"Because he was made from Love, and themed as a Love Interest as well, Bad Boy felt an affinity and sympathy for Flyhh. Although he was merely a servant separated from his god, he still stood before Jaycene Shadowgaleheart, Heir Aspirant of Style, and did not falter."

Latyzell's head was fully cocked, and his mouth was just a bit open, with his little fangs sticking out. He did that every time something confused him, as if staring would quicken the apprehending. Bodo followed his sight to the statue of Jaycene.

"Warit sa, Lotter?" he asked. "You've got that look."

"I do not know this Jaycene?" Latyzell asked. "He looks comical! Do one really claim he was Heir of Style before Bad Boy?"

"Well, it's incontrovertible," Bodo said. "The wall was commissioned by Princess Flyhh before time began. Everyone knows the story favors her, of course. Downplays the bad parts, exaggerates her role in some situations. It's her city, so I guess that's fair, in a way. If I had a city with my own story built into it like this, I'd like to not look at the bad parts every day."

"There are nine heirs, who constructed the world," Latyzell said slowly. "Holy Meadoe, Mother of the World, who slayed her father Hartlight and freed Ghost to the wild. Stylish Bad Boy, Father of Freedom. Mysterious Figments, Mother of Gods. King Aiax, the First Authority, who consumed the Breacher King to straighten Law. Princess Flyhh, Union of Love and Indulgence, who was granted Apat's inheritence as her burden. Magical Traverse Lamplight, who wrote the first spell. Wandering Trackless Gait, who shaped the land. Clever Fiddle, who ensured the world be soft. Jaycene! He was never within the story for us!"

"Bad Boy was born from Meadoe Rule," Bodo said. "Bad Boy himself has affirmed it."

"He has!?"

"He lives in Flyhhnemonia sometimes. I've seen him on parades! Very far away, I mean, but still..."

"If it is true, why is he so well forgotten, this Jaycene?"

Bodo laughed a little bit. "Well... he was really pathetic. Bad Boy consumed him early, before he could do much. He was kind of a joke. It's in the slang around here. You say someone's being a Jaycene when they think they're bigger than they are. There's some worse slangs like uh... you can call someone Jaycene-jerked to uh. Well, it's about what comes out of dicks."

"Incredible."

"You'll see more of him as we go. We have a lot of wall to cover. We probably won't even finish walking it before the day's over... you know, the wall's weird to me?"

"How so?"

"Well. It's the story of how the world was made. It tells us all the fights the original gods had to go through to bring us into being. But it's a struggle they won five-thousand years ago. There's no enemies left over from it. They did all this work, faced all these challenges..." no but that wasn't the problem. Bodo squeezed his hands like he could grab it from the air. "Can you believe I'm having trouble describing the feeling?"

"Try to shape it out, Lottle. Take your relaxation."

"I'm not sure what to take away from this. I suppose we should be grateful we get to exist? But even in Princess Flyhh's city, the heirs are so, distant? People like my sister still look at them for examples, I guess. It's, but there's," and Bodo couldn't put his thoughts together at all, it wasn't working. Which was frustrating.

A lawizard never floundered in their thinking. Words were how arguments were formed. If he was going to be a lawizard he couldn't fail to present an argument just like this even. Argh, it was terrible, he had so far to go still! Granted, emotions were much more tempermental and ephemeral than actions and Law, but if he couldn't even capture them and straighten them out...

"I just feel like this is some big accusation at us all. It makes me feel guilty. I don't know why." There. There, he could do it, shut up, Bodo could do it!

"Ah, ah! I may know. We have a saying for it," Latyzell said, clearly seeing Bodo's distress. "Et wicht o etmyrn."

Argh! That was so many words Bodo didn't know! The... what was wicht? Wick? Like on a candle? Half the time Retlyan words were predictable like that but sometimes they were out of nowhere! Wicht? Wicht? Wait, weight! The weight without... etmyrn? It self reflexive? The weight without the weight? Was the second it a different it? What did that even mean? How could he be this stupid this often?

"I don't get it," Bodo huffed through his nose.

"The, ah, uhm, the weight without itself."

"Damnit! I was close! I was really thinking that!"

"I know! It is okay. It means a very specific thing as a priest. The weight of an, ah, your sister gave me this word and I forgot already. Absolt?"

"... inheritance." He knew that one. Absolt was inheritence. Fraitif absolt, inherited freely. It was an expression meaning taken-for-granted. He wasn't ever going to let Yhelm show him up on that one again at least.

"A religious weight. The heirs have done," and Latyzell gestured at the wall, the massive, massive wall that encompassed the entire in-city, and the miles, miles, miles of statues that explained the world's birth set into it, "the gods have done so much, but it is work that is already done. They are parents who will outlast our lives. But the heirs ask very little. They make no big rules. There is a weight of inheritence, a thought saying, 'they must want something from this,' and yet they ask nothing. And so it, it, et staht alslangle, sait?"

Et staht alslangle. It stays longer. No. It lasts forever. It was an idiom, it meant that when you said it like that. Bodo knew that, he knew that he wasn't that dumb!

"I think that's it," Bodo said, nodding very serious nods. "She puts this wall up like to say, look at what we went through for all of you. But she isn't telling us what she wants in return. So I keep waiting for it to finally come."

"It is a common stress. I believe the answer however is small."

"Hm?"

"In this at least, I believe the answer is small. She does not want it forgotten. She does not want these fights and joys to be lost. Five-thousand years is a long time, even for a god. Her struggle however already ended. The world was made and now five-thousand years have been gone, and she has had so little to do. This wall and this story was her moment of importance. Now it is gone, and they are retired and replaced by the successor gods, like sacred Argent. She does not want her story to be forgotten. I feel great sympathy."

"Jeez. I guess so. You are the god-botherer."

"Hah! I am!"

Bodo huffed. "I wish my mother asked as little." He felt heat rush to his ears and then hurriedly added, "Anyway, we should keep going. It gets really exciting further on."