Isabella summons an alethiometer and it comes with a surprise
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"...let's start with no."

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"Bird, tree, hourglass."

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He tries it.

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The alethiometer is still "saying" stuff - it never stops - but it seems to be saying unrelated stuff.

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"Okay, now if you know the numbers?"

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"Six, forty, eighty..." She looks at her index. "- eighty-one."

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"What question even," he says, and tries again.

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"I'm not positive I formulated it right, to be fair, I'm not experienced at this and only being allowed three is limiting."

The alethiometer says tree forty.

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"Wait, is 'tree forty' a valid answer?"

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"Yes! And we can check if it's actually answering the question I meant to ask - well, we can get some evidence, anyway - when we have the rematch."

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"—the rematch? I'm dreadfully curious. Get me another question, maybe a simpler one with an obvious answer."

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"Hmmmm..." She flips pages and finally says, "Bread twelve sun four bread fifty-five."

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Try try try no idea what the question is...

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The alethiometer says candle nine.

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He relays this. "I wonder if it will pick up on valid questions even if no one around thought about them, or recently."

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She looks up candle nine. "Well, it's right about that one but I am right here."

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"Yeah. I also suspect one of our daemons wouldn't count as someone not around even if they're actually far away from us. I wonder if there are books with, like, example questions and answers?"

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"Haven't run into any."

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"I'll see if the librarian knows anything about it."

Off he goes to ask, while Luca hops onto the alethiometer.

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The librarian is playing Bejeweled but does not look annoyed at being interrupted. "Hi, how can I help you?"

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"Hi! I was wondering if you had any books on alethiometers but not just dictionaries. Something that would have sample questions and answers would be what I'm looking for."

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"Hmm, we have a book about their history that might have some examples." She looks it up in the system and writes down a number for him.

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"Thanks!"

He looks for the relevant book and brings it back to their table.

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"Whaddaya got?"

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"Book on the history of alethiometers. Might have some stuff, but I'm not sure how to get to a question without accidentally reading it."

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