Esta has a feeling that Cultural Adaptation would have told him something about the significance of this question which he may himself be missing. It is not something that Mariona would've said to him, that's for certain. It has the feeling of not only a clever question but a culturally clever question.
"I suppose -- if I do not get more spells, it predicts the Outer God's game does not last through this planet's summer, for then neither will we. It is profoundly improbable that It will in this case helpfully send us back; but we may be permitted to return through successfully finding the Bag."
"If I do get spells -- the game may be a longer one. Or it may simply be the sort of game that requires us to successfully speak to one another."
"I think for the most part, I predict that we are meant by It to speak to each other of our altered memories. From which the spells would follow."
"Whether it is actually our [god] sending those spells, or if It is sabotaging the spells I receive or my ability to ask for them, is of course a separate question."