"That sounds right. Uh, some people can make it not hurt by not really caring about other people but I don't think you can and I definitely don't think you should."

"That'd be - like the thing where a lot of people care less about helping innocent people when they get more power? I don't think I should try to do that. Aroden said I'd - learn how to make good plans anyway, even when it hurts." He curls up more tightly in her arms. "Is Leareth sad a lot, about times he failed?" 

"...not most of the time, I don't think. He's sad sometimes when I explain how things are in Cheliax. And he's sad he missed Dierne being born, right now. But I wouldn't say he spends a lot of time being sad."

"So I guess maybe I can learn to not be sad always about the bad things, even though they're there always..." Snuggle. "He said a lot of the same things Iomedae did. That the way things are here, with Good and Evil each having powerful groups of allies, means that I can get more done if I know how to be allied with people, and - he thinks that's good for me, even if it being good for me isn't the point. Also he showed me a bit what Axis is like. He says Leareth is really happy there and I should go and actually see it at some point." 

"It's nice. Very busy and fancy and - everyone just kind of doing what suits them."

"Aroden said it's easier there than here, to set it up so people build the sort of place that people like us think is beautiful and good. I...don't really understand why it's easier? But I guess everyone there has to be Lawful, that'd help, and - Abadar's there and he's literally the god of people being rich and building things..." 

"And they don't need to eat or sleep and they can't bear children. So - the worst thing that can happen to them is that they have to carry their possessions on their back for a while."

"Huh. I guess people would be less scared of trying hard things, if that was the worst risk if they failed. It'd be...nice, if we could make Cheliax be safe that way too, or almost as safe, but it seems hard." 

"You could make it so that as long as you were a hard worker you mostly wouldn't starve even if your crops failed one year, but I don't see how we'd make it so everyone's fed with people only working if they feel like it. - Geb does it, with undead, but that's Evil..."

"Why is it Evil?" 

"If you raise someone as an undead then their soul is trapped in their body until it's destroyed and can't proceed on to an afterlife and it's generally Evil to impede souls in reaching the afterlife."

"Oh, so it's sort of like keeping them trapped as your slaves?" 

"Kind of. They're not conscious and they don't notice but it's still a century they're supposed to be in the afterlife and are instead working fields in Geb, and it's counted like you enslaved them."

"That's so weird - what is their soul even doing, if they're not conscious, do you need it or could you figure out a way to just use magic and free up their soul to go do other things?" 

"I think without a soul you can't direct the body in complex tasks, and just have a ...flesh puppet? I don't know for sure, though."

"Hmm." He'll set aside that thought for later. Ma'ar goes back to smiling at his baby sister. She's very cute, even if she still seemed baffled about the most basic aspects of being a person, like what to do with her hands. 

"I think after a couple of months they stop being so helpless and will be able to be excited about having a big brother here to play with them."

"I know, I had littler siblings. And - it's really nice that she definitely won't die." 

"It is! I would be so upset about having gone through all that and then not being sure for the entire next year if she was going to live."

"I know, it looked like so much work." Ma'ar hugs her some more. 

"...do you think we haven't - cost him an important part of his development," she asks Leareth that evening. "By protecting him and teaching him, I mean."

"- I am not sure. It does seem worth asking the question. I...think it would cost him some important lessons if he does not attempt and fail at very difficult challenges after this point, but we should let him do that, and - I do not think it ought harm him if we give him a few years of safety first. It might help, even, I think there are certain skills I was only ever able to learn once I was more than powerful enough to protect myself..." Shrug. "I - feel recognition, when I talk to him. Perhaps if we had found him much earlier in his childhood - before his parents died - I would not so much, but I think there are many relevant pieces of his development that have already happened." 

Nod. "He seemed like a you. To me, at least, though I'm not sure I really truly understand you."

"It feels unfair to expect you to truly understand me, when it took me eighteen hundred years to understand myself." He kisses the top of her head. "- What about him did you notice that made him seem like me?" 

"Well, I explained a bit of my history and he said he needed to go fight Asmodeus for his dead people."