Scarcely the bell had ceased to toll

Everyone has a first trial.

They tell all the volunteers that, in Nirvana. That nobody feels ready when the stakes are this high, but if you lose or back down it doesn't reflect on you. You should help when it's good for your own growth and not before. If you can’t be there to show the Judge the Good in the latest soul, someone else will, and if no one could, still Pharasma would look.

It’s bullshit, is what it is. Screw Pharasma.

Inh has heard the spiel from enough Neutral Good people. Anyone doing this does, after not too long, not that they're likely to run into the same Nirvanan volunteer enough to get recognized. Are you sure you aren't burning yourself out. There will always be another voice for Good. And so on.

The current source of the spiel is a dove of pure white, perched on the back of the chair at the desk next to Inh's.The sourceless light that surrounds them all illuminates the dove's wings without silhouetting her face, leaving her framed in glory as she spews shortsighted bullshit. Again.

"Thanks Mrindeh, or Mairon, or whatever it was, but this really isn't about me." Inh interrupts her with a shrug. "This dude's just as important as you or me and stuff, and he's got kind of a lot riding on this. Maybe me being here matters. Maybe it doesn't. But if I called it wrong then I'm not the one getting hurt. "

Everyone has a first trial. Everyone also has an only trial.