Shavri retrieves their horses from the makeshift-stable-area. 

"Yes! They're for anyone at Healers'. Er, etiquette is you should tell the stablehand if you'll be out overnight or not be back until after dark, that's when they check and they'll get worried if there's a horse not accounted for. And tell them right away if the horse you borrowed gets an injury or something. Can you Heal animals? We can but it's better to have special training for it since their bodies are a bit different." 

I haven't actually tried it. It should work though.

"Neat!" Shavri gives her a covetous look, and clambers up into the saddle. "All right, let's go." 

The crowd by the gate has dispersed, but a few people recognize Bella and whistle at her or call out things. Most of them are in the neighbourhood of 'god-touched!' or 'miracle lady!' 

Ugh. She doesn't try to explain that there were no gods involved and in fact her last set of gods banished her from the universe. She graciously waves at people. Why hasn't word gotten around just from what I've been doing at Healers'? Is it specifically putting back a limb?

Shavri must have noticed her face. :The thing you did is completely impossible with normal Healing magic in our world: she confirms. :We can Heal really gruesome injuries – get people nearly back to new, if we can start right away – but we can't make a limb come back. There are legends that the gods can, that they can possess someone with their power and work miracles through them. I don't even know if they're true: She shrugs back at the people. :Clearly they believe in those tales. Or at least they do now: 

The gate-guard gives her a much less bored look this time, but doesn't say anything and lets them past. 

I should probably catch up on local theology, I'm getting mixed signals about how much it matters here.

"What do you mean? Um, if you tell me what you're confused about maybe I can give you suggestions. I'm not really religious but I did read all those stupid texts when there was nothing else to read back home." 

Who exactly are the gods. What do they do. How do you avoid pissing them off. If you can avoid that.

Shavri gets a cross-eyed look. (Bella seems to be good at having that effect on the people here). 

"I, um... First off, I'll note that theological scholars don't agree on the number of gods, or which gods that we call by different names are actually distinct. Some scholars posit that gods aren't the sort of entity where that even makes sense as a question, although, er, that text made my head hurt a lot and I don't think I understood the arguments. Anyway the major ones are Kernos of the Northern Lights – He's the main deity worshipped in the north of Valdemar, most of the Heralds go to that temple. There's a martial order dedicated to Him, monasteries where the monks practice hand-to-hand fighting techniques. He's popular with the Guard because He's, I don't know, supposed to side with the righteous in war or something."

Pause as they wind their way around a carriage. 

"Astera of the Stars is popular in Valdemar too, that's a more, er, scholastic order, they copy old texts and hunt down rare books to preserve in Her temples. Then there's Vkandis Sunlord, of course – worshipped in Karse, they claim He's the first god and He's all-powerful and made the world, but the texts I read think that isn't true. There's an enclave of Karsite immigrants in Haven and they've got a temple to Vkandis there. There's the Star-Eyed Goddess who's worshipped by the Tayledras and Shin'a'in, I don't think She has many followers here though. Hmm, others... There's this sect in Three Rivers that worships the One God and claim none of the other gods actually exist, which seems obviously false, also I don't know if their One God has ever done anything obviously miraculous." Shrug. "In Hardorn there are orders worshipping Kindas Sun-Kindler, who might be the same as Vkandis but who knows, and Tembor Earth-Shaker. There's some obscure order that worships the Sky-Father and Earth-Mother and who knows if they're the same gods actually. Sun-Lord Resoden is worshipped in Ruvan and also might or might not just be the same god as Vkandis. I've heard of a god called Anathei of the Purifying Flame, only thing I know about that sect is they think evil doesn't exist and everyone and everything is redeemable. There are a few other names I know but nothing about the gods–" her eyes turn skyward, "um, Tyreena, Pelias, Apponel, Horneth, Kelles. All right, that's the 'who'." 

Shavri switches to Mindspeech as they pass a group of craftsmen loudly hammering as they construct some new dwelling. :All the major religions agree the gods mostly won't intervene. Presumably they're doing god stuff in the background all the time – mortals wouldn't know, really, any more than ants would notice most of what we do. Very occasionally the gods communicate with mortals, but almost always through intermediaries – spirit avatars sort of thing, still immaterial beings but...closer to human. Lots of miracles get claimed that I bet are fake. Some might be real. Really, really rarely, it's claimed a god will directly possess someone and enact large miracles through them:

They pass a square and fountain; Shavri waves to some of the people sitting there, and then keeps going. 

:There are a few really big interventions recorded in history that, er, undeniably did happen. The Star-Eyed Goddess has a pact with the Tayledras people to cleanse the land from the damage left after the Mage Wars – Van told me about that one, actually, he's friends with them – and She gave them special kinds of magic to do it, like Heartstones. The Shin'a'in have a similar pact with Her to guard the Dhorisha Plains forever, who knows why. Some really big miracles happened in the early history of Karse but I don't know that many details. The Sword of Rethwellan is a divine miracle, I think. And there's the Founding of Valdemar, of course. King Valdemar prayed to ALL the gods and the Companions turned up. Can't see an explanation for them that isn't 'a god did it':

Shrug. :And then they haven't done anything big since, at least not in Valdemar. We're supposed to be the kingdom of no one true way. Anyone can live here, all religions or no religion. The gods definitely don't care if you follow the tenets of a particular religion: Shavri frowns. :At least, that's true here. If you're Tayledras then maybe the Star-Eyed really will do something awful if you try to quit on the pact and leave. I don't know. I could ask Van if he's ever heard of things like that happening. But here in Valdemar, anyway, most of the temple orders agree that there haven't been large-scale interventions or miracles since the Founding. And lots of people did lots of bad things in that time. I don't know what you could possibly do that could shock them: 

I didn't do any bad things last time.

Shavri stiffens in her saddle. :...Right. I, um, that makes sense why you'd be worried: She's the sheepish look of someone who definitely forgot this fact and has just realized it. :The gods in that world were more, er, involved, though, right? Hands-on. They talked to people and actively intervened all the time, no? They directly asked you not to pursue some kinds of research, I thought. And you were...more different. From the Elves, I mean. They didn't like you trying to do things faster? I...think...that would be less of a problem here: 

She chews her lip. :...I don't know that for sure. It's not like we've ever had a visitor from another plane, that I know of: 

Yep.

They did ask me not to pursue some lines of research. I didn't. And then -

Shavri ducks her head. 

:I don't know: she admits. :You're capable of a lot of things that people in our world usually aren't. So it's hard to know what our gods would think of that. And we can't just ask them, and even theologians disagree on what the gods care about. I...really don't know. I'm sorry:  

Sigh.

And now they’re back at the stables. Shavri is awkwardly silent as she removes her horse’s saddle and leads the mare back to her stall.

Bella copies her.

“I’ll, um, see you tomorrow,” Shavri says quietly. “I hope you have a good shift tonight.” She trudges off.

Bella goes and gets dinner and heads to the healing house.

It's mostly an uneventful night. Melody's about to leave for the day, but informs her that they'll have a clerk and a set of rooms assigned that Bella can use if she wants to, starting in three days. Then Gemma greets her, sets her up in the big open room again, and a trainee brings over the backlog of patients from the day, one by one. There are about twenty of them, non-critical injuries, broken bones and sprains and concussions, lacerations that were already Healed enough to stop the bleeding but not back to an undamaged state. After that it's a slower trickle of new patients coming in, the ones with injuries rather than other illnesses diverted her way. 

Just before sundown, Gemma comes and fetches her. "We've, um, got one of those people who thinks he's possessed by a god and isn't making any sense, Melody says you might be able to do something about that? This way, I tried to stash him where he won't bother any of the other patients." 

The man Gemma brings her to is fairly obviously psychotic, though he isn't violent – he sees her, lights up, rambles a not-especially-coherent paragraph about channeling the holy light of Vkandis to bless her descendants, and then tries to hug her. 

She goes ahead and hugs him. I told her I can try putting them to sleep. Do you have a bed for him?

"Huh. All right, let's find somewhere." Gemma beckons the man out of the waiting-area room, which only has a chair, and checks several doors. "...This one's free, it'll do." The room is tiny but private and it has a bed, made and ready to go. 

Sir, do you think you can try to get to sleep? You seem like you've had a long day.