In a moment, Mielikki Neith hears herself give voice to something she has begun to understand in one part of herself, but which the deep psychological defences of the human mind have kept from her until now. In the unintended shift in tense from past to present, she reveals the clue she most wishes to avoid understanding. For most people, it would be a momentary lapse, swiftly brushed aside, but Neith’s intellectual integrity will not allow denial, will not brook comforting falsehoods. She was chosen in her role and perfected in her stubbornness by my enemies—but those same virtues might also serve me, depending on the direction of travel. It all comes down to her, and the myriad paths of human possibility collapse upon themselves, infinite choices devolving into a stark binary, a fork in the road.