“I may,” He answered. “I have not decided yet the shape of My new world. I may dissolve the Cousins; I may dissolve every Hive but the Cousins; I may dissolve no Hives, all Hives—I know not. Thus I must have unconditional surrender.” His eyes strayed to his silent uncle Faust. “From all of you.”

«You have mine!» Dominic gasped, his breath still ragged. «Maître, I have the Mitsubishi now. I lay them at Your feet. Tell me how to use them. Tell me to destroy them! Tell me to make them masters of the world! Tell me to turn plowshares into swords and scar Your Name into the Earth! Tell me to have them raise an altar to You on every acre of their dominion, and stain the stones black with the hearts’ blood of Your enemies, and then their own!»

Madame’s smile proved she followed Dominic’s panting French, but the Cousin and Headmaster could only frown.

Even Headmaster Faust is ignorant of French? Surely like thee, Mycroft, this Grand Voyeur and people-reader has, in secret, taught himself all the languages of eavesdropping.

Never, reader. Faust is a pure Brillist. He even authored a commentary supporting Brill’s arguments about how each language acquired forever changes how a brain thinks. He would never clutter the Germanic precision of his thoughts with something Romance.

«Thou art a foreigner among the Mitsubishi,» Jehovah answered, His gentle hand still on Dominic’s brow, «thy authority young and fragile. Thou must use it in the spirit in which it was entrusted to thee by Hotaka Andō Mitsubishi, who remains one of My fathers, and must be honored as such. Thou shalt either honor and further the needs and wishes of his Hive, or renounce the custodianship of it and return to Me, alone.» He tilted Dominic’s head back to make the suppliant face Him. «And I warn thee, My Dominic: if this truce fails, and violence desecrates the sacred Olympics, and thou provest to be the agent of that failure, I will not judge that the human race has failed My Great Test. Thou art a traitor to thy Maker, one of My creatures, My agent, not My Peer’s, so thy works are not works of humankind, nor thy sins sins of humankind, but Mine. My Peer’s creatures will pass or fail this Test, and if thou interferest, thou wilt only make the Test into invalid nothing. Nothing comes from nothing, not wisdom and not grief. Failure may indeed loose from Me the tears thou longest to see, but will not if thou art that failure’s architect.»