"I shouldn't be here," Cassandra says, biting her lips, and Aeneas dismisses this as he has so many other odd words from her mouth.

"Too late now," he reminds her; after all, they've left their mooring and their burning city behind, and all that remains is to write a new fortune across the wine-dark sea.

"Yes," she says when he tells her this, and then, faint voice trembling, "I believe you, my friend."