Sunday I had some time to rest and relax. Play some games with Joanna, catch up on some new rune schema innovations, and re-center myself a bit, trying to ground my life back in normalcy after the bizarre swerve it had taken yesterday into a realm that I still felt profoundly uncomfortable in. Plus, just a bit of research into the procedures for buying unclaimed land. Just in case.

Monday, back to the comforting routine of work. Felicity might have been right to describe me as restless, but I wasn't so much so that I didn't enjoy my job. It just sometimes felt like there was a hole in my life somewhere, something missing, a requirement that I needed to fulfill but didn't quite know how to, and every time I started getting what I thought I wanted, I found it unsatisfying.

Felicity thought Meþas was the answer for me, of course, but any time I got too close to her interpretation of the Path it just didn't feel right. Except, of course, for the bit where it felt a bit too right when it shouldn't have, and that just made me even more leery.

I couldn't talk to my parents about this; I could already imagine the freakout it would produce if they knew I was risking my safety running around in unknown dungeons and associating with dangerous people like Sir Zephyr. Likewise, I didn't dare discuss any of this with Kayla; knowing her she'd probably say I just needed to get laid or something equally unhelpful.

Although, come to think of it, it had probably been long enough; maybe I should start dating again? But on the other hand, the reason I'd given Joanna for not pursuing a relationship with her — that I just had too much on my plate already — really didn't seem like it was getting any better! I set that thought aside for now.

So I just threw myself into work. We were starting to work on a new model year, with a slate of new features to implement, and Torrin had me working with Kelamek and Apogee to find a way to improve the car's power efficiency. Kelamek was looking at aerodynamics and drag, I was digging into the rune schemas for the motor, and Apogee was largely working on a different project but making himself available to us new guys to coordinate things or answer questions. I spent the next two days consumed in the project, and life was pretty good.

I should have known it wouldn't last.

Wednesday afternoon, a bit after I got back from lunch, Apogee came to my desk. "Brad," he said nervously, "there's someone here to see you." He looked pale. I honestly didn't know that happened to kith as dark of skin as him.

"...all right," I said.

"You should go to conference room C. Quickly."

"You're kind of making me nervous here," I said. "Does this someone have a name? Somebody important?"

"Yes. You will see. Go quickly."

Well. Nothing ominous about that! I hustled over to the conference room and stepped inside, only to freeze in my tracks as I got a look at the visitor.

It was Terenaþ. The angel from the dungeon. I knew that banishment was not permanent, but I never expected him to track me down at work, of all things!

"Brad. Come, sit down, I mean you no harm."

"How did you even find me?" I asked, remaining standing, my hand on the doorknob, ready to bolt at any moment.

"Please, calm yourself. I am here in your stronghold. I come peacefully and unarmed; I only wish to talk."

I nodded. "All right." I took a seat opposite him, then pulled out my phone. "Just let me clear up my schedule a bit," I said. What I was actually doing, though, was going to my æmail and looking up the directory. It should have everyone at the company here, including...

There he was. The Big Guy himself.

Subj: URGENT! Unwelcome visitor in the office!

Do you remember when I told you of an encounter with an angel in the hidden dungeon? He's back. He's here RIGHT NOW, talking with me. Not sure what to do. Hope you're nearby.

Brad Webb

A bit of a long shot, I know, but I honestly had no idea what else to do.

If Terenaþ saw through my deception, he gave no indication of it; he just sat there patiently while I took a minute to type things up. When I put my phone down, he said, "I bear you no ill will for what you did to me. You believed you were acting out of compassion, to spare those who might otherwise come to harm, yes?"

I just nodded.

"And yet you did more than simply deny me, did you not? In the end, you learned for yourself what my goal was."

I nodded again.

"And now, do you see how your choice ended up endangering more people than you may have saved? Not that I fault you for it; you had no way of knowing. But still, you see that it is true?"

Here, I shook my head at him. "I've seen enough different takes on it that I'm not sure what is true. And neither is he, really. So, go ahead and tell me your version: who is that man, why was he there, and why were you trying to get to him? It might help me get some sort of handle on things. But be aware that whatever you may say, I've probably already heard at least two different stories that flatly contradict it, and each other."

He rubbed at the bridge of his nose and exhaled slowly. "Again you demand truth of me but show hostility to it in the same breath. Why do you wish to hear things that you already know you will not believe?"

"I'm not being hostile here; just laying out the basics. If you want to be believed, give me an explanation that fits the facts and makes sense. Because that's something I don't have yet."

He gave me an exasperated look. "Have you any training at all in the intricacies of þeology and of the Planes?" I shook my head. "Then how are you even to discern what 'makes sense' and what does not? I ask for only one thing: faith."

"Yeah. Ask my paladin friend about that sometime. Faith's her department, but it's not really my thing. I prefer to work according to evidence."

That drew a full-on scoff from him. "To say that, you show that you understand neither faith nor works."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean?" Terenaþ asked. "What is your understanding of faith?"

"To believe in things without evidence, simply because you were told it's true."

"And what is your understanding of belief?"

"...are you asking me to define the word? It's a pretty basic concept."

He just nodded.

"Belief is... so basic, how do I even explain it without using the word itself? It's when you are aware of an idea, and you... umm... you agree that it's true."

"So to you, belief is a thought?"

"Of course! Are you saying it isn't?"

He shook his head. "A thought is a thought. A belief is a motivation."

"What do you mean?"

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"You know that the sky is blue."

"...yes?"

"So what do you do about it?"

"Nothing. Should I?"

"No. It simply is. This is not a belief; this is only a fact. Now, one day you are out walking, and you see a small dark cloud on the horizon. Not simply dark, black. And it looks to be growing. What do you do?"

I knew that one. "Run for shelter, because I've got about five minutes before getting buckets of rain dumped on me."

"This is not a mere thought or a fact; it is a thought that impels you to action. That is belief. And even if it is not true, if you are mistaken or if you have been lied to about the meaning of black clouds, you take the action all the same."

"And you don't agree that faith is a belief in something without solid evidence?"

"Not at all. Faith is, in fact, at the core of all that kith do. You are here purely as a result of your faith."

I shook my head. "I'm here because it's my job. I get paid for it."

"You have been here with me for some time, and I have not seen you receive any wages."

"Of course not; that would be incredibly impractical. We get paid twice a month."

"So you work without pay, motivated by a belief that the pay will be forthcoming on a prearranged schedule."

"Yes, there are plenty of good reasons to believe that it will, based on economics, on law, on the fundamental self-interest of my employer..."

"Do you accept as a fact that it is possible you might not be paid? A disaster could strike that would impede it, for example?"

"I suppose, theoretically that's true. But do you have any idea how many things would have to go wrong before things reach that point?"

"It sounds as if you do. You have some idea of things that could go wrong. You know this to be a fact. And yet your belief, as shown by your action, contradicts this fact. You believe that the intricate system that guarantees your wage will retain its stability.

"This is faith. To trust in that which you already know, from past experience, to be true, to use this trust and experience as evidence to act upon a belief, even in the face of other facts or thoughts that may discourage it. And it is the entire reason why you are here."

"You're really not helping your case. You know that, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Going purely off of your own definition, that faith is a motivation to act based on past experience. My past experience with you was that you wanted me to help to do something that would cause widespread death and destruction, and when I pointed this out you simply dismissed my concern as being of little consequence.

"We were down in a dungeon before, so I can give you the benefit of the doubt. But now, you're here in the actual city. You can't have gotten here without passing some very tall office buildings along the way. Knock even one of those down and hundreds or thousands of kith die in the very best case scenario. So to turn your own question around on you, do you see that it was true?"

He closed his eyes and sighed, nodding. "It is true, and you have my apologies. The city was not..." He gestured vaguely about at everything, "thus, when I saw it last. Valaminaþ and his thrice-accursed seals have caused more harm to your plane than you can know."

"You're talking about the Fast Keys?"

"Such a small, fanciful name for a great and abominable scourge."

"There are plenty who disagree with that. They say that Mundus is better for being closed off to Outsiders. That an Outsider does not think as we do, understand the world around us as we do, and their influence brings chaos and disruption. And I'm not saying I agree completely with that view, but I do see where they're coming from. At our last meeting, you were going to kill massive numbers of kith out of ignorance, and refused to be corrected. A friend of mine is a tiefling; her grandmother was..." I didn't know the exact circumstances there, but I knew it wasn't good. "Was taken advantage of by an incubus, and it's left an aural taint on their lineage ever since that causes great suffering for them. There are good reasons to want to keep Outsiders outside, and I've personally seen some of them."

He listened patiently and nodded. "I can understand that. No doubt it has proven difficult for many people. But if your belief is in facts, consider the simple fact that we are here, together, debating subjects of philosophy and morality like two rational, mutually comprehensible beings. I ask you, is that possible between two minds alien to one another?

"This tiefling, you say she is your friend. She is someone who you think your life is better for knowing. Were it not for the incubus, as terrible as what he did was, she would not exist. Perhaps her grandmother would have a granddaughter alive today of the same age, but she would not be the one who you now call your friend. Consider also the simple fact of her existence. If kith and Outsiders can successfully interbreed, are we truly so unlike one another?

"I say to you that Mundus has lost something great and wondrous by your impetuous Emperor sealing away our influence, and our planes likewise are diminished by the loss of traffic with yours. And what have you gained in return?"

Wow. He sounded way too much like Gareth. "That's simple: we've gained the pax imperia. Centuries of peace and prosperity, stability, progress. The population of the Empire today, just this one medium-sized continent, is estimated at about half what the entire world's population was at the height of the Fifth Age. We keep them fed, sheltered, employed. Even those who live in poverty by our standards have better, more secure and more abundant access to the basic necessities of life than barons and earls of Ages past."

He nodded assent to my points. "You speak of great prosperity and satisfaction, but 'great' is not 'perfect.' You boast to me of a great population, and it is true; there are hundreds of millions of kith in your empire. But that means that if even one percent of them are angry with the state of affairs, that is a problem measured in millions. Great size has its advantages, but it brings problems of its own as well. You have not conquered hardship and strife, you have simply replaced the overt forms with more subtle ones that are more difficult to root out and overcome. Has our mutual acquaintance not recently shown just how tenuous and fragile that peace is?"

"So you do know him. If you aren't here seeking vengeance against me, I can only assume that you want my help in finding him. If so, please just tell me plainly, who is he? Where did he come from? And what do you want with him?"

"You make the questions sound so simple," he sighed. "But the answers are not. Suffice it to say that something very dangerous has been loosed upon your world."

"Which makes this different from any other time how, exactly? The histories are full of plagues, wars, rampaging monsters, great storms, and so on. Not so much today, but we have dangers of our own. As a child, I grew up in a house surrounded by poisonous chemicals such as previous Ages had never seen. We use them for cleaning, for medicine, for a wide variety of completely legitimate purposes, and we have ways to seal them away so that they cannot be reached by children too small to comprehend the danger.

"Nearly every adult in our society drives a car. Tons of metal moving at speeds beyond that of a galloping horse? You'd better believe that's dangerous a dozen different ways! Yet it's by far the safest way to travel on land, because we have laws and protocols for using them safely. Fleeing from danger, or hiding from it, just isn't our way in modern times, nor do we commonly try to fight and destroy it; we are very, very good at managing it instead, as long as we understand its nature."

Terenaþ nodded. "As you have said, you live free from the scourges of war and rampage. But does this not imply that you lack experience in dealing with them? That being does not. He is a danger you are unprepared to face, or to manage."

"So what do you want to do with him? Kill him? Take him off to your plane to be imprisoned, or perhaps treated? Bring him home and honor him?"

"All of those, and at the same time none."

What.

He saw my expression and nodded. "I told you, the answers are not simple. The concepts are not simple, and your tongue literally lacks the words to correctly express many of the truths surrounding him and the Court of Meþas' intentions toward him. But this I tell you in all truth: we mean harm towards none. Not you, not him, not your society. The same cannot be said of Sir Zephyr."

"You know," I said slowly, "I think I believe you." I was about to say more, when my phone dinged at me. I glanced down and saw it was an æmail, a response from Dyralist.

Brad,

I dearly hope you are still alive and able to read this. If so, please stall him. I come quickly.

"You look alarmed. Have you received bad news?"

I looked up at him. "Remember how I said there are those who strongly mistrust Outsiders? My boss, Dyralist, is one of them. I messaged him when I first came in here, because I was afraid you had bad intentions towards me. He just responded, and said he'll be here soon, and if you couldn't fight a big bug you don't stand a chance against a dragon."

Now it was Terenaþ's choice to look alarmed. "Very well, but we are not finished speaking."

"I think I'm OK with that," I told him. I pulled a notepad and pen out of my spatial bag, tearing off a page and writing on it. "Here. Get a phone, use this number to reach me. I'm still not agreeing with you, but I'm willing to talk."

He took the page and got up, heading for the door. "Thank you."

It took Dyralist less than three minutes to arrive, but Terenaþ was gone by then. The elderly gray-haired man walked into the conference room and saw me sitting there alone. "Brad, what happened?"

"I'm sorry, sir. He noticed me receiving the message from you and knew something was wrong, and he fled almost immediately. I couldn't have stopped him without starting an actual fight in the middle of the office."

He let out a low, rumbling sigh that sounded like it should have come from the chest of a lion, not a man. "No, you probably did the right thing. But you were here with him for a good while; did he say anything useful?"

"Not much, most of it was... preaching, really. Debating with me about philosophy. The only thing of practical value he said was that he's still looking for Sir Zephyr, and he wouldn't say why. Claimed I'm not capable of understanding the truth of the matter." Then something struck me. "Wait. That's the name he used. He referred to him as Sir Zephyr, the made-up name our society gave to him, and not his proper name, despite having good reason to believe that I would know it."

"Interesting. So perhaps he does not know it himself?"

"Or he does and he just chose to say that for whatever reason. Ugh. The more I learn, the more 'I don't knows' I run across."

Dyralist gave me an ironic smile, a surprisingly ordinary-human expression. "That is the way of all the world. Certainty is for naive children; welcome to being a man."

I really didn't want that to be true. And it sure wasn't what Felicity believed. Why did such a bleak outlook fit my own experience so well?