"Why should I care? I can't see the sun from where Traveler trapped me and I'm very tired of acting as though I care about anyone else. Even if I did care about the rest of the world, when do you imagine I last had a chance to see if the sun shines on a world of happy people frolicking in fields of flowers or a world where person after person after person is kept in chains for the safety of whatever few people are left? He is hungry. He is starving - as I have starved - and Traveler has kept him like that for centuries. If he wants to eat the sun, well, the sun is replaceable. There are other stars out there. There are ways to exist in the dark and still be able to move and still be able to laugh. Not that Traveler will leave us alone to do that, of course, we'll never have peace with him in charge. So - sure. My son can eat whatever he wants."

Ramona is struggling mightily to retain any empathy whatsoever for these clients and is not entirely succeeding at it.

She can just not say anything for a moment, that's what she can do.

Because the next thing she has to do when she speaks is validate Luka and she's not ready for that yet.

The reason it's hard is that it sure sounds like Luka is saying that it's fine to obliterate a sun and engulf a populated planet in darkness, annihilating all of the people who live there in the process.

And the reason it's okay is because Luka and his son have suffered.

This is the sort of logic that school shooters use. It's abhorrent.

But you know what would be nice? Is if school shooters got to see a competent therapist before they became school shooters. That would be nice. Because maybe then something different would happen.

So maybe Ramona should man the fuck up and be a competent therapist.

Okay. She can do this. All she has to do is reflect it back and not judge it. The logical thread is actually clear, she just has to demonstrate that she can see that.

"You're exhausted. Whatever caring you had for others has been completely burned out of you, largely by Traveler. One of the only people you still value, your son, is suffering even now, and that needs to stop. You don't really care what it costs other people, as you and your son have already paid enough. You want to be set free."

"Is that right?"

He laughs warmly. "Does it matter?"

"It does to me, yes. I want to make sure I understand what you want and why, and why various obvious solutions won't work for you. So if I've mangled what you said, I hope you'll tell me what I got wrong."

He makes a face. He sighs. "Wise therapist," he says, slightly mockingly, and he gets angrier as he goes on. "Let me just say that I think we all sincerely hope I don't regret this, but fine. No, that was only the intended and obvious interpretation of what I said." He's very keyed up now, keyed up like a dog growling in a corner at the people towering over it. (Traveler is watching with interest.)

To Luka: "Thank you. I appreciate the confirmation." Ramona is confused by Luka's convoluted phrasing, but thinks she gets the gist. She's unfazed by Luka's anger. Anger just makes sense, under the circumstances.

To both of them: "I've slowly been piecing together what kind of beings you are. It wasn't obvious from the start, and you didn't completely volunteer it, but is it safe to say that you and your family members are... well, in human terms, gods? Or at least, beings of vastly more power than regular humans, even if the notion of godhood is somehow misguided?"

There is no one between Luka and the door. This is a good thing, because it's time to storm out of it.

Ramona is not entirely sure what just happened. Luka was really upset, but what exactly tipped him over the edge?

"...Well. That wasn't a confirmation."

"You mean, when I repeated back what he said, and then he said ... well, I guess I don't know what he said. It sure sounded like he was saying I got it right. But I guess I didn't?"

"Can you play translator?"

"...I can try. This is - one of the places where my mental model of him is least congruent with the way he currently thinks and acts. I think he respected you until just now - I think he believed you were wise and knew a great deal about mediating conflict and that you were being at least mildly clever in trying to force him to either speak falsehoods or be open. I think he was trying to interact with you in good faith by at least not stating falsehoods, and I think when you pressed him about his deception he trusted you enough to tell you something he very much didn't want to say, and now I'm trying to think over his exact words. He hasn't actually said 'I am imprisoned' even once while we've been here, has he? You said 'are you imprisoned by Traveler?' and he said he was in your office. He asked when you imagine he last saw the world outside his prison. That part is obvious, enough so that I wonder if it's a red herring. My guess is he really has escaped, which would explain why someone would try something so desperate and silly as sending us to therapy - but that doesn't mean it isn't a red herring."

Traveler sighs. He's just watching the door and not emoting much. "And being tired of acting as though he cares about other people is one thing that's very out of step with my mental model of him. Maybe he gave up on that when he was tortured into betraying one of my sons - not the one he killed. A different son I haven't mentioned to you before."

"So wait... I'm still not sure I understand. This feels too strange to be right but I'll just say it out loud, because I don't seem to be doing very well at understanding you two."

"You think I was supposed to guess that he escaped from your prison, and because I failed to guess that, he's now fed up with me?"

"What was the part he very much didn't want to say, but did say anyway?"

"That one or more things in his rant were misleading technical truths - which narrows down the range of possible secrets he could be keeping considerably, whether he's free now or not. My guess, which is not necessarily accurate, is that asking 'what do you really think?' wouldn't have lost you his respect. I would not have characterized your problem as him being fed up. I think your problem is that he no longer expects you can provide him a service he values. Which is false - if he comes back, you could order us both food. You probably won't miss the cost of it, because this probably isn't going to happen."

Ramona has, at this point, pretty much had it with this case. At no point has she understood what is going on, what these people want, how she can help them, or what kind of people they even are. They're holding information back, they're speaking in riddles, and now they want her to order them food? No. Just no.

She takes a breath, because she is not going to lose it in front of Traveler. She will save that for after he's gone. Which she hopes will be as soon as possible.

"I'm sorry, I would prefer not to order you food. That's really not what I'm here to do. In fact, I'm not sure that any of what I have to offer is actually appropriate for you two, and I probably should have stopped trying much sooner rather than forging ahead. I think I made a mistake about that, and I'm sorry. If Luka is disappointed because I can't help him, I think he's probably right about that."

"...I think," Traveler says pensively, "that I have made an incorrect assumption about something to do with the semiotics of food or of requests in your culture."

"That is entirely possible. We could just throw it on the pile of misunderstandings, if so."

"In my culture, I am a highly trained and skilled professional. When you want someone to order food for you, you usually get a very low ranking person to do that."

"...In mine, when you invite someone to make themself comfortable on your property, and enforce peace between enemies while they are under your roof on the strength of their debt to you for opening your space to them, food is a central part of the set of behaviors that signifies such a relationship. I was aware the aspects of hospitality had become decoupled in North America, but I didn't realize they were so decoupled - I could swear I've heard of therapists who offered food to clients, but I couldn't tell you how they explained their behavior to themselves."

Ramona is relieved to know that Traveler was not intentionally insulting her, and his frame does make sense, but she is still not really competent to help these people.

"That makes sense. Thank you for explaining."

"I do not provide food to my clients. I'm not even completely confident that you could ingest it, in your current projected form. Several years ago I used to offer basic beverages, tea and water, as a way of making people more comfortable. I am not equipped to feed people, and in most cases I think it would be a distraction from our work."

"I am thinking about going out into the hall to see if I see Luka or if he's simply phased out completely. I would like to have you both in the room so I can wrap things up. Do you know of any reason why I shouldn't do that?"

Like that it would be better for Traveler to do it, though that seems fairly unlikely.

"It's possible he's calming himself down and will be less unpleasant if you wait. I - would very much have preferred not to leave without offering Luka something. But I understand."

"I mean, I have... um, let's see."

Ramona digs through her snack drawer.

"Some toffee? If that somehow helps?"

It's her favorite toffee, the stuff she has to go to that one shop at the market to get, she hasn't been able to find it online. But anything at this point to get the high-maintenance demi-gods to feel they didn't waste the trip. She'd like to get through the day without anyone smiting her.

"It would help. - I starved him."

"You..."

"Ugh."

"Well then of course he can have the toffee. And these snack bars. And I guess we can order some food real quick too."

Ramona anxiety-giggles as she fumbles with her phone. "Does he like... Vietnamese?"

She doesn't wait for the answer before she keys in three of the thing she ordered last week and submits the order.

"I sure hope he can even ingest any of this."

"Thank you." Traveler looks down, and away, and curls inward a bit.