"Imperial capital. In the southwest of Aquitaine." He looked surprised. "After Sainte-Melusine, which I suppose is sort of like a serpent."

"We have a story," Goneril replied. "Well. The French do. About a girl who turns into a serpent at night. This is what is so interesting, that I really want to study. There are a lot of...inexplicable similarities. What's your Sainte-Melusine?"

"Not our Sainte-Melusine," he said, amused. "We don't have saints. Melusine is a big damn river snake. Or was a big damn river snake. It's also the name of the river it lives in. I don't know if the snake was named after the river or if they named the river after the snake as a way of warning people that there was a big damn river snake in it."

"Or maybe just that the river is snakelike?" Goneril replied. "It's just interesting to me that there are so many overlaps between this world and mine. More proof that at some point, people must have traveled between the two more frequently."

"If that's the case then they were all over," said Starling. "It's a long reach from here to Melusine. And did you come here or did we go there?"

"I don't know," Goneril replied. "I'm hoping your scrolls will give me some kind of hint. It could have been both. There's no reason why there couldn't have been movement between two worlds, not just in one direction."

"What good would it do, to find out?" The boy sounded honestly curious on this point.

"What do you mean, what good?" Goneril seemed confused. "Wouldn't you want to know?"

"I mean, what then? What will you do when you find out? Would you tell someone?" He looked a little anxious at that point.

"Of course," Goneril replied. "That's not the sort of knowledge you keep to yourself. People deserve to know, don't you think? It would help explain so many things."