You hear a Door open, perhaps three or four floors below you.  Vincent is coming.

He will not call out to you as he mounts the stairs, nor will he take any pains to conceal the sound of his steps.  You each know where the other is.  You each know what will happen if Vincent reaches you.

Vincent is coming, and it is almost time to leave.

You take inventory.  One standard sheaf of Travelers' Universal Currency.    One regulation Chromatic Coat.  (The one that Vincent gave you, as it happens.)  One Handheld Fire.  One knife.  (No capitalization for this one.  It's just a knife, though a very good one.)  One featureless Nearly White Disc.  Two tins of chocolate.  The photograph of Sophia.

You wish you didn't have to take the photograph with you, but you have no time to destroy it, and you can't let your pursuer find it.  Into the coat's voluminous pockets it goes, along with the rest of your gear, and the coat goes around your shoulders. 

You look around the room one more time - the birch panelled walls, the painting of Saturn devouring his children, the already stiffening body in the chair, the bones of the fire on the hearth.  As Vincent's progress reaches your floor and starts to echo down the hall, you grasp the Nearly White Disk in your pocket and think very hard about your destination...

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