[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/IbjO9Jp.png[/img][/center]

[center][i]“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” 
– St. Francis of Assisi [/i][/center]


[center][i][b]CESARE AND HIS ASSOCIATES REQUEST THE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE
FOR A LUNCHEON AND CONFERENCE
MONDAY, THE ELEVENTH OF JANUARY AT ONE O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON
VIVIANO AND SONS FUNERAL HOME, THE HILL, SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI
[/b]

Enclosed please find one first-class air ticket to Lambert International Airport and $1000 cash for incidental or alternative travel expenses.

Accommodations will be provided.[/i][/center]


The invitation, keeping in line with its bizarrely formal wording, is carefully embossed on expensive paper and enclosed inside a lilac-scented envelope. It arrived in no less strange of a fashion- rather than being found in your mailbox, perplexed but well-paid couriers followed careful instructions to put the invitation in some place where you would be sure to find it. In the branches of a tree, under the wrapper of a fresh loaf of bread at the grocery store, under your plate at your favorite restaurants- bizarre, strange places. But find it you did. And now the date of the meeting is creeping up upon you.

The eleventh of January is not the only thing creeping up on you, either. Now, whenever you glance at a newspaper or turn on the television, the face of your sworn enemy smiles back at you. The Coalition has caught the public imagination- impressive, since The Coalition has yet to actually do anything. Everywhere you go, there is discussion, analysis, debate, speculation. Hashtags for #TeamDurga and #TeamMrRedline (Durga is currently leading). A [i]Popular Science[/i] article on The Scholar's refits to the new Coalition headquarters, the historic Continental Life Building. A series of recipes for mixed drinks themed after The Coalition trending on Pinterest. Polls on which member is sexiest. And of course, the endless speeches, statements, and responses. A small sample:

“St. Louis is a city with a rich history, wonderful people, and great potential. Yet it is also a city with tremendous problems- violent crime, gangsterism, endemic corruption, rampant drug use. Because the Coalition's only goal to to make America safe for the common citizen, it only stands to reason to begin with the city that has so generously agreed to host our base of operations.”

-The Golden One, quoted in [i]USA Today[/i]


“Look, obviously we support making the city safer. All that I'm saying is that we need to be prepared in case The Coalition comes after honest businessmen like me. If they harass me like the police have done, then I'm within my rights to defend myself however necessary.”

-Julian Capizzi, alleged head of the St. Louis crime family, quoted in [i]The Washington Post[/i]

And so on and so forth. 

The more you hear, the more you think about the invitation. Reading between the lines, it seems to be some sort of counter to The Coalition. Maybe it would be worth checking out.

Or maybe it's a trap.

At any rate, the date of the meeting has arrived, as has the time of your flight or the deadline for other travel arrangements.

On this cold, overcast day, snow and slush on the ground, St. Louis welcomes you. This is the beginning of something. Something new. Something dangerous. Something that will overshadow all that came before.

[center][i]In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
Yet to discourse of what there good befell,
All else will I relate discover'd there.[/i][/center]