"It's what you call a heartwright of the Wasteland. They're the ones who do curses, and they can only put a curse on someone if they think it's justified. You - weren't acting like you knew that."

...Shrug. "My curse wasn't justified, but I wouldn't swear that Elexarin would agree. But--I got that you probably weren't a good person. I just...don't care. I really, honestly don't. Horrible curses shouldn't be inflicted on people no matter what. If it was that important to stop you they should have just killed you. And, like, even separate from the curse thing, if people are being hurt in front of me I'll stop who's doing it even if I have to kill them but I'm not going to kill people just because they're a hurting-people person, I just...like...people too much. Even the bad ones, as long as they're, like, not the kind of bad person who's an obnoxious twit."

"It's not..." He sighs. "I'm not trying to say you're wrong. Most people back home wouldn't like my curse much either. But I didn't... I didn't want you not knowing if knowing would've made a difference."

"It doesn't, but--I do really appreciate that."

"I don't like being dishonest. It's upsetting."

"Life would be so much easier if more people felt that way."

Snort.

Shrug. "Some people are deceitful by nature. I avoid those far more than I do bad people."

He doesn't seem to know what to say to that.

She flops backwards onto the ground and stares up at the sky.

Sure. They can just be flopped.

So flopsome. 

"Aside from what he did to me...Elexarin isn't that bad a guy. He's, like, a god of the harvest. Loads of people in rural areas worship him."

"...I think gods here must be really different from gods where I'm from."

"You have gods where you're from? I thought heartwrights were the only magic people."

"Yeah, that's what I mean about them being different. Gods aren't... people? Except for the ones who are just really impressive heartwrights. 'Not people' is wrong, I mean... you can't talk to them, or catch them doing things, they're not... around the way you talk about this guy like he's around."

"They aren't usually--he isn't usually--I'm a special circumstance."

He shrugs.

"They're--definitely people, though. They're...people-y. They tend to suck or be cool in the same way as people."

"Yeah, ours are... not like that. Unless they're just really impressive heartwrights getting called gods because everybody's so impressed with them."

"Huh. Well, our gods you can pretty much put in a box with angels and demons and elementals and the likes of you and me. They're--the people who are from a given plane."

"...I'd ask if you were okay but, uh."

"I am not," he confirms.

"Man, persistent states of not-okayness suck."

"Yep."