The Red-bearded Dwarf was not on tonight's banquet invitation list; he was indeed a manager of the Valerian Commerce Association, but that alone was not enough to earn him a seat at the Wizard Summit's evening feast.
At this time, he should have been with his uncle who ran the Giancardi Bank, Gos Velen Branch, waiting in anxious unease for the Warlocks' conference result to be announced.
And waiting for that result, like a stone smashing into the surface of water, would send waves rippling through every corner of the financial markets.
The only road open to them was to accept the upheaval and struggle to survive.
It was only his ties with Airetusa, and his ties with Lann, that made Shilton seem far more at ease than his banker uncle.
Yet at this hour, with the moon already high, night deep, and the banquet itself having faded from its peak of revelry into calm, Lann still ran into Shilton in the academy.
