Seventeen days now, and I haven't gone down below. Only now do I know a night can pass without my tracing that name on the wall.

• BartholtDust has settled on the coffin. Shall I clear it away?
  CorbinLeave it. It's been a while since anything settled there too.
• MargueriteYour first absence in three hundred years. I imagine you'll be the one paying for it.
  CorbinI already am.