The "invitation" showed up in his system like a virus.
No sender ID. No seal. Just a blinking icon that read:
[Special Access Granted – Closed-Door Assessment]
[Location: Guild Annex C – Sublevel 4]
[Report Time: 0900]
Lucen stared at it for a good ten seconds before saying aloud,
"Oh yeah. This isn't suspicious at all."
The system, of course, didn't respond.
He glanced at the timestamp, barely eight hours from now, and briefly considered forwarding it to Varik.
Then he remembered what Varik would say:
"Decline it."
Or worse—
"I'll go in your place."
Which, frankly, would ruin the fun.
—
Annex C looked abandoned from the street. The kind of building you'd expect to find filled with dust, leaking pipes, and a raccoon with territorial issues.
Lucen scanned in at the security post.
No official greeter. Just a bored-looking attendant chewing gum and pressing a single button that made the elevator hum to life.
Sublevel 4 smelled like it had been bleached in a hurry.
