"There's nothing wrong with your heart," he corrected gently, seeing in Oliver's desperate desire to be wanted and liked by the gods echoes of his own struggles with his brief-lived kingship. "Your feelings aren't wrong, either. But if you don't like how they've treated you, why does their opinion matter so much to you? Gods are often distant things, even here. There are many times they don't answer prayers - even among Attuned. And even being Attuned doesn't guarantee that they'll like you. Safrin, Ludo, and Frey have all cursed various among the Attuned and Accepted, even in just the past year." Rex and Remi and himself, for starters, and likely others as well.
"It's alright to be angry," he reiterated, voice thoughtful. He sipped his tea as he considered how to approach the conversation better, but he knew so little about Oliver that it was hard to guess what would work, or what would make things worse. "But wanting to move past that anger is good, too. But, Oliver... changing your heart can take time. Be patient, if you can, and let it happen naturally," he suggested gently. "Trying to force yourself to change for the sake of someone else - even a god - may end in you resenting them even more in the end. Life is a journey, not a race. You're young and healthy, and you have many seasons and years to decide what you want - and who you want it from. You have time to learn what the best fit for you will be at your own pace," he ended with an encouraging smile. He could see how upset his guest was, but all he could do was offer support for the moment, and to urge caution so the impassioned young man didn't make a choice that couldn't be undone later. Not without thinking it through long and hard, at least.
He hummed as Oliver relayed what little he knew, swirling his tea as he considered where to begin. "Frey is a very sexy god, from what I hear," he agreed with a quirk of a smile. "They're Rae's creation, and they oversee things like fertility and new life, so sex is a big part of that. Safrin is Vi's 'daughter', a goddess who watches over life but is most associated with the night sky and stars." What more he might have said he bit back, not needing to be in any more trouble with the goddess who had cursed him than he already was. "Ludo serves Mort, and guides the souls of the departed to Mort's domain. When the Old Gods warred with the new ones, Frey, Safrin, and Ludo were shut inside the barrier that was used to trap the new gods and the people within the Hollowed Grounds. They were... well, I think they were a sort of promise of the Old Gods, to let those future, more innocent generations know that the gods had not forgotten them. But those herald-gods, who loved their creators dearly, were still kept away from their families because of what the Ascended New Gods had done. Since those New Gods started out with magic, the old gods have spent three hundred years growing to resent the magic-users who caused them to be separated from the ones they love. I suspect it's because what happened once could happen again," he admitted, voice lowered though there was no one to overhear them in the stone-walled underground hall. "That, given the right circumstances, mages - Abandoned - could repeat the Ascended's path. So the gods tend to be wary and suspicious, even resentful, of those who could continue that war, or even spark a new one."
"It's alright to be angry," he reiterated, voice thoughtful. He sipped his tea as he considered how to approach the conversation better, but he knew so little about Oliver that it was hard to guess what would work, or what would make things worse. "But wanting to move past that anger is good, too. But, Oliver... changing your heart can take time. Be patient, if you can, and let it happen naturally," he suggested gently. "Trying to force yourself to change for the sake of someone else - even a god - may end in you resenting them even more in the end. Life is a journey, not a race. You're young and healthy, and you have many seasons and years to decide what you want - and who you want it from. You have time to learn what the best fit for you will be at your own pace," he ended with an encouraging smile. He could see how upset his guest was, but all he could do was offer support for the moment, and to urge caution so the impassioned young man didn't make a choice that couldn't be undone later. Not without thinking it through long and hard, at least.
He hummed as Oliver relayed what little he knew, swirling his tea as he considered where to begin. "Frey is a very sexy god, from what I hear," he agreed with a quirk of a smile. "They're Rae's creation, and they oversee things like fertility and new life, so sex is a big part of that. Safrin is Vi's 'daughter', a goddess who watches over life but is most associated with the night sky and stars." What more he might have said he bit back, not needing to be in any more trouble with the goddess who had cursed him than he already was. "Ludo serves Mort, and guides the souls of the departed to Mort's domain. When the Old Gods warred with the new ones, Frey, Safrin, and Ludo were shut inside the barrier that was used to trap the new gods and the people within the Hollowed Grounds. They were... well, I think they were a sort of promise of the Old Gods, to let those future, more innocent generations know that the gods had not forgotten them. But those herald-gods, who loved their creators dearly, were still kept away from their families because of what the Ascended New Gods had done. Since those New Gods started out with magic, the old gods have spent three hundred years growing to resent the magic-users who caused them to be separated from the ones they love. I suspect it's because what happened once could happen again," he admitted, voice lowered though there was no one to overhear them in the stone-walled underground hall. "That, given the right circumstances, mages - Abandoned - could repeat the Ascended's path. So the gods tend to be wary and suspicious, even resentful, of those who could continue that war, or even spark a new one."
