Intuition is much maligned and misunderstood in the popular understanding, I have to say. Intuition is not supernatural, it is not irrational (though it is non-rational) and it is not only useful in the interpersonal or emotional realms.

In fact, intuition, when properly tuned, is far more powerful than strictly rational reasoning. The artist, the cryptographer, the scientist, the chessmaster, the physician, the athlete: all reduce complicated problems in short periods of time with knowledge they cannot articulate. In the world of spirits, of course, it is a dull entity indeed who is not capable of this caliber of feat. My own tendency is to consign rational thinking solely to the plodding ways of humans, but really it isn't so. Gadgets, of course, are solely rational, and plenty of airy spirits and sylphs use it in their crafty manipulations. Both use reason quite effectively too, I might add. The difference between reason and intuition is in the results. Reason has the effect of dividing things from each other, and setting them in opposition. Intuition has the effect of uniting things together, and setting them in alignment. When reason says that something is a certain way, it is always at least implicitly stating what that something is not. Intuition, on the other hand, allows that everything could be a certain way or be possessed of a certain trait, but to varying degrees. Reason is very bad at appreciating subtlety, but intuition is very bad at making airtight claims.

Thankfully, airtight claims are usually neither necessary nor useful for all but the most rarified entities.

At any rate, my moments of contemplation on this watery gift were spent in discussion with a student of human nature whom I had not met before. I must admit that I was not having one of my more compassionate days, and I was feeling skeptical of anything new. (My malaise has not been improving, either.) But as we debated, she fixed me in her gaze and i could see that the blue of her eyes was not the blue of the sky, but that of the sea; and I understood then that she was an ally, that her understanding was like my understanding, and that she understood that I understood. I understood all that without knowing how.

Later I felt a similar moment of certainty, smooth engagement with the ways of the universe. I met a tiny gadget whom I adopted, named Jonquil. Since losing my last familiar, I have been looking to adopt a new one, and when I saw her, I knew we were perfect for each other.