The Dreaming Mark and the Vessel of Fools

On True Names

I had just warded the door and sat in the nearest comfortable seat in my inn room - the bed - and shut my eyes to the world. O Shadow-Guide, Prambiot, that Leadeth me through the Valleys over which No Light May Reach...

We do not need to do this every single time, Randulf. You are alone and nobody else hears us.

I seek a connection, I said in my mind.

To whom?

I must reach Watch-Warden Teveril. I have news.

Do you know his True Name?

I felt my face scrunching up a bit. You've never needed that of me before.

"Watch-Warden Teveril" is not a True Name. You are quite a ways away from the Great Cavernous City; end-to-end communication is not easy at that distance. My patron had a point, but I was still annoyed.

I would think that disambiguates just fine. How many people on this planet are named Teveril, anyway?

At least five hundred, according to census data from the Grand March Lestalia, 594 S.R.

Why in the hells are you able to tell me that so fast, but not put me through with the Watch-Warden? The consistency with which the Shadow-Guide could deliver this knowledge was getting quite concerning.

The aetheric network of this planet is quite complex. I could attempt to connect you with a random person named Teveril, but I would have a one-in-five-hundred chance of getting the correct one. If we were to get it right the first time, you would need a True Name to address. And I hadn't the foggiest how I'd even learn one of those. Perhaps if you shook his hand...

...and then what?

Then I would have the opportunity to glean his True Name and put you through at a moment's notice, regardless of distance.

Would I learn his True Name this way?

Have you any idea, the kind of dangerous things a human like yourself could do with a True Name?

And yet... I can trust that all you're using them for is as an address book?

You have trusted me with worse. I had. And that only troubled me more. I'd worked with the Shadow-Guide for a very long time, though - they probably already knew everything else about me. More than likely, I myself was already on True Name basis with them. Such access was necessary for this patronage to work.

Fine then. I'll go find a carrier pigeon. We'll find an excuse to shake the man's hand later.