The room erupted in a mix of confusion and excitement. Some expressed surprise, others, doubt and caution. Chase couldn't keep up with it all, so he decided to return to his seat.
Avery wasn't among those shouting or standing up. She simply watched Chase with an unreadable expression as he sat down.
Darcia walked to the whiteboard and tried to regain a sense of order. As the energy in the room slowly returned to normal, she turned toward Chase inquisitively.
"Ultimately, evil is just a word," Darcia said. "Can you please be more specific as to your conclusion, Chase?"
He looked at her and said, "My conclusion is that you've been unable to find answers because you've been asking the wrong questions."
Darcia looked around the room to see if anyone else was able to follow Chase's point, but nobody spoke up.
"Something Avery told me this morning sparked the thought," Chase added. "About your rules—you don't enforce them. That speaks to some sort of global elimination of being bad." He paused, looking around the room, "Am I right?"
Darcia answered, "We have already come to terms with the fact that we have lost our way. However, the strict application of our belief system, living with the phrase 'peace, all,' and the concerted effort to love one another has not helped."
"I know," Chase agreed. "Writing the word evil was not meant to be an answer to your problem. In fact, I'm not saying that I have the answer."
"What are you saying then?"
"I'm saying that I have a brand new question," Chase explained. "But I think that this question may be easier to answer than all of your other ones."
"What is the new question?"
Chase glanced at Avery before leaning forward on his elbows toward Darcia. "I know you're not allowed to talk about your religion with us," he said. "But I think it's time to make an exception."
Darcia exchanged an uncomfortable glance with Nathan.
"Look, you don't have to tell me about what sort of God you worship, or what your religious services entail," Chase said. "I only want to know one thing. How did you eliminate being bad to one another?"
Hollian squirmed uncomfortably in her chair, and the body language in the entire room turned very evasive. Even Avery idly played with her pen, not looking up.
"Don't worry," Chase said. "I am not religious—I won't be offended."
Darcia tilted her head, and said, "Being offended is not the problem. It's very important to your development that you arrive at the same conclusions we did, albeit on your own."
Chase frowned, "Are you saying that you have everything figured out?"
"No," she said. "But in some ways we know what lies ahead in your path—the path that you're walking. But if we tell you what we know then it will mean very little—in fact it may actually hamper your overall growth. It is only in discovery that you will grow."
"Why is that?"
"Because you cannot have righteousness forced upon you," she said. "You have to want it. Being good without the desire to be good is fruitless. While well intentioned, you will be merely circling the drain in an inevitable fall from grace. It is only through motivation and desire to be good that you will grow."
"Okay, I'll buy that," Chase said. "But for now let's assume that the goal isn't for me to grow, or for our people to grow. It's simply to figure out your problem."
