"Having a good time?" Rhysel asked Tekaal out loud.

"Of course," he replied, smiling at her.

The children changed the subject from nwer to what presents they think they're going to get.

"Presents for the holiday?" Rhysel asked during a gap in the speculation. "Or some other occasion?"

"It's Lufelsis," said Rasam. "You get presents on Lufelsis."

"Ah. What does Lufelsis celebrate?" Rhysel asked curiously.

The children all looked confused by the question. "Dinner," said Nemlaal. "And presents."

"It has its roots in the blossoming season of an extinct tree called a lufelsis which used to produce flowers that were given by young people to their boyfriends or girlfriends," supplied Mubil, "but it's evolved into a simple gift exchange and family dinner."

Rhysel nodded. "Gifts for the children and the heads of households?"

"Well, everyone, but the children pay more attention to it and the heads of households get cookies from guests as well as family members."

She nodded again.

<Should I have gotten you something?> she sends to Tekaal.

<No. Lufelsis presents are for blood relations and people related to you by marriage, and for anyone whose house you visit on the day of the festival. All of Rasam's presents are from her father's family and her mother's family; they'll have brought them along so she can open them at the same time as everyone else.>

<Ah. I see. Ah well. There is a sort of gift I could give you, too. Guess I'll save it for another time.>

<I am profoundly curious, but if you would prefer to wait, that's up to you,> he thought back mildly.

<This precise moment probably isn't the ideal time. Although I'm almost certain you'll like it.>

<Well, that's good then.>

She smiled fondly at Tekaal as she walked along. He returned the smile.

The group arrived back at the house to find a pel-pwon game in full swing, and that Ahin's discussion had changed the subject from politics to religion.

<What strikes your fancy?> Tekaal asked her.

<I'd be interested to hear what your family thinks of religions here. Although I'm not likely to participate, since I don't know the first thing about them.>

<All right. We can go find seats in there, then.>

They found adjacent, unoccupied portions of sofa. Rhysel leaned against Tekaal as she settled in to listen to the discussion.

"I mean," Ahin was saying, "on some level I can understand the Kettec afterlife - it does make some sense to split up the believers and the nonbelievers, and I guess it's fair that if you knew what you were supposed to be doing you get hit over the head harder afterwards if you screwed up. But the Thousand Deaths are just sadistic, some of them, and the whole part about converting ten people bumping you up a notch makes the Thanetans so very annoying."

"Thousand Deaths?" Rhysel asked, before she could stop herself from interrupting.

Ahin glanced at her. "Oh, those are the set of possible afterlives in the Thanet religion - practiced predominanly in Iraam, which is a theocracy. Range right from eternal torment on through eternal boredom to eternal bliss, depending on how shiny you keep your shoes and whatever else they'd have you do."

She nodded, falling silent again to listen.

"There's a few chapters in the Kalapinkik which describes them all in excruciating detail," added Balket.

"If you actually read the Kalapinkik," said Evaad, "Enavaan - he's the chief god in Thanet -" (he added for Rhysel's benefit) "behaves very inconsistently with the set of things you supposedly need to do to get into one of the better Deaths."

"Well, the entire religion is based on a reward-punishment system," said Ahin. "There's no other motive provided to do anything it says you ought to do, so Enavaan, being completely above anyone who might want to hold him accountable, can do whatever he wants."

Rhysel continued to listen.

"My biggest problem with Thanet has always been how racist it is," said Rinaal.

"Not the fact that they think twins are bad luck?" teased Evaad.

She laughed. "No."

"It does sort of group species into the creations of the gods and the - what are they called? Children of the damned?" said Balket.

"Descendants of the depraved," supplied Ahin. "The rebellious creations who were turned into vampires, dwarves, nagas, or goblins for not being suitably obedient."

Rhysel made a face, but stayed silent.

"That's not fair," said Piran. "I know a Thanetan and she has a vampire co-worker and they get along fine."

"That'll demote her six Deaths right there," said Ahin. "It's on the list."

"Do you know any Thanetanik?" asked Balket of Ahin.

"I've met a few. They can be sorted into "devout" and "decent", mutually exclusively," said Ahin coolly.

<Ahin doesn't seem that fond of religion.> Rhysel commented to Tekaal.

"That's mean," said Piran. "The Thanetan I know -"

"The Thanetan you know associates with a vampire, which, if she's actually a Thanetan, is against her religion," said Ahin firmly.

<He's not fond of Thanet. There are a few he's reasonably approving of. But everything he's saying about it is true.>

<Ah.>

"She said her tarenuv told her it would be all right to -" Piran began again.

"If her tarenuv is advising her to associate with a vampire he gets demoted ten Deaths," Ahin interrupted. "I'm not saying any of this makes sense, but it's in the Kalapinkik."

Piran sighed and looked away. Balket put an arm around her.

"Is there some sort of reform movement?" Rhysel asked curiously.

"Not within Iraam," said Ahin. "Anyone who tries bringing orthodox Thanet into almost any other culture gets rebuffed, though, so the ones who take the missionary work seriously sugar-coat it and ignore a few of the other rules. The ones who are really good at it can even wind up with a net positive Death, since you get promoted one for every ten converts," he replied.

She nodded. "Is Thanet typical of religions on your world?"

"I'm not sure what could possibly constitute a "typical" religion," said Balket, laughing. "They're all very different."

"Why, how many are there?"

"It depends on if you count sects," said Ahin. "If you think, for example, that strict Erubian Salvationism is sufficiently distinct from mainland Anaist's relaxed Salvationism that they count as different religions, there are more. At least fifty or sixty, though," he added.

"More if you count cults," said Balket.

"Cults?" asked Rhysel.

"Little, new, unpopular religions," said Ahin. "They're often not all that much stranger than mainstream religions, and of course they can become mainstream religions, but early on it's considered much more appropriate to dislike them than it is to dislike a mainstream religion."

She nodded again. "I see."

"Do the Sand Dusk Chanters still count as a cult?" Balket asked. "They used to be one pretty definitely, but I think they're all over Espaal now."

"They're putting in a Chanter temple down the street from my parents' house," Piran said.

"Unusual sort of name," commented Rhysel.

"They have sacred glass bottles filled with colored sand, and they do a lot of chanting, at dusk," said Ahin. "It makes sense. Anyway, it's meaningless if they're techincally a cult or not, because the distinction is arbitrary."

"Who do they worship?" Rhysel asked.

"They think that the wizarding magic reservoir is sentient, and they worship it," supplied Ahin. "They're not the only group that thinks it, but they're the most popular by far. I think all the groups that worship the reservoir base their beliefs off this one philosophy of magic book that was published about thirty years ago which they have completely misunderstood."

"I don't think it's unreasonable to interpret Mavikaath's writings as supporting that theory," said Tekaal.

"I haven't read them in their entirety," said Ahin, shrugging. "But Mavikaath is still teaching at the University of Daasen, which dismissed Lolen Habisad, of all people, so I think if that's really what he said in his book, I'd have expected the University to toss him out too."

"You just like Lolen Habisad because he didn't think witches were superfluous," said Balket. "They didn't kick him out for that, they kicked him out for sleeping with a student."

"They what?" said Ahin. "Really?"

Balket nodded. "I know a relative of the student in question. It was hushed up."

Rhysel listened quietly. "Mavikaath wrote the book in question?" she asked when the conversation looked to be taking a tangent.

"Mavikaath's book isn't a holy text to the Chanters and their ilk, per se," said Ahin, recovering his equilibrium. "His work could be interpreted as saying that the reservoir of magic can and must be intelligent. I'm still not convinced that it is, but I'll read it, I suppose. That's where the idea comes from, at any rate."

Rhysel nodded. "Even still, sentience doesn't equate to divinity. Why choose to worship it, then?"

"Well, if it is sentient, then it's got some other characteristics that make it suitable for godhood," said Ahin, regaining his head of steam. "It's omnipresent, it responds to things people ask it to do, it's very powerful, it's incorporeal. All useful things for a deity to be."

She nodded. "I suppose I can see that argument."

The conversation stalled. "What are religions like in your world, Rhysel?" asked Piran brightly after a few moments.

"Quite different from what I've learned about yours. Our world's deities are pretty well-known, and there's not a bunch of conflicting religions. Ethics isn't really a part of religion either, but a separate philosophy."

"So there's only one religion? On the whole world?" asked Balket.

"Well, unless you count those who revere one deity over the others as separate religious beliefs, then yes."

"How interesting," Balket remarked. "What are the deities like?"

"Well, they're all fairly distinctive as far as personalities go. Aiath, for instance, likes to party all the time, while Aziel is pretty even-tempered."

Piran giggled at the image of a god partying.

"They do have some things in common. They're all ageless and immortal. When someone sees them, they look like the species and ethnicity of the viewer - even if several people are viewing them at the same time, they all see the deity as someone similar to them. And, of course, they can all do things none of the rest of us can - not even the most powerful magic-users."

"But they're not omnipotent?" Ahin wanted to know.

"Presumably they are. I don't know that anyone's ever run them through tests to determine, but I've never heard of anything they can't do if they want."

"Make a square circle," proposed Evaad.

She shrugged. "Probably not, I guess. I've never asked."

"Are they accessible enough that you could ask and actually get an answer?" asked Balket.

"Well, not while I'm here, but yes."

"Interesting," said Ahin. "You've personally met one?"

"Several."

"I've personally met one," said Tekaal. "She was summoned along when I was infused with kamai."

Ahin raises his eyebrows. "That's very interesting."

"Why's that?"

"Well, a few people here have claimed to have met their respective deities, but they can usually be written off as deceptive or deluded," Ahin replied.

She nodded, "Ah. Well, different worlds work differently I guess."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"They're corporeal, then?" asked Balket. "If they can be summoned."

"Yes. Well, largely. I expect to a Marokel - that's an incoporeal species back home-- they'd be incorporeal as well."

"But isn't that just an illusion?" Tekaal asked. "Aral Pyga was able to dispel it for herself and Ar Inular."

"If Keo could dispel it, it wouldn't be an illusion, but something to do with their minds," said Rhysel.

"Well, a projected illusion, rather than a freestanding illusion, but an illusion nonetheless," Tekaal replied. "In wizarding terminology, at least. One of these days I must come up with some way of getting around the inconsistencies."

Rhysel nodded. "It could be. I've never paid a whole lot of attention to theology at home, so I don't know if it's ever been described in detail."

He nodded.

She shrugged. "Not that there's much in the way of worship services anyway, even if I did."

Piran giggled. "That would be funny, if you actively worshipped people you could just meet walking down the street."

"Ascendancy days are about the most structured thing I can think of. And those only happen four times a year," Rhysel said.

"Present opening time!" called Saavin from the other sitting room. "Everybody get in here!"

---

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