I had to wear exactly what Paul had specified.I arrived at the address Paul had given me bu taxi, arriving exactly atnine a.m. I found the key where... Paul had said it would be. I let myself inand found the house empty, obviously waiting for new tenants. I walkedthrough to the kitchen. A barstool was set in the exact center of the room. Onthe counter I found a blindfold and a pair of leather cuffs withself-locking rings sewn into each cuff.I sat down on the barstool and tied the blindfold. I spent the next six years trying to pick up the pieces and move on, but being lied to completely by someone I cared about, finding out about that from her jealous husband with a baseball bat one evening in the parking lot threatening to rearrange my face or anywhere else he would decide to smack me, did a lot of emotional damage to me. In the last six years, I had tried to get back on the horse that threw me a few times, but I couldn’t trust anyone. Every relationship would fall apart, one. The rich green land rolled gently down to the great wide curves of the Arven River in its slow flow to the Maier Pass, Port Paviat and the sea. Glittering in the distance, set apart from the sprawling mass of the town, was Palladia Arventa: an architectural miracle of glass, held together by the most delicate web of structures. Between the town, the palace, the river and themselves an untidy rush of men was coming to meet them. Without the time to form a considered plan of action, without the. I never expected my life to work out this way, but I'm not complaining." Me either, Jon. Me either."They had the house pretty well organized by the time they went back to work on Tuesday. They'd be a long time finishing the project, but most things had found a place and they were starting to get settled in.There was some paperwork to do in the front office, and they were busy with it when Jim Bricklin walked in. "Got some more news," he announced."Jim, I hate to say it," Jon said, "But every.