We are all our gods' fools
This gotta be one of the hardest lines ever put to the site
This is really very, very good as a story. I'll add a very tiny disclaimer here that I'm not really a fan of it as an expansion on 093, but that's entirely personal taste and didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of an extremely engaging and wonderfully written exploration of faith. For something of this length, it's exceptionally important that it doesn't have any fluff on it — every part needs to contribute to the greater whole, and needs to be engaging enough to keep the reader's attention. This nails that; even from the opening, it reintroduces a familiar setting and character in decidedly unfamiliar circumstances. Anibal's character is a tad one-sided until he gets to share his side of the story, which fleshes (huehue) him out in a way I can really appreciate. Nahum, Anibal, Miriam — all feel like real people, like Snap said. The prose works fantastically — no wasted space, all of it contributing.
I think Anibal's dialogue is a little Extra compared to the others', though that's not necessarily a bad thing — maybe he's just a drama queen. Either way, I think the strongest parts of this were definitely the sharing of the stories. Each one is an interesting recontextualization of the character, and shows a different aspect of why people believe — direction, power, sorrow. Miriam's story was a tad weaker than the others', though I can't really articulate why so I hesitate to offer that as criticism, just a personal observation. The start kicks ass, the ending kicks ass, everything in between does that while also delivering three (3) extremely well-written character explorations. Great stuff, DB.