15th Floor, Hollyhatch Village, the Grand Meeting Room.
Click! Click! Click!
With dark expressions, members of the Grinding Grief entered the meeting room, shut off the curtains, and locked the windows.
They then brought candles to the round meeting table, placing about eight of them in a circle at the middle of the table.
"Whoo…"
One of them scratched a matchstick across the striking surface of the matchbox and lit each candle.
With that, they left.
A moment later, a group of players entered the room—dark expressions on all their faces—and all of them sat down on the right side of the round table.
Another moment later, another group arrived, and they sat down on the left side of the table.
There happened to be enough seats for everyone, and because of the eight candles, it wasn't that dark either.
"Thank you for coming."
At that moment, the guild master of the Grinding Grief, Derrick Reece, spoke.
