"Yes, that's right. He's done terrible things, maybe the most terrible things anyone's ever done in the whole universe, but he's still a person, and he's still Her brother. I don't know if it'll ever be possible to save Him, let alone to do it without letting Him hurt any more people than He'd manage either way, but She asks that we pray for Him to be healed one day the same way we'd pray for anyone else who needed it."

That did not answer her question at all, which is terrible because now she has to keep talking. Probably this is entirely her fault for not just asking her question in the first place.

"My brother was in Egorian during the war. He died in the earthquake. I — am very confident that he's in Hell.

And I thought it would get easier, eventually, but — I know this is going to sound very pathetic, but every time something reminds me of him, I can't help but think about him burning, the way they used to do with heretics, except forever. And he's never, ever going to be okay, and I don't know how I'm supposed to be okay when—"

She's shaking. She should stop that but it sounds awfully hard.

"—and I guess I was wondering if Shelyn has any advice about that. Because of her brother."

"Can I give you a hug?"

"...If you want to."

She does! A brief hug and then she lets go. "I don't know if anything I can say will be - soothing. It's a travesty and I can't fix it from here and Shelyn can't fix it from Nirvana and we would. Nirvana sends someone to every trial. If Lady Shelyn and all Her faithful had our way Hell would be empty and your brother would be learning to fly or sing or paint, right now."

Now she's crying, which is definitely pathetic, only she doesn't actually know how to stop.

Hug.

Hug.

"Sometimes I think — did it have to be an earthquake — I know I should be grateful—"

"I don't think you have to be grateful. I think - there's room to be grateful, for the souls of the survivors. There's space for that. But they weren't your brother."

Nod.

"It just feels like — nothing is ever going to be okay ever again—"

"There's - two ways to think about that. As long as anyone's in Hell, it's not okay. It being your brother especially makes that seem like it might be the only way to think about it. But it's not.

"There are a lot of things, in all the planes and all the planets. And some of those things are okay. Hell can't have them. Hell doesn't get to poison them. Hell doesn't own flowers and birds and the sky.

It is right to be grieving your brother and it is right to be angry about Hell. And that wouldn't make it wrong if one day you looked at flowers and birds and the sky, and said to yourself, actually those things are okay. And it wouldn't make it wrong for you to be okay, when you're ready."

"I don't think I know how."

"The earthquake was so recent. It could take a long, long time. I just want you to know that when you get there it's all right."

Nod.

"In the meantime the Melodies has a section about honoring loved ones with songs, or pictures, would you like to see?"

That really doesn't seem like it would help but it's not like not doing anything will help either. "Sure."

Laia gets out her copy. There's a dirge in there, and she's tucked the sheet music for the version Gabriel's familiar with between the pages. She'll sing it softly.

After the first verse she joins in. Her voice is shaking, but she can carry a tune.

It would be in incredibly poor taste to behave delightedly about this development! So Laia doesn't do that!

When they reach the end, she sits there silently for a few moments, then asks, "Is there another one like that?"

There is another one on the next page and they can sing that one too.

Her brother is being tortured in Hell, and it's kind of hard to think about anything else right now, but she doesn't need to be able to think to sing.

The Melodies has several dirges but most of them are not actually appropriate for this situation in particular so they will have to stop at two.

She should probably stop taking up the priestess's time but she doesn't really want anyone else to see her like this. If she just sits here quietly is the priestess going to actually stop her?

Nope! She can sit quietly here!