-Navalheim... I don't really know it...
-Ah, well, maybe it wasn't that well known.

Video games should never be the main topic of conversation in a work meeting. I'll remember that.

I'm Eduardo Silva, a lawyer, I specialise in contract law and I'm twenty-eight years old. I'm in the middle of a business trip, in the cafeteria on the first floor of the building where the offices of a company with which we have to sign a contract for services are located. I played "The Fate of Navalheim" for eight years since its release.

When it came out, a friend from another college told me about the game. I had been looking for something new to try for a long time and it came to me like a glove. Fate of Navalheim was an "MMORPG", or massively multiplayer online role-playing game. From the start I liked it for its agile combat mechanics, but at the same time it required tactical thinking. You couldn't just jump into combat and try to win by button-mashing, you had to think about what to do and in what order. The blows had to be precise, not fast. For someone with a weakness for speed games like fighting or racing games, like me, Navalheim was a very good alternative. Tomas Manrique, who stood in front of me and was the representative of the company I was with, didn't seem to know anything about it.

-I'll write it down and find out, my sister plays, she might like it....
-Ah, no, no. Hey, the servers were shut down yesterday.
-Did they go out of business?

That's the answer of the one who works in the legal department.

-No, nothing like that, it came to an end," I try to explain. It's over. The company closed the servers by its own decision.
-Oh, I see. Nothing lasts forever, even in games, does it?
-Apparently not.

I pick up the sandwich on the table in front of me. I instantly stop and put it back on my plate. I'm in a work meeting, so I can't eat with my hands. I take the cutlery and slowly cut a piece of the sandwich.

-I used to like shooting games, FPS games, when I was a kid," says Tomás. He must be my age or a few years older.
-Is that right?
-Yes. I was good until I was fifteen. I quit for a while and when I tried to go back online... you know for sure what happens in the games.
-Yeah... people are not very nice.
-Tomás pauses, leans back in his chair and looks to the side, in the direction of a large window that looks out onto the street and a tree-lined area between two wide lanes. Few cars pass by. It is twenty past three in the afternoon. The school children must be on their way home.

Tomás' phone rings and he answers.

-Silva is here. Shall we go up with the documents? -He motions to me and I take my briefcase. He takes his. The copy of the files is here?
-Yes, double copy of the contract and annexes.
-Double copy of the contract and the annexes, says Dr Silva... yeah, perfect... okay, we're on our way," he hangs up and looks at me. We're on our way.

He walks towards the lift and I follow him, but he stops.

-One question, wasn't there an Álvarez with you? Guillermo Álvarez.

At that moment I remember him. The meeting is not just for me. I am someone else's assistant. That someone else hasn't arrived yet.

The lift door opens. Guillermo Álvarez, my boss, is inside, leaning on a railing with his arms crossed. As usual with him, his suit looks a little wrinkled and his tie is out of place. This time there is one more detail. An unlit, half-finished cigarette dangles from his mouth.

-Shall we go? -he says.