Memor thanked the servant girl for lighting the fire. He could hear the crackle as the flames began to grow and spread across the coals, heating them to an ice-white. When she asked him if he wanted company, he thanked her politely and said that after all this time on his own he had no need of any human contact. Memor felt the pity emanating from his visitor.

‘Do not pity me. You may not think it, but I want for nothing here. I am more than comfortable in my little tugurium’.

‘You are a haruspex, are you not?’

Memor laughed.

‘Who told you that?’

‘Everybody on the estate says that of you’.

‘Do they now?’

‘Will you tell my fortune, Master Memor?’

’I will not...

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