He took her words in silently, letting them fall into the maelstrom of his thoughts though his face remained outwardly calm, hiding the turmoil within. Spirit guides and impossible knowledge and the girl who had almost been Queen. How different things would be now if she hadn't gotten sick. Would Zariah ever have risen to power? Would Wessex have ever held the throne? Gotten them banned from the Greatwood? But those thoughts were a distraction from the gut-wrenching news of his own falsity. He nodded numbly at her assumptions that it had been no god they knew of that had sent that message and yet...
And yet.
If it had been her brother's spirit, wouldn't that mean Mort had been involved? At least to allow Noah to bring the dream to Maea. It was a guess and nothing more, empty supposition with no proof, but what else could he do? The information made a certain horrible sense to him and he sighed finally as his shoulders relaxed, one reluctant knot at a time. "I see no reason to disbelieve you," he said, looking to his friend with a crooked smile as the bats began to come out, fluttering overhead in their nightly hunt. "Hard though it is to hear. But... without proof, I'm not sure if the information should be widely shared. Many won't want to believe it. Others may be hurt by it." He shook his head, smile softening as a recent memory surfaced to soothe the mad scramble for someplace existentially solid to stand on mere moments ago. "Questions I have in plenty, but the most important one I already have the answer to. Thanks to Soulkeeper, here, I've seen souls of Naturals and Outlanders alike. Outlanders have souls, even if our bodies are mere constructs. This is something to be considered and pursued though, I think. Not that it should matter but... there may be those who wish to use it as a weapon against Outlanders in the future, and the best defense we have on that is for the Loreseekers to gather as much proof and facts as we can, to better understand it." How that would be undertaken, he didn't know yet, but with a little luck they would have some time to see what they could learn.
And yet.
If it had been her brother's spirit, wouldn't that mean Mort had been involved? At least to allow Noah to bring the dream to Maea. It was a guess and nothing more, empty supposition with no proof, but what else could he do? The information made a certain horrible sense to him and he sighed finally as his shoulders relaxed, one reluctant knot at a time. "I see no reason to disbelieve you," he said, looking to his friend with a crooked smile as the bats began to come out, fluttering overhead in their nightly hunt. "Hard though it is to hear. But... without proof, I'm not sure if the information should be widely shared. Many won't want to believe it. Others may be hurt by it." He shook his head, smile softening as a recent memory surfaced to soothe the mad scramble for someplace existentially solid to stand on mere moments ago. "Questions I have in plenty, but the most important one I already have the answer to. Thanks to Soulkeeper, here, I've seen souls of Naturals and Outlanders alike. Outlanders have souls, even if our bodies are mere constructs. This is something to be considered and pursued though, I think. Not that it should matter but... there may be those who wish to use it as a weapon against Outlanders in the future, and the best defense we have on that is for the Loreseekers to gather as much proof and facts as we can, to better understand it." How that would be undertaken, he didn't know yet, but with a little luck they would have some time to see what they could learn.
