No time to look at these dark books and this strange apparatus. I have to see the sky and taste the air.

I turn and head across the room to the door but it is only as my hand reaches for the handle, and misses, that I notice the change. Beyond the rush of thoughts in my head I am suddenly aware that I have feelings of difference that come from a physical change as much as my state of mind. I open the door and step out into the courtyard.

The stars are brighter than I can ever have imagined them, each of them lit for me alone.

With a few long strides I cross the yard and open the door which leads to the main house. Moving through the corridors with stealth towards a room at the far end, I pause midway and open a door on my left. I step quickly inside and close the door behind me. It is a bedroom, and it is occupied. I can hear someone in the bed.