"Axis has competition between districts and as far as I can tell they mostly compete on price and cleanliness and walking distance to all the cool bars and interesting parts of town and high-paying jobs. I agree you can't save people from themselves but - well, I think mostly people wouldn't choose to be ground down for Asmodeus because I think mostly that's not actually what's good for them, is it."

"I'm not Asmodean. I just don't think the people who already are devils should die for it. And I don't trust - a Good god, or the people who work for Her - to actually come up with something better than that. I believe that you want something better than that. I believe that you'll try to come up with something better than that.

But I - think you'll fail."

"Then we're going to all die. Right. Not - here, not in this war, I bet we'd win it, but - if we can't figure out how to cooperate with all of the stuff out there that's - Lawful, and possible to negotiate with, and - friends with Abadar, and joined the coalition against Rovagug - if we can't figure out how to work with those entities then we're going to all die, someday, when something bigger wants the sun we're using for light. Or something. But - they did manage it, for Rovagug, and -

- I think the problem is that there's no prophecy anymore? When the gods could see how things would shake out They could avoid any of the really destructive outcomes that didn't give either god anything they wanted. And now They're guessing, and They're good at guessing, but sometimes something is close enough that They're both willing to bet on their guesses - and They've got to learn a new way of doing things, They still need to coordinate but without being able to see if it'll work -"

"Oh. Maybe."

"Maybe when Leareth has built his fixing-Velgarth god it'll help."

"If he mentioned that I wasn't paying attention."

She looks at Leareth.

Listening to their conversation hasn't been as painful as he expected. It's...clarifying. More relief than anything else. 

Leareth has been watching with a neutral expression. It's a very effortful neutral expression, and a very effortful decision that now is not the time when it would help, at all, with anything, to feel the entirely appropriate and reasonable devastation that Carissa - the other Carissa, but maybe his as well - must be feeling right now. 

He hasn't been reading any of their minds, even though this might be useful, because that would be one more step too difficult. 

...

Oh, Carissa is talking to him now...? 

"- Right," he hears himself say, distantly. "I spoke a little of it to Mhalir. The gods of Velgarth are against change - because of how They use Foresight, I think, but also the Cataclysm spooked Them, very understandably - anyway, I kept trying to fix things and everything kept failing as though by improbable poor luck, and eventually I put it together. And decided I would need to take the war to Them..." 

He describes his plan, spending five sentences on the specifications for his god's values and one sentence on the cost in blood, though of course now he expects there are other avenues. 

"Huh. I hope you figure something out."

"Anyway. I am not saying I'd be any less devastated than you if it does happen like it did in your world but I bet if we aren't attacked by Asmodeus while we're planning we can come up with better."

"Let me know if you need my help."

"I kind of think that you should take some time off in Axis. You could sell headbands there and get yourself a condo... were you suicidal or just desperate."

"- I don't want to die! The entire reason I am upset about the Hell thing is because I think people should not die!"

"Trust me, I know, just, for related reasons I have never tried blowing up a Void-ship while I was in it so I wanted to make sure it still held."

"I -

People don't jump from burning buildings because jumping seems unusually appealing."

Leareth so very badly wants to hug her. ...Or at least to hug his Carissa, admitting to himself that half of what he wants is just to comfort himself, and it's not fair to demand that from the Carissa who pointed out, clearly and directly, that she doesn't even know him. 

He doesn't do either and his expression doesn't change at all; he just reaches out to (his) Carissa with wordless Mindspeech, a half-reassuring, half-clinging mental brush. 

He also wants to hug her - metaphorically speaking, usually he is her - he wants that, again, he wants them fighting on the same team, more than twice as strong as either of them could be alone...

He's so tired. 

"I believe you," Leareth says, quietly, addressing Mhalir's Carissa. "About what you care about. I - understand that the cost we are willing to pay is horrific. But - I cannot, and will not, deny that I am willing to pay it, if it comes to that." 

Sigh. "What would be the point. You know what I am. What we are." 

"I like you. I just think you're wrong that Hell needs destroying."

There are a lot of things he could say. Leareth doesn't think that any of them are helpful, right now, not yet. And - he's tired. 

He nods. "Get some rest," he says heavily. 

Now what. 

It's really not the best ship for people to have some privacy and alone time. She stays slouched on the floor. Uh, hi. 

<...I care about her. I - want her to be all right - I know I hurt her very badly, when - we were so rushed, during the war, it all happened so fast...> 

Mhalir feels like he doesn't know any of the right words, here, but - maybe this Carissa understands. Because she has a Leareth who loves her. 

I'm sure she'll be okay. Carissa doesn't have a particularly detailed model of trauma and how it works and stuff but she's pretty sure people turn out okay eventually and it is just a matter of whether they take a while about it. I'd be pretty upset if mine did that but I don't think we tend to hold a grudge. I think probably she was pretty much over it, until the chance came up that it'd happen again.

It does seem like it'd suck that - well, this Carissa hopes they don't do it, and thinks it's be a bad idea on some kind of larger scale, and if they do go ahead she'll be very very scared, hoping that Leareth and Aroden and Iomedae are right and she's wrong, but - she will tell them that, she wouldn't try to make it her choice rather than theirs. Because she expects that they might be wrong but so might she and they're most likely to get it right together. And it seems like other Carissa - just doesn't expect that other people care about the right things, or at least thought the chance they wouldn't was greater than the chance they'd get it importantly right, and greater than all the other things she might be able to do ...