"So, like so many things about gods, it isn't clear. They don't tell people what they want in the grand scheme of things, just the next steps they want the people to take for them. Sometimes they seem to want good things - like, the Star-Eyed wants the Pelagirs rendered habitable and has been working on that since they got messed up, that seems good as far as I know even if I don't like how she went about it. Vkandis - I don't have a good guess. He puts his name on flashy things more than most gods so it's possible he just straightforwardly likes being popular or something, which isn't a satisfying answer but I don't have one of those. Probably whatever's in Iftel would be informative but I don't want to go there because one time Leareth tried talking to one of his priests and got set on fire and I don't know if it'd be informative in a way germane to our discussion here anyway."

Dara claps a hand to her mouth. "What? That's horrible! Gods, I'm - sorry - I really understand why you wouldn't want to go there! Ack." 

Savil is looking extremely uncomfortable and staring in the opposite direction from where Belrun is. 

"Thank you. Anyway, it's hard to tell what Vkandis or most other gods want and most of what Leareth has to go on about whether they do or don't like him specifically is how difficult it is to operate in various territories, but that could have a lot of confounders such as whether it in fact according to divine Foresight requires particular difficulty in operation to steer him away from whatever bothers a local god, or the god's operating style, or gods cutting deals with other gods in whatever way it is they do that."

"Mmm," Savil says noncommittally. 

Dara frowns fiercely at her slate and doesn't say anything. 

"...are you guys okay?"

"Sorry," Dara says. "Rolan's in kind of a snippy mood." She makes a face at nothing in particular. 

"...should we, uh, pause here and let you - work that out, or -"

"Um, probably, that'd be easier. I think we covered a decent amount already, and you have more meetings with other people?" 

Savil nods briskly. "That was more productive than I expected, actually!" 

"...was it?"

"I think so? I'm not sure what my expectation actually was, but, you said a lot of things and now we can hopefully go off and mull on it some." 

"All right. I'll see you all later, then, thank you."

Savil walks her back to her room. "Thank you for, er, all the effort you're putting in. I'm sorry about the dream thing, that's really inconvenient." 

"Thank you."

And Savil heads off, her expression pensive. 

Belrun has lunch. And starts another letter.

Shavri comes back just as she's finishing. "Belrun? Would now be a good time to chat a bit with Van and I?" 

"Yeah." She sets down her pen.

Vanyel sits. "Savil says you were talking about gods, earlier. I..." Wince. "This is the topic Yfandes isn't speaking to me over, but since she's already not speaking to me, and Shavri doesn't have a Companion, we thought - maybe it'd be more productive to get into it in depth with just us." 

"Oh - yeah. Apparently Rolan was in a mood about it, we wrapped up to let that simmer down. Anywhere in particular you want to start? I don't know how much they relayed."

"Not that much, Savil finds it hard to talk about. You were trying to use hypothetical examples - one of them was about Vkandis...?" 

"It didn't wind up being very hypothetical, I just described a lot of observable Vkandis behavior while referring to him as, quote, 'a normal human person'."

"I feel like Vkandis' behaviour would be very confusing if he were a normal human person. Especially the possessing people! Did framing it that way help at all?"