“Not very common! I have never had one - the priest who trained me had two in his entire life.”

"Do some people get a lot more or are they spread out a lot?"

"I think it clusters some? A little by person - we think perhaps some people's minds are natively easier for Them to communicate with - but mostly by, well, how interesting the times are." 

"Huh, who seems to be natively easier?"

"I am not sure we understand what differs between people here! At a guess, some of it might be - curiosity, or openmindedness, something in that direction. ...And, of course, a predisposition toward being calm and unflappable helps, when one is receiving visions that are often very baffling and disturbing." 

"That makes sense! Why are the visions baffling and disturbing? It's weird for there to be things gods are so bad at!"

"- Is it weird? It honestly had not occurred to me to think of it as something they are bad at, as opposed to just - a way that they are not human, and not like us." 

"Hertasi and gryphons aren't human and I can have a normal conversation with them."

"Well, they are still very similar beings to us. ...Have you ever spoken to elemental spirits? I am told they are more clearly in-between, alive yet very alien. And gods are far more different from us than that." 

"I haven't yet! I'm going to take the class soon."

"- I knew a man once who claimed to have spoken to an Abyssal demon. Not the usual kind, but a very smart one. The sort of entity that is several steps further than us mortals toward being a god. He said it was...uncanny. Recognizing another being's intelligence and purpose, but - with nothing human in it at all, or humanlike at all, far more alien than gryphons are." The priest shakes his head. "When I told my teacher about it, he said that receiving visions from Them was like that, in a way." 

"Yeah, that's a lot of what makes me curious about gods. They clearly are interested in a lot of stuff that has to do with regular people but it can't be for the same reasons so it's not obvious how well any prediction you can make will hold..."

"I suppose all we have to go on is what the Eternal Flame told our order's founders, and - perhaps, even probably, we did not understand all of it perfectly. Still, I think we understood enough to carry out our mission." 

"It seems like a good mission for people to be on."

"I think so!" He beams at her. "I mean, of course I do, or I would not be making it my life's work." 

"I think I'm starting to run out of questions - can I see the books?"

"Of course." He rises, offers her his hand. "I can show you to our library. Were you still interested in seeing our older records too? Those I will have to requisition." 

"If you wouldn't mind! Should I read them here or can I borrow them?"

He gives her a piercing look. "Do you promise you will take good care of them?" 

"Of course! Also I know book-protecting spells and I can cast those on them for you if you haven't had it done in a while."

"Oh, how generous of you! Yes, we would appreciate it. - I think we will still ask that you read the very old tomes here, we do not have many copies of those, but the others you can certainly take home with you." 

"Thank you!"

She enchants books and asks when she can come back to have a look at the really old ones.

"You could try us at the beginning of next week? Or if you like I can send a note over to the Tower when they arrive, if you give me addressing instructions for it." 

She can give him addressing instructions! "Is it okay if I Gate over now I've been here? It's a long flight for my gryphon friend with a passenger but not that long range for a Gate."

He gives her a surprised and impressed look. "You must be a very skilled Adept! And at your age - how impressive!"