Morning found Sophia strangely reluctant to reopen the book, still haunted by remnants of her vision from the night before. She was starting to think that maybe Lazarus really was a sorcerer and that book of his functioned like a dybbuk box. It scared her a little, but it also played right into her original reasons for borrowing the Sartanic Verses and the fiction series after which they were named. If her hunch was correct, this book could be physical proof that she was heir to an arcane legacy of epic proportions. Her Metaphysics professor would be fascinated, even envious. It could even make her famous if she just unlocked the secret. Yer a wizard, Harry. The thought of Hagrid made her laugh, breaking the tension. She resumed reading.
"Luke 14:8-11", it said next.
When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Under the reference, she read:
Fitenirexas vazavasneir garuslan nu Lubhu irusa. Friekas en huv usadarh ed gridtákas.
***
She saw articles, banner ads, billboards, bumper stickers, documentaries, movies, posters, all of them familiar and previously so natural as to induce a yawn when she noticed them at all. This time, however, they scratched at her nerves, whizzing past her eyes and ears like machine gun fire. The first twenty such things didn't bother her that much. At fifty, it started getting annoying. Harder and harder, faster and faster they came. When the number hit 300, she was ready to climb a wall. At 500, she wasn't even angry anymore, just tired. The only thing that could still get to her at this point was the constant capitalization, elsewhere seen only in reference to God himself. How insufferably arrogant did one have to be in order to believe that one's proximity to a word made it holy? Was not King Herod struck down for just such a sin as this, for accepting as his due that which belonged exclusively to God?
Her own descriptor remained lower-case, and that was as it should be, but the difference between hers and the one advertised made it painfully clear that this was not a case of a rising tide lifting all boats. On the contrary, this was a deliberate act of worship. Regardless of their actual beliefs, the people behind this knew precisely what they were doing. They knew...and they didn't care. This was idolatry and blasphemy, literally writ large.
***
Her hands shook. She pushed the book away as if a blade had shot out of it and impaled her on the point. If yesterday's vision was alien, this was even more so. How could something so normal give so much offense? And if these were Lazarus' feelings (they certainly weren't hers!), why was he not more angry on his own behalf? Wasn't "epistemic pushback" supposed to be self-centered? So why was he so much angrier on God's behalf than on his own? Why was he so comfortable with staying lower-case as to deem it "the way it should be"? Judging by the vision, he had obviously been upset, but not about his own low station. And what was this about Herod? She couldn't remember hearing that at church... She searched her Bible app for references to Herod and there found Acts 13:20-23.
And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king's country. And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
Well, I'll be... There it is!
Now that she thought about it, had she ever taken so many cuts that she lost the will to fight? No. Every slight, no matter how small or even accidental, could spark a confrontation. That was how she had been trained, to call such things out as they occurred. These things were called "microaggressions" and could not be allowed to slide under any circumstances, lest the enemy grow bold. A sobering thought occurred to her: was a hair trigger a luxury? Could Lazarus have afforded to fly off the handle at every provocation?
Though it pained her to even consider it, she could never quite convince herself that the answer to that last question was yes. All the evidence pointed to no. What would his own descendants have done if he had behaved that way? We would've roasted him alive...and he would've deserved it, bless his heart. ...Oh, snap. What did that say about her? If he would deserve a roasting for calling out every microaggression he experienced, did it not stand to reason that she deserved one too? Burned by her own observation...and a proud one too! That was going to hurt for a while.
As for the capitalization, it had been that way all her life, so she had never questioned it but now that it had been called to her attention, the asymmetry did seem a little weird. Could she drop the capital "B" if holiness demanded it? Maybe, but it would feel like a demotion. From what, though? Human? She winced. The very word that she had used as a shield, "human", had wounded her instead. If using a capital letter marked her only as human, what did that make people who didn't use one? Subhuman?
No doubt about it: this book had some very strange juju. Only two entries in, she was already a mess and had no idea why, except that the coded passages were somehow enchanted. The "how" still eluded her and she still couldn't read them as she could the Bible, but this was the only explanation she could think of that made any sense. What else would she find in here? She promised herself that she would find out...later. After work, when she would have more time to process what she found.