Welcome back to the fifth day of our book club readalong for OwlCrate's April book, Hotel Magnifique!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 22-26 of Hotel Magnifique, so make sure you read are finished this section before continuing.
Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate box! Don't forget, you can also post about the readalong on Instagram with the hashtag #OCHotelMagnifique for another chance to win!
The story continues...
Chapter 22:
Back inside Alastair says one of the twins must be punished for trying to make Jani leave even after she broke the oranges. It is revealed that the glass oranges are from before the hotel existed, and only a suminaire is able to damage them. Bel had kept the information from her.
Alastair takes Jani to his office where he makes her touch many of the artéfacts to see which ones will work for her. Interestingly, she is pulled to a cosmolabe, an artéfact that not even Alastair can use. He makes her sign a new staff contract, but again for some reason Jani seems to retain her memories.
The cosmolabe could be useful in the search for the signet ring artéfact, something that can give and take away magic, and something that Alastair badly wants. Jani will start looking for it that night.
Chapter 23:
Alastair takes her through a hall where suminaires are working, into a room that transforms at his will, another portrait of the woman on the wall. He explains that she was a powerful suminaire that could also use the cosmolabe, and with it she could locate an object's origin by drawing maps, sometimes from nothing more for reference than a drawing. Alastair gives Jani permission to leave the hotel to get supplies for her drawings, as long as she always has an escort. Jani has no desire to help Alastair get more power, and attempts to throw the drawing of the ring into the fire. In punishment Des Rêves brings Zosa to the door, but only opens it an inch, allowing only her fingers through. The door then turns to teeth and bites off Zosa’s fingers.
On the other side Zosa has turned back into a songbird with a bloody wing. Alastair tells her that if she fails it won’t be her that will be punished. Leaving her alone Jani contemplates the ring, and thinks that maybe if she can retrieve it she could use it to remove the magic from their contracts.
Chapter 24:
Jani and her escort make the difficult climb up to the market, her guard ill from exertion. Jani leaves him and enters the market, finding the drawing supplies she needs. As she goes to leave she notices Bel at a card table, and before he can react Jani throws his drink in his face. He follows her, and eventually admits that he knew from almost the moment he met her that she was a suminaire, due to her mother’s necklace which is in fact an artéfact. He believes it has been protecting her from other people’s magic, like that of the ink on the contracts.
Jani explains to him that Alastair has tasked her with finding the signet ring, and her plan to try to use it to erase the magic from the contracts. He doesn’t seem convinced that will work.
Chapter 25:
Jani gets to work, not having any luck drawing a map to the ring, but she is able to get the cosmolabe to work for other objects. She spends days drawing maps, not sleeping and barely eating, but when a kitchen worker enters to drop off food she mentions that the hotel is somewhere quaint in the south of Verdanne. Jani gives herself five minutes to go outside. Outside her room she finds one of the twins, Sido, realizing the other wasn’t punished for doing anything wrong, but simply because Alastair was angry.
Chapter 26:
They are indeed in Aligney, but Jani doesn’t feel as connected to it as she thought she was. Bel finds her and reveals it was he who brought the hotel here, as a sort of apology for the market. But when Jani asks again, he still refuses to help her find the ring.
Back in her room Jani gets an idea, and using the charcoal and the cosmolabe, she finds she is able to speak with the woman in the painting, which tells her to leave her be in the same voice that reads out the itineraries. Jani then draws a map that will lead her to the old Fabricant. Jani goes in search of Bel.
Questions:
- Where do you think the previous Fabricant is, and why do you think she is the voice of the itineraries, etc. that the guests can hear?
- Why do you think Bel is so against finding the ring if there is a possibility Jani’s theory is correct?
- Do you think there was another reason beyond an apology that Bel returned Jani to Aligney?
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