Mr. Mark and Chairman Stan were both Shade's friends. The two gentlemen seemed to have nothing else to do today and actually invited Shade upstairs to their office for an After-Work Drink, intending to discuss this year's Great City Player tournament while they were at it.
Drinking was forbidden during working hours, but people liked to decorate their offices with fine liquor. Timing things around the end of the workday and sharing a drink with friends and colleagues was considered an elegant pastime among office-bound gentlemen of the upper class in this era.
Shade had never been interested in drinking, but he was interested in Great City Player, so he followed the two gentlemen up to the third floor.
The chairman's office was relatively plain. It did not display antiques or anything of the sort as Shade had imagined, and even the paintings on the walls were ordinary landscapes. The wine in the cabinet was probably the room's only expensive decoration. This most prestigious Prophet in Tobesk enthusiastically told Shade about the origins and history of those wines.
It seemed the association's vice president was a Rhodes Cards enthusiast, while the chairman was a fine-wine enthusiast. Fortunately, this was no ordinary organization. Otherwise, the Seer Association's future would truly have been bleak.
The three sat down and discussed the Demon Series Rhodes Card Shade had acquired not long ago, the latest decks, and card games of all sizes around the city. Just as Vice President Mark made everyone laugh with a joke about Rhodes Cards and drunks, someone knocked on the office door.
The Cat on Shade's shoulder meowed at the door. It had developed the habit at 6 Saint Derain Square; whenever someone knocked, it reacted naturally.
But it was not the receptionist downstairs informing Shade that Luvia had