As the group stood outside, for the first time in a long time, they were faced with a familiar figure. As the female figure stepped out of the shadow, she took a seat. She smiled at the group and motioned them towards the four empty chairs that surrounded the table.

Vincent quickly ran up to the table and happily exclaimed, “Yo, Livia!”

He almost knocked over his chair in excitement, but that didn’t really bother him.

“Well this is a little unexpected,” Zander commented, walking up to the table and taking a seat.

“Wait,” Vincent started to say, “you didn’t know that she would be here?”

Zander continued to stare at her. “I had my suspicions,” he finally answered. “I did suspect that you, Livia,” he motioned at her, “were Prince, but it's still a bit of a shock to be so right.”

Eliot finally joined the table and took a seat. He looked up at Zander and stated, “Wow, Zander, you really are something.”

Livia laughed and commented, “I should’ve known that you would have sussed me out. After all, if you’re smart enough to have gained all the wealth and power you did in a month, then figuring out my identity must’ve been a cakewalk.”

“Oh please, although your flattery is incredibly correct, you don’t need to be so nice,” Zander slyly responded. “But anyways, I think it’s about time to get this meeting underway.”

“Ah, yes,” Livia replied, “but first, I think we should give some more proper introductions. I, as I have stated, go by the name Prince, but my real name is Livia. I can imagine you now understand why I chose to use an alias.”

“Not at all,” Vincent honestly answered.

Zander sighed and shook his head. “It’s because of her job.”

“Her job?”

“Yes, Vince, she is a worker here, and because of that, most people that are associated with the casino would know her name.”

“Oh, I see,” Vincent stated.

“Now,” Zander started to ask, turning his attention back towards Livia, “what’s your stake in this? Why are you, of all people, so interested in Lucretia’s downfall?”

“Zander,” Eliot said, his voice like that of a disappointed mother.

“What? I’m not being mean—I like her as much as the rest of you—but it seems a bit weird that a random worker is going to help with this extremely dangerous endeavor.”

“It’s quite alright,” Livia smiled, “I suppose I should've led with that.” She then took a deep breath and gripped her left arm, pulling up the sleeve. On her skin was a familiar-looking L design, one that bore a striking resemblance to the symbol on every gold coin in the casino.

Livia took a deep breath and looked back up at everyone. Vincent shot both Zander and Eliot a confused look. Eliot returned his look with the same expression, but Zander, on the other hand, looked even more perplexed.

“Ok?” Vincent said. “It’s a pretty weird tattoo, but I guess you work here, so it isn’t that weird.”

“Vince,” Zander replied, still staring at the tattoo, “workers don’t get tattoos of that symbol.” He then looked back at Vincent. “The only things allowed to have that symbol are the things closest to Lucretia...like her money.” He then looked back at Livia and asked, “Why do you have that symbol on your arm?”

Livia glanced back and forth at Vincent and Zander before finally settling her eyes on Zander. With another deep breath, she replied, “Because I’m Lucretia’s sister.”

A thick silence hung in the air. It took a moment for that statement to even process within the minds of most of the people there. Zander was the first to understand it and Vincent was the last. Regardless of how long it took anyone, each person shared the same horrified expression.

“Sister?!” Zander gasped. “I don’t believe it.”

“Yeah, same here,” Vincent commented. “You two look nothing alike,” he pointed out.

“That’s not…” Zander trailed off, trying to correct him.

Eliot then finally spoke up. “No offense, but I agree with Vince,” he stated. “How could you two be family if you don’t look anything alike? Unless your parents got divorced and remarried, which if that’s the case, I’m sorry to hear. But in that case, you would be step-sisters or half-sisters, so not really—”

“Eliot,” Zander cut him off, “we get it.”

Eliot closed his mouth and ceased his rambling. Zander then looked at Livia and said, “You want to explain yourself?”

Livia half-smiled and replied, “Obviously there is nothing about us that is similar on the outside...but it’s what’s on the inside that relates us.”

She then nodded to herself, in a way that looked like she was telling herself that whatever she was about to share was alright to do so. “Her and I were taken by the same horrible people. This group kidnapped young people and…” she swallowed, “...rented them out to the highest bidder for a night.”

“Oh my god,” Eliot gasped.

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“I’m originally from America, but my family and I went on vacation here when I was about twelve or so. I wandered off without my parents realizing, and before I knew it, I was escorted to a strange basement by these random strangers, never to see my family again.”

Eliot stood up and walked over to her. He put one hand on her shoulder and softly asked, “Are you alright?”

Still standing straight, Livia nodded her head, and said, “Yes.” Eliot then sat back down.

Livia took another deep breath and continued her thought. “For years I lived a life of abuse, manipulation, and being used as a toy. What made it even remotely bearable was a bond I formed with another girl, a little older than me, named Lucretia. She would tell me funny stories, she would stand up for me, and she would always say the right things in order for me to feel at ease. Together, we endured that hell.”

She then rubbed her tattoo. “Then one day, after years of planning, she managed to outwit all of those demons and she single-handedly dismantled their entire operation from the inside.” She then looked at Zander. “We learned that money was the one thing that took away our freedom—not political power, not legal doctrines, not strength, but money. Lucretia knew that and managed to stow away and steal so much money that she turned all the crooked officers that protected those human trafficking scumbags against them.”

Vincent finally spoke up. “Damn,” he said, “that’s just fucked up.” He was clenching his fist and gritting his teeth. “I can’t stand the fact that shit like that happens.”

“I agree,” Zander added. He then looked at Livia and said, “I’m sorry that all of that happened to you. Now, how does that lead you two to owning and operating a casino that does stuff even worse than that?”

Eliot shot him a dirty look and Vincent looked at him with confusion and interest in his eyes. Livia put her hand up and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” she responded. “The moment we earned our freedom, we vowed to stay together, as sisters, and help ensure that no one else has to experience what we did. As a sign of our resolve, we got matching tattoos of the one nice thing that we shared in common: the first letter of our name. From there, we understood that money reigned supreme. Lucretia took that notion extremely seriously, earning money faster than anyone could imagine. We slowly tried building refuges for victims of trafficking, but those in political power—who had much more money and power—continuously shut us down and sometimes found roundabout ways to throw us in prison. I think Lucretia became more and more infuriated, realizing that we still didn’t have nearly enough to fight off those who were corrupted. And so, she started doing whatever it took, and I mean whatever it took, in order to get us ahead of them...and I followed my older sister, believing in her.”

Zander rubbed his chin and responded, “So, she lost sight of her original end goal, and became only focused on the means?”

“It seems that way, looking back,” Livia agreed. “She’s not like the sister I knew, anymore. The world around her caused her to fall down such a dark path; first out of necessity, and then out of habit. I think she fell for so long that she forgot that she was falling.

She then took another deep breath. “Well, anyways, one thing led to another, and we managed to buy a small casino in a back-alley part of Cairo. We built it up and slowly started expanding it. Unfortunately, like everything we tried to do, we were met with laws and politicians. This time, however, the man who approached us was different from the rest. He was a young and up-and-coming political man—and he didn’t immediately try to tear us down. He offered us a deal, and one that Lucretia took without hesitation. He offered us protection as long as we did two things: give him a place to do his underground business and support him in his political endeavors.”

Livia then looked at Eliot, and then at the rest of the group, especially Vincent. “I’m sure you’ve guessed who this man was and still is,” she somberly stated. “Yes, that man was President Ahmed Akins. He supports the casino by hiding it from any prying eyes, and my sister supports his political endeavors. She is essentially his Kingmaker.”

Vincent leaned back in his chair, astonished by the revelations. His brain could barely keep up with all the information he was receiving. There were so many things that he wanted to ask, but his mouth couldn’t get any words from his brain—it was still busy processing everything.

While Vincent was still wrapped up in his own mind, Zander spoke up, saying, “So that leads us back to where we are.” He looked directly at Livia as he said that.

Livia put her hands on the table and stood up. “I guess it does,” she agreed. “So why don’t we—

But before Livia could say anything else, Vincent, finally settling things down in his head, jumped in and asked, “What the hell is Shades?”

Everyone just looked at him.

“What?” he responded to the awkward stares.

Livia smiled and replied, “Actually, that’s a perfect place to start.” She then looked down for a second, took a long, drawn-out breath, and continued. “As I’ve said, my sister has become someone I can’t even recognize. For the past year or so, I’ve felt so isolated. The only person I ever trusted and loved was seemingly gone.”

She began to hug herself and scratch at her arms. “I would trap myself in my room to avoid her when possible. I felt so alone in that room. So afraid. I just wanted the comfort of another person—anyone—and eventually, I became desperate enough to find that in my shadow. I would talk to my shadow every day, and then one day, it talked back to me.”

When she said that, her shadow started to quiver and expand. A piece of it split apart and began to glide across the ground, ending on top of the table. It was amorphous in shape, but slowly began to take a more humanoid form, although it was only 2 feet long, or so.

“This is Shades,” Livia explained. “This Apparition came to me about a week before you all showed up at the Setting Sun. He can change shape and fit into the tiniest spaces. However, he cannot stand up, much like a shadow, and can only move by gliding across surfaces.”

“That’s so cool,” Vincent remarked.

“He really is,” Livia agreed. “And the most interesting part is that he can’t directly talk, but can repeat any words that he hears from someone else, even matching their voice, perfectly.”

“Woah…”

Livia smiled. “I’ve been able to use this ability of Shades to finally get some information on the world outside of my room and outside of this casino.”

Zander raised a finger and replied, “The amount of information you must’ve learned in that short amount of time must’ve been incredible.”

“Exactly,” Livia concurred, “and the amount of stuff I know about the people here is mind-blowing. But anyways, I used this new power to learn about my sister and if she was still inside that hollow body that resembles her. I tried to find some sort of semblance of hope, but I found none.”

She smiled as she let out a small laugh, “And then I ran into all of you and something about you all gave me courage. I can’t really explain it, but something about the way you all seemed to have the ability to make an impact wherever you went gave me the tiniest sliver of hope. I used Shades to spy on you, which I’m sorry about, and I decided that if there was ever a time to take down Lucretia, it was now.”

“Which brings us to the point of the meeting,” Zander stated, standing up.

“Wait,” Vincent started to ask, “all that talking and you’re telling me that we haven’t even started the meeting?! Ohhhhh my god, I can’t handle any more words.” Vincent then sank into his chair with a frown.

“Never change,” Zander sighed with a smile. “Well, Livia, why don’t we talk about our plans?”

Livia stood up. “Yeah, let’s talk about stopping my sister.”

“And putting an end to this place,” Zander added.