"Please, come in. Make yourself at home," James said.
She nodded, then made her way to the living room, and sat on the couch. Chloe barely heard what he said, as her thoughts were racing. "What am I doing here?", "What have the Nomads done to me?", "Can I trust Lambert?", and more.
James lit the fireplace, and asked, "Want anything to drink? I have some nice wine, though it's not a Gallic vintage."
She heard what James said more clearly this time, and watched as he poured himself a glass. Chloe pondered his question a moment, then responded, "I... I'll have some of that wine. Thanks." She then realized she hadn't tried whiskey before, but James' bottle was almost empty, so she didn't ask.
Chloe looked around, giving her mind time to settle with things to look at. The only painting in the room was above the fireplace, that of a vase filled with Germaniums. There were curtains of the same color as those flowers. There were a pair of candles, some books, a clock... She gazed about the living room some more, then back over at James. She wanted to comment on how nice the room looked, but didn't quite know what to say.
"You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing. ... how, what you think the universe is, and how you react to that in everything you do, depends on what you know. And when that knowledge changes, for you, the universe changes. And that is as true for the whole of society as that is for the individual. We all are what we know, today. What we knew yesterday, was different; and so were we."
- James Burke, The Day the Universe Changed (1985)
