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"How was school, honey?"
She tries to make the kids' favorite meals on their first day of school, but when she asked Iomedae's favorite meal the girl first stared at her blankly and then after some extended clarifications proposed that they could roast a pig, and she can't actually roast a pig, so dinner is pork chops, and potatoes, and salad from the farmer's market. Iomedae is not a picky eater.
(The girl is in fact clinically obese. The doctor suggested they talk with her about cutting back on junk food, but the social worker said that was a bad idea, with a kid new to care - don't restrict her food access at all, just get her more exercise. So Jenny signed her up for swim lessons at the YMCA and for track and field at school. Iomedae balked at the swimming lessons on the grounds that swimsuits were immodest, and they do actually make hijabi wetsuit things but apparently not in her size. Hopefully track and field she'll actually enjoy.)
"If someone says they have an uncle who is twenty feet tall and bright green they are definitely lying."
"...or they have an uncle who is twenty feet tall and bright green! ....anyway, maybe some people lying. But every priest of God lying? To the - man in charge of world??"
"Iomedae, nobody has an uncle who is twenty feet tall and bright green. Nobody anywhere in the world. Like zero people, nada, zilch, nope, no twenty foot tall uncles and no green people."
"Ah, you talk to everybody in whole world? I no talk to very many people, so I not know how tall or green people other places are."
"No I just know what things are possible and not possible and -" okay it's not strictly true that people can't be green or that you can't have at least humanoids who are twenty feet tall, Lucy is very new to the whole thing where she knows about magic and keeps forgetting - "people's uncles can't be twenty feet tall. I think they'd die because they couldn't support the weight of their lungs or something. We would have records."
"When I go to church, the priest reads from Scripture, yes?"
"I don't know, I don't go to church. But Scripture isn't true. Things aren't true just because someone two thousand years ago wrote them."
Iomedae is starting to suspect that Lucy is just not very clever. Which is not her fault; no one chooses how clever to be. "The thing you are saying, do all people think it, or you?"
"It doesn't matter how popular something is. Lots of evil things are popular. People used to think the Sun went around the Earth. It matters what's true."
"....Lucy. I am a foster child. To see my friends, to see Maria who I try to protect from Martin, would be disobeying. To carry a sword, to have money, to go to Costco, all would be disobeying. I no can go talk to everybody in the world, to learn if any person is twenty feet, or green. I can only talk to people who Robert and Jenny bring me to see. When you say a thing, I have no way to say, is this a thing all Americans think, is this a thing just Lucy thinks. All the priests are lying, that is a very big thing. If Lucy think all the priests lying, that is a different big thing than if all Americans think all priests are lying."
"Uh, I think about... one in twenty people are certain there's no god, one in six think probably not, one in three don't want to belong to any church, another one in twenty belong to some other religion, - wait a second you're not allowed to have money and go to Costco? Why won't your parents let you have money and go to Costco? They shouldn't be stopping you going and asking teachers at school or talking to anyone - do you, like, need money for food?"
"One in twenty is not very many," says Iomedae. It is still a confusing state of affairs for any people to think there are no gods but one in twenty people think all kinds of things, and the priests don't do channels here, so maybe it is much harder to be sure they're not just some strange kind of sorcerer. "...there are poor people, you should give them money not a holy warrior. I was trying say why I no can go see this. Of course I do not want to be a foster child but if people think holy warriors are evil then it makes sense they foster child them if they find them."
"...did they take you away from your parents because your parents were in a religious extremist cult or something? Because, wow, that explains a lot and I'm really sorry for being mad at you and - you should be allowed to go to Costco whenever you damn well want to. I'm happy to give you a lift if that's the problem."
" - kiddo," says Robert, who hasn't been trying to eavesdrop on this conversation though he did pick up on the occasional raised voices, "I think everyone's packed up and ready to go except you."
....that probably means they don't get to finish this conversation and maybe Lucy never finds out what the entire deal is and, yeah, she wants to understand Iomedae quite badly.
"Iomedae was just telling me she wants to go to Costco," Lucy informs Robert while undoing buckles on her arms. "I want to make sure you - three - all know the invitation to Waffle House includes you, if you want to come with everyone. There is a supermarket close by there as well."
"Oh, they have really good stuff for after a really tough workout! Armour's deceptive, it'll seem light but tire you out really fast."
This kind of statement sounds very believable when Lucia undoes the last buckles on her armour, which reveals that her entire undershirt is entirely soaked through and smells kind of like she might need to burn it as soon as she gets home. She casually tosses the armour on the ground and starts working on her leg armour.