Is it that obvious?

I was not really expecting Oppara to suit you. 

I assume it is not always like this. We've endured worse.

It’s not always like this but it’s more like this than anywhere else possibly could be. I think that if Heaven were like this I would grow to enjoy it. It’s just distracting how -. 

How surely none of them would be doing this if they understood the stakes -

except, of course, a great many people here do know the stakes, and those ones are doing it too, and maybe that's actually more disconcerting than the behavior of the people who don't -

Do you want to jump?

Um.

Will it cause Basil any problems if the gossipmongers start talking about how the festivities were so dull people were leaping off the flying dance floor to get away?

Not if we have angel wings. If you have angel wings people always presume you are doing things intentionally and for a good reason.

I do not have angel wings.

The last I heard, you were a wizard.

A wizard who did not prepare to grow angel wings today!

Alfirin managed to conceal how fast she prepares spells from Iomedae for quite a while but not twenty years. Of course. How inconsiderate of me. I will go get us some pineapple drinks, and then we can jump.

Sure… you know, where I come from pines don't bear fruit, is that another Oparra thing like the giant sun-eating lion?

It is not a fruit local to here, I think they get it from the tropics. It resembles a pinecone, yet is a fruit. I haven’t tried it, I don’t know whether it’s a good fruit. 

...

I would be surprised if they went to great lengths to import bad fruits for festivals.

Iomedae returns with two hollowed out pineapple fruits, with drinks inside. 

Alfirin (now winged) sips from her pineapple skeptically and somewhat reluctantly. This is an - interesting - fruit.

It tastes slightly…corrosive. I don’t think I prefer it to an apple. Iomedae looks longingly out over the cliffs.

It is clear that Iomedae wants very strongly to jump and for some reason is coming to Alfirin for ??permission??

She does not really understand why but she supposes she can give it. She steps off the edge and floats there.

So now we intentionally and for a good reason jump off the dance floor? I think if you dive fast enough you won't spill what's left of the drink.

That sounds like a challenge, so she takes her up on it and jumps. They’ve risen quite high above the city, but not high enough for it to be a long fall - you really have to Teleport for that. She spreads the wings as she approaches the ground below. The landing wouldn’t hurt her but it would hurt whatever she landed on.  

The pineapple drink does not spill.

Alfirin inverts and dives after her, skipping the actual landing step with her overland flight.

OK. So. What's the good reason?

At least half the reason is that Iomedae really enjoys jumping off cliffs. Not everything is part of a complicated plan!

But she doesn't want to give the impression she was trying to ask something of Alfirin. And she can’t ask ‘how are you doing’ again, that’d be suggesting she thinks she is entitled to a more direct answer than she already got. “How’s Lilia doing” would be too personal. 

I think Arazni’s been friendlier to everyone since you told her that in another timeline she dies.

That doesn’t sound like a conversation that requires jumping off a cliff with pineapple drinks. Iomedae might not need much of an excuse to jump of a cliff, but jumping off a cliff with Alfirin and pineapple drinks is another matter entirely. It's uncharacteristic.

She mentioned that she’s doing things that she had planned to do after the war, now.

I guess I’d never really imagined that her plans for after the war were ‘be friendlier’. Perhaps I have been too self-centered in my planning for after the war. She wants to ensure that the army is not recalled to immediately march on Qadira and she wants an independent Encarthan and she wants to become a god.

She had always rather assumed Alfirin would …

... what had she assumed Alfirin would do.

She’d worried about how Alfirin would pursue immortality. Had she just managed to never think about what Alfirin would…want? Build? Involve herself with?

Iomedae tries to gain some altitude. 

It would not actually impede conversation in any way for Alfirin to stay here near the ground, but it would in itself be marked communication. She doesn't really feel like flying around the city, but she follows.

I had not really imagined it either, but in hindsight it makes sense, that if she had personal things she wanted to do she’d put them off until after the war. At least if they’d be expensive.

… did you have post-war plans besides becoming a god?

I want Encarthan to be well governed. I want the men to not be immediately put to some cause that'll damn them. I want to travel the stars a bit, like Aroden did, share some updates on His holy texts.

…how about you? 

That’s not too invasive if it’s just reciprocating the question.

“Self-centered,” right. I - honestly didn’t put much thought into it, before. Find some lonely island or mountaintop far away from any undead and figure out magical crafting. Maybe find some giant problem somewhere to fix after that if I haven’t hit ninth. Now - find some lonely island somewhere and figure out Lilia? Or maybe skip the island.