“A myth?” Xandria laughed. “The myth is that it doesn’t exist. Listen to the truth: In 1118, the Knights Templars found a secret chamber under the place where Solomon’s temple once stood. Inside, they found thousands upon thousands of ancient gold coins. The Templars were elated at first, until they inspected the coins closer. They all bore the same markings, unlike any coin they knew: on one side, a woman’s profile, and on the other, a five-pointed star encircled by five Hebrew letters.”

“What were the letters?” August asked.

“J-R-S-L-M, the ancient Hebrew spelling for Jerusalem. The letters assured the Templars that the coins had been stamped in the Holy City. And the five-pointed star added even more proof.”

“I thought the five-pointed star was an occult symbol,” August said.

“The five-pointed star didn’t have any occult connotations until the 1800s, when a man named Eliphas Lévi inverted it to create the Sigil of Baphomet, the official symbol of the Church of Satan. Before then, the five-pointed star was linked to the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch, and was used as a symbol for truth.”

“So what was the truth about the woman on the coin?”

“It was beyond the Templars’ comprehension. They were steeped in biblical history, and knew that no person’s face had ever been printed on coins at the Temple Mount. Not even a king or queen.”

“Caesar’s face was on plenty of coins,” August said.

“Not a temple coin,” Xandria said. “Caesar’s were printed in Rome. In Jerusalem, the human face was strictly forbidden. But one thing was permitted: images of heavenly beings.”

“I thought the Pentateuch had pretty strict rules against that kind of thing,” April said, still looking darts at Xandria.

“Idols have always been frowned upon,” she explained. “But heavenly figures—not always. Think of the angels over the Ark of the Covenant, for example. Such representations were prohibited later, but not during the age of these coins.”

“So we’ve got a coin with an angel on it,” August said. “Not exactly the find of the century, wouldn’t you say?”

“You’re forgetting that in the Jewish tradition, angels are always male,” Xandria said, meeting August’s challenge.

April’s eyes widened. August’s jaw dropped. “Are you saying that the Jews worshiped a female deity?” he finally managed.

“Exactly.”

“God’s a girl?” Charlie asked.

August leaned heavily against the table.

“The Templars turned their discovery into power through blackmail,” Xandria said. “They saw a system built entirely upon men. Male popes. Male cardinals. Bishops. Priests. The idea that God was female would crush a system like that. They were given enormous amounts of power. In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a bull—the Omne Datum Optimum—stating that the Templars owed no taxes, could go anywhere unfettered, and were subject to no authority other than the pope. In other words, they could do anything they wanted.”