Kid has gone through an alley. Could be anywhere. Maybe someone else has seen her?

Hmh.

"Kiraavi, did you catch that?"

"No, what?"

"A little kid ran through crying, I'm curious why. Can you see her?"

He can look.

Hiding in a secluded corner, between a couple of trees. Still crying.

Kiraavi directs him there.

He leans on one of the trees. "Hey. You all right?"

She jumps. "I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah, I didn't say you did."

She blinks up at him through teary eyes. "Who're you? I haven't met you."

"Ruel." He sits, and deposits the pastry box on the ground between them, where she can reach it. "I'm here to learn about Aarethil's domain, so I can tell other travelers about it. Everything I've seen seems pretty nice so far, but I don't want to only hear about the nice stuff. And I might be able to help you, depending on what the problem is."

She looks at the box warily. "Why?"

"Why which?"

"All of it."

"I want to know the bad stuff too so I can tell them the truth - I don't want to say it's good here and then someone comes all the way here and finds out that it isn't; if I do that then next time I tell them someplace is good they won't trust me. Why I'm doing it at all is sort of secret, though."

"And why would you help? No one does."

"I might not, it depends on what's wrong. But I might know how to fix it, even if they don't, or something. I don't like it when people are unhappy."

She rubs her eyes with the back of her hand. "I didn't do anything," she repeats.

"Sure, that happens. What are you hiding from?"

"...my dad." Sniffle.

"Mm. Did something happen?"

"...I dunno. Kinda. Not really."

"It's complicated? It sounds like it is. That won't bother me, I'm used to complicated stuff."

"It's just... my father was talking about stuff again. God stuff."

"Ah. Well, I can definitely see where Aarethil wouldn't be for everybody. Most gods aren't, really, that's why it's nice that there are so many of them."

"You have to be one thing, right. You can't be more things. Because you have to be pure." She sounds like she's been practising not spitting the word.

"Yeah, that'd be it. Plenty of people want more freedom than that. And plenty of gods don't care."