"First, this: To the things from the Far Tapestry you are a sort of mechanical contrivance whose levers they are prodding, looking for triggers. To bind them on a level where their words bear any relation to reality, rather than being pure manipulations, is only the first step with trading with them; after that they will be looking for truths that fix reality, true things they can say that move you; and they have more freedom in it than you imagine, because what they say affects what is true. It bears some resemblance to the art of self-fulfilling prophecy, which the young oracle beside you has barely begun to explore."
"From the perspective of the Far Tapestry, anything resembling a swift emotional reaction is an alien shortcut through your mind's pathways, which they will try to exploit towards self-fulfillment. Had I wished to ruin you, using the arts that they would use, I would have - without warning, and with a carefully established previous frame of insufficiently-concealed contempt - prophesied to you that your pride would be your flaw and your downfall, that you would hold yourself too great to heed the council of wise elder beings like myself that could have saved you. I am not using the exact words I'd have used, if I were trying that myself; but with the right choice of wordings, intonations, contexts, I could have spoken those words and thereby made them true. I could tell you that your reluctance to compromise would destroy you, in a way that made it sound like I was sincerely contemptuous about the fact but maybe also didn't know as much about you as I thought; and you'd think 'hah, I'll show her, then' and refuse to compromise and so seal the truth I'd predicted."
"Dealing with creatures like that is, in fact, unpleasant, and I would recommend leaving such negotiations to my husband."