Elderly, white-haired, with a monocle and pocket watch that shine in the limelight, Dr. Sabbatine wears a long golden mantle that makes her look more like a historical dowager than a modern scientist.

Other, younger scientists, including a few women, stand in the great doctor's shadow—perhaps a carefully orchestrated metaphor. The woman in the red jacket who registered everyone also waits behind Sabbatine. Off to one side, you notice a tall, bearded man dressed in a dark, sober suit. As Dr. Sabbatine resembles an ancient potentate, this man resembles a modern diplomat, but you know he is not. He is Stralchus Petron: theologian, philosopher, visionary mystic—or deadly fanatic, depending on who you ask. Everyone in Byzantium has an opinion about him, but you cannot tell truth from fiction well enough to appraise the man honestly.

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Stralchus peers into the darkness with eyes unaffected by the limelight and spots you. He holds your gaze for a moment before turning to regard the doctor.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Dr. Sabbatine says, without preamble or even waiting for everyone to look her way, "I have invented a device that permits us to travel through time."

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