“Topher?” she asked again. She checked the clipboard. “Toph—”
“Yes?”
Her eyes found him and she smiled.
“Well, there you are! We’re all ready for your now.”
By definition, an Athenaeum is a sacred building that serves as a place of learning. Centuries ago, great men used them to hold forth on complex issues of deep philosophical import. They strolled from column to column, gracing their students’ ears with the logic and reason that established the very foundation of western knowledge and culture. Here, truth trumped blind faith, Socrates developed his method, and The Republic and The Five Dialogues were born. They were beautiful and open and proud—fortresses of reason, citadels of enlightenment.
The Athenaeum into which Zorn pushed Topher was a filthy warehouse littered with broken fu
