"Okay, but the Wen-dogs killed my entire family first."

"Wen Ning didn't."

"Wen Ning stopped people from killing my entire family. If other Wen protected the Jiang clan I wouldn't kill them either."

"The babies and the old people and the people who have never even met a member of the Jiang clan had no opportunity to. And Wen Ning has the exact same right to kill you for killing his family that you have to kill the Wen for killing your family."

"No, he doesn't."

"...why."

"Because I have a zombie army and he doesn't."

"...what if the Wen also had a zombie army."

"I would get an even bigger one."

...Cayden Cailean takes a different tack. 

"Look, if you're with me, I'm not going to ask you to be a different person than the one you are. I'm not going to tell you to pick your battles. I'm not going to tell you to drink less. I'm not going to tell you not to tell someone to fuck off if they deserve it. I'm not the Lan."

"Even the Lan let me kill Wen-dogs."

"The Lawful gods have all kinds of great explanations for why you should be the sort of person who predictably keeps their word and follows the rules and is-- predictable and legible to interact with-- and all that shit and I'm like, fuck that, if I'm going to be predictably anything I'm going to be predictably the sort of person who doesn't keep contracts with slavers."

"Or people who murder your family," Wei Ying adds helpfully.

"I'm not going to try to make you, that's not what I'm about or what Chaotic Good is about-- in the Lawful Good afterlife when you die they enlist you in the eternal war against Evil. In the Chaotic Good afterlife we tried to make a nice place for former mortals and you get to do whatever you want? And that's-- better as a way to treat people, because people aren't things, they aren't weapons for you to use in your war against Evil, they aren't sacrifices for you to preserve your family or clan or country at the expense of every individual in it. But it's better for the individuals too. If they're left to do what they want and become who they are, people are stronger, they're cleverer, they're more creative, they're better at making a world that's good to be in. And part of that is-- I'm not going to make you copy out the thousand precepts of Chaotic Good until you agree you ought to be Chaotic Good."

"They have those?"

"Well, no. They can't even have 'be quiet' signs up in the libraries in the Chaotic Good afterlife, people would ignore them out of spite. The signs all say 'if you are quiet other people will have an easier time concentrating on their books!'"

"I don't care if people have an easier time concentrating on their books."

"It's-- possible you'll go Chaotic Neutral, get clericed by Nethys, and that's what you're going to choose. I'm Chaotic, I'm not going to stop you from choosing that. But I think you'd be happier if you were Good."

"I don't care about being happy. I care about making the people who hurt me suffer."

He shrugs. "If you cut it out with the zombies and mix it up with a little helping people who help you, Nethys'll be overjoyed to cleric you. --Can I give you a little advice?" 

"You have been doing nothing but for twenty minutes."

"Drink differently. The point of alcohol isn't to desperately numb the pain, that's-- misusing it? The point of alcohol is for joy and celebration and freedom. When you're drunk you can step away from the rules that bind you and see a different way of being. And the way you drink is only winding the chains more tightly around yourself."

"I'm fine the way I am. Thanks for the magic."

Lan Wangji is killing Wen. 

And then he is somewhere else, in a jumble of images and words--

--a poet tosses aside another piece of paper because it's not right, she can see the poem glimmering in her head but the words keep slipping out of reach like a fish in clear water--

--it's their wedding night and she's frightened, she's heard that this is supposed to hurt, that it's something men want and women endure, but her husband is slow and patient and kind and he touches her like she's precious and they find joy, together, in their marriage bed--

--a group of voices rising together in song--

--a wizard who invented a cantrip that protects your hands because his best friend, a nurse, always had chapped hands, love to the point of invention--

--a child seeing a painting for the first time and realizing that there is something beyond her world, that there is farming and spinning and cooking and childcare but there are also beautiful fragile unnecessary things--

--a person from Cheliax, a true believer in Asmodeus, who sees her neighbor's secret little shrine to Erastil so the crops will grow well this year, and she doesn't say anything, and she feels tremendous guilt at her weakness but something stops her whenever she thinks about turning him in--

--the leap in a dancer's heart when he does everything flawlessly and his body does exactly what he tells it to do and it feels like he's lighter than air--

--a father who smiles and says "I'm not hungry" so his daughter doesn't feel guilty about eating everything she needs--

--siblings and parents and friends and lovers and old enemies grown affectionate, love everywhere, undignified and unremarkable but stubborn as a weed, growing through every crack in a person's heart--

--sculpture and music and stories, clothing dyed bright colors and pottery with intricate designs because even the poor long for beauty, singing sea shanties to keep time on the boat or ballads as you fetch water--

--the goddess not of survival but of having something to survive for--