Xantheaa didn't find it quite as incredible that her two flying partners could gang up on her apparent ignorance on some kind of super mathematics. "That is all right. We had all sorts of other things that you silly Egyptians could only ever dream of, like... like—"
"Did your civilization invent the number zero, yet?" 'Aswad asked. "Because we have that, here."
"No way!!!" Thrall exclaimed. I thought that it wasn't introduced until at least about 628 BC."
"I'm not sure what year that is in our Egyptian calendar, since we count from the death of one pharaoh, to the next."
"Fascinating!" Thrall shouted with eyes aglow.
"...but, I believe it was a gift from our friends over in India. We shared much knowledge with them along with our trades of ore and spices." The small bird continued, growing breathless within the effort to vocalize with tiny lungs while flying fast enough to keep pace with these marathon speedsters and a jackal that ran on fumes.
"Hey! Stop ignoring me!!!!!" Xantheaa huffed.
Thrall was blindsided. "What? We're not ignoring you, Theaa."
"Yes you are! You were supposed to make it exceptionally clear how I was to make use of the words."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes! You still persist!"
"No, I'm not."
"You are!"
"No, I'm not."
"But you are!"
"No, I'm not."
"You are, you are, you are!"
"No, I'm not."
"You are still doing it!"
"No, I'm not."
"Look! Just repeating the same thing, over and over."
"No, I'm not."
"Oh, yeah? Prove it! You are callow, if you decline."
"No, I'm not."
"Arrrrgh!!!!!"
"Caw!" he interrupted the two in their revelry. "It is proper that a woman be quiet while the men are talking. You had your turn, now it is 'Aswad's turn to exchange knowledge with the shadow man. You're going to focus on your new best friend now, aren't you, Neter?"
"No, I'm not," Thrall replied. "With all due respect, I wish to finish our conversation from before, Xantheaa."
"Heeheeheeheehee!" She giggled, flapping into 'Aswad's direct line of sight to teasingly flap her tail feathers in his face. This had the unintended effect of making the bird very excited by the display. He cawed and angled his wings to climb over her back, and land on her shoulders. "See? It is many years too soon for you to attempt to try to approach my Thrall as-- Hey! What are you—Get off of me!"
"Be silent, Griphon. You must pay the price for interrupting my flight." he panted, trying to control his breath, and the pounding of his heart in his chest.
"Damn you, I am not your chariot!" she screamed, flipping and twirling acrobatically in the air, while shouting louder all the while. "and I am not a Prometheus admonished Griffin!!! I am a Typhon damned HARPY, and I have had enough!!!!!" but the crow's grasp on her shoulders was far too unwavering for her to hope to dislodge, even at this level of duress.
He simply cooed, and relaxed, as he slowly settled into a slower breathing pattern. "How interesting. I've never heard of such a creature in my life. Of course, I need not to understand all things there are; just all that is important to the service of my Neter." She dove straight down until terminal velocity took hold, and then she focused the wind beneath her wings in order to accelerate further. "W-wait. What are you doing?!"
"Getting you off." She grumbled into the vastly approaching sands beneath. "I'm sure I can endure a fall from this height. Can you?"
"I-I think that 'Aswad may owe you an apology!" his black beak squawked, desperately. She raked her wings hard, and turned sharply, coasting only a few feet from impact. The winds aided her subtly in this exercise.
She quickly climbed, back up to soaring height. "Alright. I'm listening."
"This meek servant of the elevated goddess Nephthys humbles himself before you, great and pulchritudinous Xantheaa. Your beauty is so grand, I feel much shame for daring to compare you to the lowly griphon."
She stopped breathing. Her mouth hung open. Had any harpy ever been lavished with such eloquent and arresting compliments? She wasn't sure it was even possible to be more flattered.
Still, he wasn't done. "It is obvious that there is no griphon in existence that could compare to the ravishing stature of yourself. It should have been clear from the moment I saw you that there was nothing in this world that even approached a fraction of your beauty. For that, you have my undying contrition. Forgive me if you must, but know that I will never forgive myself."
She burned so brightly, that she was afraid that he could see her glowing through the plumage on her crown and neck. Chills ran up and down her spine, and she fought to control the shudders. She wondered why Thrall had never spoken to her this way.
"I-I, I..." she managed, despite herself, to stammer out a few syllables. "Ahem! I accept your complimen-I MEAN! Your apology is accepted!"
'Aswad simply crooned, and settled into the crook between her shoulder blades. "Good!"
A protracted silence then accumulated between the three of them, as Thrall swung closer to the others; making sure to keep an eye on the jackal as he sped across the sand. "You know," he supplied, "He only said those things so you let him ride upon your back some more."
Xantheaa gasped. "How could you say such a thing to our faithful, and loyal guide?! 'Aswad, are you going to just sit there and let him talk about you this way?"
Thrall just stared silently. Xantheaa got a little bit worried, when he didn't respond to her cry. "'Aswad? You, uh, okay up there?"
"He's asleep, you know."
"Augh! I cannot believe it! To think that I spoke up for that guy."
"It's alright. I wouldn't hold it against him. We have been working him pretty hard, after all."
"I suppose... So, where were we?"
"You really are just going to let him use you like a taxi, after all that big hysterical display?"
"Heehee, I, uh... Yeah, I don't mind. It's okay." she mumbled, in a cold sweat. "I'd like to talk about something else, now."
"Alright, fine. Ah, let's see. We were talking about...? Right! 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.' This means that there are certain things that even God has to use, in order to do anything. Certain concepts like Truth, and Knowledge, as well as actions like Thought, and Form, had to exist before something like God even defined itself.
"If there is no Truth, then there is no difference between a God, and a not-god. Both things can exist simultaneously, and God doesn't make sense. It's a paradox. Thus, the Word must exist simultaneously with God, and God must exist to prove the Word. Does that make sense?"
"So far, and only if that I were looking at it completely theoretically, yes."
"That is good enough! So, The Word has several names, that all mean separate things, and have their own separate applications, and identities, but they are all one Word. If the universe is built out of language, then The Word is something like the foundation that all the other words are built on top of. You can't build a house without a bedrock, and that must be immutable in order for anything on top to stand."
"I think I am beginning to gain a somewhat regular picture of the scale that you are describing, Thrall." Xantheaa shivered at the idea of the watchful eye of this great interminable power, bearing down on her, and holding every atom of her body together.
The notion that there were simple letters written into the fabric of continuity that could simply decide to have her flesh's combustion point drop below the level of body heat at any moment, leading to a furious and terrible death of immolation—and worse, that they were going to have to reason with them—was an image that she could never even imagine wrapping her head around.
It seemed like she was coming to the throne of Zeus and ordering him to lend her his lightning for her own private usage. A death sentence, is another word for it.
"You should know," Thrall began, "That one of The Word's many names is Love. Without Love, things like eternity and omnipotence don't make sense. God has to be Loving, or else He would have no need to create, and he would not really be a 'god' at all. An omnipotent creature who is too lazy to ever use his powers might as well be an invalid. He is a god of nothing."
"That does make things a little bit less scary, thank you." The fact that the Words had to love her was a big relief. She wasn't familiar with a faith system that innately forgiving. Her initial thoughts immediately went to the most morbid applications of these new powers. She was beginning to see a pattern in her assumptions, and it scared her.