Brother Vahan spoke to the ground-glass screen. "Give this man unlimited access to our files and full aid for… will four hours be enough?"

"Should be plenty," I answered.

Tor four hours, then," the abbot said. Treat him in all ways as if he were one of our holy brethren." That was as blanche a carte as he could give me; I bowed my head in profound appreciation. He flipped a hand back and forth, as if to say. Think nothing of it. He could say that if he wanted to (humility is, after all, a monkish virtue), but we both knew I owed him a big one.

"Anything else?" he asked me. I shook my head. "Happy hunting, then," he said as he started out of the scriptorium.

"I'll see you later."

The spirit manifesting itself in the access screen turned its nearsighted gaze on me. "How may I serve you, child of Adam given four hours of unlimited access to the files of the Thomas Brothers?"

I told it the same thing I'd told Brother Vahan: "I want to go through births, birth defects, healings, and exorcisms within a five-mile radius of the Devonshire dump, first for the year ending exactly ten years ago and then for the year ending today." Humans can handle approximate data; with spirits you have to spell out every word and make sure you've crossed your t's and dotted your i's (and even your's).

"I shall gather the data you require. Please waif" the spirit said. The screen went blank.

In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was Cod. Yes, I know that's Brother Vahan's theology, not mine. It's a lot older than Christianity, for that matter. In Old Kingdom Egypt, the god Ptah was seen as both the tongue of the primeval god Atum and as the instrument through which Atum created the material world. Of course thought is the instrument through which we perceive and influence the Other Side; without it, we'd be as blind to magic as any dumb animals.