Marcus held the meeting in a location that was not his office.
A rented room three blocks from the Hunter's Association, chosen because it had no System-connected infrastructure, no dungeon proximity, and had been paid for in cash by a third party whose connection to Marcus was not documentable.
Zeph noted all of this on arrival and filed it as Marcus operating at a level of operational security he had not previously demonstrated, which meant Marcus considered this meeting to carry a specific category of risk.
Two people were already in the room when Zeph and CV arrived.
The first was a woman in her mid-forties with the specific quality of someone who spent most of their time reading rather than moving—not physically unimpressive, simply organized around a different kind of attention. She had a map on the table in front of her that covered more surface area than the table was designed to accommodate.
