Chapter 22 — Gazing at the Sky

"So what exactly are you looking at every day?" Seeing that Gao Heng made no reply, Amber changed the subject. "Watching the sun by day is for getting your bearings—but watching the stars by night, are you doing astrology? Do you even know astrology?"

"What do you think is up in the sky?" Gao Yang countered.

"The sky? Isn't it just stars and the sun and such?" Amber answered offhandedly. "Oh, right... don't tell me you're going to say the palaces of the gods are up there too and start preaching to me? Then I'm not interested. I worship the Goddess of Shadow and Night—the Lady of Night. Her divine realm lies in the deepest heart of the starless night, a place utterly different from the sky of the real world. I just close my eyes and pray once a day, and that counts as honoring the gods!"

"So you really are a follower of the Lady of Night?" Gao Yang glanced at Amber with some surprise. Though he himself had no faith, from Gao Yang Cecil's memories he still knew a fair amount about this world's religions. The myriad gods and the sects great and small had opened his eyes—and kept him at a respectful distance. He simply had not expected that this thief before him, who looked to have not a pious bone in her body, was also a person of faith.

"I just believe a little, casually. The Lady of Night doesn't demand offerings or hand down oracles, and she doesn't require worship at fixed times and places. It costs me not a single copper coin, so why shouldn't I believe in her in passing?" Amber said lightly, uttering words that would sound treasonous to any true believer. "Besides, the Way of Shadow has some connection to the Lady of Night's authority. Sometimes I feel that praying really does make me a bit stronger—though every time it later turns out to be a delusion brought on by drinking too much."

Gao Yang pursed his lips and decided to pay no more attention to this half-elf with no filter on her mouth.

A disgrace to the elves—whatever her other half of blood might be, it was a disgrace to that lineage as well.

"Hey, hey, why have you gone quiet again?" Amber, however, had no intention of letting him off. "You still haven't said—what exactly are you looking at?"

Gao Yang gave her a sidelong glance. "Have you ever heard the saying that when people die, their souls return to the sky and wander among the stars, and that every star is in truth the soul of one who came before..."

"Never heard of that. What I've heard is that when believers die, their souls are collected by whichever god they put their faith in, and then they live it up in that god's realm. But when unbelievers die, their souls are all gathered up by the God of Death, and then his wife drags an iron comb through every last memory they have, and then they're tossed back into the mortal world. That's why some people say every living being in this world, no matter what they believe, is by default a follower of the God of Death," Amber rattled on. "But your version is fun too. People go up to the heavens when they die? Is that some religious teaching from seven hundred years ago?"

Gao Yang looked a little awkward. "No, it's..."

"Oh, right! You've died before!" Amber's eyes went wide as if she had just discovered a new continent. With a flicker of her body she was in front of him, leaning in and pressing eagerly, "So when you died back then, did you go straight up to the heavens on the spot? What's it actually like when people die? Come on, tell me!"

"Go on, get out of here!" Gao Yang shoved her face and pushed her away by main force. "When people die they know everything, got it? I was just bored and making things up a moment ago!"

"Hmph..." Amber glared at Gao Yang for a long while, and once she was sure he really had no intention of telling her, she turned her head away. "Old people are so boring."

Gao Yang: "Say that again?!"

In a flash, Amber was gone.