On the outskirts of the city, among the standard new buildings, stands the Gray House, home to the Sphinx, the Blind Man, the Lord, Tabaki, the Macedonian, the Black, and many others. It's unknown whether the Lord truly descends from a noble line of dragons, but the Blind Man is indeed blind, and the Sphinx is wise. Tabaki, of course, is no jackal, though he loves to profit from other people's property. Everyone in the House has their own nickname, and a single day there can sometimes contain more than we, in the Outside, could ever live through in a lifetime. The House accepts or rejects everyone. The House holds a wealth of secrets, and banal 'skeletons in the closet' are only the most understandable corner of that invisible world, inaccessible from the Outside, where the familiar laws of space-time cease to apply. The House is much more than a boarding school for children abandoned by their parents. The House is their separate universe.