I met Achilles’s eyes, my strong, staunch comrade, but what was this in them? Doubt? Quiet shadows veiling private thoughts? Doubting what? Doubting me? My lips trembled. “Achilles, you wouldn’t consider…”

“You know I’ve always obeyed the gods,” the son of Peleus answered. “The gods that rule the world, command the storms, gods that made me, gods that hear my prayers. The impius Alien you worship, though brilliant, and wise, and even kind, does none of this.”

“But He isn’t impius. You know Ἄναξ Jehovah values filial piety above… above…”

“Above what?” There was sharpness in the matchless runner’s tone. “Above what? Above fleeting turns of politics, perhaps, but not above His own ambitions. Not above this Great Conversation you both value so much, which, however grand, is also entirely selfish. In His inhuman way He honors His parents, but not as humans do. He honors the past, but not as people do who know they will someday join the ranks of the dead. He thinks as an outsider.” Achilles’s fingers dug into the armband in his hand. “He will never honor the ancients as we wanted to be honored, the way MASON does.”

My fast breaths made the unicorn beneath me shift its nervous hoofs. “You must fight on Jehovah’s side!” I cried. “With me. You must!”

Achilles took a long breath. “I want to. I would not choose to call either of you enemies, but if He would betray such a father…” A grim smile for Cornel before his eyes caught mine again. “What would His world look like? Tell me that. You don’t know, do you? Not even you?”

I found the strength at least to sit up as I faced Achilles. “He does not yet know, so how could I? All I know is that the Will of Providence is inexorable, and that same Providence gave me to Him.”