"I not hear more. I not even hear Cayden Cailean and Norgorber."

"God say, it is the ...the job and the future of men grow past their fathers and then past their gods."

"...Are you sure you are a Christian and not - something else?" Claudette says. "Not that I disapprove, whatever you are sounds much cooler, but I think at some point it's just confusing to call yourself Christian and believe completely different things from normal Christians." 

Wow. Okay. That's taking things a teeny bit far, but Claudette sure did actually just say that with her actual mouth. 

“God a man once ten hundred and ten hundred and ten hundred years ago, turn a god to fix world, fight Hell, build city in city-Heaven now? There two gods doing that?”

Glance over at Emily. "Not that I have heard of, specifically, but if you're from a place far enough I never heard of it, then I wouldn't expect to have. - Emily, you took world religion, are there other gods that were supposed to have spent time as humans?" 

"Ugh, I don't know. Not ones that fought Hell, I don't think? And the island that makes people gods isn't ringing any bells either, and I have no idea what 'city-Heaven' is. ...How many years ago are you saying Jesus was born as a human? Christians think it was two thousand years ago - ten hundred and ten hundred, but not three ten hundreds." 

"In Taldor they count from when God went to Heaven to be a god and they say that three ten hundreds and seven more hundreds and eight more tens years. I not know when God born as human. Before Azlant die. 

It could be that two gods do this. It could also be that in America you confused about God. ...could also be that in Taldor confused about God, but in Taldor the priests can ask God things, and God says the answer, so I think America priests confused make more sense than Taldor priests confused. 

City Heaven just - there Heaven where city and you not have to be good, and Heaven where army and you do have to be good. And God in city Heaven. Is how I learned it."

"...Huh. Well, I don't know enough about theology to debate the bit about Heaven, for all I know that's a totally normal interpretation, but the number of years is definitely wrong. We count years from when Jesus is supposed to have been born, and that was a bit over two thousand - two ten hundreds - years ago. Man, what was even happening in like 1700 BC. I'm not an ancient history person." 

"I think they were sort of guessing about when Jesus was born. But it might be off by ten years, not thousands. - Who was Azlant? It sort of sounds like Aslan from Narnia but I thought Aslan was supposed to be a metaphor for Jesus, not a different person. And anyway Narnia is fiction about another world." 

"Azlant place destroy by sky rock long ago, when God alive but before he a god. Jeremy says maybe is call Atlantis in America. I maybe know some things not true but also pretty sure you know some things not true."

"- Yeah, okay, that somehow got even weirder. I mean, that's metal as fuck, your take on God sounds way cooler than Jesus, but - weird. ...Atlantis supposedly existed a really long time ago, like ten ten hundred years ago, and yeah it's supposed to have been destroyed and sunk under the ocean. Maybe as punishment from the gods for trying to be too cool? Most gods in mythology are not fans of humanity trying to grow past them. Also most scientists don't think really existed, it's mythology. But it's, like, different mythology from the story of Jesus." 

"I think the stories about Jesus aren't true, that was my entire point! ...I mean, I think historians think there was a person called Jesus who started a religion, just not that he was really the son of God or really came back to life. But if you go around saying you're a Christian, people are going to think you mean the American kind of Christian, and not the cooler thing. Which none of us have ever heard of before." 

"I no think I have been going around saying I a Christian. I have been going around saying I a holy warrior of God. Azlant sink like ten ten hundred years ago yes. Not as punishment from the gods for trying to be too cool, was a war with water people. The gods Acavna and Amaznen tried to help save us and died trying."

"Yes, well, if you go around in America saying you worship God, I suppose you are technically not saying you mean the Christian god, but people will assume that - if you were Muslim you would say Allah - and they are not going to assume you mean a completely different religion where God was a human from Atlantis who left behind some kind of magical artifact that can make other people gods too, and some people already used it. Because that isn't Christianity. I don't know what it is but it's something else." 

This was absolutely not the conversation Emily was expecting to have and she sort of wishes Evelyn had warned her, except for how she has no idea what the warning would even have been. 

"Also they won't assume you have magic powers," she says dryly. "I'm - really confused about that, actually. And the miraculous healing. I'm not going to be a dick and say you must have imagined it because that's impossible, but I'm really confused." 

"I had noticed no one here knows what a holy warrior is. It is one of the things I do not like about America. In Taldor I would not be made a slave because the church would be very angry at anyone made a holy warrior a slave. Holy warriors do not make good slaves. And my word people would believe because God make me no a holy warrior if I ever lie. When I take Martin to the church, I think that they will know my word is good. I not have done it if I had knowed America more and knowed they no believe me and make me a slave."

Ugh, right, the main reason for this entire conversation is that Iomedae (and Alfirin, one assumes?) need someone to talk to who gets the general suckitude of the foster care system. Which is fine, but it feels kind of impossible to combine that conversation with the one where they're suddenly arguing with Iomedae about her bizarre religious beliefs. 

...She...doesn't talk about it the way people normally talk about religion? Emily is having trouble putting her finger on the difference but it's there, and it's not just the part where she keeps insisting that God is obviously in favor of other people trying to be better gods than Him, like that is a totally normally thing to say and not completely batshit. Repeatedly telling Iomedae that everything she believes is batshit is probably not going to help. 

"- Who's Martin?" she says, because that's a reasonable response that isn't calling Iomedae delusional, and it sounds like it might be related to how Iomedae ended up in foster care, which Emily is at this point desperately curious about. 

"When I was working on a farm near here, I live with other workers. It was good work, good money, no problems. I had saved four hundred dollar, learn Spanish, learn some English, learn care for car-houses.

Martin a man work on the same farm in Nevada, not travel with us. He give some women a hard time. I say they can share my tent, because I a holy warrior and can keep them safe. Martin drink. Martin come to me. He try to rape me. I sword him. - I did say to him first, this a bad idea, I will sword you, please do not. But he not listening. After I sword him I carry him to the church for healing. He say to me, no do this, the law will know. I think he mean, the law will kill him because he try to rape a holy warrior, that is what happen in Taldor. I do not think this a good reason not to give him to the law. But he really mean - the law will make me a slave, and go steal everyone children and everyone homes. Evelyn says maybe the law stealing everyone children and everyone homes not related, just happen sometimes. So now I a slave and all the workers send to other country and all their children stolen."

"Wow. Shit. That's horrifying." Emily sounds faintly impressed. "Yeah, I think illegal migrants don't want to come to the attention of the authorities for a reason. Because fuck ICE, that's why. But, uh, at the point when you'd stabbed a dude, I dunno what your options really were. ...Do you mean you had an actual literal holy sword? Because that's both really badass and sounds like the sort of thing that social workers would find concerning." 

"Yes. My father gave me family sword when God choose me holy warrior. The police took it. The social worker said maybe I get it back when I am freed but I do not really believe that. I think what I should have done is wake up everyone else and ask them why does Martin say I should not go take him for healing, and then they would have explain, and then I sit with Martin and try to fix the swording or talk him before he die so he ask God be with him at judge and he can go to Heaven. I did not do this because I had not sworded a person before and did not want to see him die, but this was a mistake. If I was not willing to have him die I should never have draw my sword, and if I was willing to have him die - and I was - then I should have been willing to let him say no the church and sit with him while he die."

"Wow. That's incredibly fucked up, you know." Emily is, again, looking more impressed than upset. "I can't tell if you're from some kind of crazy honor culture or what, but you must be having hella culture shock right now." ...Right, English vocabulary. "That isn't the sort of thing people in America would say or do. I don't know where you're from but it sounds like it's really different and that must be confusing. - is your God, uh, okay with stabbing rapists? Because, like, good on you, it sounds like he deserved it, but I bet he didn't believe you were gonna because over here it seems like a crazy thing for a super-religious girl to do." 

“Holy warriors protect innocent by killing who needs killing. But even if I was not a holy warrior I kill a man try to rape me? Anyone do that if they can.” - actually she’s losing all confidence in what everyone knows. She looks uncertainly at Alfirin.

"In Undarin too. Anyone do that if they can." Not that they always can because not everyone is a paladin.

"Of course is better if you can stop man not killing him. Some man try to rape you, maybe only need to slap him and he remember himself and that is better, no one need to die. Some other man, maybe you scream and he is scared away. But if that does not work, and you not willing to kill him, then all men know they just need to keep trying when you try to fight them and you will stop fighting, and many men lie with you, and you have a baby and starve and the baby die too small to know God. ...you will say 'in America you not starve even if you just a woman with a baby, America is so rich' but you maybe die having the baby, with no good priests in America, or the government steal the baby and raise it as a slave.

And maybe you still get sick of letting many men lie with you and cannot work even if the pay is very good.

And all the men who lie with you and would not do that if they feared you, they will go to Hell or Abaddon or the Abyss, so it is not even a favor to them.

...and even if none of that was so, I think God would not say that you should just let men lie with you and not stop them if it takes killing them.

It is harder to explain why not, but - but men should not do that, and any law you make, in the end you are saying we kill you if you do not listen, and that does not mean there should not be any laws. And if you are going to have any laws at all, no rape women a good law I think."