"I was not incapable of getting used to a ceremony," he said. "On the contrary, I was too used to them, to the point of boredom."
"And I invited you," said the visitor.
"You did me a great favor by giving me an excellent excuse to escape the noise. Though I was wondering how you found me."
"Your presence is exceptionally conspicuous, unlike that of any living thing on Olympia."
"While any two living things already satisfy the condition of being distinct from one another, I understand what you mean."
The figure draped in black cloth entered the stone cave whose walls were embedded with crystals and sat down on a rock serving as a seat.
With a casual tug, he pulled back the scrap of cloth temporarily serving as his hood. Within the exposed void, golden runes flickered in and out, echoing the glimmers of the crystals in the stone walls.
The young man in golden robes set his staff beside the stone bench. He glanced at the humanoid shape formed of runes, then looked away again. The laurel wreath around his silver hair cast a wavering gleam as he did.
A low table stood between them. A small amount of dust that had fallen from the cave ceiling lay around its edges, while its surface bore the cleanliness of something recently used.
Playing cards were scattered in one corner of the table, overlapping in heaps. The patterns on their backs obscured one another, but discernible images included collapsing towers, falling lightning, dead fighters, and the like.
At the center of the table, space had been left for a simple meal: a cup of wine and several pieces of fermented flatbread.
The black-clad figure extended his left hand, picked up the wine cup, stared at it for a moment,