“How does your science feel now?” Ferris says. I give her a half-glance and roll my eyes. I’d seen vampires grow limbs after missing them for a few days, punch through concrete walls like paper, and even the occasional glowing pair of eyes. There were explanations for it. Not necessarily great ones, but explanations all the same. “It doesn’t feel like anything. Science isn’t a belief. It’s just there,” I shoot back. After blessing the weapons in front of him, the man closes the book and places it in an engraved metal box next to him. “So you’re telling me that those weapons are blessed? As in, unlike a normal bullet, if I shoot a vampire with one of those they die?” The Doc nods but catches himself. “And they can’t regenerate the wound. Frankly, I’m as puzzled by it as you are. Nothing chemically has changed on the weapon, we checked that. And it’s also not a function of the user’s beliefs, because people who have no clue what they’re holding can still use them. The weirdest thing of all, it’s the book itself. You can’t just memorize the words to the prayers, the person has to actually be holding that book,” he says. I consider asking him how they came to all these facts but decide I don’t want to know. They’re not my people anymore. “Mind if I take a look at it?” I ask. Ferris glances at the Doc at that. “No, I’m afraid that’s not possible. That book is the source of the Paladin’s power and the greatest asset we have. Only the highest members are allowed to perform the rituals and blessings. It was a uniquely blessed weapon that cured you, by the way.” The exposition is starting to make my head hurt because of all the bullshit sirens going off. Magic spells? Holy weapons? I was expecting a medical breakthrough, not a read-along from the book mobile. I looked down at my hands and swallowed. Here I was, cured of the uncurable, and pissed off that I didn’t believe in it. How do you argue with what’s right in front of you?
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