Chapter 19: A Favor

- VANESSA -

I've made Ivan angry again. He's dragging me by the arm and grinning like a maniac.

This so-called palace of theirs is more like a lodge. A great, stone lodge with giant slabs of stone making up the interior as well as the exterior. It's fascinating. Everything has been done on a giant scale, and the interior halls curve and slope and wind like they're following the natural shape of the mountain. 

If the circumstances were different, I'd make a joke about how this is the most overtly masculine place I've ever been. All I can picture is bare-chested men grunting incoherently and beating their chests, trying to prove who is the strongest by dragging these stones around and stacking them up.

Ivan has been talking throughout the duration of our walk, but I've missed what he's said. The voices around him are so loud, and trying to memorize the number of turns we take has sufficiently distracted me.

"Here we are."