Milo cleared his throat, his cheeks coloring a bit as he reached out and snagged the book from my hands. “That one may be for a bit of, er, fun reading in the evening.”
I chuckled. Even Milo’s leisure time was spent reading.
“Do you think you’ll find anything?” I asked, my smile fading as I looked over the titles of the various books arranged in front of us.
Milo sighed. “Truthfully? No.”
He gauged my reaction. That was one thing I had always liked about Milo, his brutal honestly. Though, at the moment, I might have appreciated a little white lie.
“But that isn’t to say I’m not going to try,” he added quickly. “Cosmo has given me full use of the library, excluding the books in his personal collection in his office, of course. Though I doubt there’s anything in them if he’s scrutinized them so over the years. And I’ve extended a request to House Lynx, but I don’t expect as warm a welcome from them.”
“Thank you,” I blurted, realizing for the first time that I’d never shown him any gratitude for all the research he'd been doing on our behalf.
He smiled at me, then turned his attention back to the books. Milo flipped open the cover of the first one,A Complete History of Sanctuary: As told by Ishaan of House Viper. Something about the title reminded me of a question I’d been meaning to ask him.
“In all your studies, have you come across anything about the origination of the Trials?”
Milo frowned.
“You mean, how they began?” he asked. I nodded. He blew out a breath as though I’d just asked the most complicated question of all time. “Well, among the major houses, there’s an accepted answer to that question, but I’m sure you know that so—”
“Yes, yes,” I waved him off. “The Trials were created by the Geist to test us and determine who among us is worthy to…something or other.”
“Something or other, indeed.” Milo smiled. “There’s the religious explanation, that you’ve so elegantly summarized, and then there are academic queries. Your friend Bria would say religion and academia are one in the same, that they go hand in hand, but I would argue that academic study seeks to expand upon religion, perhaps at times even to question it.”
I looked around us.
“Blasphemous, I know,” Milo whispered, still smiling. “Your religious explanation is the accepted answer for many otherquestions here in Sanctuary. Why are there Trials? Because the Geist made them to prove we’re worthy of…whatever they determine we’re worthy of. Your gifts fall into that category, I imagine. Why is there a Culling? Because the Geist need those pure of heart to serve them in another realm. Why are there Rings in Sanctuary? Because the Geist made it that way. Where do the tunnels go? Where the Geist want them to go. On and on, you see?
“If every answer to every question is 'because it is what the Geist say’ sooner or later, people stop asking questions. And that’s the point, isn’t it? That’s the religion. Or so the priests and acolytes believe. Because it’s easier to blind people with faith than to guide them to the truth and the beauty it beholds.”
Something about his words made my skin crawl. And I couldn’t help continuously looking around as if expecting an acolyte to burst forth from the shelves and brand us heretics.
“I’m a religious man, Adrian,” Milo said, as if he felt it necessary to clarify. “I believe in the Geist and their status as supreme beings as much as the next guy. There’s too much mention of them, too much history devoted to their worship, for it to be otherwise. What I question is our interpretation of them.
“I think every man and woman should have the right to question their faith, to question the Geist, as you have. Because if we’re right, and I do believe we are, they’ll never be able to find evidence to dispute our religion. That’s how academia and religion coincide. That’s why it’s okay to be a little blasphemous from time to time.”
“I don’t think Cosmo would agree,” I told him, and he chuckled. “And I know Bria wouldn’t.”
“No, I imagine she wouldn’t. But I apologize, Adrian. I’ve gotten off track. You asked about the origination of the Trials.”
I nodded.
“Yes, well, you already know the religious answer, so I won’t rehash that. As for academia’s stance, in everything I’ve read in my studies, history seems to agree with religion but asks morewhythe Trials were created andwhen. It seems they were created at the precise time that Sanctuary was. That Sanctuary has never existed without the Trials, and the Trials have never existed without Sanctuary. So their creation is one in the same. Their purpose, however, well that’s been argued by scholars for centuries.”
I leaned in closer as Milo began to whisper.
“At the beginning, the message that the Trials were to prove one’s worth to the Geist was real, clear, and sincere. The heroes of that age were given gifts at every success, just as you and Dante are now. There were even allusions to the heroes going on to physically join the Geist after the Trials, but I’ve chalked that up to religious propaganda and speculation, a driving force to use to convince the general public to take part in the Trials themselves. But, without evidence of such a thing ever actually occurring, people stopped believing it and were never given any other alternative belief.
“Priests and acolytes still claim that the Trials prove who is worthy to be blessed by the Geist. They consider your gifts and elevated social class to be the full extent of those blessings. But academics question that belief. It’s too vague, too broad. There must have been a reason the Geist created the Trials. Why are they testing us in the first place? Why give us gifts at all? What’s the point?”
I nodded along. I’d been wondering the same things.
“Academics have been speculating for centuries. There are many theories, some more accepted than others. A lot of people believe the Trials are our way of proving something about ourselves for judgement in the afterlife. Some people believe it’s simply the best way that the Geist can choose who to Cull.But I do believe I told you about the discovery I made before, concerning the matter of the Culling being established a few centuries after the Trials? So I don’t find that explanation to be likely.
“There are wild theories like the Geist are choosing who is good enough to live with them in paradise or training soldiers to fight in some ancient war or even that we’re a mere spectacle for them to sit back and laugh at our weakness. Those people, of course, don’t seem to have high opinions of the Geist at all. They see them as manipulative and cruel.”
“What do you think it is?”
