While Nero held Khione in his arms in that quiet inn room, letting the warmth of their connection push back the shadows of the day, a very different kind of meeting was taking place somewhere far removed from the peaceful outer city.
The location was unknown. Unmarked on any map. Unreachable by any normal means.
It was a place shrouded in absolute darkness. Not the gentle darkness of night, but a thick, living blackness that seemed to breathe, to watch, to hunger. The only sources of light were a few scattered candles placed along a long, massive table. Their flames did not burn orange or yellow. They burned a sickly, ghostly green, casting pale, shifting shadows that danced like restless spirits against the unseen walls.
