"What the...?"
The look on Kate's face was a combination of disgust, disbelief and confusion, with an ever-present lurking hint of amusement.
"Max tried to sign me up for it," Zach explained.
"Max tried to..." Kate broke in to inevitable giggles as amusement won over. "Okay, not surprised. What is this about?"
Zach explained how he'd been 'invited' to a 'dinner party' at Karnaj Mansion that had turned out to be some kind of evangelical miracle weight-gain conference hosted by a Gurahl. "Max and Daedalus have both been... brainwashed, or something."
"It says here that it's a four-night event," Kate examined the flip side of the flier. "Tonight they're... having a 'Reach The Beast' inner-animal-finding around a campfire...Oooh! They're having a biting competition! I want to go!"
"No you don't," Zach promised. "I was hoping you'd see if you could find any leads on this product or this Gurahl. He gave me a sample, I'm going to see what my folks in the lab can make of it, then see if Mr None will help see what the spirits are saying about it."
"They gave you a sample? Did you try it?" Kate asked enthusiastically. Zach laughed.
"Seriously, Kate? 'Beast Tank'? I'm quite happily in tune with my inner beast, thank you. Even if I wasn't... I saw what it did to Max and Daedalus."
"I am totally going to Karnaj Mansion first!"
The Karnaj estate was situated on a clifftop overlooking the ocean. Expansive grounds provided ample privacy to the magnificent family home of the Karnaj line. The mansion was foreboding Gothic affair, a deliberate effect of the Shadow Lords who had come before to remind guests that this home belonged to someone richer and more powerful than you. The castle-like abode included an expansive showcase garage for Max's cherished automobile collection, and lots of parking.
Kate usually took Theodorus around to the side of the mansion to park, serving the dual purposes of not infringing on the parking and turning space of Max's friends, and more importantly, sheltering her beloved truck in the not-unlikely scenario that Max's mansion was suddenly besieged. Again.
Alongside the driveway was a magnificent garden sheltered by trees. A path ran parallel to the drive to the far end of the garden at the edge of the mansion where a small stone bench and table set overlooked the grounds, the mansion and the ocean.
It was at this stone table that Viktor Karnaj would sit and play chess. Viktor, a calculating strategist with a hunger for power only a Shadow Lord could know, was as excellent a chess player as New York had ever seen. It was one of the many things he excelled at to little fame, eclipsed by his other more noteworthy -and notorious- achievements. He would play against himself when he could not find a worthy opponent, which was fairly often.
He resolved scenarios that his contemporaries understood to be 'unsolvable' - solutions that would not be bought to light until decades after his death when computer simulations (re-)discovered them.
Viktor spent many years in his garden playing chess.
It didn't matter that Kate had failed to contain her amazed amusement at Max's condition. The wolf was not in an overly perceptive frame of mind.
"Impressive, isn't it!" He gravelled.
"Uh, yeah," Kate replied. She was certainly impressed.
Viktor's Table had never seen a chessboard, or chess pieces. Nevertheless, it knew how to play chess as few did.
"Have you been able to decide your next move, since we last met?" Viktor's Table asked.
"I have given it some thought, yes," Theodorus replied.
Neither the truck nor the table needed a physical visual representation of the game to play with each other. Theodorus did need time between visits to carefully consider his moves. The table did not require as much time.
"Bg7"
"Well played, Theodorus," the table commended. "I shall win in fifty-one moves."
"We will see," Theodorus replied.
When Kate returned to Theodorus, she dropped her face in to her arms and laughed in great heaving sobs until she couldn't breathe.
"That was awesome," She reported as she regained her composure. "Now we're going to the Brew'ry." Kate often spoke to Theodorus, but seldom expected an answer. She considered it a simple courtesy to inform him where he was being driven. "I wonder if that stuff had the same effect on Daedalus?"