Darius entered Nana Smith's room an hour later. He did not walk through the walls as someone would have expected of an apparition, instead he merely walked through the doorway. He made his way to a mat upon the floor, well out of the way of anyone's path, and proceeded to lay down upon it.
Alexander and Roxana both stared at the spot, their owl companions completely disinterested by the apparition's appearance while their human companions both saw nothing. Alan even took notice of the Northern and Asiatic caracal staring at the mat and asked them: "Have you two really never taken notice of that mat before?" Neither Alexander nor Roxana replied with any vocalizations, they simply stared at Darius.
Nana Smith simply said to her elder grandson: "Animals are like that, Alan. They either see things we don't or stare at random things for absolutely no reason." Alan quickly looked at the mat and begin to wonder. Who or what did Alexander and Roxana see that they did not? Whatever it was it would have had to have been... Eyes widening, Alan went running from the bedroom. Without even looking, Nana Smith said: "Walk, Alan! Don't run!" Then to the caracals and owls she said: "He's going to crash into someone or something. If he causes the bust of Akhenaten that is in the west hall to break, Kull is going to be furious." The caracals and owls both stared out the doorway that Alan had run through, even Darius' apparition was staring, before eventually the owls and caracals returned to what they had been doing previously and for the caracals that was staring at Darius while Herod tried to sleep and Cleopatra preened.
Soon enough, Alan returned with Gemma following him. The former was holding a picture frame. In the frame was an image of Darius.
Kneeling down and placing the picture on the bed before Alexander and Roxana, Alan inquired: "Is this who you see?" The only response the two caracals made was to proceed sniffing the frame. They did indeed recognize Darius, but sniffing the picture frame was more important. They found the scent of Alan, Captain Smith, Nana Smith and a few others upon it. Sighing, Alan rhetorically inquired: "What was I expecting?"
Once the sniffing of the picture frame was finished, Alexander and Roxana once more looked to Darius. He was no grooming himself. Why did an apparition need to groom himself? Perhaps it was just out of habit.
Laying his head down upon the bed, Alexander stared at where Darius was. Why had Darius appeared now? Did he intend to guide Alexander into the afterlife? Or was Darius just visiting? How was Alexander to know? How was Roxana or anyone who could see him to know?
Such questions were soon banished from Alexander's head the moment Captain Smith entered the room carrying a tray. Nodding, he said: "Mother, Alan, Gemma... How is he... Alan... Why might I ask is there a picture frame on the bed?"
"I think Alexander and Roxana see Darius, Uncle Kull." Alan replied.
Carrying on towards the bed, Captain Smith put it down next to the picture and said: "If they do, then they do." Alexander did not even raise his head to see what was on the tray. He just lay there as Captain Smith gently pet him, saying: "It is said cats are seers capable of communicating with the dead and that they even protect ships from ghosts. In order to protect something from a ghost, they should by all logic be able to see it." Holding up a piece of fish from the tray, the Veteran of the Second Boer War then uttered: "Come now, Alexander. You smell that don't you? It smells good doesn't it. Never knew a cat great or small that did not like fish."