* * *

The idea had been for the king to see what people’s ordinary, everyday lives were like but, as Clarence pointed out, there was a paradox at the heart of this, because as soon as people saw him they stopped their ordinary, everyday lives to gawk at him.

“But I want people to see I’m just a normal guy really,” said the king.

“What a ridiculous thing to say,” Clarence replied.

“I am though. I never asked to be king, did I?” As he said this the king wondered if that was actually true. He couldn’t remember if he’d asked or not. But it was true he was just a normal guy. He was an amiable sort of bloke who just wanted people to think well of him and for everyone to get along. No drama.

Clarence leaped up onto a fence and hissed in the king’s ear. “People don’t want to think you’re normal. They need a focal point—someone they can look to for a leader.”

“How do you know what they want? Have you asked them?”

“You’re not helping anything here. We should be going about things as usual, not changing your routine. Whoever started the fire probably wants us to worry and panic.”

“Who’s worrying and panicking? I’m just going for a walk.”

And the king kept walking.

* * *

On the upper floor of Victor’s house Iona looked through his small collection of books but this was more out of prurient interest than anything else—she always liked looking through other people’s books. He seemed to enjoy escapist fiction.

Finally she looked in the bedroom. This was a personal space and she’d left it until last because she was undecided whether to go in there at all. But the carving told her she needed to know more about Victor. If he had made that he could explain to her what it was and why she remembered it.

The bed was neatly made and did not look slept in. There were still clothes in the wardrobe—she wondered if he had taken any with him at all. Next to the bed was a chest of drawers. She opened the top drawer.

Inside she found a single folded piece of paper. She unfolded it.

The paper had been printed with a series of diagrams: she quickly realized these were stages in a process. It was an instruction manual, and Iona wondered what for. As she stared, she eventually perceived something in the simplified shapes in each diagram—but she still didn’t understand what these instructions were telling her to do. She turned the paper this way and that and concluded she was still missing something.

But still, the paper piqued her curiosity. She put it in her pocket and left the house.

* * *

The king had almost reached the edge of the city, where it wasn’t so busy. Citizens who weren’t at work—seated in pairs at tables—looked at him through their windows and he waved cheerfully to them. A small crowd had been following him at a short distance all the way from the city center. They were a bit weird but their presence cheered him, just knowing they cared enough to follow him around. He couldn’t see Clarence but assumed he was somewhere in the crowd.