At first, it seems like nobody's here to answer the door at all. And then, perfectly ordinarily, the door is opened by a masked stranger who...well, he certainly dresses well, at any rate. His clothes are hard-wearing, but cut and crafted to suit him.

"I admit, I didn't expect to have such a prestigious visitor," he says, his voice amused. "What brings a prince the land loves to my doorstep, I wonder?"

(When he was young, his mother had taken him to the public celebration of a prince's birthday. "Your paths will cross," she had said to him as he grasped her hand tightly, still afraid of the crowd. "I know not more than that, but I need nothing else to know that your life will be a surprising one."

The words had stuck.)