The waiting room on the ground floor of the office palace was furnished with fifty plain oak benches.
On the white plastered wall hung a black enameled sign with white block letters. PLEASE TAKE A NUMBER AND WAIT FOR YOUR TICKET TO BE CALLED.
Beneath the sign sat a red clockwork ticket dispenser mounted on a cast-iron stone stand.
Emperor Castellan of Valoria sat on the end of a wooden bench. He grabbed a strip of cheap newsprint stamped with a red ’001’.
His royal mantle of white ermine trailed over the linoleum floor.
His golden crown, heavy with uncut sapphires, sat slightly crooked on his brow.
Beside him sat King Al-Mansur of the Southern Sultanates. He held ticket ’002’ between two trembling, ring-bedecked fingers.
Across the aisle, Warlord Vrax of the Iron Steppes sat stiffly on a bench designed for a man half his width, clutching ticket ’003’.
