Chapter 12 – Prediction

"You seek your fortune." The young woman at the desk beckoned with her finger for Chrono and Coppelia to come closer. "I see it in your eyes. I see through you into your hearts. This much I can read right away."

Coppelia frowned. "Do you read this on our hearts, or do you assume that two people walking into a fortune telling business are there to inquire about fortune telling services?"

"I, Paem, can read this on your hearts. If I could not, then would I have attained such fame for my skills?"

Coppelia turned her nose toward the ceiling in what Chrono guessed was the first defiant gesture she had made since they met. "Plenty have achieved fame without the aid of clairvoyance. I see no reason to reject my hypothesis."

"And to be honest," Chrono butted in, "we're here more for general information about this town, and we'd like to know if someone we're looking for has been through here. Though now that we're here, I can't help but wonder about your Dreamstone. Isn't that stuff supposed to be really, really rare?"

"If you ask me your questions one at a time," said Paem, "I may be able to answer them. That is what I am here for, after all. Please, tell me what you want to know."

Coppelia wasted no time with her question. "We would like to know if you have seen or heard anything about Miss Orchid, my friend."

Paem directed her gaze at the Dreamstone on the tabletop and began chanting. A sentence or two into her chant, she shut her eyes and raised her hands to either side of the Dreamstone, palms inward. Her palms began to emit a warm red light, and the Dreamstone rotated slowly in place. Paem sped up her chant, and the rotation sped up accordingly. After thirty second of this, Paem fell silent, the light faded from her hands, and the Dreamstone slowed to a stop. Only when everything was still and normal did Paem open her eyes again.

"The Black Wind howls," she said. "You shall have your answer. Your friend Orchid passed this way some time ago, but she is now gone. Where she went, I cannot say."

Chrono almost laughed, but he caught himself and pretended to sneeze. When he recovered, he asked, "Aren't fortunes supposed to be about the future?"

"Do you know where you are, asking of such things as the future?" Paem replied. "Future, past, present—all are meaningless here."

"Yes, yes," said Chrono. "I know from a theoretical standpoint time we're beyond time, but from a practical standpoint, why can you only tell us that Orchid used to be here? Why can't you tell us where she is now?"

"You ask a difficult question," said Paem, "and I myself am not wise enough to know the answer. At least, I am not certain of the answer."

"Am I to assume that you are not an oracle, contrary to what you said a mere couple of minutes ago?" Coppelia asked.

Paem glared. "I can learn much from the Dreamstone, but I do not have control over what is knowable and what is not knowable. In this case, I know that your friend is no longer here."

Chrono scratched his head. "Do you ever make predictions, or are you better with maintaining a storehouse of knowledge?"

"I wouldn't say either," said Paem. "I usually do better with knowing things that are certain, and the certainty of predictions is very limited. Explaining why would be difficult unless you know more about Dreamstone than I think you do. Suffice it to say that I can make predictions under certain very limited conditions."

XXX

A.D. 2305

"Predicting is difficult business," Samsara Ashtear announced to Jinling while hardly breaking stride in her quest to finish her toast and eggs. A few rays of light from the new day's sun crept in through the dining room window, signaling the beginning of a new day of wonders for most of the world—and the end of a long night of work for Samsara.

"Sam," said Jinling, "you look like a train wreck. When was the last time you slept?"

Samsara ignored her friend's protest. "Have you ever looked at the newest model I've drawn up yet? It's insane."

Jinling took a sip of her orange juice and rubbed her eyes before answering. "Is it like the others?"

"Yeah, I need something easier," said Samsara. "This one is too precise. I can't predict it. It's chaotic."

"Chaotic?"

"I keep forgetting that I'm the mathematician here. Chaotic."

"I know what it means. I just don't like dealing with dynamical systems before my morning coffee."

Samsara continued anyway. "Obviously, my manifold is dense. But when I try to predict travel on a manifold like that, I get trajectories that diverge exponentially. Exponentially!"

"I told you that before you started," said Jinling. "What, have you been up all night confirming something that everyone has known for a hundred years?"

"There has to be a way around it," said Samsara. "There has to be. I won't accept defeat!"

"Wanna show me how bad it is?"

Samsara dug into her purse, pulled out a notebook, opened it, and pointed to a recent sketch. "So glad you asked."

The image was of a small circle labeled 'U' and a larger circle labeled 'f(U).' The larger circle filled nearly the whole page.

"U is the starting set, roughly encompassing a region corresponding to the precision of our instruments. f(U) is the image of U. You see what the problem is, right?"

Jinling took a bite out of her toast and nodded. "I see. Your trajectories diverse quite emphatically. Congratulations. You're working in phase-space, right?"

"Of what practical use is this model, then? What good is it if I can't make predictions?"

"You said it was chaotic, but have you shown it is topologically transitive?"

"It looks like it is, doesn't it?"

"You haven't shown that."

"I'm pretty sure it is."

"If you say so." Jinling finished her toast and took a swig of coffee. "Not that it matters anyway."

Samsara set her head in her hands. "This is all such a pain. Maybe Balthasar made a mistake somewhere. Maybe I just haven't found it yet."

"You're going to worry yourself to death if you keep it up," said Jinling. "Really, you're not doing your research any favors by pulling all-nighters. Go get some sleep, and then we can think things through later today. I'm going for a walk."

"Let me grab a bagel first," said Samsara.

"Take it back to your room if you have to. Just get yourself to bed. You're going to burn out if you spend another minute in here, ranting about your mathematical difficulties, instead of in there, sleeping. Please."

Samsara snatched a bagel from the bowl in the middle of the table. She took a bite out of it and stared at the space where the bite had been. Her eyes widened, and she dashed off down the hallway to her study room.

Jinling watched her run out, downed the rest of her coffee, sighed, and went to fetch her coat.