Nuard gestured them to a room with a washbasin. Servants brought water, rough sheets of fabric which appeared to pass for towels, and dry, pale blue robes for them all. Linh and Fiona changed in an adjoining room. Then Nuard led them down a corridor and into a dining hall with a long table at its centre. The pottery was glazed clay ceramics, the cutlery bronze spoons, the serving utensils wooden, and the glassware looked fragile and pre-industrial, like museum pieces in Fiona's Atlas of the Ancient World. Linh stared. Hadn't civilisation changed here since humans arrived during the Late Bronze or Early Iron Age?
Nuard motioned them to sit, and Linh helped Fiona into her chair. They didn't have to wait long before servants entered, carrying platters wafting the enticing aroma of meats and
