The Fata Morgana by Leo A. Frankowski

Author:Leo A. Frankowski
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0671578227
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Published: 2000-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

I got home to find that everyone else had started supper without me. As I caught up with the rest of them, I filled them in on my remarkable conversation with the warlock.

"So what they have is a very old, do-it-yourself scientific organization, with a little World War II technology thrown in. There isn't any magic at all," I said.

"But, you say that you are able to see hundreds of miles in the dark, that you can look down to the bottom of the ocean, and that you can hear people speak when they are on the other side of the world. If that isn't magic, I would very much like you to tell me just what is!" Agnes said.

"With Americans, I guess that you could say that technology is something that we understand, and magic is something that we don't," I said.

"Then for me, it's still magic," Agnes said. "I don't understand any of it!"

"Call it magic, if you want," Adam said. "One word's as good as another, but `magic' has two syllables and `technology' has four."

"I suppose that the symbols themselves aren't important, but I'd still rather be called an engineer than a magician," I said. "But tell me, Adam, how went your meeting with the archbishop?"

"It was beautiful," he said, with a calm and glowing smile. "I don't think that I've ever met so holy a man before in my entire life. They're Christians here, but it's a purer sort of Christianity than anything I've ever heard tell of. It's like they are all living by Christ's actual teaching rather than what a bunch of abstracted theologians have done with those few parts of it that they understood. There's . . . Aw, you wouldn't understand it, Treet, but there's sort of a joyful acceptance here of the beauty of God's world, with love being far more important than sin, and heaven being emphasized more than damnation. I don't think that these people even believe in Hell, or if they do, they aren't worried about it. It's like Christ is too nice a guy to do that to somebody."

"You almost sound as though you're ready to convert," I said. In fact, he sounded more like he had gone through the kind of brainwashing that the Chinese Communists always wanted to be able to do, but never could quite get down pat. But I couldn't tell him that. Trying to argue with a fanatic just hardens his resolve. All I could do was wait and see if he recovered.

"I might convert. I just might, once I've learned more. Anyway, I will be taking religious instruction from one of their priests, starting the day after tomorrow."

"I never thought that I'd see you giving up on being a Catholic."

"Maybe I'm not. Right now, I don't see why I have to stop being one thing in order to start being another. I don't know enough about this whole setup yet, but I intend to find out, and soon."

If I was still

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