"Fancy that," says Mark. "Let's go see what it's doing here, shall we?"

"Suppose it means to throw any small children at us who we will then heroically rescue?"

"I fucking well hope not, I'm terrified of children."

"Why?" asks Ivan, wandering into the bar and looking around. Looks empty.

"Eh, people talk about impressionable children but I don't feel strongly impressioned by most things that happened to me when I was a kid."

- only to be caught by the boy who's trailing her. "Whoa! What the - this isn't the chapel!" He sets the girl on her feet again. "Who're you?"

"Stay back," the girl warns. "How far back you are now is fine. Don't get closer than that to me though. Where are we?"

"A mysterious time-travelling bar that must be pretty bloody far-ranging because I don't recognize that clothing style at all. Why should I stay back?"

"Because if people get closer than that to me I read their minds. I can't help it, you just need to stay a certain distance away to avoid it. I got a few seconds off you, nothing major, I'll tell you everything I felt if you want. The bar time travels? When are you from?"

"The late thirtieth century. What d'you mean, you read minds? What did you get off me?"

"You were thinking about not wanting to meet any children, and I got a little about your - thought style, situational awareness and sort of happiness set point type thing. Reminds me of some people I know, actually, but I haven't read enough people to know if minds just plain come in types like that because I usually scrupulously avoid it. Thirtieth century since what?"

"...Magic isn't known the world around where I'm from, but I don't know what the Earth Common Era is, so maybe we aren't in fact from the same universe? A little easier to believe what with a bar having eaten my chapel."

"The time travel bar contains magic teenagers in exotic high fashion who don't know what the Earth Common Era is. Is that weirder or less weird than the time travel bar containing five-year-old versions of secret cousins?"

"Is that a compliment on Kiri's outfit? I accept your compliment on Kiri's outfit."

"I don't think I believe you can read minds," says Mark to Kiri. "Do it again."

"Do you want me to read your mind or do you want to call my bluff, because I can in fact read minds and if you don't want me to do it to you I can turn my back and you can hold up various numbers of fingers at Aleko instead."

"I want to find out if you can read my mind, and you actually demonstrating that you can read my mind is the only standard of evidence I will readily accept. I will try not to think anything too horrifying. I may not succeed, but I'll try."

"That isn't my concern, but the distance is about five feet, if you want to close it. I can also perform interesting tricks with fire if your skepticism is generally about magic, though."

"You don't think in words. You're very fond of that fellow, who is your cousin, and you're sort of perpetually delighted by his presence. You have no idea what fashion environment produced my dress and you'd usually expect to know that kind of thing, you have been to several planets, that's strange. You haven't decided if you want to see any interesting fire tricks. And you definitely think like a cross between Sarelle and Loel, but since you've never met either that's not going to be very informative."

"I think you should do tricks with fire."