The young servant led him through a set of colorful corridors, down a pair of spiraling steps, across the under halls of the mansion where portraits of important-looking men and women dotted the walls. He was silent through all of it, with only their steps resounding about the walls.And yet Valens knew, due to prior experience, that the longer the march went on, the more it meant the person he was being guided toward would be more important.So this Mr. Gray, the rich patron who happens to support Duality Guild’s cause, is a mysterious person. Should I expect to keep to certain etiquette rules when I meet him?He decided that much was inevitable, so he kept his hands pinned slightly to his sides and allowed the servant to lead him through another staircase. After a repetition of the earlier effort, they finally came across a stone door that looked painfully simple compared to the apparent opulence of the mansion’s general character.“I don’t see—”“Here, Mr. Kosthal, allow me,” the young servant cut him gently, after which he reached for the singular button by the wall, and pressed upon it. The stone door groaned slowly open when he did so, revealing a dark passage beyond it. “This way,” he concluded with that expressionless face.Valens glanced at the dark passage, then back at the servant. He had a few doubts about the matter, but a slight probe through the Resonance showed him that nothing out of the ordinary waited for him beyond.Better I check it, though.For good measure, he stretched his neck out and peered into the darkness. That was when he felt a sudden touch around his back… which grew stronger to the point that it flung him stumbling into the dark passage.“Hey—”The stone door screamed, and turned, and closed with such swiftness that it betrayed its earlier incompetence in a way that left Valens speechless. And through the fast-closing slit he managed to glimpse (...)