Time rewound to ten minutes before, deep in the hallway of the first-floor lobby.
"Fisher, he's here, inside the washroom."
In Fisher's vision, the man with a Mediterranean haircut, Caleb Wuz, suddenly appeared at the entrance to the men's washroom, pointing towards the room he was leaning against, and warned Fisher in this manner.
Fisher glanced at him but didn't respond because he knew that the Caleb Wuz before him was just an illusion; the real Caleb Wuz had long perished along with the Dragon Court in the river of history.
He disregarded the other and pushed open the door of the washroom, only to see Balzac with his head down over the sink. In Fisher's eyes, there seemed to be a huge flesh-monster on the frail body of the scholar, with a proboscis like that of a mosquito emerging from the creature's head, ceaselessly draining his brain matter.
