Zouichi looked up at the sound of her voice, smiling almost involuntarily upon seeing her there. "Farseer. This is a pleasant surprise." Which was perfectly true; he hadn't been expecting her to pay him a visit, not when the other denizens of the inn were likely to be present. Certainly not when they were celebrating a holiday. But he was glad to see her all the same, even (or perhaps especially) after the events of the past few days.

"He piled upon the whale's white hump," he intoned, "The sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."

Zouichi closed the book, running a gloved finger over the spine. "Not reading, exactly. More like deciding what to read next. This one is an old Earth novel, from a country halfway around the world from my own."