“The doors may open again at last, Prince, and show us all the chambers through which our feet have wandered from the beginning.”
“Our religion teaches us, Ki, that after death we live eternally elsewhere in our own bodies, which we find again on the day of resurrection. Now eternity, having no end, can have no beginning; it is a circle. Therefore if the one be true, namely that we live on, it would seem that the other must be true, namely that we have always lived.”
“That is well reasoned, Prince. In the early days, before the priests froze the thought of man into blocks of stone and built of them shrines to a thousand gods, many held that this reasoning was true, as then they held that there was but one god.”
“As do these Israelites whom I go to visit. What say you of their god, Ki?”
“That he is the same as our gods, Prince. To men’s eyes God has many faces, and each swears that the one he sees is the only true god. Yet they are wrong, for all are true.”
“Or perchance false, Ki, unless even falsehood is a part of truth. Well, you have told me of two dangers, one to my body and one to my heart. Has any other been revealed to your wisdom?”
“Yes, Prince. The third is that this journey may in the end cost you your throne.”
“If I die certainly it will cost me my throne.”
“No, Prince, if you live.”
“Even so, Ki, I think that I could endure life seated more humbly than on a throne, though whether her Highness could endure it is another matter. Then you say that if I go upon this journey another will be Pharaoh in my place.”