Chapter 262: The Stars Beyond the Sky (Part II)

"But what of creation?" she asked. "Who began it all?"

Now, Halver paused. His tone softened. "That question," he said, "is not beneath you. It is above us all. We do not know. Not truly. The philosopher Kairon of Alzara once said, 'The true divine is not the hand that shapes the stars, but the law that binds them.' We may never meet a true god. But if there is one, it is not like us. It does not sit on a throne. It is beyond the architecture of species, planets, even galaxies. It would not dwell in temples or take offerings of gold. It is gravity. It is entropy. It is the expansion of space. "

A silence settled in the room, thick and reverent.

He turned back to the starscape.

"If there is a god," he said, "then it is in the laws of physics, in the song of gravity, in the thread of time itself."

Another student asked. "So all our stories... they're just wrong?"

"No," Elina said quietly, before Halver could reply. "They're just incomplete."