"Sometimes, I think it would be best if I could sleep away or ignore some of the years. There were unfortunate stretches within them spent whiled away in captivity. Churches, abbeys...in the 1600's, there was a particular determination to eradicate things like me," he says, though obviously it hadn't worked.

Hal had left quite the bloodshed in his path. "Tea," he says suddenly. "We should fetch you some tea and we'll soon see your illness fade."