At the Silver-Clad Peach Garden's century-old headquarters on the Heaven River Coast, a group of Formal Wizards worked listlessly inside an ancient pavilion. They worked for a Shop Alliance under the Red Dragon Throne, but that name only impressed wizards who didn't know any better.
The Red Dragon Throne had so many Shop Alliances under her. Small fry like them hardly mattered.
A Second-Ring Wizard approached Terence, a Star-Ring Wizard, and said quietly, "Wizard Terence, I'm sorry, but I'll be leaving soon. I can pay a resignation fee to repay the Silver-Clad Peach Garden for the training and support it's given me."
Terence stiffened.
The Silver-Clad Peach Garden's former administrative director and most of its department heads had been fired. Its entire administrative structure was now practically empty, leaving Terence, a veteran wizard who headed market research, temporarily in charge.
Only after taking over did he learn what it meant for something to be dead on its feet, bleeding out with no way to stop it.
Terence sighed. He belonged to the Divination School, yet he had been put in charge of a Breeder Shop Alliance. For one thing, he didn't understand the finer points of Breeding Science. For another, he could do little about the situation even if he wanted to.
The entire Silver-Clad Peach Garden felt rotten and old.
It might have been nothing more than an abstract impression of a Shop Alliance, but every wizard working there felt it had no future. The pay was still satisfactory, yet everyone knew the Silver-Clad Peach Garden was trapped in a death spiral of liquidating shops just to survive.
Unless... the Red Dragon School Lineage lent them a hand.
Terence sighed again. The Silver-Clad Peach Garden had long since been pushed to the margins. No wizards from the Red Dragon