Now that chance was gone, and the Brotherhood was right again.
"Not many ask to see me," Knupf said in the same voice. He went on looking at his hands. There was bitterness in his mind, bitterness that had changed to hate. "Their pleas tend to be exactly the opposite."
"I did not plead," Jonas pointed out. "It was necessary that I come to see you."
The question was, he told himself, exactly what were the Inquisitor's real beliefs? His public professions were well-known; Jonas searched and found the answer. Knupf was an honest man.
That, of course, made matters simpler.
"Necessary?" Knupf said, looking up for the first time. His gaze stabbed like a sword. He was uneasy, Jonas knew; with another mind probing his, he could not help but be uneasy. But he could not find a cause; it would never occur to him. And he controlled his feelings superbly.
"You believe that I am a wizard," Jonas said.
Knupf waited a bare second, and then nodded.
"I can do many things," Jonas went on. "It was necessary that I bring these to your attention—and prove to you that they are not wizardry, or magic."
"Many have told me," Knupf muttered, "that their feats were natural. It is a common defense."