"A literal stranger being taken as a prisoner to Mechanus, a realm of absolute law," Ennius emphasizes and further speculates, "whatever they've done, it certainly displeased somebody, and legitimately, at least in some sense of the word. And I don't think nice is in their lexicon."

The scholar takes one of the tickets for himself. "Our names or the Stranger's names?" he asks, turning the ticket over and looking for a place for a signature.