Cern wondered about what Begay had said. Finally he asked him to explain.

"Begay, I know something about the type of person who would become a skinwalker; self-centered, egotistic, willing to sacrifice others for their own benefit, their own self-aggrandizement. But those are variants, parasites, far from the norm. How can you say they are nearly always behind things that go wrong?"

"What you say is true. Most people have good hearts, and take an interest in the welfare of others. Why, then, do they so often fail to do the right thing? The Diné blame the skinwalker, and they are right to do so. 

"The skinwalker is one who hides in plain sight, who is not what he appears to be, who presents himself as a friend when he is really an enemy. Presents himself one way to one person and as something else to another. Whatever it takes to gain favor. And in doing that, if he can gain favor with one by speaking ill of another, if he can gain favor by blaming another for his own crimes, he will do so.

"And those who come under his influence may spread this disease, spread the lies and confusions, the misguidance, all to their own ultimate harm, benefiting only the skinwalker.

"The people know of the skinwalker, but they do not see him. The wily skinwalker tells them only what they want to hear, what they are willing to believe, what makes them feel good about themselves. This is insidious, because it is not a bad thing on the face of it. It can seem to be entirely well-intentioned. But when what makes people feel good about themselves makes them think less of others, blame others for their troubles, it does more harm than good.

"The skinwalker himself may not know this. He almost certainly does not see himself for what he is. His own self-deception may be his worst crime, his biggest failing."

Cern was silent for a while, taking this in. "But aren't we all guilty of self-deception? Don't we all create our own inner world, fill our minds with beliefs that may have little basis in reality?"

"This is true. In some ways our skill at self-deception is at once the greatest gift and greatest curse of mankind. It becomes a source of evil when we only see the self-deception in others, and not in ourselves."

"Ah, I remember you saying something like that to Dema the other day."

"Yes, she was seeing truly, as you are seeing now."

"The shaman dream perception, seeing beyond the inner world of self, encompassing the broader reality. It's not always easy."

"It is never easy. That is why we pretend to hide from it. But we all see. Life is seeing. When we deny seeing we deny life."

"Much of the modern world is built on that denial, one way or another." Begay nodded.

"So the skinwalker is a life-denier, even though he uses seeing to influence others?"

Again Begay nodded. "He sees, but he does not see truly, because he believes too strongly in his own superiority."

It was Cern's turn to nod, recalling Vlad, what he had been, what he had become, and his effects on those who had fallen under his sway. He could see that the skinwalker effect Begay was describing was similar, a harmonic of that, perhaps even more sinister in that it would be harder to detect.

"And harder to believe when you do detect it."

Begay had completed Cern's thought. Cern only nodded again, realizing that what Begay said would be true.

The last rancher again had a story much like the others, except that it was himself, not his wife or daughter, who had been offered assistance in getting a line of credit from a bank by someone at the casino. And he was able to name this person.

"His Anglo name is Arthur Littletree," he told them. "I do not know his Diné name."

"Do you blame him for your troubles?" Cern asked.

He laughed. "Him? No. He is very nice, very much wanting to help, always encouraging. He was upset when he learned I still have troubles. He even offered to help me get another loan with another bank."

"Did you do that?"

"No. I might have, but I could not believe that it would really make things better when getting money from the first bank made things worse. So I told him I must discuss it with my wife. She helped me say no."

Begay and Cern said goodbye to the rancher, and headed back to Twin Arrows. For a while Cern was lost in thought. Then he turned to Begay and said, "Do you know this Arthur Littletree?"

"Oh yes, everyone knows Arthur. He is the public relations manager for the Navajo Nation casinos. I am a little surprised you did not get your tour from him instead of Lisa." 

"Just lucky I guess. Maybe he wasn't available. What do you say, should we arrange to meet with Arthur Littletree? Do you think he might tell us who else he's been helping?"