Ia and the Theologue

Ia and his disciples rested for their midday meal on the outskirts of a well-tended field near a small farmhouse. The owner of the land noticed the band, and he approached them. He took immediate notice of their bearing, so he doffed his hat and wrung it in his hands. 'Well met, travelers,' he said to them. His voice hitched and stammered, and then he grew silent in awe of Ia's strong presence.

'I greet you, as well,' Ia replied. 'You need not be so reserved among us, as we are well-met indeed, and we mean you no harm.'

'I know this,' said the landowner. 'But I have heard of you from other travelers, and no others could possibly match your description with such accuracy. It is said that you can work miracles in the name of some new and powerful god, one which outstrips the might evidenced by other priests.'

'The stories have warped in their retelling,' Ia told the landowner. 'The powers I wield and those nascent ones held by my followers stem from the purest Truth of things. It is a perversion and a lie to claim they are rooted in an entity, for that leashes them to a thing which may die.'

'Surely gods cannot die,' said the landowner, his voice riddled with doubt. 'The gods are immortal by dint of their divinity.'

'Do the gods wax and wane in their power?' Ia asked the landowner, and the landowner answered, 'I cannot say whether they do or not, for I have never seen or spoken to a god.'

'No, I suppose that you have not,' Ia said, and then Ia continued, 'But the powers of the followers of these others gods vary. At times they act with more potency than at others,' and the landowner nodded his agreement.

'The strengths of the men and women who follow these deities do not vary, so it must be the power of the gods to which they are leashed, and this power is lost and shattered if ever their god were to die.'

'It is said that gods cannot die,' the landowner repeated, and Ia responded, 'It is said to be so by the followers of those gods. They would say these things to occlude their vulnerability. But the Truth I deliver and share can and will stand beyond the death of all gods, and it might be held by the faithful regardless, and if the faithful all happen to perish, then it may be reborn by any soul which possesses the will and the wisdom to seek out the realms in which this power rests, and who wishes to be a founder of a new order.'

The landowner was convinced then by Ia's argument, and he gave Ia and his disciples many supplies for their journey, for he was a wealthy landowner with many fine head of cattle and lands to feed them, and then Ia blessed him and swore that the man's heirs would always hold highest esteem with his followers.