The grand obsidian doors of The Twilight Casino ground shut with a heavy, final THUD that echoed through the lobby.
Silence descended on the Mezzanine.
It was over. The Whales were gone.
Lord Valerius had stumbled out into the night, singing a slurred ballad about "Blueberry Goddesses" and clutching a receipt for 6,500 Gold in losses. Commander Thorne had marched out with his dented breastplate and his pride in tatters, muttering about "heretical hugging techniques."
The crowd of spectral waitresses and skeleton maids had already evaporated. The Bone-Maids had politely disassembled themselves into neat piles of bones in the janitor's closet. The Void Bunnies had simply ceased to exist, dissolving back into the violet ether to save mana. The Orc Matrons had lumbered off to the mess hall for protein shakes.
Reed stood alone in the center of the Foyer. He held the heavy obsidian ledger in one hand and Valerius's signed draft in the other.
He looked at the bottom line.
