The twenty-sixth floor of the Wayne Grand Hotel housed Gotham's most luxurious restaurant with the finest view. Sitting before its floor-to-ceiling windows, one could take in the entire city skyline. People called it the Eye of Gotham.
The restaurant was most famous for its exceptionally strict invitation-only membership policy. Given Batman's suspicious nature, he would hardly let just anyone get a clear look at Gotham's skyline. Many food critics hoping to visit had been turned away for lacking the proper status, but the more people complained, the more curious they became about what the world's richest man's restaurant actually served.
The restaurant's decor was identical to that of Wayne Manor, its solid materials lending it a classical grandeur, enhanced by Gotham's uniquely lavish Gothic style.
The floor was black and deep-purple marble, each color separated by gold lines. Bronze handrail posts were crowned with statues of monsters that existed only in fantasy. Four enormous, thick Roman columns supported a Gothic dome, while curtains rustled down from the walls and either side of the pillars. Sunlight streaming through the narrow, pointed Gothic windows was filtered into a somber, hazy hue.
Talia had seen the interiors of countless magnificent buildings, but none had ever struck her so deeply. Gotham's darkness was not merely like a fine drizzle; sometimes, it was an irresistible flood. Within it, she felt like a bird tossed about in a dark storm. Even the wind that unconditionally held her aloft could not rely upon her in that moment.
Gloomy, lonely, set apart from the world—this was the dark blade every old Gotham building drove straight into people's hearts.
Talia looked up at the Gothic candleholders scattered and overlapping across the walls, and felt her thoughts sway along with the layered flames.
Bruce Wayne, seated across from her, wore