The Encyclopedia Of Religion Volume - 4 Page 165

“Until another reader opens the book,” said the keeper. “Could be a century. Could be tomorrow. But you will not age. You will only wait, and breathe, and hold the question open.”

He stood in a desert at dusk. Before him, a woman in the gray robes of a Buddhist nun knelt opposite a man in the tattered cassock of a Coptic priest. Between them hovered a small, golden flame. Neither spoke. Their eyes were closed, their faces tight with decades of unspoken grief. the encyclopedia of religion volume 4 page 165

Matteo looked into the flame. For the first time in his life, he saw not a theological problem, but an answer: We are the gate. We always were. “Until another reader opens the book,” said the keeper

“Take their place. One of them must step away so that a new voice may kneel. But once you kneel, you cannot rise until another comes to read page 165.” But you will not age

The footnote read: When religions forget they are siblings, the keeper must remind them. To read this is to become the reminder.

Matteo now faced the shadow-keeper across the flame. “How long?” he asked.

And so he kneels there still—in a hidden room, on a lost page, between one faith and the next. If you ever find Volume 4, turn to page 165. But do not touch the flame unless you are ready to become the story. Would you like a different story based on a specific religious theme or figure from that volume?