Fourteen hours after we set out from Okanagan Lake, we crossed the fresh scent trail of another vampire. I didn't recognize it, but from the way Edward redirected his path, I inferred that he did.
"That's Laurent," Alice murmured to me. "I'd say he was hunting here not twenty minutes ago." As my eyes widened in alarm, she clarified, "Hunting the vegetarian way. It smells faintly of caribou."
Shortly after that, we found the man himself, surrounded by the corpses of two of the great beasts. I could see where their massive antlers had gouged furrows in the earth as they struggled to escape. Now they were still and bloodless.
When Laurent saw Edward approaching, he didn't wait to hear whether we came in peace. He turned on the spot and fled. But running was futile: Edward chased him down and sprang, knocking his quarry to the ground with the grace of a lynx. Then he drew back his fist and punched Laurent squarely in the face. I heard the gravelly crunching sound of a vampiric nose breaking.
I sprinted toward them, cursing Edward's superior speed. But by the time I got there, he had already relented. It seemed he would content himself with a single solid blow for now.
As the others arrived, I glared accusatorily at Alice. She could easily have warned us about this. She shrugged: "I had to let Edward get one hit in. I would have asked Miranda to stop him if I saw him going further."
Rolling my eyes, I pushed Edward aside and helped Laurent to his feet.
He glared at me, straightening out his broken nose with one hand. "You promised not to tell."
"I didn't tell. There was someone else watching us from the woods."
"Uh huh."
I narrowed my eyes. "I swear it. Edward found out by himself, and I came to make sure he didn't kill you."
Laurent appraised me for a moment. I met his gaze steadily. His eyes were a disconcerting shade of orange, evidence of a mostly-animal diet with occasional human blood mixed in. I remembered them being deep red a mere two weeks earlier; I wasn't sure whether that meant that he'd stayed on the wagon in the time since, or that my human eyes had simply missed the yellowish undertones in his irises.
"The vampire look suits you," he said finally. "I hope your transformation went as smoothly as can be." He didn't seem wholly convinced that I was telling the truth, but perhaps he was reluctant to call me a liar while surrounded by nine potentially-hostile vampires.
"Painful, but effective," I replied. "Thank you."
He dipped his head in response, glancing nervously at Edward out of the corners of his eyes.
"Edward knows that you were going to eat me, and that I convinced you to instead trade me your venom for a favor," I answered the unspoken question. "I don't think you have anything to hide from him, at least not concerning me." I didn't bother pointing out that it was impossible–for anyone but me–to keep secrets from a mind reader.
Laurent nodded in acknowledgment. Then he turned to face Edward, sizing up the extent of the other vampire's ire. "I must apologize for threatening your Bella. I knew that you and your family cared for her, although I wasn't certain whether that was still true, and I almost let my thirst get the better of me. As a form of penance, I've committed myself to following the vegetarian lifestyle for at least a year, with the hope that I will improve my self control."
The apology sounded genuine enough to me, but Edward snorted derisively. "Don't waste your time trying to suck up," he said coldly. "I can tell your 'penance' was motivated by a desire to be able to tell me about it, in case I found out about what happened in the meadow, and not by any true remorse for your behavior."
Laurent was clearly prepared for this response. "Tell me, O Mind Reader, how many of us act out of true benevolence, and how many out of a desire to improve how others see us? A good apology includes actions one will take to rectify the situation or to avoid it happening again, which are often done for the sake of the apology, but are no less meaningful a sacrifice. Judge me by my actions, and not by my thoughts."
Edward narrowed his eyes. Laurent had struck a nerve–Edward generally tried not to judge people for the things he saw in their minds–but I could tell he didn't want to admit that the other vampire had a point. "If you want to rectify the situation, you can start by releasing Bella from this favor you've extracted from her."
"Done," Laurent agreed immediately.
"Hey!" I protested. "Edward, you can't renegotiate my deals for me. That's my promise to keep."
He gritted his teeth. "You don't even have a plan for keeping it. Miranda refused to help him win his stupid duel for Irina's hand. What if he asks you for something else later–something dangerous?"
I glared at him, lifting my chin. "If you make Laurent let me off the hook by implicitly threatening to kill him, how is that any better than what you accused him of doing to me?"
Edward looked like he was reaching his breaking point. I didn't know what to do. He wasn't in a mood to listen to rational arguments on this subject… I had to hope he would come around after some time to think.
Jasper seemed to reach the same conclusion. A calming wave radiated outward from him. He pulled his brother aside, saying, "Let's go hunt some caribou. Get some more time to think it over before making any decisions."
"Fine," Edward muttered. "I've had enough of listening to this guy's thoughts, anyway. He has no principles except self-preservation. It's pathetic."
Laurent's face tensed, but he didn't bother to defend himself from this accusation. Once the two brothers had disappeared into the woods, he turned back to me.
"Have you had any trouble from Victoria since last we spoke?" he inquired. "I tried to persuade her that you were too well-protected to go after, to buy you some time to transform, but I'm not sure my words had any effect."
A short laugh burst from my chest involuntarily. "You might have been too persuasive. She gave up on me and went after Edward instead–but we took her down."
"A shame," he murmured, bowing his head solemnly. "She could be a bit volatile, but we worked together for many years."
"I'm sorry for your loss, but it was necessary," I answered firmly.
"I understand."
"Thank you for trying to keep her away from me," I added in a more gentle tone.
"It was the least I could do." He gave me a half-smile. "And I admit, I was hoping you would be able to help me. From what Edward said, I take it you haven't found a way for me to win in single combat?" His normally-smooth voice was tinged with desperation.
I shrugged. "Miranda could probably do it, but she's not the one who owes you a favor."
"Is there some other way I might earn your assistance, my lovely lady?" Laurent smiled hopefully at Miranda.
"You could try not being a slimeball," she retorted. He drew back, stung.
"Alice, do you think you could help Laurent, the same way you helped me choreograph my fight with Victoria?" I asked. If there was anyone I suspected might help me, it was her–and our plan to use iterated visions to beat Victoria had almost worked. If Alice locked herself away so that she couldn't act on additional visions until after the fight, she might be able to avoid altering the future she had seen.
"Sure," she agreed. She explained the strategy to Laurent. "Do you want to try it?" she asked.
"It's a better plan than any I had," he agreed.
"And you'll count this as fulfilling Bella's favor?" she pressed.
"If it works."
"Fair enough. To start, you'll need to commit to challenging your opponent–what's his name?–"
"Kyle."
"–challenging Kyle at a particular time, so that I can foresee the battle."
"Alright. I'll do it as soon as he gets back from his own hunting trip."
I looked at Alice expectantly, wondering how well the fight would go in Laurent's first try. He was much more experienced than I was, so it probably wouldn't be as completely lopsided as my own combat with Victoria.
She shook her head. "I don't see you starting the fight. You need to really be committed to going through with this if I don't get any visions."
He frowned. "I expect to lose without your visions."
"Yes, and so you're chickening out. Which means I can't see what will happen."
"Alright. I won't chicken out," he proclaimed.
She scanned the future again. "Yes, you will."
Laurent frowned again. "How did you and Bella pull this off?"
"Bella was determined to go help Edward, even if it was a suicide mission," Alice explained. "She would have fought Victoria whether we had a strategy or not."
"I was wondering about that, actually," I interrupted. "I know why I went, but you wouldn't have risked your life without a plan. And for that matter, I couldn't have gotten there without your help. So why were you able to see us there at all?"
She sighed. "I wouldn't have gone if I saw us failing. But I would have gone if I hadn't gotten any visions at all. I have to be able to commit to doing things, and follow through on that commitment, or else I won't be able to see the results. But once I see the future, all bets are off–I no longer need to follow through on the committed course of action, because–"
"–your visions don't account for themselves." I said it with her. "Right."
"That must take incredible strength of character," Laurent marveled.
Alice shrugged. "It's just a habit at this point. Once I've made the commitment, I don't bother second-guessing myself. I've already thought this through so many times that I know I'm going to end up doing the thing I committed to."
"Wait," I objected. "Your commitments are only things that you'll do in the absence of further visions. But in reality, you always do get visions, so you never have to follow through."
"Right, that's the point," she replied.
"Then how can you say you've already thought this through so many times? You've never actually been in the position of having to fulfill your commitment! If your visions are simulating you making this decision, they'd be simulating you making it for the first time." My head spun as I tried to work out whether what I'd just said was true.
Alice nodded. "I've never actually had to do it, no. But I've seen many futures with Simulated Me in this position, not getting any visions and talking myself through these exact same arguments. I think if I found myself in a situation with no premonitions, I would assume that I was the Simulated Me instead of the Real Me, and so it'd be correct to follow through with whatever I was doing so that the Real Me could get information about it."
I rubbed my forehead. "Okay. I'm beginning to understand why the rest of the family never asks you about your power."
She smirked back at me. "Maybe this is the reason I was the one who got this gift–I have the sort of personality that's unusually good at making use of it," she hypothesized.
I thought of one more objection. "Sometimes your ability gets blocked–like when you're around the werewolves. What would happen if you committed to doing something risky unless you saw a vision of it going badly, and then ran into the wolves?" I considered it for a second. "If you didn't get any visions, it could be that something like that was going wrong, and that it was a bad idea to stick with the thing you were trying to do."
"The werewolves only blocked me from seeing things near them," she countered. "I could still look for what was happening in Denali, say, and change course once I'd gotten a vision of that."
"Oh. Good point," I acknowledged. Moving on to more practical matters: "Laurent, did any of that help you resolve to pick a fight later today?"
He nodded. "I understand better now. If Alice doesn't see anything, I'll follow through on starting the fight with Kyle."
"I don't know whom you're trying to convince," Alice observed, "but the universe isn't fooled."
