The flames quickly spread into the bathroom, but just as Schiller had predicted, not a single tongue of fire touched the toilet.
Schiller had actually noticed long ago that whatever controlled the illusions in the room might not be the same thing that had contaminated the people inside. More likely, they were two separate systems.
If the thing creating the illusions had a way to contaminate people, then there was no need for all these flashy illusions. It could have simply put the contaminant on the rug by the entrance. Whoever stepped on it would die.
And if the thing controlling the toilet water had a way to affect the entire room through illusions, then it could have made invisible toilet water and splashed it on anyone it saw. There would have been no need for it to stubbornly remain in the bathroom.
So the two were most likely separate monsters that did not interfere with each other. They might even have formed some kind of balance: the illusion monster drove people into the bathroom to be contaminated, while the bathroom toilet gave the illusion monster a means of killing.
But that was only on the condition that neither of them harmed the other's fundamental interests.
Clearly, the monster that contaminated people controlled the toilet as its territory. It contaminated people by splashing toilet water on them, while the illusion monster likely controlled everywhere except the toilet. The illusions were almost everywhere.
But now that Schiller was standing on the toilet, all three sides were in an awkward position.
The water and fire created by the room's illusions were real, at least as far as the guests' senses were concerned. That meant they had to be made of something. It might not have been scientific, but it was a form