......does he say it? 

"This is going to sound completely insane, and I want you to know that I know how insane it sounds." 

It's normally the sort of thing Ashka would joke about but instead he says--

"I've seen more insane things than you can imagine."

Is that so.

"Our God is stuck in the form of a salamander and is currently asleep in my pocket." 

"...I need a drink."

Ashka stands up, presses a spot on his wall, and a safe swings open. He takes out a bottle and two glasses and pours one for each of them.

Sataro takes his glass and doesn't drink from it. "It gets worse," he says. "The reason He's stuck as a salamander is that apparently gods only exist when they're believed in, and He has exactly one believer. Guess who it is." 

Ashka looks at his glass and drinks it in one gulp. 

"I know." 

"...Is this your first time with alcohol?"

"— I was going to say 'no, because I'm not going to drink that,' but I think I might need it too." 

"It's easier if you drink it fast, your first time. It burns less."

He picks up the glass and examines it and takes a drink and promptly chokes. 

"Sorry," Ashka says, "I have crappy stuff you get drunk fast on."

"That's fine," he says once he's done coughing, and drinks the rest as fast as he can. 

"So. No one else in all of Tholassia believes in our alleged god."

"Apparently that's what it looks like. He's very sure He has other believers and just can't access the belief for some reason, which is why He wants me to go to Tarev to find a natural philosopher to ask." 

"Good place to look. --Huh. Wasn't actually expecting to ever get drunk with a prophet."

If he had any more alcohol left he'd take another drink. "Don't remind me." 

Ashka can give him more alcohol!

"...what's Tholassi like?"

He thinks about it. 

"Less of a fan of torture than you might imagine, although that might have just been Dhavilot. Deeply, deeply clueless about why someone might be upset to hear that an ideal they'd worked for their whole life was pointless." 

"Pointless? --I mean, he's not the creator of the universe but lots of people serve gods who aren't the creator of the universe and are fine."

"....he does not actually approve of fasting, or at least not of me fasting, and only forbade sodomy because, and I quote, 'it makes humans feel better to hear sermons against a sin almost none of them actually want to commit.'" 

"Well that's. Fun."

"Yes." 

Ashka sits on his bed. 

"I might not approve of you fasting either, depends on how much you fast."

"I don't —" and he swallows and tries again, "I can't —" 

He sounds more than a little panicked.