‘I investigated that last on my way here,’ Pilgrim said, and related the account of Mercy Redvine’s encounter. He had it by heart after transcribing the recording of Mercy’s story in the stranger’s lodge where he had overnighted.

Thorn said, ‘What did your master think these visitors were? You mentioned dwarf ogres. Or did he believe in ghosts?’

‘Despite the footprints and the gravings and so on, my master believed that more evidence was required before he could come to a conclusion,’ Pilgrim said. ‘And even if the sightings turned out to be nothing more than mistaken observations of natural phenomena or outright hoaxes, he thought it important to discover why they were so popular, and why rumour of them spread so quickly. Perhaps they are a symptom of people’s fears about changes driven by new techne. Changes which they can neither control nor understand. Fantasies of powerful beings who promise a paradise of universal peace, where all are equal and none are in want, may be a way of regaining control of the future and direction of their lives.’

‘They would do better to have faith in the mercy and grace of the Mother.’

‘It may be that too many have lost faith in Her. Or fear that She has lost faith in them.’

‘And what do you believe?’

‘Like my master, I believe that more research is needed. That’s why, when he lay on his death bed, I promised him that I would finish his work.’

Master Able had been insensible when Pilgrim had made that vow, but he believed that it was no less binding for that.

‘I need only a small stipend to pay for travel and other expenses, and a place to collate my findings and complete my master’s monograph. I set out the estimates here,’ he said, sliding the sheet of paper across the table.

Thorn did not even glance at the estimated expenses he had worked and reworked. She said, with a look he remembered all too well from the many times when he’d been chastised for daydreaming when he should have been paying attention to his teachers and instructors, or for failing to give every challenge or chore anything but his best, ‘You brought this to me because you thought that I would look at this favourably, and persuade the other aunties to approve a disbursement.’

As usual, she had seen clean through him.

‘I think of it as an investment,’ Pilgrim said, knowing that everything hinged on this moment. His words. Her judgement. ‘It may be that the visitors are no more than phantoms. But if they are real, if we share the Mother with an undiscovered tribe of people or another race of intelligent beings, it will change everything.’

6.