"Affirmation." Voila fell in beside Opaline. "I was the one who required your mock murder. It was necessary to nullify the geis on Fifth. He had to do it, then try to kill himself. I regret putting you and Flame through such mischief, but the paths indicated that it was the only feasible way to nullify the machines' ploy."
"Acceptance," Opaline said. "I'm glad Fifth was saved, and that he returned to Flame."
"We need Flame fully functional. That means Fifth had to return to her. When the others were unable to move him sufficiently, I had to intervene personally."
"You?" Opaline asked, surprised. "I saw no sign of this."
"This is what I come to clarify, because you need to understand it."
"Confusion."
"I can see up to one hour in the near future, and up to a month when melded with Idyll, and farther yet when augmented by certain calculating plants, but I can't necessarily affect it. A given course may have been established in the past, and all I can do is see its continuation."
"But if it is something you are doing, can't you do something else and change it?"
"If I told you to leave Oak unattended, alone, would you do it?"
"Negation." There was no need to explain; everyone knew that Oak was simple and not competent to run his own life. Opaline would not betray that trust. It wasn't as if she didn't like Oak; he was a pleasant person who never argued.
"So though there are paths where this happens, I can't invoke them. It would have to be some disaster, not a matter of incidental choice."
Opaline saw how this might be. Voila couldn't be whimsical. Not where the future of the human culture was at stake. "There are choices you can't make," she agreed.
"But if it were necessary to make them anyway, without delay?"
"Question?"
"If Oak fell in a pit, and you could not get him out, you would have to leave him in order to fetch help."
"Then yes, I suppose," Opaline said reluctantly.
"It would be better if he never fell in the pit. But it happened before you realized, and you could not change it."
"Agreement." Opaline was distinctly uncomfortable with this dialogue, and not just because Oak was listening.
"Suppose you could change it, retroactively?" Voila asked. "You did not anticipate it, but the path is wide and there is a section where the pit may be avoided. In some realities you avoided it. If you could change to one of those, after the fact, would you do it?"
"Affirmation. But I couldn't."
"There is one who can."
"Someone who can make a thing unhappen? I never heard of that."
"We did it when you talked with Fifth on the brink of the Green Chroma volcano. On a number of paths, he jumped, and died. We were too late to prevent it. We could not go and try again to dissuade him; that was past. So we changed to a track where he changed his mind."
"When I told him of an Amazon crying!" Opaline exclaimed.
"That was the track," Voila agreed. "That Amazon was the woman he loved. Then he knew he couldn't bear to bring her such pain."
"I didn't mean to influence him. It was just something I remembered."
"It was because you were innocent in that respect that it worked. Shee, Voila, Warp, and Weft—all of us had agendas. We were trying to persuade him, and he knew it and resisted it. But you had accepted his decision. You were just commenting. He had no resistance."
Opaline shook her head. "I didn't mean to save him, but I'm glad I did."
"You were actually our agent, accomplishing our purpose, even though you were innocent. We selected the reality in which you did it."
"Amazement."
"Just as we could put Oak on another track if he fell in a pit. It is an extremely useful power."
"You say 'we.' But you see the future, not other presents. Who does this?"
"His name is Rafal. He roughly resembles a giant squid, with tentacles, and he lives on a distant planet in a star system many light years away. Fifth has met him; you have not. He is the one the machines want most to recruit, after me, because his talent is the most potent in opposing them."
"But how could he influence Fifth and me here? No talent reaches across light years."
"No talent except Oak's."
"Oh. Yes. But still—"
"I took an imprint of Rafal, and was able to borrow part of his power for this occasion. But more will be needed for the final battle with the machines."
"The final battle! Is it close?"
"Very close. Tomorrow."
"Oh! I had no idea." Voila smiled grimly. "It was not set until yesterday, when I notified the machines that I would not enlist with them. That precipitated the war."
"Haven't we been fighting them all along?"
"Negation. We have been negotiating with them, making displays of power, proffering deals, indulging in ploys and counter ploys, jockeying for advantage. Now the time is propitious, as we have secured Flame and Fifth, and we are at war."
"Propitious? We will win?"
"That is as yet undecided. The odds appear to be even, but we have strategies that we believe put us ahead."
"I must have Oak practice more. If I had known—"
"Needless. Oak is ready. So are you."
"Me? Question."
"You are also a nexus."
"Because I work with Oak."
Voila smiled obscurely. "That, too. You are integral to the denouement."
"But I'm from the machines! Everything I know, they will know."
"Which is why we did not enlighten you before. Now there is more we want the machines to know."
"More? Why?"
"It may persuade them to surrender."
Opaline had to laugh. "I don't think the machines know how to do that."
"Perhaps they will learn. Today we want you and Oak to meet Rafal, for you will be working together tomorrow."
"Together!" Then Opaline caught on. "So if something goes wrong, he can change it to where it went right. He's an oops button."
Voila smiled. "That is a neat way to put it. Yes, he can fix mistakes, if they are of recent origin. We are going to need that. When the machines discover that he and I are coordinated, they will know that the advantage has shifted, and may elect not to fight. They do not make emotional decisions, but rational ones, and that may be their rational course."
Opaline thought of something else. "I guess you can bring him here in a ship, through a wormhole. But if he's a squid, won't he have to have a big pool or something? And what language does he speak?"
"We can provide a pool. Translation will be automatic. But he will not come here physically. The machines have grounded him on his planet, and he can't escape."
"Question? If I am to meet him, but he can't come here, must we go to where he is? I don't think Oak could handle that."
"I will emulate him. But first you must explain to Oak's family, so they understand."
"Agreement," Opaline said, dazed.
"I will set up the pool," Voila said, and vanished.
"Oak," Opaline said. "We must return to the house now. You will have a visitor who will look strange."
"Squid," Oak agreed. So he had understood a bit of it, and oriented on what was familiar.
They walked quickly back. They entered the house. Opaline realized it had been more than an hour since they had had sex, so she took him to their room and did it efficiently, then went downstairs to talk to Pot and Kettle.
"The battle with the machines is tomorrow," she said. "A monster in a pool is coming to help. Oak will meet him today. The Glamors will set up a pool. The monster will not hurt Oak or me. You may come out to see. But please, do not protest; these are Glamors."
Both of them nodded. They now knew enough of her mission with Oak to trust her judgment.
She went outside. There was a large tub filled with water. Voila stood beside it. "It is important that Oak and Rafal get along," she said. Then she doffed her clothes and climbed into the pool.