[Training] Take Me To Your Level

He winced at the question, for it struck painfully deep into some of his own darkest moments. Swallowing a lump in his throat he could only nod. "Yes... every time I lose another friend or someone who I'm trying to protect gets hurt while I don't... I can't help but wonder: why them and not me?" He had the answers of an Oracle, the ones used to comfort the laypeople who came asking the agents of the divine for answers into the workings of the minds of gods, but in the end they were just guesses... platitudes to ease a mortal mind in a world where the gods had kept a reasonable distance from their worshipers. Caido was an entirely different kettle of fish altogether.

He nodded again at the request for a surprise, mind already making note of some herbals to reference when he got back that might have suggestions for more obscure helpful plants in the Hollowed Grounds woods. Maybe Tarasha would know of some in the Greatwood, too...

But on the matter of companions he could sympathize with both Astra and Loren, and the difficult situation both were in. "What did she think of the ocean, the first time she saw it?" he asked gently, for there was nothing he could say to her desire to see the summoner happy. It might have been something they both wanted, but his grief would have to wend its natural course and until then moments of happiness would be fleeting.