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"Doesn't answer the question," Anver pointed out before I could.
Zeal closed his eyes in a long blink and sighed. "I made it clear that I'm stronger. I may have shoved him around, and it's possible that I punched him in the face a few times, but no one could see him to even notice the bruises."
"Wait," Wraythe said, lifting a hand to stop all of us. "Gods can bruise?"
"We affect each other the way you do. A normal person can't hurt us like that, but we can hurt each other. We usually don't, but hekissed Nari."
"Makes sense to me," Ela said. "However, if the other gods need our help, then we'll need a way to keep in touch. Nari can't run around all the temples. What about the Temple of All Gods?"
"Neutral ground," Zeal told us. "Same as the courtyard. It's better than nothing, but not as good as home." He stopped there, but from the twitching of his expression, it was easy to see he wasn't done. Then, "And they're not strong enough to go there when they want."
"They're dying faster than you expected," I realized.
Zeal nodded. "Yeah. I think Savi has the right of it. A chosen priest to work with you. Someone you can convince to see their own god. One person who can see us will help more than you know."
"Wait." I reached up to scrub at my face. "You mean no one else in all the other temples can talk to them? Isn't Merci aware of my brothers?"
"It's not that easy," Zeal said. "Nari, you're special."
"Regardless," Anver said, shifting the subject, "we can help, right? If each god picks and marks their chosen priest, and that priest knows to talk to Nari..."
"How?" Talin asked. "The High Priest would have a problem with that, because it means she's getting more attention than him. That means we can't make it an openly known thing, right?"
"Peyron," Ela said. "If Zeal tells the gods and goddesses, then there's no reason Peyron can't tell the other temples to look for the sign of their god's chosen one, right?"
"Make it more like a sign of favor for their temple," Anver realized, "and less a way of showing that Nari's an outlier."
"Until they talk with her," Zeal said. "She's the one with all the Paths. My siblings can't do that yet. Not unless they do it during Choosing, and it's another year before we do that again. She is special, and my siblings have no interest in adding a new Path to their temples."
"Unlike you," I said.
Zeal looked at all of us. "Exactly. I wanted all of you for a reason."
"He just won't say what it is," Wraythe grumbled.
