“Tenth of Grune,” said Brutha.
“Yes? What year?”
“Er . . . Notional Serpent . . . what do you mean, what year?”
“Then . . . three years,” said the tortoise. “This is good lettuce. And it's me saying it. You don't get lettuce up in the hills. A bit of plantain, a thorn bush or two. Let there be another leaf:”
Brutha pulled one off the nearest plant. And lo, he thought, there was another leaf.
“And you were going to be a bull?” he said.
“Opened my eyes . . . my eye . . . and I was a tortoise.”
“Why?”
“How should I know? I don't know!” lied the tortoise.
“But you . . . you're omnicognisant,” said Brutha.
“That doesn't mean I know everything.”
Brutha bit his lip. “Um. Yes. It does.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Thought that was omnipotent.”
“No. That means you're all-powerful. And you are. That's what it says in the Book of Ossory. He was one of the Great Prophets, you know. I hope,” Brutha added.
“Who told him I was omnipotent?”
“You did.”
“No I didn't.”
“Well, he said you did.”
“Don't even remember anyone called Ossory,” the tortoise muttered.
“You spoke to him in the desert,” said Brutha. “You must remember. He was eight feet tall? With a very long beard? And a huge staff? And the glow of the holy horns shining out of his head?” He hesitated. But he'd seen the statues and the holy icons. They couldn't be wrong.
“Never met anyone like that,” said the small god Om.
“Maybe he was a bit shorter,” Brutha conceded.
“Ossory. Ossory,” said the tortoise. "No . . . no . . . can't say I-
“He said that you spoke unto him from out of a pillar of flame,” said Brutha.
“Oh, that Ossory,” said the tortoise. “Pillar of flame. Yes.”
“And you dictated to him the Book of Ossory,” said Brutha. “Which contains the Directions, the Gateways, the Abjurations, and the Precepts. One hundred and ninety?three chapters.”
“I don't think I did all that,” said Om doubtfully. “I'm sure I would have remembered one hundred and ninety-three chapters.”
“What did you say to him, then?”