<hr/><div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d1/Mrlee.png)</div><br/><strong>Date:</strong>May 3rd, 1876<br/><strong>Time of Day:</strong>Afternoon, closer to evening<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Den of Eastern Delights<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Open, Jia Li, Li-Li,<br/><hr/>Lee kept to his task, working the last of the opium and ghostrock into a fine, cinnamon colored powder.  His hands were steady and even, and by the time he’d finished his concoction, he’d made less than a spoonful of the substance.     He examined the interior of the mortar bowl, seeming satisfied, then stepped towards Lilah.  His eyes noted the tension in her, and for a moment she could sense a sinister approval of her fight or flight instinct.  He paused, the small bowl in hand, and finally made a small motion with his hands, suggesting that she step to the side.<br/><br/>Behind her – she’d all but been leaning up against it – was a dark curtain that covered one wall.  He pulled it back, revealing an adobe wall.  The rest of the building was made of the same redwoods most of Gomorra had been constructed of, but Lee’s Den of Eastern Delights had this single wall of denser stuff.  Cut into the wall were three openings, openings that were barred closed, cages with thick steel bars that rose to waist height.  Things moved in the shadows of those cages, and propped in a fourth cutout was another, smaller cage, this one with  thinner steel wire, and two dozen mice running around inside the cage.  Lee simply upended the mortar over the top of the mice’s cage, letting the brown dust settle onto the fur of the mice.  There was a  manic squeaking, and he pulled the curtain closed.<br/><br/>In the shadowed cages below, the squeaking made something shift, and move.  A centipede scuttled across the bars – but it was larger than any centipede Lilah had ever seen.  It was as thick around as Lilah’s arm, and nearly twice as long, a hundred legs clattering across the steel bars as it climbed the interior of its cage.<br/><br/>“An astute observation,” said Lee.  He noticed the black handkerchief, a brief sidelong glance, but kept his eyes to the cage of mice.  The rodents had begun to attack one another, biting and clawing the other mice, tearing one another apart with tiny claws and sharp teeth.  “And I trust you have no interest in wasting his time.  Very well.  I will contact someone on his crew, and the two of you can work out arrangements for this mutually beneficial arrangement.”<br/><br/>