"Do you think that no god has ever made a plan and then seen it fall to ruin?"

"Oh, many have. But - not Asmodeus. He has - been the architect of that ruin, when His plans require it, and His plans don't fail even when the other gods seek it."

"He must be very careful."

"And very powerful. Yes."

"Does he know his own end?"

" - He is going to conquer all of the other planes and then everyone worth having will be His forever."

"Forever is a very long time."

"Yes."

"I would wonder whether a being who thinks his fate goes on forever has seen his own end at all."

"I - don't think I know what you mean by that."

"I suspect that all things come to an end eventually. Even the gods. Even the greatest and most careful." She smiles at her spinning. "Easy for me to say, of course, when I won't have to face being wrong. But it seems a very suspect story."

"I hope all things don't come to an end eventually. Then it'd - all be for nothing, wouldn't it?"

"No, I don't think so. Other things come to take their places. Winter follows summer, and then another summer follows winter. The old shapes the new before it leaves, and the new shapes what comes afterward, but each thing passes, in its time. Even when this world passes, another will take its place, with echoes of the old in it. But it would be very foolish to assume that things will go on being the same forever, hanging frozen, never needing to make way for summer heat."

If Carissa doesn't exist she is not particularly sure she cares that the new world has echoes of the old in it. She is not going to argue the point, though, obviously. She nods.

Ýrr goes back to spinning. 

She was supposed to also talk to Catherine. She looks around for her.

She's not spinning. She's outside watching the young children play.

Carissa wants to read these peoples' minds so badly but if they catch her at it they will butcher her in whatever is the local fashion. She walks outside, instead. "My translation spell will run out of time in a few minutes. I wondered if I might ask questions in the meantime."

"Of course."

"Where are you from?"

"Britain, originally. More recently from Akershus, in Norway."

"What's it like there?"

"In Britain? I wouldn't know. I haven't been there since the Scandinavians invaded. It's warmer than here, and there are more people. But perhaps I could answer a more specific question."

"The Scandinavians?"

She gestures expansively. "All these people. Not these specific ones, of course, but the people they belong to. Scandinavia once meant a collection of related but independent peoples inhabiting the northernmost peninsula of Europe, and now means all of them acting under one banner, controlling most of the British Isles and continuing to spread into central Europe."