Chapter 115 - Chapter 115. The Calculus of Control...

The office existed in that peculiar stratum where architecture became ideology. Seventy stories above Qara City's administrative district, Riya Descartes' sanctum occupied the entire northern wing of the Descartes Guild tower—a space designed not for human comfort but for the psychological subjugation of anyone who entered it. The walls were polished obsidian, absorbing light rather than reflecting it, creating the impression that the room existed in a pocket dimension slightly removed from normal reality. The furniture—all sharp angles and cold metals—seemed to have been selected by someone who understood that every object in a room of power was either a weapon or a shield.