The next time I saw Derek, he was cleaned up, but still limping.

“I hope you got…”

“I got checked out properly. Nothing broken. Not sure how.”

“Maybe your guardian angel caught you.”

He seemed to consider that. “Okay, look. I don’t get it. If all the different deities are real, how come you aren’t warring over souls all of the time?”

“Because that isn’t really how it works.” I let out a breath. “We can’t touch anyone’s soul unless they agree. We don’t war, we…”

“Recruit.”

“And I’m not wanting to recruit you. Not when you’re happy where you are.”

He considered that. “Let me guess, it’s easier to go after agnostics?”

I nodded. “Much easier. Besides, this way we don’t end up fighting each other much, and you really don’t want that.”

“But there’s still…”

“Evil, yeah. But few entities are really absolutely evil. Genuine demons. Some giants. Not all. Some are just trying to live their lives.”

“I suppose…”

“You can not be evil and do evil stuff. Or you can do stuff that looks like it’s evil until you get some distance from it and it starts making sense.”

He hesitated. “Like doing something to teach somebody patience?”

I nodded. “Right. Or…dwarves consider stealing and counter-stealing perfectly acceptable forms of negotiation.”

“So…I need to learn to tell the difference.”

“And be careful of fairies. They’re not good or evil, they don’t really have morality at all. Most of the time whatever they do is funny to people other than them, but not always.”

He nodded slowly. “So…”

“The one who made the dragon illusion needed to be asked to stop, because people were panicking. But it didn’t warrant a physical attack.”

“What if they don’t stop?”

“Sit on them. Oh, and never accept anything from a fairy without being sure of the price. You don’t want to end up owing one a favor or accidentally trading five years of your life or something.”

“Is that a worry for you?”

“They’d try to get a favor out of me.” I was pretty sure of that, anyway. If I was a fairy, it would be what I’d go for. “Now, occasionally they’ll make friends, and friendship trumps, but it’s rare.”

“So, that’s why you don’t eat or drink in Faerie.”

“Exactly. It’s not the food or drink itself. It’s the obligation and what they might demand in return.” At least we were having a civil discussion and he seemed to have been convinced that I wasn’t evil.

“So, just fairy culture. I think I can get behind that. What about them taking kids?”

“That’s a myth, but they have been known to take and keep adults…or children old enough to fall for their tricks.”

“No sleeping with them either, I’d guess.”

“I suppose that would depend on whether they thought it was an even trade.”

He blushed, then nodded. “That’s kind of sinful anyway.”

“Better to find a nice person and stick to them anyway.” Thruor would disagree, but Thruor wasn’t there.