Pilgrim hesitated only for a moment. Teal had a brisk straightforward manner that reminded him of his sister; he recognised the passion that drove her to defy convention and refuse to accept the ordinary lot of women. And it had been too long since he had enjoyed the cut and thrust of intellectual debate, and he wanted to impress this clever, formidable woman. To give her something, in the hope that she would give something back. Tell him a little more about the clique within the Invisible College. Tell him what they had discovered about the sightings, whether their investigations had turned up something new.

He said, ‘I abandoned my research into the visitors when I came here. Vowed to focus all my time and energy on the task of cataloguing and reorganising the Hearth’s neglected library, which I had been given as part of my penance. But in the course of that work I found evidence suggesting that this is not the first time the visitors have shown themselves. That they may have met with bears shortly before the fall of the bears’ civilisation.’

Teal was not as surprised as he had hoped. She listened with quiet attention as he told her how he had found the map, explained why it was most likely a copy of an older map made by bears and described the figure that resembled witnesses’ accounts of the appearance of the visitors.

‘If you would care to visit the library,’ he said, shedding the last of his reticence, ‘I would very much like to hear your opinion about it.’

A little later, after they had climbed onto the borrowed mara and set off towards the Hearth, Pilgrim leaned into Gentle’s back and asked if he was upset by Teal’s revelation that he, Pilgrim, was a pure.

‘I already knew,’ Gentle said. ‘I was with Creed in the commons when he called you out.’

Pilgrim was embarrassed to have forgotten that. He said, ‘You never before mentioned it.’

Gentle shrugged. ‘Neither did you. And if you’re wondering if it bothers me – it don’t. I’ve worked and lived alongside plenty of folk like you. Folk who come from backward kinds of tribes like mine, tribes that think people who are different are bad luck or worse and treat them accordingly, they quite often take to the roving life. You can’t help being who you are any more than I can.’

‘Thank you,’ Pilgrim said, genuinely moved.

‘Don’t think it makes us brothers,’ Gentle said. Adding, ‘She likes to show off, doesn’t she?’

‘It’s the intellectual equivalent of a feat of strength. Or,’ Pilgrim said, recalling a favourite analogy of Master Able’s, ‘the kind of display behaviour that some animals deploy to attract a mate.’