‘Where were you?’ Her sister Elaine was changed somehow. The being that stood before her in her sister’s body was quietly confident and capable,...even serene. That didn’t describe Elaine at all.‘Who are you?’ Béla demanded, frightened now. ‘Where’s my sister? How are you doing that?’ She was starting to get seriously frightened. Her very soul was at risk, here. She felt images in her mind being looked over. The being in Elaine’s body was using more finesse and loving care than even Béla was. Ellerie should have been resting after the mild drain shock she’d suffered during the fight, but she’d slept enough that she’d mostly recovered, and now that she was actually in the ruins of one of the Ancients’ cities, she couldn’t resist looking around.Before leaving Terevas, she’d visited a few other small ruins that were thought to be Ancient in origin, dotted around the western edge of the nation near the seaborn enclave, but those structures had no distinguishing features. This place, on. Chuckling, she then reached down under the counter and brought out acigar box and held it out to me."Here," she said. "On the house. Once we've lit up, things'll be a lotmore clear."Well, she didn't have to ask me twice. I walked over, took a cigar, cutoff the end, and studied the mural of Queen Nicotina as Ruth lit up."My mother thinks smoking cigars is unladylike," I said before I lit mycigar."Her loss," Ruth said and exhaled a stream of smoke. "More cigars for usthen." That's right," I. Julie phoned and confirmed that we were back in the flat; she ran out of 2p coins so it was only a quick conversation. After tea, the three of us sat in front of the TV and watched the first programme of the new series of "Call My Bluff" with Robert Robinson, Frank Muir and Patrick Campbell. As usual, I'd never even heard of one of the words presented for definition, and Mum was by far the winner among us, with much better guesswork than Dad or I managed!On Tuesday morning, Mum dropped me off.