Behind the tinted windows of a strip-mall insurance office in Tucson, Arizona, there is a portal. On the other side: Sunset Dominion — a retirement facility for the formerly fearsome.
The residents have conquered nations, commanded armies, and bent reality to their will. Now they argue over thermostat settings, stage elaborate Cold Wars over dining-hall condiments, and attend bingo on Tuesdays whether they like it or not. Managing all of them is Linda Mei, administrator — armed with a clipboard, an unshakeable calm, and paperwork in triplicate for every conceivable catastrophe.
When Mordechai Grimm arrives — the Dark Emperor, forty-year tyrant, Omega-Seven threat level, recently deposed by a sixteen-year-old with a prophecy sword — Linda is prepared. Mordechai is not.
He expected chains. He expected fear. He expected, at minimum, walls that were not beige.
What he gets is a west-facing window, a firm mattress, and an administrator who has never once been impressed by anyone — and has no intention of starting now.
