What we learned about St. Caerwyn from Gilded's mother's books was this.
Traditionally, the god Caerwyn was the God of Flying—representing innocence and play in everything, even something as dangerous as a dragon. That was why, the book said, traditional imagery always depicted him with baby dragons flocking around him to play.
"That's definitely reading too much into it," I said as we teleported back to Llewellyn's place after an enlightening nap in my Core Partition. "'Representing innocence and play in everything, even something as dangerous as a dragon'? I'm pretty sure he was depicted with dragons because, you know, he liked dragons. Or… protected dragons. Or something like that."
I mean, we'd seen that temple with all the reliefs and carvings. I don't think there was anything to be interpreted there. Even the chandelier had to be set on fire to be used!
"I agree," Llewellyn said, picking up the restaurant leaflets and passing them to me. I sat down and placed both Lumos and Penguin down on the sofa, pulling them closer for a cuddle, and accepted one. "She says that Innishaean gods are reduced to either biography or symbols, but then she ends up doing the same in a different way."
"Right?"
Maybe we were being unfair, though. She was writing for other scholars; she couldn't exactly say "St. Caerwyn likely thought dragons were cool".
What else was there, let's see…
"He's associated with mountains, caves, temples," I listed off the top of my head. "This makes sense with the temple we found, its location, and even the fact that it's near caves. In fact, it's even too neat. Or are we going to find a Caerwyn temple on every mountain with caves?"
"That's not unlikely," Llewellyn said. "Didn't it also say that he's the only god who builds his own temples? If he does it himself and he's associated with mountains, it makes sense for him to just do it on mountains."
Oh, yeah, that was a good point.
…Though I got the sense he probably just wanted to sculpt more dragons.
"Tibetan mapping," I went on, "loose at best, no clean parallel. It might be a quality of Magic expressed in Innishae that has no Himalayan equivalent. So maybe not on every mountain actually, but there might be more temples on Innishae's mountains at least."
"Which raises the question," Llewellyn said, "why isn't this widely known? Temples appear on mountains, full of dragon reliefs and sculptures. Nobody has built them, allegedly—and… nobody has ever stumbled on them?"
He was right.
"They must be shielded," I said after some pondering. "But what's the point of building a temple nobody can find or use?"
"Maybe he just likes sculpting dragons," Llewellyn said.
I grinned. I'd just thought the same.
"System," I said. "Can you tell us more?"
[System Notification: The Blessing of St. Caerwyn protects Caerwyn's temples.]
Oh, right! There was the blessing!
"Why do you call him St. Caerwyn," Llewellyn asked, frowning, "if he's a god, not a Saint?"
There was a pause.
[System Notification: "St. Caerwyn" is the designation found in existing cultural and historical records. The System uses both names interchangeably. Would you like the name to be updated?]
Oh, fair enough.
"It's not necessary," I said, waving my hand. "We know what you mean. Can you tell us about this blessing?"
[System Notification: The Blessing of St. Caerwyn sustains Caerwyn's domain independently of the god's coalescing and dissolving. Living creatures within its reach tend to feel safe, at ease, and cared for. It also facilitates recoalescing should the god need to be summoned.]
Well!
Wait though, did that mean we could, potentially, summon him?!
But… Why would we do that? That could be dangerous.
I mean, unless Llewellyn wanted to take sculpting classes from a god or something. It might be a new thing he'd end up excelling at.
"Can you tell us about those statues and reliefs?" I asked. "He does sculpt them himself, right?"
[System Notification: Caerwyn's nature is inherently creative. The statues, reliefs, and temple structures are the result of his Magic. Sculpting appears to be a preferred form of play aside from flying.]
He definitely seemed like a fun god. I liked him.
I wondered what we were supposed to do with this information though.
Maybe we really should summon him.
"What's with the caves?" Llewellyn asked. "I can see why he'd like mountains if he likes to fly, and I guess temples are a way for him to put his sculptures somewhere. But caves and flying don't really go together."
[System Notification: Caves provide enclosed spaces suitable for baby dragons to practice flight safely.]
"…"
...Okay, that was adorable.
Damn, this guy was great.
"Then what about the cryst—" I started. Ah! Wait. I knew the answer to this myself.
Dragons liked treasure.
The System pinged in reply.
[System Notification: Dragons are drawn to gold, crystals, and precious materials. Proximity to crystal formations, gold veins, or hidden treasures seems to often be a factor in Caerwyn's site selection.]
As expected.
Llewellyn turned another leaflet around.
"How many dragons are we talking about here?" he asked. "We've only ever seen one and he was an Out-of-Time one."
[System Notification: Dragons used to be numerous, though now considered extremely rare. Caerwyn's temples appear to have been built during a period of greater dragon activity.]
That reminded me…
When I'd died and I was being pulled back… I'd seen dragons there. I remember wondering if that was the place Gléonwon came from too.
But I didn't know how to formulate my question.
"When I died," I told the System, "after I came back, I asked you if you knew what had happened to me. And you said that I seemed to have gone through an Out-of-Time experience and that the event was outside your current classification. When Gléonwon appeared, you similarly said something about how you didn't have a temporal reference and couldn't place his existence within linear time. In that place, after the void, when I was being pulled back, I also saw dragons. What's the connection here?"
[System Notification: Out-of-Time is not a location. It is a state in which Magic is unconstrained by linear time. Forms coalesce and dissolve freely.]
"But what does that mean for beings existing there?" I asked. "Do they die when they dissolve? Besides, don't you need time for things to be able to coalesce and dissolve anyway? How can anything happen if there's no time?"
Was I being stupid here? I also felt like I'd spent a lot of time in Out-of-Time, if that made sense, even though in the end no time had passed at all.
…This was making my head spin.
[System Notification: Once something exists, it cannot fall out of existence. Coalescing and dissolving are not to be likened to being born or dying. The substrate remains untouched, and its specific expressions always exist in either a manifest or latent state. Linear time is not a requirement for this process.]
"…"
I had to read that three times and it still made my head hurt.
Llewellyn also seemed to be pondering that.
"What about Yun Seojun's dojang we found in Mount Dalrin's caves?" Llewellyn asked. "Is it connected to St. Caerwyn? Can you tell us what that was about?"
There was a pause. Then—
[System Notification: The System is not authorized to disclose that information.]
"…"
Are you kidding me?!
The System could spell out actual gods, life, and death but Yun Seojun's dojang was off-limits?!