Lit only by the light of the fire, which burned within the hearth, the darkened chamber was as somber as a crypt. His figure nearly fading into the shadows, Cassius remained unmoving from the armchair that had been placed beside the bed. Arms bent and hands crossed under his chin in a pensive attitude, there were no other sounds aside from the torrential downpour that proceeded outside and the popping of the logs in the fire that distracted him from surveying the person who laid before him.