"Oh," she says, disappointed. In her experience people killing each other has usually been a direct result of a god giving them rules telling them to do so, or a god's followers sending them out to violate another god's rules about who they're not supposed to kill. "Sometimes the people in my world who don't follow the gods still do bad things," she says. "Even when they're trying to do good. I had hoped it was a side effect."

She watches him carefully, comparing his body language against the mental catalog she's spent her entire life building. He's upset, clearly, but it seems like something more personal than a general disappointment in the state of his world. "It's a process," she offers, because maybe he's struggled to know who to kill or not kill, too. "We can only try our best."