"Doing things that are awful for one's children isn't even rare, certainly commoner than knowing self-sabotage."

That does give him pause.

"...Yeah. That happens."

"And people - humans compared to elves and probably everybody compared to, like, gods - are bad at thinking about really big numbers, really long periods of time..."

"If you say so."

"I do, but if you haven't seen it I guess it wouldn't be convincing - how old are you -"

"Depending on whether you count by new years or birthdays and whether you zero-index it I might be nineteen."

"Nineteen-ish, okay. So, yeah, keep an eye out for that as you get a broader perspective on the passage of time, I guess."

"Okay."

She finishes her soup and returns the dish to the restaurant she got it from.

Right. Soup. He eats his a bit faster instead of halfway ignoring it.

When she's back from that, he has another question. "Does the Dreamer have churches around here or - are there things people do to serve her, you know, publicly?"

"She's got churches. They're not... very consistently staffed... but there's at least one a few blocks inland from the east end of the docks."

"Thanks. What do I... do, do I bring her an offering? Is money a good offering?"

"Money's money because everybody likes it and I don't know anything more specific about her proclivities."

"I do. I’ve just never wanted people to know I pray to her before - but it seems safer if everyone knows, here."

"I don't think it's particularly unsafe to be widely known as an irreligious sort, but - 'confusing Desnan' is probably a little safer than 'Nidalese refugee of ambiguous loyalties', yeah."

"Yeah. Hey, do you want to get together again at some point after this?"

"Sure, why not, though I'll disappear if a time-sensitive adventure calls my name."

"Makes sense."

"Next week, same time same place? I like this food court."

He smiles kind of a lot. "Yeah!"

"See you then! Good luck at Desna's!"