Kaleva relaxes noticeably. "Well, it used to be that all the souls got trapped in the river Styx only half-conscious-- like, the way you feel before you go to sleep? I think Hades just didn't want them to bother him. But then we captured Hades and freed the dead from the River Styx and now it's a lot like being alive."

The idea of humans being able to change what the afterlife is like, on the grand scale, is very novel. Bruce is going to need a bit to digest it.

Eventually, "That's--good. Good for you. Assuming it actually happened like that. Not that I think you would lie! Just, people believed all sorts of false things before they heard the gospel, and Satan is always trying to decieve us. No offense."

"Who is Satan?"

"Satan is the most powerful of the demons, who started out as angels--spiritual beings created to serve God--and rebelled against Him out of pride and were cast out of Heaven. Demons try to tempt humans into disobeying God so we'll go to Hell, but putting your faith in Jesus Christ will protect you." This all has the tone of something recited by someone who would rather borrow someone else's words than try to assemble his own.

"...I am pretty sure we don't have one of those. And if we did we would trap him in the anti-magic field and put him in the Isle of the Lost and that would solve the problem."

"I am pretty sure that believing you can control demons except by driving them off with the strength of your faith is the sin of pride and also how you end up getting eaten by demons, but maybe that's only true back home? I really need to figure out how original sin works in this universe." He read a sci-fi once about an alternate universe where Eve ate the fruit and Adam never did and all their descendants were half-perfect half-sinners who lived a thousand years and could work miracles, and this probably isn't that but it could be something just as strange.

"So you... think that God exists really hard... and that drives the demons away?"

"So, I am not nearly faithful enough to drive out demons, and this world really should have gotten someone better than me, but my understanding is that it's about--realizing you're not enough on your own, that you need God, and trusting that He'll protect you, and then He drives the demons away. But I am really bad at theology."

"That's stupid. He should just drive the demons away whether or not you have faith in him, if they're trying to get you to disobey him. People who don't trust God or understand that they need him are probably going to be the most easily tempted to disobey him."

This statement appears to make Bruce utterly miserable!

"I'm sorry," says Kaleva, with the tone of someone who has a hammer and has yet to find anything he can't treat as a nail.

"No, I'm sorry--it's my fault--why did God send you me it should have been anyone else--" he runs out of words like a train running out of rails and hides his face in his hands.

............aaaaaaaa Bruce is making faces and it's scary and Bruce is sad and-- and Kaleva is sixteen and he's not supposed to need hugs anymore but when he was a kid he used to get them from his mom when he was sad and he doesn't know what else to do, they don't teach you how to comfort sad people in Advanced Chivalry and if they did he skipped the class, and being hugged was warm and soft and nice and it helped and Bruce is sad and Kaleva needs to help.

So he wraps his arms around Bruce's shoulders. 

That is warm and soft and nice, and that is in itself a problem, because if Kaleva understood what was going on he would not want to comfort him and now he has to explain it.

He takes a couple breaths. "That thing you said--with how God should just get rid of demons whether you have faith or not--that's the sort of thought I have all the time and--and it'swhyI'mgoingtoHell. And now I've done it to you too and I don't know how to fix it and I'm really sorry."

"You're going to Hell? Where you're going to be tortured for eternity?" His voice is angry and he hugs Bruce more tightly.

"I know I should have told you earlier. I'm sorry. I know that doesn't fix it."

Kaleva is holding him hard enough that it might actually hurt.

"No! The problem with you being tortured for eternity is not that you didn't tell me soon enough! The problem is that you are going to be tortured!"

It does kind of hurt, but Bruce's awareness of his body has been pushed thoroughly off the front page of his brain by several different emotions. Kaleva thinks it's bad that he's going to be tortured, which is nice. But it shouldn't be nice, because it's a sign of Kaleva doubting God's goodness and means Kaleva's going to get tortured too because Bruce is a terrible missionary. Bruce really ought to explain that he deserves to go to Hell and that Kaleva needs to get saved. But what he selfishly wants, right now, is to sit here and be held by someone who knows he's damned and wants to hold him anyway. 

Kaleva loosens up a little bit and puts his face into Bruce's hair.

"You smell nice."

"Thanks?" That feels like a bit of a non sequitur but it's better than him smelling bad. He leans on Kaleva and sighs.

Mm. Hugging Bruce is extremely good. All of Kaleva's thoughts have departed his head except for the ones about how Bruce is soft and warm and has a heartbeat and a nice smell and is touching Kaleva (!!) and Kaleva is very relaxed and never wants to move again. 

Bruce is still having quite a lot of thoughts. The one that is "wonder at the concept of not being alone" gets its day in the sun, but is eventually pushed aside by "needing to make sure Kaleva is going to be okay". 

"I should try to tell you about Jesus. Maybe find a French Bible first in case any of the important stuff is different here."

Maybe he can do this without letting go of Kaleva. That would be nice. 

"Mmmmmokay," Kaleva says, not moving. "I wanna hear about not Jesus."

"It can wait. You gotta promise not to die though."

Dying sounds terrible because if he died he would not get to hug Bruce anymore.

"Okay. No dying."