879-97-11? Immediate YES. -1,1,-1. Slow YES. ... Oh? -1,1,2? 1,-1,-1. Both swift YES. Very interesting. 1,-1,1? YES, very slowly.
What on Golarion could this possibly be? Now he really wants to know. 1,1,-1. Another slow YES. -1,-1,1 YES, slowly again.
... Hmm. He hypothesizes that -1,-1,-1 is quick? He'll test that hypothesis. YES but a slow yes.
Fascinating. He really just ants to know the answer... Wait. -3,0,0? YES but a slow YES.
... He's imagining that Keltham has to do a lot of mental math here because he's trying to calculate - in his model, everything is either positive once Keltham has done some calculations, and that gets YES, or negative, and that gets NO, and that suggests to him that's multiplication of some sort but the different places meaning different things but he isn't sure which place means which...
-2,1,-2? Keltham is moving slowly, so that's a slow YES.
Actually, no, there's an even dumber test he should do, to see if the correct answer really is based on what he guessed earlier: -2,1,-2
An immediate NO.
... This cannot be that simple. 2,4,6?
NO.
... Alexandre now sees his fault. He had been, fundamentally, assuming that these were standard tests, independent tests, each question isolated from the last. He had not realized... the meaning of what Keltham had said. He had heard the word, and not thought about it, so only now, does he see the truth: That he cannot consider all his steps in isolation. He does not know the Law, yet, but he is one step closer to finding it.
If he was not in Cheliax, he would be smiling.