"You don't know about any gods?" Ecks actually modulates her tone that time, putting the appropriate emphasis on any to express her surprise. It's important that he knows she's surprised, and also incredulous. Everyone knows about the gods, whether they worship one or not, and if they're in the Eternal Empire he would be burned or beheaded or butchered for failing to acknowledge --

But they aren't in the Eternal Empire. She wasn't even before this. She doesn't think she's on the island anymore, either, or she might suppose he was the offspring of some hidden colony of hermits. A portal, he says, and with the voice gone she's inclined to believe him. "Oh," she says quietly, processing this. A portal to a new place and time, and maybe a place and time without gods. Certainly without the god-fragment that's plagued her mind for two days.

"Any gods?" she asks again, watching for some sign that he's hiding something from her.