I trust I have not grown so gullible as to consult a doctor," the bureaucrat said with dignity. "If I want medical attention, I hall employ the quali… - Michael Swanwick

The secret to successful scrying was to realize that the future was not fixed and there was no way of predicting it. None. All one could do was to identify what already existed unacknowledged. Lovers pledged themselves to each other long before their first kiss. Murder was implicit in friendship. A carcinoma that looked like a speck of dust on the X-ray spelled death. So much of what appeared to be random event was simply the working out of consequences.

But the way she saw it, you only had so much organization in your life. You had to choose: Invest it in your research, or fritter it away on housework.

You will study bioscience control, that ought to be useful—it will teach you the folly of thinking you can go against your genetic inheritance, for one thing.