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I realized that Chumblot’s brief had told only the official story which, as in many sophisticated societies, departed starkly from the practical facts.

But in this age, logic was a flame that must be frequently starved of fuel.

“I have a plan.”

“What kind of plan?”

“A daring and bold one,” he said.

“Is that wise?”

“It has to be that kind of plan. It’s that kind of cosmos.”

A lifelong habit of being right also had the effect of diminishing one’s social appeal, especially among those who prefer to keep the bubble of their various illusions a safe distance from a needle-sharp and probing intelligence.

“He began to dream the dreams that always seduce a tyrant: powers beyond powers, worlds at his feet, whole realms bowing to his whims.”

“And the dreams occluded his faculties,” I said. “It was ever thus, we may be thankful, else tyrants would never fall.”

She could be—he hoped would be—what he had always lacked: a center to the map of his life, that one, necessary fixed point from which he could navigate out into the world and by which he could always find his way back home again.

The commerciants of Olkney were renowned for their egalitarian spirit, judging rich and poor alike solely by the weight of their purses.

“We are all used, all users. With luck, the final tally approximates a balance in our favor. But I think you are one of those who calls the proverbial glass half empty, while I prefer to call it half full.”

“No,” said Filidor, “in truth, I have never given these matters much thought. I am one who quaffs the glass empty and calls for it to be refilled.”

I cannot comment on your beliefs. What appears self-evident to one person may seem to another observer to be entirely the product of an idiosyncratic bent.

“We all use the world, and are used by it,” he said, after a moment. “Some of us are more aware than others of using and being used. It is our fortune to have fewer illusions.”

The direct approach is not always the wisest strategy, as those who have fallen off mountains can testify.

Things are as they were meant to be.

“But it was arranged so by you and me.”

Then we are instruments of fate.

“Knowing instruments,” said Filidor.

How does that make a difference?