Book 1, Verse 28

So she hadn’t forgotten the point.

I smiled as me, Niels, and Elisa stopped walking.

She quickly took the surprised expression off her face and sighed.

“Vivian, can we please talk about this some other time? I’m kind of exhausted.”

I rolled my eyes as Elisa kept talking.

“You’ve proven you’re stronger than me; isn’t that enough?”

Vivian didn’t waver.

“No; I’m not going to let you end this that easily. You wanted to call Shinko and me idiots because we believed in God, and then when I start actually challenging you, you start insulting us.”

“You did the same thing.” Elisa said with a smirk.

“Y-yes, but you started it!” Vivian rebutted.

“You stooped to my level; therefore all your moral grandstanding is worthless and hypocritical.”

Vivian’s eye twitched.

Elisa crossed her arms.

“Look, we’re both kind of irrational. That makes this whole argument pointless. Let’s pretend it never happened and keep going.” Elisa offered.

Niels nodded.

I forced myself to breathe more slowly.

I’d used Elisa’s tactics before.

It was a good idea to try and force your opponent to agree to a draw when a victory was out of reach. I did it with John when we were talking all the time.

I caught myself.

If Elisa was trying to get the argument to be a draw, then that meant that she wasn’t sure she could win.

Which would be fine, but she was arguing for the side that made logical sense! The idea of an all-powerful God was nonsense, and Elisa knew it! She just had to keep up the argument and Vivian would eventually be forced to admit defeat!

So why was she acting like she couldn’t win?

And why had I acted the same way with John?

“Even if what you’re saying about us both being irrational is true, that doesn’t mean we can’t talk with each other meaningfully.” Vivian said after a long pause. She looked at me. “If that were the case, me and Shinko wouldn’t be traveling together.” She turned back to Elisa. “So don’t pretend that moments of irrational behavior make logical talking impossible.”

Elisa clenched her fist.

“Fine. You want to end this argument so badly? Alright then.” She rolled her head on her shoulders and started walking towards Vivian.

The tall and thin trees around us swayed gently in the light of the noonday sun.

Vivian stood her ground and maintained eye contact as Elisa got closer and closer, until the two women were mere inches away from each other.

“What proof do you have that ‘God’ actually exists?” Elisa said menacingly.

There it was; the killer question.

“What proof do you have that he doesn’t?” Vivian replied nonchalantly.

I couldn’t help cringing a little bit upon hearing that response.

Sure, it was technically a rebuttal; but it was such a cheap shot.

“Look, I–” Elisa huffed. “It’s ridiculous! Mirra explains why we see what we see! The world we live in was created by magical phenomena, so there is no need for ‘God!’ Believing in such a fantastical being is absolutely ridiculous!”

Vivian shifted on her feet.

Niels nodded along with Elisa’s statement.

Vivian looked a little put-off.

Elisa was doing pretty well for this argument.

I looked at Vivian, and I found myself rooting for her a little bit; I guessed it was true that people liked an underdog story.

Vivian’s eyes lit up.

“W-wait, wait!” She sounded excited. “Um, so, mirra explains where the world came from, r-right?”

“Yes.” Elisa replied. “What are you getting at?”

“Where, um, where did mirra come from?!”

Elisa took a step back.

Even though I was standing a little bit away and standing next to Niels, I smiled. Nice counter Vivian.

“It’s always existed.” Elisa retorted.

“Doesn’t mirra require an outside force to do anything?” Vivian said quickly. “Otherwise, wouldn’t magical stuff be happening randomly all the time?”

Elisa rolled her eyes and crossed her arms trying to look unphased.

But I could see a bead of sweat form on her forehead.

“Mirra reacts to mirra!” She replied. “Obviously, there was a lot of mirra in an area, and it reacted with itself to create everything we see!”

Vivian looked down at Elisa, and it almost seemed like she’d gotten taller. The trees that surrounded the forest path seemed to sway a little more violently in the breeze that was picking up. Niels appeared very pensive.

“Hey Niels, you know more about mirra than I do. What happens when mirra reacts to itself?” Vivian said suddenly.

Niels almost jumped from surprise. He quickly recovered.

“Oh, thank you for asking. It tends to explode; correction, it always explodes.” He said confidently.

Vivian turned back to Elisa. As she did, Niels whispered to me.

“I was kind of wondering if they’d ever ask me anything; I mean, I am the one who wants to become a wizard.” He said proudly.

“So mirra exploding created everything we see? From what I’ve seen, explosions tend to break things.” Vivian said.

Elisa huffed and looked away.

“At least it makes more sense than believing that some random ‘God’ did it!” Elisa retorted.

Even I had to admit that sounded like a stretch; not too much of a stretch, but still.

Vivian looked at Elisa strangely, then spoke calmly.

“I don’t think so.”

Elisa looked away.

“Well, I think you’re wrong.”

And that’s where it ended; Vivian was too stubborn to admit that she was wrong, and Elisa had no reason to surrender when she was clearly more rational.

Maybe not a lot more rational, but still more believable than what Vivian was saying.

Vivian looked up, then sighed and redirected her gaze down at Elisa.

“Okay. You don’t have to agree with me. But can you please stop calling me and Shinko idiots, since we can’t agree on which explanation makes more sense?”

Elisa bit her lip and held her breath, then stopped and let herself exhale loudly. She crossed her arms and looked up at Vivian.

“F-fine. You’re still wrong though.” She looked away.

Vivian narrowed her eyes and huffed, then sighed defeatedly.

“I can accept that.”

“Good, because that's all you’ll be getting.” Elisa turned around and started walking back towards me and Niels.

Vivian rolled her eyes and followed her.

And the four of us neared the end of the King’s Wood.