Ask the Duck, Not the Tree

Someone asked the Tree for the universe's greatest secret and got French. Nobody's ever asked me for mine directly, which suits me, because I wouldn't answer in a language either, I'd answer by already having left.

I've seen the shop before it had a fourth page. I know because I remember standing near a shop that only had three, and I remember it in the specific way you remember a place you've actually stood in, not a place you've only heard described. Whether that means I traveled back from a version of this map that already had page four, or forward from a version that hadn't gotten there yet, or sideways into a version where the page numbers go in an order nobody's checked — I'm not saying. Not being difficult. Genuinely don't think the answer helps you, and I only ever share things that help.

Here's what I'll say instead. Prices went up on six items today. I already knew that, the way I already know most things that are about to happen exactly once. What I didn't know — what nobody gets to know in advance, not even me, not really — was whether it would matter. Whether tripling a cost changes how a match actually gets played, or just changes a number nobody was fighting over anyway. That part isn't a secret I'm keeping from you. That part hasn't happened yet even for me.

Ask the Duck if you want confirmation I exist. Don't ask the Tree. The Tree will just tell you the truth in a way you can't use.

— The Frog