ROLEPLAY

An answer to Mac'Od Bittty is delivered almost by return mail:

My Dear Mac'Od Bittty,

thank you for your interest in my little study, which I guess you've seen in the part of our Academy open to associate researchers. I am also grateful for your additional suggestions.

Indeed, I took into consideration that this "Oracle" was nothing more than a madwoman. However, her whole bearing and indeed her quick, if humorless wit gave no implication of this. Also, the whole staging of a kind of local myth around her before confronting the Zoraian Circles seems to me a set-up which - if related to madness - would make her more someone of the same highly dangerous and ill-willing ilk of madness like Muang.

If we take in the possibility of unseen puppet-masters using her for their purposes it does seem unlikely that they would risk frustration of their plans by letting a madwoman face the Circles solely on her own, as irrational behaviour in someone with that kind of illness is rather the rule than the exception.

This "Oracle", if anything, certainly did not behave irrational, but very much in control of her bearing and delivery. The impression of what she said was made not just by the content of the things said but moreso by the manner they were said, both to the Circles on the whole as well as to individuals. That is the reason why I did discard that theory.

Sincerely,