It was, and I was. You made some interesting points, I liked your style. [ And he'd had a bit more firsthand knowledge of the subject--early antiquity, what else?--than anyone had guessed. He could play the curious but off-base college student as well as anyone, and the ruse had come in handy often for a long while. He's not sure how much of his condition Marius has guessed given Ganymede is still standing, looking the same as he ever did, and isn't old and decrepit or dead by now.

Then again, neither is Marius. They likely both have explanations to give. ]

No, no--or I doubt it, anyway. But he's...he's everything I could want.