Chapter 39 Part 3
One could hear a pin drop in the room as the Rogue let these words hang.
"Uzine," the Rogue said after a seeming eternity of silence. "Your tattoo is now red and will remain so. You are, in essence, a dead chimera. Sal, the hacker you have been is not the hacker you have to continue to be, and Rei, it is not necessary to understand everything in order to form a belief or a lack of one. Everyone has reasons and justifications for all that they do, believe, and think. I urge you all to keep these things in mind."
Sal furrowed his brow as he heard these words. He still wasn't satisfied with the explanations the Rogue had offered.
"I still don't understand how Aries features into all of this, Rogue--or for that matter any of the other Gods you casually named--and you SPOKE to ARIES?"
"Yes, I've spoken with him."
"How or why on Earth did you do that?"
"Well, you know how and why, because you did it. I can't remember if when I last spoke with him we were on Earth, however."
"Could you cut the crap and give me some answers?" inquired Sal.
"I could," said the Rogue, "But what fun would that be? The problem is that I doubt any of you have a sufficient reference to understand the old Gods."
"Why is that?" asked Uzine.
"Because," began the Rogue, "Your culture has attempted to systematically expunge them. It saw the old Gods and religions as causes of unnecessary strife and conflict. Rei has in her possession one of the books that was restricted dealing with one such older religion, is that not right, Rei?"
Rei became restless at the mention of the book.
"Yes," she replied.
"Did the contents seem like anything you had read before?"
"No," replied Rei. "Maybe some of it was similar to the writings of the Shapers, but no."
"So what exactly was Aries?" Sal pressed the Rogue.
"Aries is an old God--a very, very old God. He was a God that did not exist in conjunction with the Runic Wars until your introduction of him there. In the original timeline, he slumbered through that conflict because he had been largely forgotten. However, because you summoned him, you have created a slightly different timeline and an immensely different spiritual fault line."
