<div class="floatleft">(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8fsFlYO7hqE/T0KjJpeOG8I/AAAAAAAAAQQ/pWQ2y9JQx6Y/s1600/Sharn.jpg)</div><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 36pt;">S</span><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;">HARN</span></strong>, City of Towers, Metropolis of Breland, Portal to Xen'drik, simultaneously a magical wonder and a wretched hive of scum and villainy.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://cdn1.gelbooru.com//images/771/1f8b3f71a0d974636a39c8f894b8f134.jpeg?914351)</div>In upper Menthis Plateau, the hub of the entertainment industry and ethnic mixing pot, stands the Sharn Opera House, one of several theaters of the quarter.  Late in the evening, after the crowds have left the show to find their homes or nearby late-night cafes hoping to cater to the patrons, few stragglers stir in the theater.  The crew members and custodians dismissed early, an elf waits in a plush dressing room.  Elvinor Elorrenthi d'Phiarlan, baroness and matriarch of the house, sat at a table admiring the bouquets of flowers left from the performance while enjoying a glass of wine, a standard of the better-furnished dressing rooms.<br/><br/>She waited on her first meeting with a new agent.  A member of the family had recently manifested a mark, and that always showed promise, and a resource that must be invested.  Zia had been told to meet her contact here, though specifically naming Baroness Elvinor was left out of the message, of course.  Her companion waited unobtrusively behind a dressing screen on the side of the room, dresses and costumes still strewn about and hanging from the wood and embroidered silk panels.