“Let's make this easy.” Hugh said and let out a sigh of relief that he was inching closer to making an appointment. “I can come in at twelve thirty tomorrow. Is that good?” Hugh was expecting the receptionist to tell him that this time had already been booked within the last fifteen seconds.

“Excellent. I'll let Masha know that you are coming. Please find our address on the website. Can you also provide me with your name and phone number, just in case any changes happen between now and tomorrow?”

Hugh gave his full name and number.

“Thank you Hugh.” The lumberjack said. “See you tomorrow.”

“Hold on one second,” It had occurred that Hugh that he hadn't gotten the receptionist's name. “I'm sorry, but what's your name?”

The grunts and growls reverberated through the phone. “The name's Timmy.”

“Well, nice to meet you Timmy.” Hugh tried to sound cordial to make up for his earlier testiness. “I look forward to meeting—”

“Yeah, yeah. See you tomorrow.”

That was it. Timmy hung up the phone and left Hugh alone on the other end of the line.

Hugh tossed his phone to the side and rubbed his hands over his temples and eyes. He pulled himself from the sofa and moved to the balcony, the fresh air would help clear the tension behind his eyes that had built during the conversation with Timmy. Hugh hoped that the lumberjack was a bit more straightforward in person, if not, then Hugh wasn't sure he would have the tolerance to make it past Office M’s reception desk.

Hugh rested his elbows on the balcony's railing and inspected the courtyard below. People were hurrying back from work with shopping bags of food, couples were rushing out for an evening meal, pet owners walked their dogs, and other were just out for a stroll. The playground had been vacated, and its surrounding fence had been locked.

All of this was normal for life within the fortress, but Hugh saw an odd sight that caused him to pause and ponder.

The black-haired girl was still at work in the flowerbed.

She was still digging and cleaning, digging and cleaning, digging and cleaning.

Millions went up and millions went down. Some of them ventured at a slow pace and others in a rush. They walked, bumped, pushed, and, on the rare occasion, even excused themselves. Many ran to catch closing doors but then were forced to wait. Seats were occupied and seats were given up. Everyone traveled together in the metro.

Hugh exited the metro station and opened the map on his phone. A red line highlighted the route to Office M. He tried not to get his hopes up about Masha. Perhaps his visit would be a waste of time and she would only offer him a palm reading and cryptically whisper to him, amidst eye burning incense, that he would one day become rich, famous, and even the president.

Hugh shook these doubts from his mind, like how one would shake dust from an old carpet over a balcony. He needed to be optimistic and focus on getting to Masha's office.

Hugh followed the map and was led to the business region of the city. As Hugh walked along the path laid out by the map, shadows crept in around him and the sky disappeared. Tall towers of fifty floors high surrounded him on all sides. Hugh found their height to be impressive and their design equally so. One was a double helix of what looked like some titan's DNA. Another looked like the lighter a titan would use to ignite a gigantic cigar. A third tower gave the impression that a titan's tiny toddler had unevenly stacked building blocks one atop another, and that this uneven structure was on the verge of toppling over.

The address of Office M brought Hugh to the heart of this artificial tower forest, dedicated to the life of some titan clan, and to the most awe-inspiring one in the city. It wasn't the tallest of buildings, but its spherical shape and orange glow reproduced the glory of the sun on an autumn day.

Hugh had to double check the address to make sure that he was at the right place. He could not imagine a mystic having the financial means to rent space in such a building, let alone in this neighborhood. Honestly, he expected to Masha's office to be located down a dingy alley or in a desolate apartment. But, after double checking the app and website, Office M was indeed inside the replica of the sun. Hugh even gave Office M a ring on his mobile. In all his huff and gruff Timmy confirmed Office M to be in the tower standing before Hugh.

As soon as Hugh stepped through the doors, security guards swarmed him. They patted him down, waved metal detecting rods around him from head to toe, and then shoved him through yet another metal detector. Satisfied that Hugh posed no threat, they then funneled him to an information desk where he had to show his identification and state his business in the tower.

If Hugh hadn't known that this was an information desk then he would have mistaken the two girls sitting there to be executives. Their blazers looked to cost more than his entire wardrobe combined, their neat and tidy hairstyle could have come from a fashion magazine, and their faces wore a layer of polite elitism that Hugh had seen plastered on self-assured top managers.

Hugh had anticipated that they would laugh at him for visiting a mystic in a tower clearly designer for largescale international businesses. To Hugh's amazement neither of them cracked a smile nor exhibited a speculative look when he stated that he had an appointment at Office M. They unemotionally slid a visitor's pass across the desk, pointed to the elevator, and instructed him to go to the 27th floor.

Hugh came a row of elevators, located the one that would go up to the 27th floor and found it utterly out of place in this contemporary tower.

It would have been more at home in a low budget apartment complex from fifty years prior.

The walls were covered in splintered imitation oak wood, the mirrors were full of scratches and cast not a hint of a reflection. The buttons were a tobacco stained yellow and the numbers themselves had faded through overuse. When Hugh had come into the elevator, the floor creaked and sagged under his weight.

Hugh pushed the button with the faded outline of the number twenty-seven.

He anticipated a cacophony of labored creaks and grinds to come from rusted cogs and worn-out cables right before the elevator malfunctioned and plummeted to the basement. Contrary to his expectation, the elevator greeted him with a muffled hum of well-oiled sliding doors and a soundless ascent that deceived Hugh into thinking that the elevator had broken mid-ascent and was not moving at all. Only a faint flicker of lights behind the stained buttons told Hugh that he was climbing to his destination.

Hugh arrived to the 27th floor and the doors slid open just as silently as they had closed, but the volume of what stood before Hugh rang louder than the antiquity of the elevator.

Exiting the elevator, Hugh stepped into what appeared to be a wing of a museum.

The room was large and could have been an office in and of itself. All along the walls were display cases housing shelves of different historical objects and cultural pieces. Smaller display cases dotted the center of the room and gave a top-down view of the exhibited pieces.

Hugh noticed the only door in the room all the way to his right. He ignored it and forked left so that he could peruse what he guessed was Office M's collection. He slowly walked around the cases with quiet footsteps, unconsciously trying to reduce his noise as if he were in a real museum, daring not to disturb the other patrons of the arts.

The display cases caught Hugh's eyes first. They were bright silver, with gold trimming, and were engraved with circular patterns. It was as if the cases were historical, or culturally important, pieces themselves. Hugh was not sure if the cases distracted from the objects on display or added to the atmosphere of the room.