[Liem isn’t sorry to escape another explanation of Quetzalcoatl’s weird circumstances as a summoned aspect or servant or whatever else. Despite feeling reasonably confident that he understands the gist of what she’d previously told him on the subject, the specifics still make his head spin a little bit, and he’s content to leave his current level of understanding as is.

Like Quetz, he leans against the cocoon where Set’s reforming body sleeps. He wonders if any hint of their presence reaches him during his dreaming, and if the company is at all a balm to the loneliness that seems to plague the red-haired god.]

I understand it. When I was in Taldor, I spent much of my time looking for bad things — to correct, to contain, to scrub out. There’s no end to a job like that. That’s why I went to Zenith; I thought, maybe the world didn’t have to be that way.

[His expression is sober as he thinks about this — but then, he glances over at Quetz and smiles thoughtfully.]

But not everyone’s life is like that. My calling has always been something I pursued so that other people wouldn’t have to, so they can do honest work and come home to their families. It’s not really fair to give up on those people, is it?