"Don't be." Impressed, that was. "It's pure cussed stubbornness. She took everything I had from me. And I'd be damned if I'd let her have my soul, too."

Kash shrugged, awkward with what felt like undue praise. "I did shut down, for a long time. I was just lucky enough to meet a woman more stubborn--" And more dangerous. "--than I am to remind me that healing people's bodies when I don't care who they are was giving the goddess exactly what she wanted. A weak me, living dead, who didn't balance her at all."