Introductions

The grand dining hall was just as Eren would have expected it to be — quaint.

The room was adorned with towering marble columns at its four corners.

Paintings hung from the walls depicting ancient battles, war heroes and politicians.

One painting of a beautiful woman, half-fish, half-person, sitting on a beach floor, swallowed one quarter of the wall.

A vaulted ceiling that echoed every sound in the room completed the look.

All around them was white, aseptic alabaster.

Eren tried to not be awed, but failed.

The finery made the professor’s house seem like a kennel in comparison.

He scanned the room filled with faces he knew too well.

Tiana, the Dennin twins, Drake, Daniel, Gaine, Kathlyn, Sithel.

They were all seated around the dining table which was an enormous circle of burnished oak, covered in intricate carvings.

Oddly, Samantha Dennin seemed to be addressing them.

Eren’s brows furrowed and he slid into the empty chair next to Sithel.

Samantha acknowledged Ere