"She doesn't have many proper temples but the ones she has are observatories. The people who charted the stars and figured out how the planets move started there. 

They say she frees slaves, and helps animals escape traps."

"Huh. I didn't know that last bit."

"Dunno if it's true. She's never said anything to me."

Sigh.

It's very quiet, when nobody's talking.

"Do you wanna, like, alternate, or something?"

"I stopped asking you questions because I - the next ones I could think of were all cruel."

"Ah."

"What were they?"

"Do you really want to turn into something that could torture Zara without wanting anything until she ceased to be capable of wanting anything, too?"

"It's not really about what I want."

"It kind of is! If that's what you think is going to happen you could try to do something about it! Even if it's inevitably what's going to happen you could have tried as hard as possible to get anything else!"

"Maybe.

"I - think it's much harder, to fight a hopeless battle for the sake of something you don't really care about."

"That's why I wondered about that, in particular. 'm not expecting you to get up in arms about the rest of us being tortured."

"Well, if you're right you won't be."

" - it's your question."

"Oh. Uh.

"D'you think you'll stop adventuring when the others do, if we all make it through this?"

"Oh. Maybe. - don't wanna but I don't know that I could find people I trusted as much."

"I guess it would be a lot harder, with people you didn't really know."

"I've done some runs with most of the Osirians who're up for about the same range of challenges as I am. They're all right, mostly, but the better half of them are starting to think about settling down. I guess I could travel with foreigners but - 

- only time I did that it was just culture shock, all the time. And not in the way where I felt like I was getting an appreciation for how other people live."

"What happened?"

"They'd cheat their investors. They said everyone did it. They'd cheat each other, if anyone turned their back or slipped up at the math. They'd show up in a city and look for the whorehouses. They'd flirt with our sources. One man had children he wasn't supporting. His girlfriend was angry. They thought it was funny."

"...ah."

"Thought maybe it was stuff that there wasn't actually anything bad about, if you weren't Osirian. But - I can see how that wouldn't be any fun to be around."

"If all the investors know that all the adventurers cheat them then I guess it's just a game of bluff on top of the game of adventuring and I don't suppose there's actually anything terrible, there. But - it all felt like a society that took pride in how little honor they had, the more pride the more anyone might suggest that they could stand to have some."