Behold! An impossible staircase of floating marble peeking above a plane of shimmering mist. The hooded figure climbed the last few steps to the crystal platform and addressed the Oracle. “O mighty Oracle,” he said, placing a basket of gifts at her feet, “please permit me a humble request.”

The Oracle smiled warmly. “Sure,” she said. “Fire away.”

“I am beset with a terrible decision,” began the hooded figure. “I am in charge of the rebranding of a very successful professional services network of firms, and I have wracked my brain in search of the perfect name. Nightly for many moons this has driven myself to madness without surcease, reduced me to a gibbering lunatic, and so I have come to this temple, scaled the marble staircase through the shimmering mist—”

“Uh, can you get to your question?” asked the Oracle. “Sorry, we sort of have a strict schedule here.”

“Yes, O mighty Oracle, I shall,” said the hooded figure, in a bit of a pout. “So that I should see the most business success, what should I name my firm?”

“Let me think about that,” said the Oracle. She clenched for a bit in thought, her face in a grimace. Then her eyes flashed brilliantly.

“PRICE,” boomed the Oracle.

“Price?”

“Yeah, Price.”

“Price. Very snappy. I like it. This shall bring me great fortune. Thank You, O mighty Oracle.”

“Hold on, wait there’s more!” Another flash. “WATER,” intoned the Oracle, her voice ringing across the bright vaulted ceilings.

“Water? So, not Price?”

“Hmm, let me think. Okay, it looks like it’s both of them. Pricewater.”

“Price Water?”

“One word. Pricewater.”

“Pricewater. I confess to remain unsure how these two words shall bring me great fortune, but I trust in Your divine judgement.”

“Thanks! Okay sorry, wait, I feel another one coming.” A blinding display of light beams shone from her eyes and danced upon the shimmering mist. “HOUSE,” boomed the Oracle.

“Pricewater House.”

“Should be all one word. Pricewaterhouse.”

“Pricewaterhouse,” the hooded figure repeated, trying the name out on his tongue. “That’s three nouns.”

“Yeah.”

“Smushed together.”

“Yup.”

“Price, water, and house. Three nouns, but I’m going to make them one word.”

“Totally.”

“Isn’t that a bit much? One has to worry about brevity in my field.”

The Oracle narrowed her eyes, and the vaulted ceilings suddenly flashed blood red. Tentacles poked through dark clouds and poised themselves to strike.

“But the mysteries of the Gods are beyond my ken so I humbly submit to Your oracular wisdom!” spouted the hooded figure. “Pricewaterhouse. It has a flow to it. Thank You, O mighty Oracle!”

The vaulted ceilings now glowed in their normal bright white, and the tentacles disappeared beneath the shimmering mist.

“You’re welcome!” the Oracle smiled. “Glad to be of help.”

The hooded figure turned to the staircase.

“Wait!” the Oracle cried. “I feel another one coming!”

She squeezed very hard.

The entire temple shook to its foundations, the space became suffused in a brilliant flash of light, bleaching the scene, and the Oracle finally thundered one word: “COOPERS.”

“What?”

“Coopers.” The Oracle wiped a bead of sweat off her face. “Hold on let me check—”

The hooded figure stood at the edge of the crystal platform, confused.

“Yeah, it’s Coopers.”

A profound silence. Then the hooded figure said, “If I may ask, what exactly is a Coopers? I’m not familiar with that as a word.”

“It’s the last part of your firm’s future name.”

“Pricewaterhouse … Coopers?”

“One word.”

“Pricewaterhousecoopers.” The hooded figure traced it out with a tentative finger.

“Yeah. Wait—Coopers should be capitalised.”

“PricewaterhouseCoopers?”

“Yeah, like that! That’s sounding like it!”

The hooded figure pondered this for a moment. “Wait, should the water and the house also be capitalised? PriceWaterHouseCoopers?”

“No. It’s just PricewaterhouseCoopers.”

“PricewaterhouseCoopers.”

“Yeah.”

“Four words, three of which are nouns and one of which is not a word, and the three nouns don’t really have anything to do with each other.”

“That’s right!”

“And they’re all smushed together and Coopers is capitalised.”

“You’re in the money!”

“PricewaterhouseCoopers.”

“Bingo!” The Oracle did her jazz hands.

The hooded figure hesitated for the moment. “Just to be sure, there aren’t any more words coming after the Coopers, right? Or non-words, for that matter?”

“Nope, don’t think so!” chirped the Oracle. “Also by the way your ten minutes are up, please make way for the next guest!”

“Thank You, O mighty Oracle. Price…water…house…Coopers and I convey our sincerest thanks.” With that, the hooded figure descended the staircase through the shimmering mist.