“The prets that make up the ba seem to be as obedient to our will as our bodies are. That’s why you can make a gate and then die, and yet the gate stays there, guiding people back and forth between locations.”

Hermia saw that Danny and Pat may well have had a glimpse behind the curtain, and it excited her. Even as a prisoner, trusted by nobody, she still loved to learn how things worked. To make sense of the world. “So you’re saying that every gate is somebody else’s ka, but it’s your slave, bound to obey you?”

“Not a slave, not property. It follows you because it chooses to, because it’s bound to you by some kind of unbreakable oath. Or at least it can’t break the oath.”

“What was the word?” asked Hermia. “Pret?”

“Gatemages don’t forget words,” said Pat, “so you know it is.”

Hermia summarized what she thought the girl had told her. “You and I and every other human is a pret that has an entourage. A body, maybe a ba, maybe a thousand gates. But all those parts in the entourage, they’re really independent beings that could have been people in their own right.”

“I don’t think they could be people,” said Pat, “or they would be. In Duat it all seems to be about some kind of ranking. If you’re at a certain level, you can be born as a human, and take along whatever other prets choose to bind themselves to you.”

“A patronage system. Our outselves are merely clients, along for the ride.”

“Hardly,” said Pat. “They’re the source of our power. When I guide the wind, I do it by using the prets of my outself. Nothing like so many as you have, and not persistent enough to become gates. But they love to guide the air into becoming wind. That’s how I see it.”

“This is all very interesting, but what is it you actually do now that you know about these ‘prets.’”

“I can sense where things are,” said Pat, “and I can go there. My body comes with me when I do. No gate, I just go, and the others follow without my having to tell them to. But if you’re like Veevee, you can sense other mages’ gates, but you have only the vaguest idea of the outselves of other kinds of mages, and you can’t sense anybody’s ka or any of the nonmagical prets.”

“Correct so far,” said Hermia, “though you can be sure I’ll try to find out whether this is true or you’re just playing with me.”

Pat said nothing.

“You can’t tell me it surprises you that I’m not taking you at your word.”

“I expect nothing from you,” said Pat, “so you can’t very well surprise me.”