The Valdrian Trade Consortium's headquarters was the kind of building that wanted you to know it had money. Desperately. It desperately wanted you to guess how much every single individual element it presented cost to buy.
Marble columns. Gilded doorframes. A fountain in the entrance hall that was definitely bigger than it needed to be, with little stone fish spitting water into the air. The whole place screamed "we are very rich and very important and you should feel slightly inadequate, but also proud, for standing here."
Aegis did not feel inadequate. She felt like she was about to make a lot of very rich, very important people remember her name for a long, long time.
"Nervous?" Evelyn asked from beside her.
"Never."
"You've adjusted your collar four times since we got out of the carriage."
"It's itchy."
"Of course, my lady."
