The second course was of small edible animals which to Genar-Hofoen appeared furry and arguably even cute. They raced round a trench-track set into the top of the pit at the inner edge of the circular table, pursued by something long and slithery looking with a lot of teeth at each end. The cheering, hooting Affronters roared, thumped the tables, exchanged bets and insults, and stabbed at the little creatures with long forks while shovelling cooked, prepared versions of the same animals into their beaks.

Scratchounds made up the main course, and while two sets of the animals - each about the size of a corpulent human but eight-limbed - slashed and tore at each other with razor-sharp prosthetic jaw implants and strap-claws, diced scratchound was served on huge trenchers of compacted vegetable matter. The Affronters considered this the highlight of the whole banquet; one was finally allowed to use one’s miniature harpoon - quite the most impressive-looking utensil in each place setting - to impale chunks of meat from the trenchers of one’s fellow diners and - with the skilful flick of the attached cable which Fivetide was now trying to teach the human - transfer it to one’s own trencher, beak or tentacle without losing it to the scratchounds in the pit, having it intercepted by another dinner guest en route or losing the thing entirely over the top of one’s gas sac.

‘The beauty of it is,’ Fivetide said, throwing his harpoon at the trencher of an Admiral distracted by a failed harpoon strike of his own, ‘that the clearest target is the one furthest away.’ He grunted and flicked, snapping the piece of speared scratchound up and away from the other Affronter’s place an instant before the officer to the Admiral’s right could intercept the prize. The morsel sailed through the air in an elegant trajectory that ended with Fivetide barely having to rise from his place to snap his beak shut on it. He swivelled left and right, acknowledging appreciative applause in the form of whip-snapped tentacles, then settled back into the padded Y-shaped bracket that served as a seat. ‘You see?’ he said, making an obvious swallowing motion and spitting out the harpoon and its cable.

‘I see,’ Genar-Hofoen said, still slowly re-coiling the harpoon cable from his last attempt. He sat to Fivetide’s right in a Y-bracket place modified simply by placing a board across its prongs. His feet dangled over the debris trench which circled the perimeter of the table, and which the suit assured him was reeking in the manner approved by Affronter gourmets. He flinched and dodged to one side, nearly falling off the seat, as a harpoon sailed by to his left, narrowly missing him.