She blinks slowly and approaches the food suspiciously. "That's a lot of different things."

"Mmhmm."

"Why?"

"Mm - they explained to you how to figure out what makes a good offering, right? You think about what kinds of things match them, and then come up with something meaningful or important or fancy? Offerings aren't the only thing that's good for. Or sometimes it's good to do the opposite, think about what doesn't match a problem and do that."

"...the opposite?"

"Yeah. You've had enough of 'only one thing', so," he gestures at the food, "let's do something that's not that."

She starts eating.

He sits at the desk and gets out his journal, then turns back around. "Oh, I never did get your name. Doesn't have to be what they were calling you before, if there's something you'd like better than that."

"Kaede," she says, "and I'm fine with it."

"All right. And pronouns?"

Shrug. "I'm a girl now."

Nod. "And it's not going to bother you if I write about you like you're a girl and share it with Kiraavi, later when you aren't?"

Another shrug. "Yeah it's okay." Pause. "You're the first person who cared about it."

"Yeah, I got that idea. Doesn't mean it doesn't matter, though."

She nods. "It's okay anyway."

"It's not, really. But it's all right, we'll be getting out of here in the morning anyway."

Nod. Nom.

"I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but it did seem like Aarethil understood at least a little that how you were treated wasn't right - they were pretty sure you wouldn't want to see your dad again."

She pauses, and after a few seconds without moving says, "Father. Not dad. And that's nice, I guess."

"Sorry."

"It's okay. Why didn't they do anything about it?"

"I didn't ask, but it seemed like they thought it would work, and that if it worked it'd be the right thing to do. Which it wouldn't, but gods have trouble understanding that sometimes. Kiraavi's better about it - he doesn't think people should be a certain way to start with, and he'll ask for help if a plan of his doesn't seem to be working."

"...what's he like?"

"Curious, mostly. His thing is travel, and what that means is - trying new things, new experiences, new combinations. He's always expanding, and the only thing he really doesn't put up with is people being stuck someplace - I wasn't kidding when I said he'd have my head if I left you here."

"There are other kids who have bad families too though."