Okay so maybe loud traffic and secondhand smoke aren't things she missed. Not every sensory experience is new and interesting. But parks are nice!

They are! And here's the river.

Terrana goes right up to the edge, pushing through brush and managing not to get the magic magic clothes dirty or torn even a little bit, and wades in to about knee deep. She cups water in her hands and starts whispering.

Ooh cool. She watches and waits.

Soon, a form appears from the still surface of the water, almost silently. It doesn't have any particular special presence that marks it as divine, but it's still... Impressive.

And the telepathic (vaguely feminine) voice that sings out, Young healer, you have visited me again, is a little bit more stereotypically spirit-y.

My domain is still relatively free from pollution. How have you progressed on your goals?

"Oh - introductions. I was in a great amount of distress, but Kaede, here, saved my life. I think I'm going to perform much better now."

Kaede. Saving the life of the healer is worthy of praise.

She dips her head. "Thank you. I don't really—think that way, though. I think every life is worth saving. Hers was just—there, I guess, impossible to ignore. And just the first, I hope."

You would be a healer as well? It sounds interested.

"That... is a possibility, yeah. Healing sounds very good."

You do not sound as interested as I thought you would be.

"I want to help people. That's what I'm very interested in. I don't know if healing is the best way to do it, I don't know what my options are, but it's definitely way, way better than not healing, and if it is in fact the best way to do it then heck yeah I wanna be a healer."

The expression of magic in humans is frequently unexpected. If you dearly wished to heal someone, you would likely be capable of it if you were granted a spirit fire to carry. As your charity is more general, I could not predict the result of such a thing.

She nods. "I understand."

"...She's testing you, Kaede." The spirit shifts posture. "Nayalu, in my conversations with her, I've found her to be responsible and intelligent, as well as driven. I have served your interests intermittently well beyond our original agreement. I ask that you consider granting Kaede a spirit fire."

It is an extremely serious decision. And while you have been very helpful to me, your friendship is not worth such a large portion of my essence by itself.

"...I don't really understand how it's serious, it's not like there's a downside. Do you have finite essence, by the by? Or does it regenerate? Is there a way to regenerate it faster? Because something that'd work even better than healing, off the top of my head, would be turning everyone into spirit bearers, or at least turning everyone as immortal as spirit bearers. See, the biggest... problem... I see with healing is that it's a single-point vector, I can only affect people around me, I have to personally go help people. Something far superior would be granting regeneration and immortality in a way that spreads, something less centralised. How many spirits are there, by the way?"

If I had infinite essence, all my enemies would be less than dust. Your idea of a boon that spreads is interesting, but I have never tried to grant such a thing.

She tries not to make a face and mostly succeeds, then neutrally says, "I'm more the type who would, given infinite power, try to fulfill even my enemies' desires."

Then perhaps you define 'enemy' differently.

"Maybe. I just—I desire the flourishing of all sapient beings, even those with goals completely alien to mine. If someone can't be happy without hurting other people then, I don't know, I find them people who want to be hurt. The bar of value incompatibility has to be extremely high if I have infinite power."

I believe I understand what you mean. If I could undo a rockslide in an instant I need not punish the hard-headed fool who caused it. And if his dearest desire was to cause rockslides, perhaps I could find an empty place for him to do so.

"Yes, that's exactly it. I... would prioritise, I'm not omnipotent yet so if I have to sacrifice someone's values then of course I'll sacrifice those which are most distinct from mine, but the more power I have, the less I have to compromise, the more I can just give and give and give."

Neither of us have enough power that this is more than a hypothetical conversation. But your opinion on this matter speaks to a fundamentally kind personality. But good intentions can produce bad results. Will you favour humans over the natural order?

"...I will favour sapient beings over anything else. That includes humans, but also genies and spirits and who knows what else. To the extent that sapient beings care about something, that is something I care about."

I have refused to allow the construction of power plants along my banks even though these projects would surely benefit many thousands of humans. I consider the health of the river over many human concerns. There is a fundamental values difference between us.

"That's a false dichotomy, though. It is in fact possible to satisfy both of these preferences, that doesn't even require omnipotence, it only requires uranium."