"It was all you knew," Rosie says, with a faint and lopsided smile. "Makes sense you wouldn't think about it, any more than I didn't think about everything my life had been back in Oxford, or Jay and Pamarchon and everyone else I met didn't seem to think anything about Anterwold or that Story they kept quoting."

She looks down and away, laughing softly. "Until, of course, someone for whom it isn't normal comes and starts asking tremendously impertinent questions."