I was nobody, and then became not the weakest of a тайнознатец (mystery-lore expert) with decent chances of a swift breakthrough into an aspirant. And everything would be fine, but even moving to the next rank won’t make me the most toothy fish in the pond—because at this level, significance starts to hinge not so much on personal power, but on who’s standing behind your back. I’ll have to work hard to earn the right to decide who to do business with—and who to point out the threshold. For now, all that’s left is to knock the best possible terms out of the possible, which isn’t easy when business partners fancy themselves masters of the situation. And all the more so—when they really are!