You stare at the crystal in your hand for what feels like days, internally debating the matter. The intriguing nature of the recursive facets makes part of you itch for a larger sample size so you can start drawing conclusions about what the patterns mean. But another part of you keeps seeing something you almost recognize in the facets, as it matches your oldest friend in every respect except for that it is eerily frozen and inert. On another level you look at the scale of the responsibilities you've already taken on and fret at where you might find the time to pursue another avenue of research, which wars against the possible benefits to the Empire of being better able to sniff out dark Gods under false guises.
Eventually a conclusion begins to emerge from the almost perfect balance of forces in your mind, and as it crystallizes it grow layers of justifications. You are one person. You only have so many hours in the day and days in the week. Spreading yourself even thinner than you already are jeopardizes all you are already doing, and threatens to do so even more if your ambitions are discovered. Cython may have the luxury of spending millennia pursuing the most ambitious puzzles for their own sake, but you are not Cython. You are, by your own choices, bound to the Empire, to the Colleges, to the Karaz Ankor... and to Ranald.
You feel pangs of regret as you make your way downstairs towards the shrine, but not enough to halt your steps, nor enough to stop you from picking up a rock hammer from the workshop on the way. If things had been just slightly different, if you had slightly less irons in the fire already, if you had slightly more resources, if you had come across this in a way that didn't inescapably drag Ranald Himself into the study... perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Well, it's not the first regret you've ever had blossom inside you and is far from the largest, so you force it down with ease of practice and your steps grow surer as you approach Ranald's shrine, and you find yourself smiling as you enter it. The choughs are currently in the middle of their breeding season, but where once they would have been concerned and defensive they simply crane their heads to see if you've brought anything for them to eat. Some of the choughs laying their first clutch this season hatched in this very shrine, and they've long since grown accustomed to your comings and goings.
There are rituals and supplications for this sort of thing, but you've never really been one for them. You sit cross-legged on the bare stone floor, place the crystal on the ground, and line up the rock hammer with the crystal while giving a mental nudge in the direction of your connection to Him. Then you swing, and shards and energies skitter across the stone in a tinkling chorus as the choughs squawk and give you reproachful looks. But something else slips into those looks, and more of the birds appear from sheltered nooks as their eyes fix on the crystalline shining. One by one they hop down, and the boldest pecks cautiously at a fragment, and emboldened by its lack of response, plucks it from the ground and returns triumphantly to its nest with its shiny prize. The others follow suit in a flapping crowd, and within moments the ground is picked entirely clean and left bare again. All that remains is the mark of the impact on the stone and you're not at all surprised to see that it forms an X.
But then you frown and lean a little closer. It looks like an X at first glance, but it's bisected horizontally, leaving a line of unmarked stone between the V above and the chevron below. You run your fingers over the shape and as you do you feel the Coin around your neck grow warm against your skin, and when you pull it out you find the same shape on the first face you see. You rotate it through and find that this is a new fifth side of your Coin, which is all well and good, but what does it mean? You scrutinize both Coin and the mark on the ground, but both refuse to give any further insight. So you sigh, stand to leave, and then freeze as you turn towards the door and catch sight of the painting of Ranald and Shallya, because now among the picnicking couple and Their twin flocks of crows and doves are two small girls, one who heavily resembles Her father with a hint of Her mother, and the other Her mother with a hint of Her father. And you feel a smile spreading across your face.
From one perspective you sacrificed answers to your God, and in doing so received more questions. But from another, Ranald has followed the example of Heidi and Wilhelmina by introducing you, His friend, to His offspring. Though He has done so while remaining faithful to his usual mien, and you're certain a corner of your mind will be speculating about Their actual identities for quite some time.
[New face of the Coin - The Father: Ranald's daughters, and Their followers, will recognize you as being worthy of trust and faith.]
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