"Yeah." Odeon sighed. The Ranger wasn't mind-touching him, but he was certain that wasn't necessary; he'd never been very good at hiding strong feelings, and his current feeling of betrayal was as strong as his anguish at Joanie's maiming had been. "What would he be, then?" Medart shrugged. "All I can give you is a guess." "I understand." "Okay. Bear in mind that I don't share your faith and ours uses different terminology, so I'll have to do some more explaining, and you may find that sacrilegious. Especially since you're a priest." "I'm properly warned; go ahead." "We'll start with the basic point we agree fully on, then. There is one Creator of all the universes, right?" "I only know of one universe, but other than that, yes." "There are more. You'll have to take my word for now, but I'll give you proof later. Anyway, you believe the Creator is three beings in one, a belief I don't share. We do agree, though, that there are lesser supernatural beings. Right again?" "The various kinds of angels and demons, yes." "And the souls of those who've died?" Odeon thought about that, then nodded slowly. "I suppose so, though I don't usually think of them that way." "Even the saints, who work miracles?" "God works the miracles through them," Odeon corrected. "Okay, I can go along with all of that." "Good, because the next step is where you're going to get upset. Since everything ultimately comes from the Creator, including the power to work miracles, Omnists don't see any practical difference whether these lesser beings intercede, as you believe, and the Creator works the miracle directly, or He delegates the power and they work the actual miracle independently. Since demons in almost all theologies can work the negative equivalent of miracles, and I don't think it likely they'd ask the Creator's permission, I tend to the latter view." Odeon didn't like that, but looked at from a purely logical viewpoint, he couldn't argue. It was for damnsure Shayan could do things on that order. "Go on; I can handle it so far." Medart smiled. "You're doing better than I expected. Maybe you won't blow up on me at this stage after all." "I've heard a couple of Imperials swearing 'by the Creator and all the gods', so I can make a guess. I don't like it one little bit, but I'd say what we agree on as the lesser supernatural beings are what they mean by the last part of that phrase." "Exactly right! The Omnist definition of a god is a being subordinate to the Creator who is the proximate cause of a miracle. It's not a judgement of good or bad; it's a simple term to distinguish those who work miracles from those who don't. And if the Creator chooses, He can grant a material being the powers and knowledge normally restricted to those on the supernatural plane. From what you tell me, He loaned Joanie those powers temporarily, and has just given them to Keith--maybe permanently."