Chapter 459 — A New Doctrine

Gao Yang acknowledged each of them, and once the last believer had left the church he came up to the pulpit and gave Wright a slight nod. "It seems everyone has gotten used to Emily?"

"At first she gave the believers who came to church a real fright—she likes to hide up on the roof and then jump down all of a sudden," Wright said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "It took a great deal of effort to explain Emily's origins to people. They aren't afraid of her now."

Emily poked her head out from behind Wright's shoulder, peering this way and that.

Gao Yang reached out and tried to pat Emily's head—a most curious sensation; his hand passed straight through Emily's body, yet met a faint resistance, and when he touched the girl's hair he could feel a distinct warmth coming through, the warmth of the gentle Holy Light.

Wright volunteered: "Her condition seems to have stabilized—both body and mind are much steadier now."

Gao Yang nodded. "Has Kamel said anything?"

"Master Kamel says her condition is good; watchful observation is enough. Apart from that, lately I've mainly been keeping her from sitting in the sun too long..."

Gao Yang was surprised. "No sun? Isn't she a being of the Holy Light? Why would she fear sunlight like the undead?"

Wright knew at once that Gao Yang had misunderstood and hastened to explain: "Oh, it isn't that she fears sunlight. If she gets too much sun she becomes so bright that she can't dim down at night, and I can't sleep at all..."

Beside them Amber cried out in shock: "You sleep with Emily?!"

Wright was seized by an embarrassment beyond all measure, caught between laughing and weeping, and explained: "The rooms are separate, of course—but once she falls asleep she can't help drifting to and fro through the whole church..."

Gao Yang thought it over, then clapped Wright on the shoulder with great seriousness: "You've had it hard too."

"It's bearable—she drifts about far less than she used to, and I can always tie a cloth over my eyes."

"I came to see you today because I want to talk about the doctrine of the New Faith, and about how it is to be spread," Gao Yang said, pulling the conversation back on course before it could wander any further off; and as he led Wright and Amber to a bench nearby, he went on, "I heard your sermon just now—it seems you have already begun trying to preach to the believers the doctrine we worked out together last time."

"Yes. I sorted through what you discussed with me last time," Wright nodded. "Return the 'right to interpret the canon' to the believers, and make clear that a religious leader is not absolute authority; play down the image of the God of Holy Light, and at the same time let a moral outlook that is more universal and easier to accept gradually take the place of the old, harsh rules; stress tolerance and inclusiveness, keeping pace with the times, and self-restraint; strip out of the original doctrine everything extreme, stubborn and exclusive, and widen as far as possible the pool of potential believers the new doctrine can reach. The doctrine as it stands now is built around those three points."

"And do the believers accept it?"

"At first many were bewildered, but they could still take it in. Only a very few steadfast believers showed any resistance, and I believe that resistance can be softened," Wright said, a complicated expression passing over his face. "The great majority of ordinary believers are commoners. Before they came to Cecil they were poor folk who could not even read, who had never once opened a scripture. They have no notion what is actually written in the Holy Light scriptures—whatever the local pastor tells them is what they believe. And the local pastors care nothing for how devout these people are; so long as the divine arts remain in the hands of the Church, and those ordinary believers will obediently open their purses in hopes of obtaining a divine art, the pastors are content... Under such conditions, spreading the new doctrine has actually become easy for us."

"The real obstacle is not the common folk but those who hold a stake in the old order; the clergy of Frostgate are the ones who will resist the new doctrine most fiercely," Gao Yang said. "So our plan must move on to the next step."

"You need only give the order."

Gao Yang paused a moment, then looked gravely into Wright's eyes: "You know about the printing works newly built in the city?"

"Of course. I even went to look it over—it truly is an incredible sight."

"Then guess: if a hundred thousand handbills and pamphlets bearing the new doctrine were to come crashing down into Netherwall, what would the clergy in there do?"