1866 | After a long labour, Savino is born, first child to Luca and Lucretia, an upper-middle class couple who live in Venice and whose family, the Zabinis, own a prosperous mercantile company. This is also the very year that Venice is released from the rule of the Austrian Empire and is able to join the newly unified Kingdom of Italy. An auspicious moment. Born amidst such great change, Savino grows up knowing that nothing is as inevitable as it seems.

1869 | A sister, Luciana, is born. A playmate!

1871 | He is five years old when he first remembers having the dream. It feels different to ordinary dreams – at that age, he can’t quite articulate how – but in it, he is dying. It feels true. The next night he has it again. For the first few years of these strange dreams, he only tries to ignore them. His parents don’t notice much except that he’s a terrible sleeper all through his childhood.

1872 | Otherwise, his childhood is a happy one, full of family and friends and punctuated by lessons and summer holidays spent in the company of the extended family in Britain.

1876/7 - 1883/4 | Aged ten, Savino is sent away to Incantima (all the way down in Sicily!) and takes to school life like a duck to water. He enjoys making a wide circle of friends from all over the country, especially enjoys Charms and Astronomy and Magical Art – the only thing that upsets his fun is that the dreams are back, and almost more regularly recurring the more he tries to avoid them. His dormmates call these Savino’s ‘nightmares’, but things change in Divination lessons. Sometimes crystal-ball gazing shows him the same scenes that he’s dreamt about; it’s like looking through a magnifying glass that makes them a little more distinct. If his mind is the instrument, Divination begins to give him the tools to fine-tune it, and sometimes it seems his subconscious is the key. The dreams of him dying – of illness, on his deathbed – become clearer every year: this can only mean the event itself is getting closer.

(In 1881 – when Savino is fifteen – his mother is going on a genealogical deep-dive into the Zabinis. He is only loosely interested, in case it shows up some Seer ancestry in the family, but it ends up a grand scandal, especially for Cosmo Zabini’s side of the family. Yikes. If only he’d foreseen the impact –)

Perhaps the first time he puts something he’s learnt in Divination to practical use is in a duel. (They’re prohibited, but not uncommon at this school; there are always rivalries going round.) Savino – more a lover than a fighter, if he’s honest – is getting beaten up badly when he realises he’s already seen his opponent’s next spell... and how to avert the consequences. This unexpected success boosts his school popularity for a short spell, but really it serves to launch Savino into more focused efforts to pay attention to his instincts. He supplements different Divination techniques with Arithmancy – the precision of it doesn’t always work, but when it does it helps to pin down more concrete details of things looming – and ends up giving in to sleep more willingly than he used to.

1884 | But if death is coming for him sooner than it does for most and has even been kind enough to give him fair warning, the fact is that Savino is hardly content to sleep his remaining years away, occasionally seeing things but never doing anything. What is he worth if he doesn’t make a difference? What’s the point in a gift if you don’t use it?

Everyone is now aware of his passions (though not so much of his impending illness; that prediction is one he only ever hints at) and so after graduation, Savino leaps into working for an Italian equivalent of the Dept. of Mysteries, hoping to become part of some nationwide effort to collect prophecies and work to improve the future.

1886 | It, uh, doesn’t last. Turns out the Italian Ministry has its hands full with the present, and is not so interested in meddling with the future, not when it has a hard enough time keeping things in order already. Savino is also not the best employee – he is dedicated and keen, but rarely sticks to his assigned tasks, and isn’t afraid to disagree with his superiors. Yeah. When they refuse to act on a Seer’s vision that could have saved lives, Savino protests and is booted out.

1887 - 1890 | Never mind. His family are comfortable enough, so Savino dutifully retreats under his grandfather’s wing and takes up a position in his father’s company as a junior clerk. It’s not thrilling, but the family aren’t expecting much – as long as he does his job they’ll pave him a smooth way up to the higher ranks in a few years, they promise. Same with his mother, who is already chomping at the bit to excitedly introduce him about when he’s old enough to marry. (Though he’s usually good at telling hard truths, he can’t bear to think of them all moping for his sake – but the fact remains he’ll have to disappoint them all eventually, because he’ll be no use for either. He’ll be lucky to make it to his thirties.)

But Savino doesn’t care about the company, not when there’s so much he still wants to accomplish. Most of his other waking hours are spent pursuing his goals, keeping detailed records of his dreams, predictions, and even vaguest senses; contacting or meeting other notable seers and compiling other prophecies they might be able to counteract if people just take them seriously; and he has also formed a small Society of Divination of like-minded friends to accomplish these goals, with or without him.

1890 | He’s had dreams about something important for him being in Britain even before his parents announce they’re going, so he is hardly going to resist tagging along. They arrive at the beginning of June: he is supposed to keep up some of his company duties for his grandfather while they’re away, like meeting with British contacts – but really Savino is keen to have more time to himself, with the freedom to follow his own aspirations away from home, extending the goals and resources of the Society of Divination beyond Italian shores.

Presently | And so that’s what he’s doing now, trying to track down anyone with Divination talents, collect details of prophecies, see a bit more of the world, and maybe even prevent a disaster or two.