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“Piq doesn’t think you’re crazy any more. He and the other old ones say you have a woman in Barshwat. But I don’t believe that!”

“Maybe I do, Embelsira. A man’s a man, even if he is a librarian.”

“I know it isn’t true. I think it’s ... something else entirely. You’re so strange sometimes, Balt. How could somebody who comes only from the other side of the same world be so strange?”

He forced a grin. “Suddenly you’ve become very cosmic. What do you know of our—of the world? It’s a big place. And nobody else in Katund seems to be so impressed by my strangeness; they think a foreigner’s entitled to his queer ways.”

“Nobody in Katund knows you as well as I do. And I’ve seen foreigners before. They’re not different in the way you are.” She looked intently at him. “It’s not a shameful kind of strangeness, just a ... strange kind of strangeness. Fascinating in its way—I don’t want you to think I just married the first stranger who came along....”

“I’m sure you had many offers, dear. Come, help me fold this cloak or I’ll never make the bus.”