"I don't know. We played tessarae a lot, and she didn't even notice when I was cheating." She shrugged. "She didn't seem any more trapped then I was."

Marcello nodded. "Good, then," he replied. And then he was quiet for a moment. "How are you doing now?"

She shrugged. "We're leaving for the ship later day." She replied. "I don't know how I'm doing. How are you?" She gave him a side-eye. "Don't give me the Earl answer."

Marcello raised an eyebrow. "I don't even know what the Earl answer would be," he answered, raking a hand through his hair. "I'm fine. Tired. Busy. I didn't realize you were leaving so soon."

She nodded. "Matt's getting antsy." She replied, and then seemed to consider something. "Your seering. Can you actually see the future or just what's happened?" She asked, hopefully.

"Just true things," Marcello replied. "They have to be certain. So if you ask if you will find a person in a certain room right now, that would be a true thing, and I could see it, and it's sort of seeing the future, but I couldn't...tell you if you were going to live a long life, or have a safe trip."n

Barbara frowned. "That's no help. I wanted to know if something would be certain. I suppose it will, either way." She sighed. "Damn it."

Marcello smiled and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he replied. "I suppose the trouble is that nothing is certain. What did you want to know?" He waggled his eyebrows at her. "Is is about your bard?"

She sighed again and crossed her arms. "It is. It's not good." Barbara added. "I wish it was. It's more..." She lowered her voice and leaned in, "Either we stay and he may have his bands ripped off, or we go, and we never come back."

"What?" Marcello asked. "Why would they do that? Is he...does he not want to be a bard anymore? His mother is the head of the College."