"Probably, yeah." Lean. "So those were some very busy Ascalonians, I'm impressed."

"One of them actually went on to become busy in Cantha and Elona, too. In Cantha there was this spirit of an old bodyguard of the emperor—have you heard of the Jade Sea and the Echovald Forest?"

She blinks, surprised.

"... The Jade Sea, yes, it was the first echo I ever explored. So that's where that was. I actually think I spoke to an echo of the man you're talking about, he mentioned he was from Ascalon."

"—huh. Yeah that could be him. So, there was this bodyguard who let out a magic scream when he died that turned the Jade Sea into jade and the Echovald Forest into stone. His spirit returned a long time after that to try to exact revenge and become corporeal again, and his influence created a horrible affliction that turned people into monsters. After he was defeated—by that same man and some other people—Cantha created the Ministry of Purity to deal with the Afflicted, and later they expelled all nonhumans from Cantha, closed borders, and that's the last we have heard of them in over a century."

"Let out a... magic... scream...?" she repeats, slowly. "I don't. What. How? You know what, nevermind, if they're isolationist and cut off from the rest of the world it's not immediately relevant anyway."

He shrugs helplessly. "It's what the history books say, the serious ones, so it must be true.

"So, about Abaddon: there were six, not five, original gods. And they also did not create Tyria, they arrived here from elsewhere. Abaddon was the god of secrets and he was erased from history and trapped by the other gods."

She pauses to digest this. For a woman from what had been the most religious country in the world, with the sacred city built by the gods as its capital, it's certainly a lot to take in.

"... Kind of ironic, that the god of secrets becomes himself a secret. Okay. Extra, secret god, I'll roll with it. Uh. The gods arriving from elsewhere makes sense when considered with how they left, I suppose. They might have been godding it up in some other world, first. Then when this world became tiresome or inconvenient, they left. Which is incredibly insulting, actually, I would like to reaffirm my newfound atheism."

He grins. "You are a treasure."

Vetareh beams at him. "If they want me to worship them after leaving, then they'd have to make it up to me," she sniffs, loftily. "Which would involve making it up to the rest of Tyria."

"It is not, I should say, universal belief that they have left. Many people think they merely chose to become less active. No one has been to their realms and returned in a while, and even then Grenth was not one for public appearances. And Mad King Thorn showed up again last year after two centuries gone, so who knows."

"Well, if they chose to become less active, then I still have a problem with them, because clearly the world is not okay. Grenth might be off the hook, but where's Dwayna flying around helping the injured? Where's Melandru helping restore the newly risen Orr with life? Where's Lyssa with her sneaky 'hey guys be happy,' thing? I suppose Balthazar might be happy with going to war with the Dragons, but he's not helping, so where is everyone? If they're to be my gods, then they damn well need to take a sliver of responsibility for what happens in the world. Otherwise they're just powerful beings that fuck with us, and as you might have noticed from my opinion of the Dragons, I'm not okay with those."

He reminds himself that he'll kiss her after storytime and controls his immediate urge. "That is a sentiment I can agree with.

"So, Abaddon was trapped in the Realm of Torment, but the Warmarshal of the Elonian country of Kourna, Varesh Ossa, was his follower, corrupted by his influence. She started a plan to bring about Nightfall—the return of Abaddon and eternal night. "

"Sounds like a charmer. ... Did the gods intervene then, return from their realms in the Mists and swat him, or...?"

"No, they did not. They did, however, grant a gift to the Istani Spearmarshal, Kormir. The other Elonian countries waged war against Kourna and the Warmarshal, and that same Ascalonian from before joined Kormir and the Sunspears—an elite group of fighters from Istan—against her. She fled north through the Desolation—a part of the Crystal Desert that was turned caustic and lethal by the gods' war on Abaddon when they imprisoned him—and they couldn't go through. So they freed the undead lord Palawa Joko so that he'd help them cross."

"Uh—uh, I know about him, I have read history books, that is an alarming sentence, James, did they later put him back?"

"They, ah, did not. In fact the trade was that they'd give him access to his old Awakened army and he'd teach them to cross the Desolation in return."

Her hand tightens in his and she stares. "They did what. But. He. But. No! No why would you—I suppose the world was ending a little but they—but he—Orr was very fucking lucky he went south instead of north! He killed many people! Trapped! Many people! As his undead servants! Souls! In their corpses! Is he still running loose did they stop him?"

"They did not," he sighs. "They stopped Abaddon—killed him, Kormir took his power and became goddess of knowledge—and the Sunspears fought Palawa Joko tooth and nail after he restored his army, but he conquered all of Elona, eventually, and unified them under his rule and—he is still king, there."

She opens her mouth to reply, and all that comes out is a hoarse whimper. She closes it, then her eyes, takes a deep breath, and opens both to try again.

"Let me. Let me get this straight. A mortal ascended to godhood by helping to kill a rogue god. Which they got to. By releasing the most terrifying and amoral undead necromancer king that history's ever seen, who was only barely defeated, and could not be killed. And she did not use her new divinity to put him back. Or kill him! Or tell mortals how to kill him, since she's the goddess of fucking knowledge."

"That would be the long and the short of it, yes."

She stares at him some more.

"Please tell me there are not shrines to this woman. Please tell me people do not worship the mortal that abandoned the rest of us to the fate she helped inflict on us."

"There are shrines to her, yes. They built her one in the Temple of the Ages before Zhaitan's awakening sunk it."

"Definitely an atheist. Definitely a fucking atheist, unless Grenth shows up and says that he thinks the rest of the gods are nuts, but he's been taking fucking care of us after we die, and he's very sorry he can't do resurrections anymore because he needed their help for it and they fucked off! That's it! Everybody else gets no excuse at all, especially the new one that was once a mortal and casually fucked a quarter of the continent over! Especially when that quarter of a continent might at some point come north through the desert for the rest of the continent with his unstoppable undead army of tortured and enslaved souls!"

She's maybe shrieking a little. That should maybe stop.

He hugs her, very tight. "We will deal with him. He is also on the list. ...somewhat lower than the world-ending beasts, but on the list."

She scrunches into him and attempts to resemble calm again. "Right, I understand, I'm not mad at you," she murmurs into his shoulder. "World-ending beasts first, yes, very sensible priorities, I am so with you there. I'm sorry, I don't mean to shriek at you, none of this is your fault, you're helping the world, I just." She stops, and she grasps at words. "When I lived in Orr, the world was fine. I am very upset that it stopped being fine in my absence."