1

The elevator doors slide open, and you step out into a great, cavernous space. It is dark, and so vast that you cannot see its edges. If it even has edges. If this is even a real, physical place.

One point of light shines in the darkness before you. As you approach, you make out six figures seated on one side of a long, U-shaped meeting table. They face a second, smaller desk, with an empty chair. This is where you will sit and be judged.

You'd expected more pomp, more grandeur, you realize. MetaHuman Incorporated is, after all, an ancient institution. But no, your immediate surroundings excepted, you have come to a meeting room much like any other. A metal coffee jug and a bottle of Evian have already been placed on your desk, even. On the shareholders' table you spot another coffee jug, and a plate of cookies.

You glance over your shoulder. The elevator doors are still behind you. But they almost seem a facade: you can see nothing behind them; no elevator shaft. No elevator either. It's a jarring reminder that this is not just any other meeting room, or any mundane meeting.

You sit. You recognize Simond Guul, seated second from the right. Two others are familiar to you. You have seen photos of Fatima Keradi, a woman with vivid violet eyes. She is reputedly a sorceress of immense power whose father was a demon prince, and whose mother was a mortal woman. She wears her hair piled high on top of her head, wrapped in a long, white headscarf. Did the headscarf move by itself a little, just now? Perhaps. And you've read several articles by Dr. Karl Dockner, a noted authority in fields including economics, and skilled in the construction of models to anticipate possible economic futures. He's also highly qualified in the study of ancient languages and is supposedly the world's leading authority on the location and properties of the Lance of Longinus, the spear that pierced Christ's side. He was widely reported to have died some eight years ago. You had no idea he held such a large stake in MetaHuman.

The three others present—two women, and a man wearing thick spectacles—are unfamiliar to you.

Simond speaks. "Thank you for joining us this evening, Neah. We have no wish to stretch this out unnecessarily. Shall we get straight into it?"

You nod. "Why not?"