Anecdote 1 explores the origins of Rafayel's working partnership with Thomas (owner of Flux Arts). Thomas was originally a painter himself who attempted to compete with Rafayel at a charity exhibition, only to find himself comprehensively outclassed on every metric — most devastatingly, on colour. Enchanted by Rafayel's command of hue, Thomas gave up painting and learned business instead, eventually becoming Rafayel's art manager. The anecdote also establishes Rafayel's pigment philosophy: the Lemurian eye can distinguish around 300 million colours, which is why he finds mass-produced paint inadequate. He spends days extracting unique pigments by hand — Tyrian purple from thousands of conch shells ground over three days. The same biological trait underwrites the hallucinogenic potency of his red Lemurian-blood-soaked coral pigment.