"I mean, it's possible a really non-interventionist god does exist. But if I said 'there's a snake around the moon' and you tell me you can't see it, and then I tell you it's invisible, so you try sending something to detect it, and I then tell you that it's also intangible, it can lead you to question why I would think there's a snake around the moon and how I would know it if it were the case." Pause. "Oh, and Changers are associated with gods in mythology – look up angels."

He does. Then looks at Theo. Then at the article again. "Huh."

"There are also demons, which are Makers. And fairies, which are Movers. Mythology is of pretty poor quality for, uh, approximately every detail here."

"Apparently that's a thing mythology has here and in your world."

"I actually don't know much about your mythology!" says Theo. "Sort of unsurprisingly – I saw the historian again, told him a bit about ours, and he offered to tell me about yours but I thought I can probably just get it from wherever."

"We don't have a lot of it, really. A lot of knowledge was lost when Sin appeared, our mythology revolves around it and Yevon."

"… It'd be nice if we could find a conveniently nice Maker. – Maybe we should try some more circles."

"Do you have any ideas in mind?"

"No, I just mean, try the same circles but it's now a different time so it's perhaps going to work differently. Seeing as how I mysteriously appeared at one point." Shrug. "I could try some in another language or with a slightly altered structure, though."

"Yeah. It's kinda bizarre you appeared with Valefor's circle, though. You could try to copy it or something?"

"I don't recall what it looked like, actually, but I can reproduce it if you point out what it looks like?"

"I could just summon her again."

"Yeah, that works," he says. "Does it take mana or something?"

"Not summoning, no. I'm calling on the shared bond between me and the fayth, the desire we both have to destroy Sin, and making it manifest."

"… Right, and Yevon made people into statues which are fayth? Uh, presumably that was magic and why you can 'call on the shared bond', I'm guessing this isn't some inherent non-magical property that people have with statues?"

"Yeah it's magic, the only known way to create aeons is by becoming a fayth through magic.—although..."

Headtilt.

"Well, Lady Yunaleska and Yu Yevon were said to be powerful summoners and they predate Sin. But if the only way to make an aeon is by having Yevon turn a person into a fayth, the couldn't have been, before. And all known fayth are in Yevon temples, so—there must've been some other way to create aeons, some forgotten way..."

"How do fayth do it, anyway? Are they still conscious when not being called upon – are they still conscious at all – can you call upon multiple at once or have multiple people call upon one at once, do they lose power…?"

"Do what? They're conscious and—kinda alive. We talk to them, when we pray at the temples to get the aeon. But they're—asleep? Sorta? Not exactly conscious, not exactly unconscious. When I get an aeon, the magic is in the bond between the fayth and me, not in the fayth themself, so other people can call upon the same aeons as I am at the same time."

"How do they produce aeons, I meant, but – apparently by using the magic of the bond? How does the bond get magic if it's just shared emotion? I was assuming it'd be from them because they're fayth."

"Summoners sorta, er, commune with the fayth, in the Chamber, and then they join with us and for a second we're—the same, more or less. And then they're gone but we know how to call on that bond again. It's also a personal thing—not everyone can be a summoner, you need to be particularly sensitive to pyreflies and magic to do it, so the summoner's doing some work, too."

"I'm wondering where the magic for the bond comes from. 'Cause if it's just shared emotion, I'm wondering if you can do it with two people who feel similarly about something and get something extra specially magic out of it. Like an aeon or something. Somehow."

"—that's. Not actually that implausible."

"So could it be a spell…? It might be that there's a branch of magic – and I don't have anywhere near an exhaustive list so maybe this exists – where you have sympathetic or combined magic, where people work together for a common goal and it's stronger? Plus if pyrefly souls do, like, anything, it – yeah, doesn't sound too implausible I don't think?"