o be, that could be a lie."

"Damn." Odeon rubbed the back of his neck. "He told me months ago
that his reputation as Father of Lies comes from humans who don't want
to believe him, that the truth was more useful and painful. Since that
hurts, it probably is true."

"It makes you feel betrayed."

"Yeah." Odeon sighed. The Ranger wasn't mind-touching him, but he was
certain that wasn't necessary; he'd never been very good at hiding
strong feelings, and his current feeling of betrayal was as strong as
his anguish at Joanie's maiming had been. "What would he be, then?"

Medart shrugged. "All I can give you is a guess."

"I understand."

"Okay. Bear in mind that I don't share your faith and ours uses
different terminology, so I'll have to do some more explaining, and you
may find that sacrilegious. Especially since you're a priest."

"I'm properly warned; go ahead."

"We'll start with the basic point we agree fully on, then. There is
one Creator of all the universes, right?"

"I only know of one universe, but other than that, yes."

"There are more. You'll have to take my word for now, but I'll give
you proof later. Anyway, you believe the Creator is three beings in
one, a belief I don't share. We do agree, though, that there are
lesser supernatural beings. Right again?"

"The various kinds of angels and demons, yes."

"And the souls of those who've died?"

Odeon thought about that, then nodded slowly. "I suppose so, though I
don't usually think of them that way."

"Even the saints, who work miracles?"

"God works the miracles through them," Odeon corrected. "Okay, I can
go along with all of that."

"Good, because the next step is where you're going to get upset. Since
everything ultimately comes from the Creator, including the power to
work miracles, Omnists don't see any practical difference whether these
lesser beings intercede, as you believe, and the Creator works the
miracle directly, or He delegates the power and they work the actual
miracle independently. Since demons in almost all theologies can work
the negative equivalent of miracles, and I don't think it likely they'd
ask the Creator's permission, I tend to the latter view."

Odeon didn't like that, but looked at from a purely logical viewpoint,
he couldn't argue. It was for damnsure Shayan could do things on that
order. "Go on; I can handle it so far."

Medart smiled. "You're doing better than I expected. Maybe you wo