Carefully. Neutral. 

"...I don't like it here."

Neither does he. 

He had always called that weakness, before. 

"Can we go. I prefer humans' insides to stay on their insides."

Two more minutes. If they don't even stay for five minutes it'll look strange and Dhavilot might hear  about it and that would be very very bad. 

"I am your god. You are supposed to care more about me than Dhavilot. This whole system is supposed to be set up for people to care about me."

Yes and Tholassi's screams are echoing in his ears and he is pretty sure that caring about your God extends to not doing things that might get Him tortured. 

That... is a good argument.

Tholassi curls up in the pocket so he can't see anything but he can still hear.

He counts down from 120 and when he reaches 0 he counts down from 10 and then he leaves.

Things are... different when you're a salamander.

He wants to stop being a salamander as fast as he can.

"I hate it there," he says very quietly when they're alone. 

"Humans are made of meat and it is disgusting."

"There's that too," still quiet. "I mind other injuries less, though." 

"Well, I mind all of them," Tholassi says.

Salamander thoughts. He is not a fan of being a salamander.

Mm. 

"What did you mean, that your continued existence depends on me?" 

"Uh, nothing." Tail-flick. "I was confused. The whole-- experiencing physical pain for the first time in my existence as an entity-- very discombobulating. Makes you say all kinds of random things."

"It was not nothing." 

"You will obey me without question, you are my believer. I can find another prophet you know."

What is he doing what is he doing — 

"I can't help if I don't know what's going on. And it obviously wasn't nothing." 

Tail-flick. "Well, uh, it is possible that Tholassianism teaches certain things about reality that, while they are true on, uh, a higher spiritual level, are not necessarily, um, literally and completely factually accurate."

"Such as?" 

"Well, I am not literally physically the creator of the universe without whom every molecule would dissolve. That's more of, um, a metaphor. For how important I should be in your life."

"Uh huh." 

"And the whole 'demon' thing is, uh, sort of a metaphor for how I am pure and they are evil. We are not a fundamentally different... kind of... being."

"Uh huh."