Chapter 23: In the Eye of the Beholder

  Atma was sure he was going to collapse by the time he trudged his way onto the brick roads of Falcidia. It was well past sundown, not that you could have been able to tell from how brightly the city shone, it almost reminded Atma of the gaudy and over designed cakes that were at his and Escalus’ birthday celebrations. It was a beautiful city, without doubt, but it was almost too much to take in. Candles, torches, and light magic illuminated every building, each in accordance to the specific styling of what it was attached to. Everything was distinct, no two buildings exactly alike, their lights designed to accentuate a particular design choice, be it giving a wood pillar the appearance of a giant torch, using stained glass to turn a blank wall into a mural, or simply to give the artwork upon their houses a particular set of shadows not possible through shading or texture alone. Frankly, it hurt Atma’s eyes to look at it all. Or, perhaps it was more due to just how exhausted he was.

  They’d had to stop a few times for him, he’d thought at first this new training would be a cinch, or at the very least, not nearly so taxing. Every body part felt like it was on fire, but the worst part was that every limb felt inconsistently exhausted. It was disorienting in a way, how his left calf hurt more than his right, his right bicep felt as though he’d pulled it, and seemingly random sections of muscle across his chest and back felt as though they were cramping. It was easily the most uncomfortable experience of his life. He glanced over to Sienna, who seemed mildly uncomfortable, but overall, seemed far more well adjusted to restraining herself, as compared to him having to do the opposite.

  Shade slapped Atma on the back, right on one of his sore spots. “Well, you didn’t make it on time for dinner, but, to be honest, I really didn’t think you’d make it here this early.” He noticed Atma’s recoil. “Sorry about that. You can rest at least a little. Don’t fully let go of your control, but relax it just a bit. We’re in a safe area.”

  Atma wasn’t entirely sure he could without losing a hold of his flow entirely. He straightened himself out, trying to get some sense of his bearings. “So, where are we staying tonight?”

  “I know someone we can stay with,” Siegfried assured him, “Though I’d rather not impose dinner on her too. Come, if Siegmund won’t, then allow me at least to treat you all.”

  Shade rolled his eyes and hefted his bag again. “Where’d you have in mind?”

  Siegfried navigated through the streets with ease, the only things preventing Atma from losing sight of him in the chaos of the busy streets being that he was taller than the vast majority of the crowd, and Sienna holding his hand to make sure he didn’t get left behind. Every where Atma looked, he found someone at work on something, painters and their models, dancers in the middle of their routines, even vendors putting together street foods in such a way they could be considered art pieces, one putting on a show as he twirled knives that had been set ablaze, as he cut through fresh beef, dashing seasonings and spices with the flair of a dramatic actor. It only made Atma hungrier, and he questioned why they weren’t stopping anywhere.

  “Seriously though, where do you have in mind? Because we just passed a pretty decent restaurant just… now…” Sienna trailed off, as she seemed to realize the general direction they were headed. “Really? The Chevalier?” She stopped and let go of Atma, crossing her arms.

  “What? It’s the best place in town.” Atma’s curiosity was piqued by Siegfried’s words, with how much there was to marvel at in the city, he was more than a little interested in what the knight considered the best in a city so glamorous.

  “And it’s the sleaziest, not to mention, I’m not even remotely sure how you plan to get in, the place is exclusive as hell.” She seemed to hide a snicker. “And… I don’t think the sheltered prince is ready for what he’ll see in there.”

  “It’s a restaurant, what’s not to be ready for? Even if I had to fight, I could beat most people.”

  Sienna turned back to Siegfried and away from Atma, struggling to hold back from laughing. “Yeah, if you can get us in, that would be great.”

  “If it’s the best in town I really do want to see,” Atma confirmed. He tried picturing the food that the place must have had to earn its exclusivity, his growling stomach inviting him to indulge in daydreaming up something magnificent, something to rival Balthazar’s cooking, or the cooks back home. He was only brought back to reality by the sensation of someone ramming into him. He returned to focus, seeing the out of place boy in front of him. Out of place was the best way to describe him, considering how little he looked like most people around him. Black hair, freckles, short, even for his age, with a ragged look that made him stand out amidst the glamour of the city people. “Oh, sorry about that, little one.” Atma reached out a hand to help the boy up, though the child quickly sprung to his feet before he could do so.

  “Sorry, mister!” The boy ran off, with an orange haired child that Atma hadn’t noticed in tow, similarly ragged.

  “They should be more careful…”

  Sienna started pulling Atma along again. “Oh they were plenty careful, you didn’t even notice when they robbed you.”

  Atma quickly started patting himself down with his free hand, finding his coin purse completely gone. He hadn’t had much in there, but it was all the money he’d had. “But I- when?”

  “Oh it’s a common enough tactic, make you focus on one thing, so you miss what’s really important.” Sienna shrugged. “On the bright side, you’re not having to pay for dinner anyways.”

  Atma glanced back in the direction of the kids, lost in the sea of people. It was a mess of color, with fancy clothes, lightly colored hair, and far too many sparkling lights. For as much as they stood out, when everyone tried standing out, it was hard to find exactly who he was looking for. He groaned and slumped forward a bit, rather disheartened by the encounter. He was a bit distracted, up until they reached their destination, a large building, with Chevalier written upon it in fancy print. The entirety of the front wall was dedicated to a single art piece, presenting a white haired woman, with red eyes, and a crimson dress, reaching out to a distant hand, the mural continuing to another wall. For all his years studying the artistry of the world, having seen his family’s own collection countless times, it was the single most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. There was a serene air to the woman, but for all its beauty, Atma found something missing from the piece. It was oddly lacking an emotional warmth to it, ironic, given the warm lighting of both the mural and the lights which illuminated it. He couldn’t tell if it was the woman’s face, as beautiful as it was, but it was missing something, something he felt, which would have made seeing it a truly divine experience.

  He recalled what Sienna and Shade had told him, that the people of Falcidia lived to dedicate themselves to creating an immaculate beauty. Atma thought back to his studies on his nation’s history with faith, recalling an interpretation of the Goddess his people called Schneewittchen, Snow White. His mind drifted to a more recent memory, his dreams of Lilia, who’d given him one of the marks of the Goddess. He couldn’t help but laugh a little. If Lilia was who he thought she was, then he’d been closer to seeing the divine than anyone in the city. Still, there was no denying the presence of the mural, that it truly felt like he was staring at a depiction of the Goddess. It was then, looking around, that Atma saw how many of the people he’d passed had tried emulating this depiction. Looking more, he saw more people following closer to other depictions of the Goddess, some with hair like gold, others with tattoos of the Goddess’ marks across their bodies. The longer he looked, the more unsettling it became, though he found himself enchanted all the same.

  He heard a few murmurs and complaints as Siegfried cut past the line leading up to the front door, positioned just beneath the hand of Schneewittchen, the bouncer none too impressed with the confidence with which he strode to the entrance with Shade, Sienna, and Atma in tow. She and her counterpart were dressed in spotless black suits, with black leather gloves, and a cigarette sticking out of her mouth. While she was exceptionally beautiful, she made no attempt to hide her contempt for everything and everyone. “Line’s back there.” She pulled her cigarette from her mouth and very deliberately blew smoke in Siegfried’s face.

  “I think Mistress Minerva would really prefer I skip it.”

  “Bite me. I’d prefer it if you left before I got in trouble for turning you into a smear on the wall.” She put out her cigarette on Siegfried’s chestplate.

  Atma rather awkwardly glanced back and forth between the others, not sure what he could say or do, then to the other bouncer, staring blankly forward, not sparing a moment for Siegfried. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a few people in line move in, wanting to get a glimpse of the action, while others backed up, as if they had seen the woman fulfill her threat to Siegfried before.

  Siegfried snickered a bit, before handing her a small pocket book. “I have a new manuscript for her, though, that particular copy is just for you, Miss Valentine.”

  The bouncer broke into a smile, thumbing open a few pages, before placing it in her jacket’s inner pocket. “Boss is working out a deal now, but she’ll be all too happy to hear the news. Head on in.” She waved the group in, to the collective groaning of some of those at the front of the line, though they went silent as soon as she glanced back in their direction. “Personal favorite has to go to Volume 6, just for reference.” She turned back to Siegfried, not giving to much attention to Atma and the others.

  “Give the first few chapters here a read, you might think differently.”

  “Then I’ll be seeing you later,” she said flirtatiously.

  There was a moment of silence as Siegfried led the others into the Chevalier. They stepped into a corridor, lined with various art pieces, leading to the larger main hall, designed as if to force one to gaze upon a collection of fine art pieces the owner had collected over the years. Sienna was the one to break their collective silence, Shade all too aware of what was going on, and Atma too immersed in everything on display. “So, what exactly was that?”

  “Well, I need to make a living somehow, and I didn’t exactly plan on doing so as a sellsword, so I took to an old hobby, and, I spent a night here dining-”

  “Gambling,” Shade cut in.

  Siegfried spoke back up insistently over his nephew. “Dining, and the owner of the place got a hold of my manuscript.”

  “It was all he had left to bet.”

  “She was rather taken to it, and being the influential woman she was, saw to publishing my work. I keep writing hits for her, she makes money off of them, pays me rather handsomely, and, when I’m in town, treats me.”

  “You’re a successful author?” Sienna was clearly dumbstruck, trying to process the eyepatched knight having a gambling problem and a following as an author.

  “Please don’t inflate his ego about it.”

  “I think it’s incredible,” Atma added, “Martial prowess is one thing, but to find appreciation artistically alongside it has to be really special.”

  Siegfried smiled proudly in spite of Shade’s clear protest. “As the blademasters of Diamante hone their skills through calligraphy, I find it a great exercise of the mind and spirit. Though many of my works have been popular, by far the most significant has been Endymion Nights.”

  Sienna tapped her chin, trying to remember where she’d heard the name before. “I think I heard my sister talk about it before? She said she was a big fan of your romance novels.”

  “If you want to call them that,” Shade muttered, not that Sienna could hear him over the increasingly loud music as they neared the door.

  Siegfried nodded. “Victory and Peace, a pen name, or, what my given name means, if you prefer. As for why Endymion Nights, well, that can wait for dinner and a show.”

  “A show?” Atma raised an eyebrow, but had an obvious excitement, as Siegfried swung the doors to the main hall wide open. The interior of the Chevalier was a myriad of ever changing colors, using the same techniques with stained glass that Atma had seen outside. A section of one wall was dedicated to a bar, with shelves stretching high up to the ceiling, a ladder on wheels running across its length to give the bartenders access to the incredibly varied supply of liquors, enough that one could come every night for a year, and have something different every time. Scattered across the floor were tables for dining, each filled with the night’s courses, the evening’s particular centerpiece being prime rib. Though he had never been a particularly big eater, his hunger tonight was so overwhelming that it drew his eyes like a magnet. He forced himself to look away, finding other tables set aside for various games, poker, roulette, alongside a few he didn’t recognize. Towards the center of the room there was a jazz band just below a large stage, which was the clear centerpoint of the place, reaching across the large open room so that it was easy for everyone to see, a long platform stretching further back from it to a curtained off area backstage. Atma wasn’t quite so sure as to the purpose of the particular setup, every stage he’d ever seen had been set in the back, so everyone could properly see and hear the production at play.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  While different, the Chevalier didn’t feel too out of place for him, he’d been to plenty of busy parties, with well dressed people before. He felt his body relax a bit more, with his newfound sense of familiarity. Sure, their fashion sense was different from back home, but it wasn’t so much of a difference that he couldn’t fit himself in well enough. Atma stood with just a bit more confidence in himself, Siegfried led them to a spiral staircase, leading to a room overlooking the rest of the main hall. VIP access only. He was perfectly fine right up until he noticed the first staff member that wasn’t a bartender, carrying a tray of drinks, and walking with an exaggerated sway to her step. The woman, like many others, had light hair and bright eyes, as if another attempt at looking like the Goddess. She smiled and blew him a kiss, Atma turning red, flinching slightly. He turned over to Sienna, who was trying, and very clearly failing, to stifle laughter.

  “What was that she was wearing?” He was reminded of the outfits he’d seen performers wear for ballet shows, though it was in this case, noticeably more risque.

  “Oh, you know, local fashion.” She didn’t quite meet his gaze, snagging a drink as the waitress went by. “You can’t go to a place like this without the staff dressing up a bit.”

  Another staff member waited for them at the top of the stairs, a slender man who was incredibly well toned, wearing a near identical outfit to the woman from before, one piece which contoured to his body, cutting off just below his collarbone, a pair of black gloves, and a bowtie. Atma tried looking between his companions for any sort of idea as to what he’d just walked into, finding Siegfried as casual as ever, Shade refusing to make eye contact with him but nonetheless amused, and Sienna with the biggest smile he’d ever seen her wear. “Fashion, huh?” Atma kept his eyes to himself, preferring to keep his gaze close to the ground, or on someone he knew.

  “Welcome to the outside world. Debaucherous, and oh so fun,” Sienna teased, patting him on the back. “Oi, Siegfried, where exactly are we sitting?”

  “I have a booth here, just a personal privilege.”

  “Sounds more like the boss of the place just likes giving you a place to gamble…” Sienna sighed and shook her head.

  Atma found his impression of Siegfried far from the gallant knight he’d once pictured, though he wasn’t exactly sure if that wasn’t a good thing or not. He tried to think of it on a more positive end, Siegfried being more worldly, after all, Sienna hadn’t exactly been what he’d thought of when it came to being a pirate. Agravain certainly hadn’t been the knight he’d come to expect. He tried to swallow his embarrassment and discomfort, it wasn’t exactly his place to complain when he was being treated to a meal.

  Siegfried came to a booth, rather surprised to find someone already seated in the back of the booth, a woman, with her feet resting on the table, her arms stretched out to either side, around a member of the waiting staff. Atma had heard the woman since they’d entered the VIP room, she wasn’t exactly quiet. She was very tall, marginally more so than Sienna, and had a similar figure and build. She had a pretty face, but the first thing that stood out to Atma was the fact that she was wearing a Deponesian naval uniform, or rather, what had been one, once upon a time. The Deponesian Navy had largely been phased out in favor of the Air Force and Army, and with it, their white uniforms. She couldn’t have been much older than Atma and Sienna, if at all, so it was all too obvious it wasn’t hers, not even mentioning how clearly she disrespected it. She’d taken a Captain’s coat, and made it into something of a short sleeved jacket, the main giveaways being the blue lines running down the arms, and across her bicep where she’d had the coat shortened, alongside retaining the epaulets. She had her collar popped up, and had removed any badges and patches, save for a custom emblem on her shoulder, with a one-eyed wolf in red. The coat was clearly too small for her, she only bothered buttoning near her stomach, revealing a black undershirt, not unlike what Sienna wore. As Atma looked at her, he realized just how similar her fashion sense was. Shorts? Boots? Socks? All of it pretty similar, as if they were picked from the same wardrobe. Her messy hair was a near metallic color, gray, with a tint of blue, which she wore in a ponytail, and her eyes shone gold.

  Atma noticed the way her hair settled itself into a way that reminded him of a wolf’s ears on top of her head, in such a way, he wondered if they were real. He focused, leaning in ever so slightly to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him, when it finally became clear to him, she was a Shifter, a human with the power to change shape into an animal. It was mostly her eyes, recalling from his studies that Shifters had a distinct shine to their eyes that regular humans did not. He had never met one in person, but from what he’d remembered in his reading, they were vastly superior to the average human in terms of strength and ferocity, though he wasn’t too sure about the latter concerning the woman in front of them.

  “Oh you’ve got to be kidding…” Sienna groaned, placed her drink on the table, and slid it over to the woman, who caught it, and finally stopped talking, looking over to Sienna. “Hey, Kat.”

  “You know, if the drink is free, it doesn’t count as that drink you owe me.”

  “I’m counting it.”

  “I’m not.” The Shifter grinned in a way Atma could only describe as the way he might expect a vicious predator might look on seeing a defenseless rabbit. “So, I knew you had a thing for blondes, but didn’t expect you to have three of them in tow. Care to introduce me?”

  In an instant, Sienna found herself just as embarrassed as Atma had been, though she quickly smothered her embarrassment under a clear bitterness. “Up yours, Kat.”

  “Right back at you, Si-si.” The two flipped each other off, the Shifter grabbing the drink Sienna passed her, trying it, only to spit it out in disgust. “You could at least snag me something decent.”

  Siegfried seemed all too eager to listen in on whatever gossip he might hear. “I wouldn’t mind an introduction, Si-si.”

  Sienna looked at him with intent that was all too easy to read, she would have slugged him in the face if she was certain she could land a hit on him. She grit her teeth and forced herself through introducing them. “This would be my sister, Katrina Tempest.”

  Katrina waved, and whispered to that staff at either side of her, who left, waving a quick farewell. She finally sat up, and patted down the seats of the booth on either side of her. “Care to join me?” The group made themselves comfortable, Siegfried and Shade to one side of Katrina, Atma and Sienna to the other.

  “Would you happen to be the sister I’ve heard is a big fan of my work?”

  “Endymion Nights, right? Can’t say I’m your biggest fan, but I’ve read a bit. Gotta say, nice.”

  “That would be Alice, a different sister.” She turned to Katrina, halfway, muttering. “Long story, I’ll fill you in later.” She paused for a moment. “What’s up with Endymion Nights anyways?”

  “Ah, I’m glad you asked. While it’s hard to get a concise answer as to the true story with the Followers of the Goddess, there’s always variations, there’s always the same general core, a Mother Goddess who gave birth to modern humanity, fighting a great serpent. But there’s also a common story of the father of modern humanity, a human knight, or Chevalier in the local tongue. The local name for him is Endymion. My first volume was a romance written based on the tellings I heard in my travels, though my follow-ups were based on other stories from different parts of the world.”

  “I guess I can see the appeal?”

  “Oh, you have no clue, do you? Oi, old man, you got a copy on you?”

  “I always keep a signed copy on me.” Siegfried let the ‘old man’ comment slide, and tossed her a copy of the first volume.

  Katrina thumbed through, trying to find something specific, before snickering, and passing the book to Sienna, who read about half a page before slamming the book shut, passing it back to Siegfried, her face nearly as red as Atma’s. “This is the single filthiest thing I’ve ever read.” She rubbed her eyes and turned back to her sister. “What are you doing here anyways?”

  “Oh I was invited, if you must know, I’m meeting the mistress here to finalize a sale. I’m an art dealer after all.”

  “You’re an art thief.” Sienna quickly rebuked, as if knowing exactly what Katrina would say.

  “I’m an art acquisitions expert.” Katrina countered, without a moment of hesitation, never losing her smile all the while. “Picked up a few art pieces of the Goddess from Diamante last time I was traveling, which I knew the mistress would go nuts for.”

  “They’re really all about her here, aren’t they?” Atma glanced around the VIP room, noticing just how many people followed a similar pattern as to what he’d seen outside, light hair, and bright eyes, some closer to the mural outside, others particularly close, having whitish or silvery hair. He found it all at once fascinating and unsettling.

  “It’s like we were telling you before, Atma, this is how they worship. Falcidians consider themselves the most devout followers of the Goddess,” Shade gestured with a slight tilt to his head, not looking in the direction of the others in the VIP room. “Everything is to create something immaculate, an immaculate dish, a home, painting…” He paused for a moment, before pulling at his hair, then gesturing to his eyes. “An immaculate body. It’s why you’ll find so many people so eager to show off their bodies here. While my hair would be considered a desirable trait, my eyes are too dark. Sienna doesn’t have either going for her, so she’d be considered relatively undesirable off of those traits alone.”

  Katrina smugly gestured to herself. “I on the other hand-”

  “You are a Shifter,” Shade cut her off, “It’s a miracle they even let you in here.”

  Katrina leered at Shade, only breaking eye contact once the waiting staff brought food to the table. It was even more magnificent up close than Atma had seen from a distance. He would have considered his etiquette atrocious as he helped himself, though he was still the most well mannered in the room.

  “You know exactly what he means, Kat,” Sienna said, in the middle of chewing her food. “Mom and Dad didn’t exactly like coming here.”

  “I’m getting paid enough to not mind.” Katrina ripped into her food with an unnecessary messiness to how she ate.

  Shade was far slower to pick into his food, finishing his line of thought between bites. “The ideal is to be like the Goddess and her knight, the belief being that if there is a suitably perfect body for her, one in her image, then the Goddess will be among the people again, reincarnated through her children.” In a gesture only Atma would have recognized, Shade tapped his hand bearing the Moon Crest beneath his glove. “Though, I think I find the interpretation harder to believe all the time.”

  Atma’s thoughts turned to Lilia. It had been a while since he’d spoken to her, since she’d given him the Jupiter Crest. She’d had black hair, with heterochromatic eyes, silver and gold. If anyone was to be called a Goddess, she seemed more likely than the paintings he’d come across in his time in Falcidia. He wasn’t quite sure if it was funny, heretical, or ironic. ‘Probably a mix of the three,’ he thought, as he ate.

  It wasn’t all that long into their meal that a sudden silence filled the VIP room, Atma glancing over to the door, seeing a tall woman with white hair, and blue eyes, dressed in a nearly all black suit and tie, similar to what the bouncers outside had worn. She had a bronze complexion, alongside a sharp bearing to her, very clearly a business first type. She seemed to have a near perpetual scowl, though she softened a bit as she approached Siegfried and Katrina’s table. She was someone who took exceptional care of themself, though she was in her early fifties, she could have easily been mistaken for being ten or more years younger. “I thought I told you to write next time you were coming to town, it’s not as though you’re incapable of it.”

  Siegfried shrugged, and passed her one of his pocket books. “Believe me, I intended to, but other matters came up, and I ended up coming here unplanned.” He turned to the others. “Allow me to introduce Minerva Valentine, the owner of the Chevalier, and Matriarch of Falcidia.”

  Minerva dispassionately thumbed through the manuscript Siegfried had given her, before nodding approvingly, and handing the book to a staff member that had been tailing her. “Excellent work.”

  “I aim to please.”

  Minerva nodded, her vision completely passing the others over in favor of Katrina. “And, Miss Tempest, I believe you had something for me as well?”

  “I had some of your staff let my crew know to bring it in, should be here any- ah, there we are!” She pointed to a pair dressed similarly to how Atma had seen Sienna’s crew, carrying up a crate with the utmost care, prying it open to reveal a set of three meticulously cared for and preserved paintings. The small crowd of people in the room just about climbed over each other to try and catch a glimpse. Katrina forced her way past Sienna and Atma, paying them little to no mind at all, unveiling the first work, revealing an illustrious depiction of a woman near exactly as portrayed on the Chevalier, though her wearing of a kimono, more in line with Diamantan style was a very clear distinction from the Schneewittchen he’d seen before. It was a small distinction, but he couldn’t help but notice, compared to the depictions of Schneewittchen he found in the VIP room, this version was mirrored, hair depicted as flowing in the opposite direction, and noticeably shorter, though the red eyes, and hair like snow was for all intents and purposes, identical, and there was no mistaking the beauty on display.

  “Ah, very nice indeed,” Siegfried commented, “I believe they refer to her as Yuki-onna there.”

  “An older piece I acquired off of a former colleague. Cost him an arm and a leg.”

  “Don’t you mean it cost you-”

  “Oh I know what I said, blondie.” Katrina dismissed Atma as quickly as she could, brushing his comment under the rug. “The next two are much newer, I got them from a nobleman out there as a part of my payment for-” She laughed a bit. “Taking care of a former colleague. A real two birds, one stone situation.” There was just a bit of nervous laughter from the crowd. “In this case, said nobleman was the artist, so, consider this one directly from the source.” The next art piece was incredibly distinct for its style, portraying Yuki-onna with, rather than the paints Atma was more familiar with, more mineral based pigments, soot being used as the basis for the black linework, alongside powdered materials being used to create color. The work was, by and large, white, with small traces of reds and pinks, depicting a noticeably more playful and energetic depiction than anything Atma had seen that night, which generally presented a more stoic or serene figure. “I was thinking an easy 200,000 for each.”

  Katrina called it easy, but, considering Atma’s finances were exactly zero at the moment, he was starting to appreciate just how much money was being asked.

  Minerva eyed the still covered third art piece. “I’ll pay 350,000 for the first two. I want to see the third before I make a decision.”

  Katrina had a scowl to match Minerva’s, but did so, unveiling the third. She didn’t argue though, knowing Minerva wasn’t someone to be haggled with. To Atma and Shade, it immediately caught their eye, even if the rest of the crowd didn’t seem impressed. There was no doubt about it, everything was completely accurate, from the way her black hair seemed to glitter with stars, how her eyes shone two different colors, to the loving look upon her face. It was unquestionably a painting of Lilia. Nestled in one of the corners, the Uranus Crest, left as though it were a signature. While the crowd was clearly disappointed, Minerva didn’t seem to share the sentiment. For a moment, Atma felt her eyes on him, reading his fascination with the piece.

  “It’s not conventional, but I can't deny the passion and talent put into the work. That level of skill alone would secure it a solid value. 425,000 for all three.”

  “Done.” Katrina nodded to her crew members, who left as quickly as they came, Minerva’s staff moving to take the artwork. Katrina grumpily worked her way past Atma and Sienna, not quite the response Atma expected from someone nearly half a million credits richer.

  Minerva turned her gaze back to the group at the booth, particularly Atma and Shade. “I hadn’t thought much of you two at first, but I can tell, you two saw something in that last piece, something no one else saw. What it was, I’m not sure, but I’ve only ever seen that look in true believers.” She didn’t quite smile, but it was the closest Atma had seen her get since first seeing her. “I considered not buying that piece, but anything capable of inspiring that type of reaction has to be worth something. I do hope you all enjoy the show tonight.” With that, the Mistress of the Chevalier left the VIP room, her staff in close pursuit.

  There was silence for a moment, conversation in the VIP room slowly picking back up. Sienna smugly turned to her sister. “So does that mean you owe them 75,000 credits?”

  “It means you don’t owe me a drink anymore.”

  Sienna leaned back, putting her hands behind her head, a smile quickly growing back on her face. “Oh you’re no fun.”

  Atma turned to a nearby window, overlooking the main hall. “What kind of show was she talking about, by the way?” He scanned the stage area as a performer stepped up to the stage.

  “Well, sometimes its a singer, or dancer, but sometimes-”

  Atma suddenly collapsed, having fainted, his face as red as a tomato.

  Sienna sat him upright, as the others at the table tried and failed to hold back laughter. “Sometimes you see exactly why this is the sleaziest place in town.”