The mention of gods using people as vessels makes Sam snort. 'Tell me about it,' he mutters, and then pulls an awkward kind of face. 'Uh, the gods I've met don't usually take people as vessels, but angels do, and that-- yeah. The survival rate seems pretty low.'

Daine's piqued Sam's intellectual fascination now, though, the part of him that hoards knowledge of lore from dozens of different cultures and mythologies. For the first time, it occurs to him that there might actually be upsides to being stuck in an alternate universe with a bunch of other people in the same boat.

'So, people are born with magic in your world, and you have gods-- is the magic tied up with religion, or is it just, I dunno, an individual talent? And your gods... actually interact with people?'