"No," Kash replied flatly, grief and bitterness leeching anything like emotion from his tone.

"I was born to be the balance to a goddess so evil the universe couldn't tolerate her existence without me. She's also my wife." He rolled up his sleeve to show the one-inch scars all the way up his arm. "The first fifty of these were her wedding gift to me, when I was fifteen. The second fifty, I cut myself to complete the ritual. When I found out what she was, I tried to kill her and she wiped out my entire village."

It could have been, but wasn't, self-pitying. "Most clerics are only married to their gods in a more figurative sense. I'm just lucky."