Leareth leans against her. Looks up at the stars. 

"Maybe. But - it was not enough, right, in the other Golarion. Not enough to save three billion people. And I - that happened, right, it was in the past. It is part of the world now, of reality as it is, and - I need to be able to look at it, to accept it, but...I did not know until now..." His shoulder twitches. "Sorry. I am probably not making any sense right now." 

"Not exactly. 

It wouldn't be very surprising if - it was worth thinking about for you. Since you have more experience at thinking about things on that scale."

"Maybe that, yes. And - I do not think that the entire way I operate in the world is - compatible with deciding that some problems are at a scale bigger than I can take responsibility for." 

He closes his eyes again. "...I suppose I understand Tadesse's sadness better, now. Except that I do not think I can afford to take decades being sad. Or days, even." 

"I don't - feel very sad. Maybe I should, I don't know. What are you feeling sad about exactly."

"There are three billion souls who are gone and - probably most of them wanted to exist, or - would have, if they were not in Hell anymore - but now they do not exist anymore and maybe we will never be able to undo that." 

She still does not actually feel sad but she can offer him a hug?

He'll take a hug. 

...He wants Iomedae to hold him. Iomedae, he thinks, understands how he feels right now, and why. 

And then Iomedae is holding him, and the world feels a little realer, the wind stings and the air has a texture and Iomedae is warm and weeping, softly, while she holds both of them close.

Leareth lets himself cry. It's not something that he does very often, but on those rare occasions that he does, it feels precious, and he's safe here. To acknowledge and witness and grieve for the costs paid unflinchingly, that - probably weren't a mistake, but might have been, and in any case whether or not it's worth it in the end, when all the accounts are added up, doesn't negate the loss.

And she holds him and grieves with him.

And at the same time...

She mostly feels jealous. This is a really stupid self-centered way to feel, but - younger prettier Carissa feels it, and Leareth feels it, and Iomedae feels it, and she mostly -

"You very rarely feel empathy for other people and in this case it would be debilitating if you did."

"See, that's also - humiliating -" It's very hard to speak to Iomedae and made easier only by the conviction that Iomedae knows even if she fails to say it.

"And humiliation is a safer emotion for you to feel, I think, because it is so much smaller. Jealousy, too."

"I don't know what that means."

"I am not very like you. Leareth is not very like you. The tools we use to live in this world are different from the ones you will have to build for yourself. I have seen you bear up under grief, marvelously, and I am confident you can do it. But this specific grief, I will not try to teach you, and I think you will find it at your own pace, and I think in the meantime you will feel - humiliated, jealous, pathetic, lonely - because there are a lot of terrible things standing between you and the grief that is your birthright, the birthright Asmodeus tried to steal from you."

"If I am going to feel bad anyway I would like to feel bad about the - actual problem!"

Something like an exhalation. "I did not design humans. I would give this to you if I could."

"And if it wouldn't be - unbearable."

"The fashion in which it is unbearable is that I cannot give it to you. Yours is not a mind that can hear unbearable things; you would hear something else instead."

"Is that...bad?"

"The evil is the war, not the sword. 

The sword isn't Good, either, of course."

"Can you - tell me what to say to Leareth. So I can comfort him. Even if I can't understand it."

"Is this about the other Carissa."

"Not zero but it's mostly about Leareth."