“No, I really didn’t sleep well last night.
-Shows on your face. What was it? The pickled snails on tenth course?
-Haha, nah, I hid those in a flower pot.
-The count’s wardrobe malfunction then? They could use pictures of this if they somehow wanted to restrain procreation across the Empire.
-If you knew the horrors I have seen to get here – no, it wasn’t that, or the gossip, or the terrible shoes they make us wear.
-Then..?
-You’re in a room that overlooks the courtyard. Mine has a view on the plaza. And it’s the light. That damn obelisk making everything look as if it was daytime. And – I think I dreamt in a language I don’t know.”

Serafina and the baroness of Dogdaba