In the Hour of Joyful Day, in a garden in the House of Grey Abandon in the city of Candle on the silver satellite cluster of Anthem, the world was set for a stage.
A woman in a red dress, blonde hair, dark roots, lifetimes of ambition and a rosy laugh occupied a table on one of the famous Bridge-Balconies across from a native circle-shaped Anthemian, both playing a round of Let's Have You with a mismatch of chess pieces.
"Seven-Layer Check," she said.
Behind her, a blue box with handsome white windows sat under a bough of square grapes.
