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While Kemsa was losing his remaining money to the more experienced gamblers, Buteus and Clemens sat silently on the dock. Presently, Buteus turned to his long time comrade and said,

“We've been in Alexandria how long, now? Five years?” When his friend failed to respond, Buteus turned to face Clemens. The latter's entire manner was unnatural. His body had gone rigid, his eyes were fixed on the sky. When Buteus followed his gaze, he saw flocks of birds. Clemens' head was whipping around, allowing his eyes to track the movement of the birds.

Suddenly, Clemens' body relaxed, his eyes fluttered, and his manner returned to normal. “I was in a trance, wasn't I?” He asked.

“You were at that,” answered Buteus, “doesn't that worry you? Any time you're looking at birds, you might just ... Poof! Into a trance.”

“That is the cost of being an Augur.” Answered Clemens, cryptically.

“At least you weren't trained you as a haruspex,” laughed the other, “you'd pop out of your head every time you cut someone open in battle!”

“Very funny, Buteus. You know as well as I do that haruspection is more complex than that. Augury, on the other hand, is very intuitive.”

“Well, what did you see?”

“What do you see?”

“I see a bunch of ordinary gulls, flying about. What else?”

Clemens pondered for a moment and said, “Your eyes fail you, friend. Those are not ordinary gulls. Their tail feathers are tipped with brown –”

How can he see that? They're so far away, thought Buteus.

Clemens continued, “Local gulls have gray tail feathers. These birds are not native. Also, they're flying in a migration pattern, towards us. They've come from across the sea. The gulls are flying away from something. Something dangerous. They're trying to survive.”

“What does it mean?” Asked Buteus, a tremor of fear that he did not understand creeping into his voice.

“It means our ships are going the wrong way.”