1. The Window You have been in this house four days and you have spent most of them in rooms they have just left.
2. The Polite Version They do not jump apart. They step apart, which is worse, and Malfoid asks whether you want a drink in a voi...
3. The Cold You stay out long enough that the cold stops being a decision and becomes a punishment you are administerin...
4. The First Jealousy At eleven you go up for a book and the library door is not quite shut.
5. The Bowl Corvina brings it down at midnight in a black cloth and sets it on the table like a woman setting down a lo...
6. The Rule The rule is that nobody has to do anything. Corvina says it twice and makes each of them say it back.
7. The Drop Corvina opens her own thumb with a silver knife and lets one drop fall, and then passes the knife round the...
8. Four Weathers Malfoid wants Mione and has wanted her for months and is frightened of how much. That one is loud. That one...
9. Mione You cross the room and Mione stands up and lets you put your hands on her, and Malfoid watches from the cha...
10. Malfoid You cross the room to Malfoid and she puts out one hand to stop you a foot away, because she wants to say s...
11. Corvina You go to Corvina because she is the one who has been quietest all week and you have been curious about that.
12. The Second One Malfoid does not leave and does not take it well and does not take it badly either. She takes it by taking ...
13. What Malfoid Sees It is not a plan. It happens because Mione and Corvina are left alone in the library at one in the morning ...
14. What Porter Sees Then it is your turn, because Malfoid takes your hand and says that if she is going to be made to watch the...
15. The Spiral You go up to the guest room at three and sit on the bed in the dark, and the bowl shows you what Malfoid is...
16. The Door Malfoid comes up at four and stands in the doorway and does not ask whether she can come in.
17. The Lying Room At five they are all in the big bedroom with the bowl on the end of the bed, and it has stopped working, wh...
18. Named Corvina makes them do it properly. One at a time, in the firelight, no interruptions, no graciousness.
19. The Asking Then they all look at you, and it is not the polite let-in look, it is something with edges on it.
20. Corvina Corvina goes first because she says she is the one who has been politely waiting longest and she is not wai...
21. Malfoid Malfoid takes her turn without being asked, which is not like her, and puts a hand flat on your thigh to st...
22. Mione Mione is last and takes the longest about starting, and holds your eyes the whole time she is getting down.
23. Dawn It ends at six with the four of them on a bed that was not built for four and the bowl still on the end of ...
24. Ending — Once a Year They keep the bowl and bring it out once a year, which is the least dangerous way to use a thing that tells...
25. Ending — No Bowl Malfoid puts it on the hearth and hits it with the poker four times, and then Corvina picks up the poker an...
26. Ending — The Footprints You take your bag out of the guest room at first light and none of them are awake and you get as far as the...