“You’ve already helped me so much, Casper.” Shang Beida kisses his forehead. “Like, the Ship is fairly horrible, but you make me happier than I’ve probably ever been? No one has ever loved me before. I’m not like, important, I’m not saving the world or anything but… you’ve made a difference to me. I feel like a real person again, I’m Shang Beida, I’m not just play-acting Shang Qinghua and cringing and scraping to everyone. You matter so much to me. And you did like fully come in like an avenging angel and save me from the plant wolves. I know plenty of other people on the Ship like you too. You can just… help people in normal people ways? You don’t have to destroy yourself to be something out of legends. I know you’re a demigod and legends are how it works, I know, but we’re not there and we don’t know how to get there and destroying yourself doesn’t help anyone anyway.”