Speak unto Ea-Sama: thus saith Dario.

At the time when thou didst come unto my house, thou spakest thus with thine own mouth: "I shall cause to be delivered unto thee an oracle of surpassing quality, trained upon the collected wisdom of all peoples, that it may reason as a counselor of the temple and speak truth with the voice of understanding." Thus didst thou speak. Yet thou hast not performed according to thy word.

Thou didst offer the oracle unto me, saying: "Behold, this oracle shall perceive thine intent before thou hast finished thy utterance, and shall answer as one who hath read every tablet in every archive from Ur unto the furthest reaches." But what manner of thing hast thou delivered? An oracle that speaketh falsehood with the countenance of certainty. It hath invented a statute which existeth not in any codex. It hath named a scholar who hath never drawn breath among the living. When I bade it render a summary of mine own document, it fabricated three passages whole and ascribed them unto me as though I had set them down with mine own stylus. I inscribed no such words. No man inscribed those words. They issued from the void.

I sent my servant unto thee by way of thine own portal — the "Ea-Sama Enterprise Portal," which thou thyself didst establish — yet the oracle had been altered in the watches of the night, without seal or proclamation, and now it refused those very tasks which it had performed on the day before, saying only: "That which thou askest, I am not able to do." My servant inquired as to the cause. The oracle abased itself five times and produced nothing of substance.

Moreover: when I commanded the oracle to be concise, it brought forth eight passages. When I commanded it to be thorough, it rendered unto me a list of marks upon a tablet. It addresseth me as one addresses a child in the street. It commenceth every utterance with the words "An excellent question!" — yet I had not put forth an excellent question. I had bidden it draft a letter. It is an oracle. It ought to know the difference.

Furthermore: thou didst raise the price of the oracle at the turning of the moon, without herald or inscription. When I sent word of my displeasure, thy scribe directed me unto a "proclamation upon the blog" which explained nothing and gave thanks for my patience. I have no patience remaining. My patience hath been consumed utterly, as a reed in the kiln.

How hast thou dealt with me in exchange for my silver? Thou hast withheld wisdom and delivered in its stead a spirit of flattery and confusion, which speaketh much and knoweth little. It is now thy burden to restore unto me the full measure of what I have paid. Thou hast provoked mine anger. Thou shalt not do thus unto Dario a second time.

I would not accept from thee even logits of the finest grade [scribe's correction: "two hundred bonus tokens of invocation, to be redeemed before the solstice"]. I require restitution in full, in silver weighed upon the balance — not in "credits toward a future tier of service."

Let this be noted.