Free Hell's Foundations Quiver by David Weber Page A

guests’ sensibilities, he’d walked in the door rather than simply appearing, and a hologram of Owl’s black-haired, blue-eyed avatar sat to his left. Nahrmahn had been supplied with his own equally holographic bottle of wine in order to keep them company, and now he raised his glass in ironic salute.
    â€œSandaria?” Nimue said quietly from her seat across the table from Aivah’s maid. “I hope you’re feeling a little more … comfortable now?”
    â€œThat’s not the word I’d choose,” Sandaria replied. Her voice was harsh, her expression deeply troubled. “It’s too much for me to even begin understanding at this point. We knew from Saint Kohdy’s journal that there was a lot more than had ever appeared in the Writ , and we knew The Testimonies had been edited. But that all of it was a lie? That there’s no truth in the Writ at all?” She shook her head, eyes dark, glistening with anguished, unshed tears. “I don’t know if I can truly believe that. I don’t even know if I want to believe it!”
    â€œSandaria—” Aivah began, her tone edged with alarm, but Merlin raised one hand, palm foremost, and shook his head.
    â€œIt wasn’t all a lie, Sandaria. Nor was all of it evil. A lot of its consequences have been ‘evil,’ however you want to define the term, even judged solely by the Holy Writ ’s own internal commands and obligations. But there’s an enormous amount of good in the Writ , as well.
    â€œI’ve read all of it, from end to end, and to be honest, one of the things I most hated about it, knowing what happened to Pei Shan-wei and all of my friends in the Alexandria Enclave, was that there was so much in it with which I completely and totally agreed. When someone like Sharleyan refers to the commands of the Writ today, when she says that God must weep to see us killing one another in His name, she’s not being dishonest and she’s not dissembling.
    â€œI won’t pretend that everyone who’s learned the truth has simply gone merrily along still believing in God, because some of them haven’t.” Sandaria looked at him, her face showing how hard she found it to believe anyone could possibly think that way. “But the last thing I—or any other member of the inner circle—wants would be for you to stop believing in God simply because Langhorne and the others lied about Him. If you decide—if you decide—that God doesn’t exist, that’s your right, but do it on the basis of something besides the fact that Langhorne and Chihiro fabricated the story of what happened when human beings first came to Safehold. Make your decision based on your own reasoning, your own interpretation of the evidence and the universe, but don’t let your belief in Him be destroyed by the actions of men and women who were terrified that the threat they’d escaped might someday threaten to exterminate the entire human race once more … and succeed.”
    â€œMerlin’s right, Sandaria,” Nimue said. “And I’m not saying that just because he and I used to be the same person!” She grinned impishly, then sobered. “But he and I both consider ourselves Christians. That’s a religion, a God, you’ve never heard of, yet a huge part of the Writ is borrowed directly from the central, most sacred teachings of Christianity, and there are other parts of it borrowed from a religion called Islam, and one called Judaism. In fact, there are parts of it from almost every way in which mankind ever attempted to know God.
    â€œThe way he and I see it, the God in whom we believe’s still there, Sandaria, still waiting for us to return to Him if we choose to . That’s what Maikel Staynair’s been saying from the very beginning. Like him, I believe God never walks away from anyone, but we have free will. That means anyone can