When we have done more traveling together, you will come to see that occasionally we must be other than… — Matt Hughes

When all the good ideas have been expended, I quoted to myself, one might as well try a bad one.

“Magic,” said my integrator, “has rules. At the heart of the willful, associative universe, we find a modicum of rationalism, just as we find uncertainty at the core of the rational cosmos.”

“Exactly,” I said. “And there seems no other explanation for it than sheer perversity on the part of whatever entity is responsible for the whole untidy business.”

I thought about it a moment more then said, “Perversity, or just a very idiosyncratic sense of humor.”

“Wealth tends to generate wealth,” he began.

I gave a qualified assent. “If it does not instead give birth to folly.”