotel had only appeared in Ljubljana three times and never elsewhere in the country. Martin had dreamed of staying there someday – probably in a few decades when he had enough money to afford their very high prices.
“What’s it doing here?” Matic asked.
“That’s a good question,” Kris said.
“Maybe we can ask her,” Martin said, indicating a woman in the doorway who appeared to be directing people. “She’d probably appreciate us moving the van anyways,” he added.
Martin had never thought there was another way of getting to see Grand Hotel from the inside besides making a booking, something which cost more for a night than Joker Out had made in the band’s entire existence. However, now that he was faced with the sign saying “service entrance,” he suddenly had another idea. Maybe they’d like a band, or other workers considering this band thing wasn’t going so well at the moment. Martin grinned and resumed limping towards the van, bass in hand.
“Hello,” Martin said to the woman at the door, opting for English, “We will move the car soon. I didn’t know we would block a door.”
“Thank you,” the woman said smiling at him politely. “We didn’t know either.”
Martin unlocked the van and they began loading their stuff as they talked.
“Is this a common problem?” Bojan asked, “appearing somewhere where the door is blocked?”
“Oh yes,” the woman said, sounding like this was a regular gripe, “like, half the time I open this door in a new place there is a car, or construction, or just a big hole.”
Bojan laughed, “Oh no, what’s the weirdest thing you saw when opening the door?”
“One time there were four llamas right outside of the door. They did not like me.”
They all laughed. Martin could imagine the reaction of a bunch of unhappy llamas.
“I’m Bojan,” Bojan said, “and this is my band, Joker Out.” He gestured at the guys then offered his hand for a shake.
“Alika,” the woman said, shaking Bojan’s hand. “Purchasing manager at Grand Hotel, and also pianist.” She paused briefly: “You’re a band? What with the blood and bruises, well, I wasn’t thinking those cases contained instruments.”
“The concert was really bad.” Kris said, as the others laughed.
“We might need a new career, or a venue with fewer bar fights. Got any openings?” Martin asked.
Martin could feel the others looking at him in surprise. It was very much a longshot, but on the off chance it was a possibility they could talk then.
“We did just have a band quit. If you’re serious I can take you to the hiring manager.” Alika said.
Martin looked at the others. They all nodded. Matic put the last of his drum set into the van and shut the door. Martin locked the van.
“Yes, let’s go meet the manager.”
They followed Alika into the hotel, and onto a new adventure.