"...I'll listen to what you have to say."

Muriela smiles and nods. "I was once deaf to the words of the divine. Just like my brothers and sisters, here," she says, gesturing with one hand to everyone else there. "We wandered aimless before Mitra brought us here, one by one. I was the first of us, but our purpose is the same. He has chosen us for a task: to invite perfection, to create perfection. A vessel for Mitra—a place for his divine essence to inhabit."

Tenderel looks up at the statue when she says this, but the others don't; they might be used to her speech, by now.

She looks up at the statue.

"Is that—a thing that works? I guess it must be, if your god told you to do it."

Her smile broadens. "And I am very close—although I dare not rush. The final moments are the most important, and I must take my time and care."

"Makes sense."

She... kind of feels like she doesn't want to be anywhere near here when they finish their god-statue. Is that reasonable? Their god sounds all right, mostly. It's just she's kind of over the whole concept of forces greater than herself. Forces greater than herself are largely to be avoided.

"And then—but tell me, do you know Mitra? It seemed you did not. He abhors blood sacrifice, and encourages the preservation of wisdom and knowledge. I believe... these lands are in need of someone to care for them, to right the great imbalances and to heal the ancient wounds that have never healed and have been torn open anew." She raises her left arm and says, "These bracelets—but you do not have one," she interrupts herself to say, when she notices. "And yet you are here."

"Yes. I got lost in the desert. It's a long story. What about the bracelets?"

"They are what traps us here... We cannot leave, with them, and we cannot remove them, and they give us visions, though we try to ignore. They corrupt us." She frowns. "And yet you... are not corrupted."

"I guess not." Hopefully this is not going to end in them deciding they need her for their god statue.

"I don't suppose... but it would be a great ask. I mustn't."

Well, she's not deciding anything, even though everyone has thought the same thing, apparently, from the looks they are giving her (while trying to not look).

She's going to regret asking this, isn't she.

"What mustn't you?"

She looks down at the fire. "My greatest fear is that... this corruption, the great evil in these bracelets... it will mar my work. Our work." She looks up at April again. "If you are free from their corruption, then... your work would not be marred. It would be pure. We could be sure that... Mitra's will is done."

"I don't think I could finish your whole statue by myself even if I wanted to." And she kind of doesn't.