Chapter 65

It was an impressively outlandish explanation, and delivered in Ana’s monotone, somehow more impactful, not less. The room stewed in silence for a few moments, digesting the claim.

Liz tittered, high pitched and nervous. “And, like I said, it’s seriously blasphemous to present as if it’s real.”

“I did no such thing.” Ana seemed confused by Liz’s reaction. “Natalie asked, and I explained. Though, I would argue there’s insufficient evidence to support any religion. So from a logical perspective, the Reverie-Siphon Hypothesis has as much credibility as anything else.”

Liz shot a panicked look at Natalie, then Sofia and Jordan, as if seeking support.

Natalie sympathized with her concern, even if she didn’t share it. She didn’t much care about what was considered blasphemy or not. Her parents had forced her to church growing up, but she’d never been religious. She accepted the gods in a nominal way; mostly, she didn’t think much about it. Not an unusual practice, these days. The years of Valhaur’s monolithic religious practices had come to an end, or, if not that, at least to their twilight years. Maybe the gods had existed at some point, but if so, they’d been dormant for a long time.

Which, uh, she supposed would make sense with this outlandish theory. Not that she believed it. It was a little far fetched.

Only finding shrugs and sympathetic looks from her teammates, Liz turned back to Ana. “You really shouldn’t say things like that.”

Ana waved her hand. “It’s what the mural depicts. We need to talk about it.”

“I meant the, ‘the Harvest is as possible as anything else, including our religion’. That’s ridiculous.”

It made sense Liz had more traditional values than Natalie and her friends. She was a member of the Beaumon family. The literal royal family, even if their titles were antiquated. Tradition and royalty went hand in hand.

“Back it up a few steps,” Natalie said, focusing on the meaningful part of the discussion, and also trying to defuse the situation. “Details, please? The Architect harvested our gods to make the System? What does that mean, exactly?”

Ana turned to Natalie, still confused from her interactions with Liz, and why Liz had become uncharacteristically insistent that Ana sanitize what she was saying. The girl was a bit clueless. Even she should be able to recognize why questioning someone’s religion would have them on edge. The only reason Natalie, Sofia, and Jordan didn’t also care was because, frankly, they weren’t religious.

“There’s not much to it,” Ana said. “I’ve already succinctly summarized. And though ancient records are unreliable, there is an interesting amount of evidence that suggests the withdrawal of the gods occurred near the same time the system was put into place.”

“This is thousands of years ago,” Natalie said. “There’s records of that?” Never mind the other claims—that the system was ‘put into place’ and hadn’t always existed. She did, as most people, notice how it fit incongruently with other natural laws, and so she adhered to the belief of an ‘Architect’ who designed it, separate to the ‘Maker’ of the natural world, but the timeline and how was questionable to say the least. Even Valhaurian teachings didn’t agree with each other.

“Inconsistent translations, yes,” Ana said, “and partial, but records nonetheless.”

“Emphasis on inconsistent,” Liz said, “and partial.”

“Indeed,” Ana said. “In the same way many Valhaurian holy texts are doubtful in accuracy and translation.”

She gave the retort in a totally impassive manner, as if this were an academic debate and not something Liz clearly held as a personal belief. Natalie grimaced the the continued lack of empathy.

“Regardless,” Ana continued, “the mural depicts it. Thus this topic needs to discussed.”