He thinks it would be impossible to destroy an entire afterlife plane, no matter what went wrong, but he doesn't do more than speculate with them. He makes sure Saba only gets a little beer, not that he expects the toddler to want more, it's not the best-tasting even to an adult's palate. 

He curls up to sleep with the spellbook under his coat and Saba beside him, to share his blanket. 

Saba sleeps fitfully and sniffles a lot. At dawn he wakes up and tries lying still but is very very wiggly.

He snuggles Saba. "Should we get up?" he whispers. "You can sit with me while I practice magic. I am trying to learn to be a wizard." 

Saba nods solemnly.

He gets up as quietly as he can and carries Saba outside to watch the sunrise and look at some of the other cantrips, seeing if they make sense to him now that he’s had more practice shaping the magic for the two he figured out. 

He can demonstrate the light for Saba; that seems like the sort of thing a toddler might enjoy?

The light is rewarded with a tentative smile and a pronouncement of "magic!".

The way humans do magic is bizarre, even mildly ridiculous. Once upon a time he knew its nuances inside and out, and its restrictions didn't feel absurd at all - they were necessary, actually, in the same fashion that mathematics could not be done without laying out some starting premises magic could not be manipulated by humans without starting with some rules about how it could be permitted and assumed to behave. He'd known even back then that there were other, equally workable sets of starting premises; he'd learned the Thassilonian style, once upon a time, with the idea that you ought to be able to cheat by combining them. Thassilon was of course destroyed as thoroughly as Azlantl, and didn't have anyone to hold its colonies together afterwards...

Gods do not need assumptions or premises or careful bounds on what magic might do and the ones these people are using he has to derive on the go. 

The spell which the wizard has labelled 'sorting' is the one used for laundry; it can separate out dirt and fabric, or if used in the opposite fashion it can mix them up. It can also color objects, lift objects that aren't heavy, chill, warm, or flavor them, and create crude, temporary toys. These are obviously not all caused by the same thing and the people who made this spell clearly have no concept of why they managed to gerrymander reality in a way that gave them this set of abilities and no others (it's obvious to him; they're manipulating entropy, the force for disorder, and constrained by trying to do so in ways that have negligible net magic expenditure, which gives you a dozen different minor abilities not clearly related to each other). 

The sound spell creates a sound; he doesn't currently have the precision to make it intelligible or even particularly close to the sound he wanted.

The 'mending' spell is just a variant on the entropy-spell that gives a bit more scaffolding for the caster to fix a particular thing in a way that'll remain when the magic ends.

The 'copying' spell will transcribe a page of text onto a blank page, probably, if he had paper and ink which he does not.

The (misleadingly-named) sorting spell seems like a good case for practicing control and precision, trying to wrap his newly-limited human mind around the structures he’s manipulating. He gets a nicely-shaped pebble and attempts to float it into the air or turn it different colors for Saba’s amusement, and will keep practicing until his hosts are definitely awake. He can go without breakfast himself but hopes they’ll be able to spare something for Saba.

He checks that his horse is set up to be able to graze, so that he’ll otherwise be ready to depart afterward.

They can give Saba a little bit of cheese for the road. They notice the spell; does he have it down enough to do the washing?

He can give it a try!

He does not super have it down enough to do the washing yet; it requires a fair bit more fine control than floating or coloring pebbles does.

He apologizes for this. Saddles his horse to ride out with Saba, saving the cheese for when the toddler starts complaining of hunger. (Probably Saba should be eating more than he has been but he’s not sure what to do about that given the condition of, well, everything.)

He practices his cantrips in the saddle until his focus starts flagging.

They can get hospitality, if inadequate food, all the way to Ostenso, and by then he has decent command of his cantrips. Saba thinks he should practice even more, especially the one that does pretty lights. He stops asking about Axis after a couple of days. At night when he's not so tired he drops asleep on the spot he mumbles a prayer for Aroden to watch over them and lift them to glory. 

Ostenso is swarming with people, and with rumors. There were storms as far north as Irrisen, as far south as Geb, as far east as Qadira. Maybe the whole world. All ships at sea at the time are presumed lost. Earthquakes have swallowed some cities in southern Gerund. The storms have calmed down except in a six-hundred-mile area on the western half of Gerund, where they're showing no signs of it. A storm surge carried salt water several hundred miles up the Sphinx River so be glad you're not in Osirion, at least our crops should grow next year.

Aroden's clerics are without their powers. Someone scried the City of Men in Axis; it's not destroyed but it is empty. The people probably fled. Iomedae's clerics still have their spells but they don't know anything more than anyone else. 

There's not enough clean water; the church did that. There's nowhere near enough healing; the church did that, too. There's enough food right now but it's very very obvious to everyone that there won't be, soon. 

It's awful. So many people are already dead, and so, so many more are going to die in the coming weeks and months - and there's nothing he can do about it. Not now. 

At least Axis is still there. 

The city is, right now, a pretty reasonable place to be. It very soon won't be. He's not sure exactly what will happen, when this many people crammed into a small area start starving, but it's not going to be pleasant. He'll...plan to leave the area, then, before it gets bad. It's not like there's anything he can do to keep the peace. 

(He could...tell people his identity? Except that it still doesn't provide any concrete help, no matter who or what he used to be he's now a human wizard-barely-worth-the-title, and - why would anyone believe him? More to the point, he has an enemy, or enemies. He was betrayed. Until he has a much better idea of what happened and what's happening now, best to keep his head down and focus on orienting.) 

He should hand Saba off to a family who can take care of him. Except, it doesn't feel like anywhere here is going to be safe, and - it doesn't make sense, really, but the thought pains him. Saba is kind of attached to him now and will probably be upset to be dropped off with strangers. Also it's concretely useful in some ways. People are more likely to find a man with a young child trustworthy, and offer them hospitality, which he's relying on a lot right now. 

He lingers in the city. Practices his cantrips, tries to barter magical services for food. Thinks about obtaining a weapon. His magic won't be useful in combat for a long time - he's so limited, he still feels weak and helpless and mostly blind, though he's getting used to it a little - and it may end up being very necessary, that he can defend himself. And Saba. 

Food is getting steadily more expensive but there are people who'll pay for mending and washing and inns that'll let him stay for free if he flavors their food. There are a lot of hungry kids, in the street; orphanages were run by the church and the church is, to put it mildly, in disarray. Saba stays very close to him. He can save up for a dagger, or a shortsword, or passage to Absalom or Oppara or somewhere if that seems more urgent.

He definitely needs to make plans to get elsewhere; he's not sure which is the most urgent, that or self-defence. Maybe the former. It's not like he has much in the way of possessions to steal, yet (his spellbook stays very close to him at all times, usually inside his shirt), and hopefully having a toddler with him will dissuade all but the most hardened potential attackers. 

He should get elsewhere. Ideally, an elsewhere where at least the church is more functional and the clerics still have their magic, so, not Aroden's (former) territory. Which of Absalom or Oppara looks better on that front? 

He was the most popular god everywhere this language is spoken - it's very inconvenient now - but either one would have more presence from other churches than Ostenso does. If he wanted to go somewhere where he was barely worshipped before, there's the Empire of Kelesh - in its westernmost reaches of Qadira and Osirion some people speak Taldane like he does - 

- or he could go north, to Lastwall, Iomedae's more-an-army-than-a-country - 

Absalom has the Starstone; he designed the protections around it. Touching the Starstone would make him a god again, except they're very extensive, meant to select for competence and caution and an extremely rare level of magical skill. And then there's the stage where the person who touched the stone is born as a new god, initially defenseless. He can half-remember how often they die that way.

There's no point even attempting the Starstone now, he decides. It's - already too late for him to do much about the current devastation, and he doesn't know enough, it's a risk that he can only afford to take once. Given that, he isn't sure it's worth prioritizing Absalom as a destination, not yet. 

He remembers Iomedae. Sort of, a god's memory cut down to fit, distortedly, into a mortal mind. He doesn't think she was the one who betrayed him. But he can't be sure. He also doesn't think that she has a way of recognizing him, but, again, not certain. 

He can learn a new language to at least minimal fluency in a few months, if he must, and get by in the meantime in Osirion where some people speak Taldane. Which is across the sea, but otherwise not too far. 

He starts asking around about passage to Sothis. 

It's two weeks' journey from here, assuming the storms don't start up again (they laugh, but not because it's funny) and they'd be sharing a underwater bunk with eight other people but they can afford passage.

...If the storms start then he and Saba will both die. But his immortality is still working, he won't lose everything, and if he's still here when things get really bad, then they're probably going to die anyway. And he doesn't think the storms will start, unless the war between the gods starts up again and another of their number gets murdered, which doesn't seem terribly likely. He'll take the risk, and scramble to trade spells for as much not-very-perishable food as he can before they leave. 

Then they can spend two weeks in a tiny disgusting-smelling compartment of a ship with another terrified family (they have an uncle in Sothis, he's rich, he might be able to help). The storms don't start up again. Saba almost never lets go of him. 

Saba asks if he has been to Axis and if it is nice.

He tries to befriend the family, offering to clean their clothes and possessions and do what he can about the smell in the compartment (not much), and flavour their not-very-tasty rations, and entertain their children with magic to distract them from the terror. It's good practice.

He doesn't mind wearing a toddler around. It's sort of comforting, in a very - human - way. He's still getting used to being human again and could use any help he can get with it. 

He's been to Axis once, he tells Saba, not for long, but it was nice. He describes the shining city, as best he can, a god's-eye memory crammed into a human mind. 

Sothis is hot and foreign and certainly staring a famine in the eye come harvest-season but the Empire primarily worships Sarenrae, Abadar, and Irori, and their churches are all providing clean water and conducting healing as usual. There aren't hungry children on the streets, at least not yet.  

There's more news. On the western coast, the storms have stopped everywhere except Lirgen and Yamasa. The storms are still going at full force in Lirgen and Yamasa. No one is sure when they'll stop; it's been two months, now. If it's not soon there won't be much left. 

...He hopes that won't be what happens. He can't do anything more useful than hope, right now. 

He finds an inn that has someone who speaks Taldane and will give him free room and board in exchange for various minor spells, and in the less-hot parts of the day he wears a toddler around the city, looking for people who want magic done. Trying to practice the local language. He wants to save up money to buy a dagger he can wear on his person, first, although hopefully law-and-order won't break down here since the church infrastructure is still functioning. 

People will pay him some copper for mending and laundry, and if he saves it up he can have a dagger. There's a library that can't pay him for book copying right now - their discretionary budget has been cut until the scope of the disaster is better known - but will let him stay in their climate-controlled building if he copies books while he's there.

Saba is quiet and thinks magic is neat and is as fast as him picking up the local language.

He feels good about copying books, anyway; a comfortable place to sleep is more than enough payment. 

Toting around a toddler forever still seems non-ideal, but Saba is shockingly low-maintenance (probably because he's very traumatized, and trying very hard to be Lawful), and he doesn't eat a lot, and - well, Aroden sleeps better at night with another warm body there. He can't do anything to protect the larger world, anymore, but he can protect one child and that feels very important right now, when he has so little ground under him. And he's definitely not about to drop Saba off at an orphanage. 

It's probably important for children to have playmates, though? Maybe Saba can play with the children of some of the families that he does laundry for regularly, if he wants.