And then, finally, we come to the hallmark of our Organization... our Cabal. The fruits of the Great Secret. The power of Desire, Hirself. Intimation.

What I could tell you of this power would take years, and fully supplant much of what your instructors are teaching you at this time. So I will not duplicate their efforts, nor give you for free what it took me countless ages to learn, myself. Instead, I will merely give you some advice, so that when you are given more practical tests, you will not be tripped up, caught or detected for one foolish mistake.

The first piece of advice I would give you is to remember that an Arcanos - even Intimation - is just a tool. It will not fight your battles for you, nor guarantee victory. Your true understanding of ours, and its nature, sets you apart from others who have licked mere scraps of it up from the corners of their consciousness. But that alone assures nothing, save condemnation in certain quarters if your eye's true color should be seen.

In other words, my students, I wish to see some of the blocks disappear from your shoulders, and some of the smirks wiped from your faces. We are not ubermenchen - we are here because we proved to be mortal, and are still quite so. And the only way to guarantee our survival in this dead world is to learn from our mistakes, and those of others, and to be cunning and subtle at all times.

So how does one go about being cunning with Intimation? Consider two Solicitors I have known. Both of them were given the task of changing the minds of a pair of mid-level Hierarchy bureaucrats through Intimation - a thing that could be done in so many, other ways, as I have just shown you at length. And it could also be done rather grossly and suddenly, just be announcing the facts of the matter to the Mark But they went about this subtly, and this made the difference.

One of them stalked his target for days on end, watching him carefully and using the lower levels of our Art to discover what this person felt while he was doing each task. Then he picked a time when he was feeling next to nothing at all - signing records and forms, of course - and then removed a certain want from that person's mind. It was a gross and sudden removal, typical of the use of Quash, but as it was not at the forefront of this person's mind, he did not notice it. And it was not until this person went about doing a more important task - assigning Legionnaires to specific duties - that his desire to be efficient in all things was missed. And so he was lazy and careless, and the wrong sort of people were put on the wrong sort of tasks, and so things proceeded apace.

As for the other, he befriended the fellow. He got to know him, both the public self that was revealed in friendship and the private self that our Art could uncover. And once he knew what this man wanted, it was ever so simple to play up to that desire in otherwise-innocent conversation, meanwhile using our Art to make what the fellow wanted even more enticing than before.

All the while, our Solicitor played the voice of reason, trying to urge the fellow to be steadfast and forthright. But he did this knowing that the man needed someone to tell him he was going too far. He needed a father-confessor, as it was. If he had to act as his own, then he would never dare do anything. But if he had another, he could go ahead and do it, and then 'repent' by telling a friend.

In both cases, the Cabal's wishes were served, and no one had any idea we were involved. And that, students, is the key. If we step from the shadows, blaze our eyes and state "I am the King of the World, and you will obey me," it will work in the short term, but in the long term it will compromise us, and make us all too easy to dismiss as bullies and ruffians.

Some say that the best trick the Devil ever made was convincing us that he didn't exist. But we are here, dead, and know that he does not exist. So I say that the best devil is the one you know is real, and are terrified of, but never know was ever there.

And with that, I believe we may be finished here, this day.

You may go.

("Of course, this marked the end of her lecture... or so it seemed. She did promise that one of the students was a Mark?

("Well, she would have, by this time, discerned which of the students in the first two rows was paying the most attention. This one would have slowly worked upon during the lecture, using The Urge and the like. And then, when she was finished, and the class was dismissed, she would wait for the person to pass and then ask that person to help her with something, up at the front.

("Now, if that student was smart enough to pause, or - in one case - ask what happened to the Mark, then she would smile and send him or her on her way. That student had passed her test, for he or she had truly been paying attention. That student remembered what she said: that anyone is usable, so long as it fits the Cabal's interest.

("But if that student thought nothing of helping her, then that student would be skewered upon her very sharp knife. The rest of the class would be called back in to see that this student was, indeed, the Mark. And it could have been any one of them! The students were told not to tell anyone of what had happened, and the Mark would then be sent on his way, corpus pierced right through and ears burning red with shame.

("A very effective presentation, I have to say. But, again, we should remember that her attempts to de-sanctify our Art and inculcate in the new blood an antipathy towards its use was, in the end, deemed heretical. She would have had us skulking in the Shadows along with the Mnemoi and the Usurers! I considered that approach to be quite undignified, and I am very pleased that the Center of the Wheel agreed.

("But she still has her uses. A gentleman should always have a sword handy, and, in spite of my upbringing, I did always appreciate German steel." - Grand Master Don Salazaar)