"You don't tour them around yourself?"

"I have a couple of times but not regularly. The tours last two weeks - I'd miss so much -" He gazes adoringly at the baby. "We mostly hire locals for them anyway."

"Wow, I didn't know they were that long!"

"If you save up for it for twenty years you don't want it to last one day! They tour the city and tour some other districts of Axis and meet dead relatives and there's lots of time for prayer and contemplation at important landmarks. Petitioning Abadar works better there, it's - less costly for him to pay attention in his own divine domain."

"Huh. Is there a good way to let dead relatives know you're coming so they can take the day off from running trolleys on schedule? Mail system? It wouldn't cost much extra to have a bundle of letters under one arm as you plane shift."

"Yep! Axis has its own mail system so we can send them a couple weeks in advance. Most people don't work every day and with notice they can swap some days around."

"Huh, what's the usual work schedule?"

"Every other day, every third, a week on a week off..."

"Neat. I wonder what people do in Nirvana. Some of them have jobs. Like 'trial lawyer'."

"This is true. Also the ones who provide healing and comfort to the recently-dead though I don't know if anyone pays them for that."

"I think in a way all the work being on a volunteer basis would be relaxing! Though becoming filthy rich has its own advantages."

"It seems like all the work being on a volunteer basis would make it hard to tell which of it was most important. If you have a lot more people than work maybe it works."

"Rumor has it they have enough lawyers."

"I have heard that."

"It'll be a fun vacation after Hagan is done watching me make faces at people's babies."

"We should also drop in on Mahdi."

"I'm sure he'll be delighted."

"Are you sure of that."

"Does he have a baby now too?"

"He does! A beautiful little boy. ...less beautiful than Nasim."

"We mustn't take any sides on that question," he warns Belmarniss. 

"No? They don't have contests? Beribbon them and line them up and have them do tricks like drooling on command?"

"It would be bad for the self-esteem of all the other babies because Nasim would always win."

"Well, the advantage of baby contests is that no one can hold the winning title long."

"They get steadily cuter for a couple years. Though I can't actually think how she'd get cuter."