The other just says, "If you need anything that you could not pay a wizard to do, come to us. Feel free to pray for a time."

"Oh, you wanted to know about prayer too, right?"

"Yeah, I don't know how that works because Amenta doesn't have gods."

"Prayer is the act of opening your soul to what your god wants from you. You don't evaluate, you simply experience."

"Think about what Neselthia values, and what she wants us to value. Find the points of agreement, and if they number enough that your feelings towards her are more fond than frustrated, speak as though you are speaking to her."

"I don't have a soul!"

Indulgent smile, although slightly more strained than the last one.

The other priest sighs.

"I see."

She doesn't, really, but she had been re-assigned rather urgently last night, so she supposes she has something that only she can explain to this strange child.

"Think of Neselthia as...someone fielding many requests at once, like an administrator within a government. She must honor all requests somehow, but she needs to evaluate them. Prayers are like requests submitted to a god. The administrator must make decisions somehow, and she has her own process, her own priorities. Those who submit the prayers to her are her followers, typically, so they already agree with her priorities and her process. However, sometimes it is useful for other people to pray to her first, when her area of focus is the most relevant to their goals. If I were not a follower of Neselthia, I might pray to her for saving up for childcare while I was pregnant, or to ensure that money for food for my recently born children would last longer. Does that help clarify the matter?"

"So I don't need a soul?"

"You need a soul in order to align yourself with our lady, yes."

"...but not to pray to her. Prayer is something anyone can do, no matter the state of their soul."

Priests can be helpful, but they're really really weird. He wishes he were a wizard so they'd respect him and stop playing weird games with rules he doesn't know.

"And she's mostly interested in women specifically and also having babies?"

"She is interested in women maintaining their wealth despite controlling husbands, poverty, the costs of childcare, and the lost working time spent with children. She is also a protector of children, whether boy or girl, so you may have a special advantage at getting her attention."

"I should also say that Neselthia admires commerce, trade, and merchants; especially women, because it can be so difficult for women to do so, especially on the Prime, but merchants in general pray to her in this district."

Lintalai writes all this down on her pocket everything.

Daernir looks over her shoulder as she writes!

She allows this, mostly because she's writing in Anitami and he can't make out a word of it.

Awww. Okay.

"What are you writing?"

"I'm taking notes on the conversation!"

"Oh, that's smart. So you can remember everything important later? What kind of things do you write down?"

"Most everything, I can write really fast and I organize it later, usually before I go to bed."

One of the priests says, "Excuse me, children. I will attend to one of our worshipers," and steps away.

Daernir ignores that in favor of the conversation.

"Maybe I should start. How do you make yourself faster, though? I don't have a pocket everything, I need paper..."

Seems reasonable of her. "Practice, mostly, and the having a pocket everything." Lintalai finishes writing up notes and says, "So what are some gods that are maybe more relevant to wanting to found a country and move billions of people here?"