"If there are not actually good reasons to not be in a relationship then we will have to go take some time so Alfirin can think about whether she wants to let Shelyn get away with this kind of nonsense.... I think you're right that we should speak about the breakup, though, probably."

"I think I would benefit from taking the time to think about Shelyn first."

"Then this may be a good time to wrap up our first session!"

"Does that sound correct, and is there anything either of you would like to say before we conclude?"

"Nothing."

"I don't think so. Thank you for your work. Are we supposed to arrange to pay you in some way, or did Shelyn's Church handle that?"

"Payment arrangements were already made so you don't need to worry about that."

Ramona pauses, not entirely sure how to phrase the next part.

"I want you to know that I'm very impressed with you both. Even very intelligent, competent clients often have quite garden-variety relationship problems. You two have already mastered the vast majority of the skills I would ordinarily expect to teach. I'm honored that it's my role to try to help you anyway, by facilitating your conversation and offering some structure and support. Thank you for trusting me with that."

"You both took a big risk, today, sharing the information that you both still love each other. I hope you will hold this new information tenderly and let it sink in a bit. It may take a while for all of the implications to unfold in front of you. And this may be too much to hope for, but I hope you allow yourself some small warmth or pleasure at knowing that you are loved."

"Take care of yourselves and I will see you again when you are both ready."

"Thank you." Now she wants to go do something non-stressful like die horribly, so she'll go do that.

She does give Alfirin the high priestess of Shelyn's contact information in case Alfirin has questions for Shelyn about this whole endeavor. "How does Alfirin feel about Shelyn arranging this" might be more important than all of their other relationship disagreements, because Alfirin absolutely would refuse to date her just to spite Shelyn.

...does she want Alfirin to date her? It was a disaster last time. But they are a couple of decades more mature. She thinks about it in between instances of dying horribly and concludes that, yes, she does. If Alfirin wants that. And they can figure out how to talk about Future Alfirin. And it's not a bad idea for some reason she hasn't thought of yet.

She tells Marit that the relationship counselor might want his take on their relationship.

"How have you vetted this woman?"

"We are approximately unable to because she's on another planet and we only meet in a mindscape. Shelyn's church arranged the from-another-planet arrangement to protect our confidentiality."

"Mmmhmm. And what does Shelyn want, here."

"Alfirin's rather agonizing over that. Shelyn claimed this is in our interests, and I don't expect her to be wrong or lying; that leaves the question of why it's worth this much to Her, but she's a god of love and may just be invested in my being more - correct- about love when I ascend."

"Or in your being more - affected by love in some other way!"

"That would give me a lot more pause if I didn't have the assurance this is in my interests. Since I do - I don't consider it very likely Shelyn is lying, and I'm not very worried about how She and I are dividing the benefits of Her intervention. We can straighten that out later."

"This strikes me as allowing a great deal to depend on the assignment of Shelyn as Good and the advertising of Her church as accurate about Her aims."

"Why don't you discuss this with Alfirin. It will probably cheer her up."

Alfirin's problem here is that she was approaching relationship counseling as a sacrifice, something made sacred and given up. Whatever may come of it was Shelyn's. If Shelyn wanted to ruin her working relationship with Iomedae, She could have that. If Shelyn wanted her to reveal all of her secrets, She could have that. If Shelyn wants her to start another relationship with Iomedae...

She didn't think about the possibility before because it did not seem at all likely but now that it does - It really does not seem fair to Iomedae to have a relationship with her founded on Alfirin feeling an obligation to Shelyn. It doesn't even seem like what Shelyn wants, either.

She's angry. She agreed to a trade and when the bill came due it was much, much larger than she expected. She's angry at Shelyn, for tricking her, and at herself for being careless and falling for it... It seems quite plausible that Shelyn did not intend to trick her. She is angry at herself for being so bad at thinking about Iomedae that she tricked herself into thinking relationship counseling would be an at all tolerable sacrifice.

...The question of what she actually wants seems...irrelevant, still. And hard to think about, for that reason. She can't get anything she endorsedly wants from relationship counseling; She might get things that benefit her, she might get things that make her happy or bring her joy or that she's sad to be without, but she cannot get anything she wants, because everything she wants she wants to achieve by her own choices and talents and luck and not at the whim of some higher power.

She's still mulling it over on the peak of Mount Himcho when she gets Marit's sending.

"Iomedae said I should discuss my reservations about Shelyn's manipulative schemes with you rather than her."

Oh. Well. He probably can't help her sort out what she wants but maybe he has some thoughts on the rest of the situation.

"Mount Himcho, in Tian Xia. Scry the rabbit." she responds, then takes the scrying rabbit that her allies use to teleport to her out of her pocket. She gives it an endure elements and an air bubble.

She must be really upset because that's kind of inconsiderate. Marit does not have a Greater Teleport. He has to go over Kalsgard and Hongal. He's there half a minute later. 

"I would've picked a very hideous place, personally," he says, looking out at the landscape.

"I don't know that that would have been better, but in hindsight it might have been wiser to pick a place where you can't see the stars... You can see a lot more of them, from up here. What are your reservations?"

"What's your guess of what Shelyn is playing at?"

"Iomedae thinking of love as an important aspect of the nature of Good when she ascends."

"Iomedae was admittedly being an idiot about you but I do not remotely trust Shelyn to only correct that and not try to get anything else. Also if I were Iomedae I wouldn't let Shelyn even correct that, but that's just saying that if I were Iomedae I wouldn't be Iomedae."

"...I don't think Iomedae becoming a god unconcerned with love is her being an idiot about me, she - Hold on, let me check that, actually - 

- No, I still think that was the obvious trajectory before she met me. That's a bit of a tangent. I agree that Shelyn probably has secondary goals here, and if Her sole intent were to change Iomedae's priorities as a god She could have made a more targeted intervention."

"Iomedae first told me that Good had enough entities concerned with love and it would be more balanced if she did not care at all for it the week you left. I don't think the god she will become is the same one as if she'd never met you. Not do I really think she ought to aspire to that." He's not sure that is a tangent, but - "So what else does She want."