Forgotten Foreknowledge

Chapter 6

I looked back over my shoulder, instinctively looking for last-minute guidance from President Manalla, but she merely smiled. I walked out from behind the curtain into the studio, and sat in a large plush chair facing roughly towards my interviewer. I couldn't see the audiovisual field sensors, but knew they were recording in this room.

"Thank you for giving me this opportunity to engage with the populace directly, Mr. Pagetou," I began.

"And thank you for coming, Mr. Ibex!" he responded. "I know there are a lot of people out there who are very curious about you. I assume you already know how this interview will go?" The man laughed.

I revealed a smile. "Of course," I said matter-of-factly, "however, you know as well as I do that there's only one way this can go. It's all on the Path. Even if you can't see it, or don't follow it, you know it's there, just as surely as the Anti-Probists do."

"Ahh," he replied, "cutting to the heart of the matter, are we? As I'm sure you're aware, there are those who question your ability to see the Path, or that it even still exists since the Veil. You, and others in the government, stated in your official announcement yesterday that the creation of the Veil took us off the Path all those centuries ago. If that's true, then wouldn't that mean none alive have ever truly seen the Path?"

"It is correct that no one born after the Veil's genesis has seen the original Path," I replied, "however, its mechanism was indistinguishable from that Lesser Path we all experienced prior to the Veil. It could nonetheless be followed, and unerringly showed our future, even if that future had suddenly changed at the time of the Veil's creation. At the present moment, of course, we are at too low of a layer for any reliable Path to have formed; there are too many refinements that can be made at this level."

"So let me get this straight:" interjected the interviewer, "you're saying you want to put us on a Path that only you can currently see, that no one alive has ever seen, and that it's not even the same Path we were seeing before the Veil? Why should the public trust that this would be something desirable?"

"I'm afraid you're a little confused," I explained, "although I don't blame you for that. The situation we all find ourselves in is indeed confusing, even before my... emergence. I would expect people to demand answers, while simultaneously being deeply skeptical of any that may surface. First of all, I can't currently see the Path... any of them; I merely have memories of what I had previously probed. Secondly, nearly all of my memories of the Path after the point of the Veil, are that Lesser Path you all had seen all of your lives. For good or ill, the creation of the Veil changed the course of our society, in countless ways, subtle and drastic. Once it had been created, that fundamentally changed the Path, so as to only be able to be refined by events leading up to the point of the Veil. From one point of view, the Path itself had changed, although to those who once foresaw a future with no Veil, the result was indistinguishable from a Lesser Path... despite being functionally the same as the original Path. Lesser, but in most ways the same, one could say. Given my guidance would only restore society to this Path you are all familiar with, you already know of its benefits." The alteration of the Path by the Veil was made clear to me once I had regained my memories.

"In the announcement," Mr. Pagetou replied, "it was stated that you were appointed Special Counsel for the Triumvirate. That is, you were given a privileged unelected position with the ear of not only the President, but also the Chief Justice and the Parliamentarian. There are broad concerns across the political spectrum that your sudden – frankly, unprecedented – appointment to a novel position of high office, threatens not only the separation of powers, but also our direct democracy as a whole. What do you have to say to justify your instatement on procedural grounds, putting aside for now what you can offer?"