...Next to Aroden? The Age of Glory is supposed to start here? I always imagined it would be Absalom.

No, it was – well, it was supposed to be Westcrown. I thought you'd know – but then, maybe it was only prophesied after Cheliax became independent? It was Aroden's country.

That seems likely. We have been getting more prophecies about the Age of Glory over time. Taldor claims to be Aroden's country but - it always seemed like a pretty hollow claim to me.

Hollow how? Couldn't you just ask?

I am sure clerics with commune do occasionally, but - it seems to me more like a matter of framing than a matter of facts. It's an Arodenite country, it's the country with the greatest total number of Arodenite clerics, but plenty of Taldane generals will tell you that for those reasons Taldor is synonymous with the civilization that Aroden wants us to build on Golarion and they have a sacred mission to spread that civilization via conquest. And that's the sentiment I associate with claims that Taldor is "Aroden's country" as distinct from just an Arodenite one.

Well, so did Cheliax – but then, I've always thought of glorious conquest as rather Arodenite.

So did I, for a while. I suppose in practice it is, even if all the priests I think of as orthodox say otherwise. I think that's more about the way empires act than anything about Aroden in particular, the Keleshites are the same way about Sarenrae.

Empires seem very Arodenite too, at least human ones – but then, I never thought much about Arodenite theology until I came here.

…It looks familiar, doesn't it? The Age of Glory. It's not the same thing we saw in Absalom, but it's not entirely different, either.

It's connected for sure - the same thing, maybe, from a different angle. Aroden leaving the material and becoming a god - Aroden returning to the material - And if He ascended with intent to return, it might all be tied together in the same prophecy.

I think I see how – if this thing shattered, it might take everything else with it.

Mmm. I can see how it might but I'm not sure, from looking at it alone, that it would - And that worries me. We don't want to do it if it won't work… I think we need to see more prophecies broken, and see how that changes prophecy around them…

Well, so far I've broken every prophecy I've stumbled into, at least on the scale of the next few years. But I can't exactly observe a situation before I interact with it, now, can I?

So we should pick something prophesied to break, and I should take a look before you come break it. Something smaller than the Age of Glory and bigger than Tilbun's afternoon plans.

I was thinking we should do some small-scale tests with the spell Prophecy, but that only gives us twenty days or so to work with.

Forty, extended, but - I expect small-scale tests won't tell us too much about how bigger prophecies affect things beyond themselves or their direct objects.

I  agree. We should do them anyway, but –

But we are going to need to do the bigger experiments at some point. And they'll take more planning, so we may want to start planning them before conducting the small ones… My worry is, the big ones will be noticeable. Obviously. And if we're going around breaking prophecies just to break them Someone might guess why.

So it needs to be something that we might plausibly want to do anything. Something big. Something that doesn't touch on the crusade, because that's already hopelessly confused. And something where I know what happens – that might be a sticking point, I'm not exactly a 39th century historian.

And then he does know, and – isn't that always the way with prophecy? – immediately wishes he didn't.

...There's going to be another uprising in Galt soon. And it's going to fail. I mean – it was going to fail.

...And anyone who's noticed you, anyone who cares to look, knows it's something you'd care about for its own sake.

I'm very predictable that way.

Élie wishes – more intensely than he has since he got here – that Naima would hurry up and find him already. He misses her and he misses the children and she's really exceptionally gifted at coming up with alternatives before they have to start killing people. 

Well, it's a virtue here. I'll go to Isarn and start looking around, unless there are more stops on this tour?

None that I can think of.

Well, none that he has the heart for, at any rate. 

Alfirin visits Isarn. She spends a couple of days there, studying prophecy and keeping her own self out of events and as unobserved as possible. From the looks of things, she's not disturbing fate too much.

Élie avoids Isarn. He divides his time between the crusade and Aroden's library and tries not to think about politics. 

The Crusade also mostly tries to avoid politics, though this is easier on some occasions than others. On this occasion Iomedae Teleports back from Oppara and starts changing in the command tent from her ceremonial armor to her regular armor, grimacing. "Next time I'm just going to get you to Polymorph it," she tells Alfirin.