"Hubris can mean excessive pride, or defiance of the gods." Isopia answered, a rare and true smile parting her lips as she turned her bright golden stare to the bronzey dragon. Hubris, for all of his efforts to show off and amuse those around him, did not seem to possess the selfishness that true hubris required. "To him, it is just a set of syllables. For me, it is a reminder." She said, her voice low and almost nonchalance as she revealed this secret meaning behind the dragon's name. Had she ever told anyone that before? She didn't think she had.

"Yes, codependent, if you like." Isopia answered, quad-horned skull nodding in agreement to the boy's characterization of the relationship between Gods and mortals. She was almost certain the gods would disagree, even her father, but that did not make his words untrue. Was a king still a king, if he had no subjects over which to rule? Did the gods possess radical amounts of power with the frail mortal bodies, over which their strength was compared?

"Taking a life is not always extreme." Isopia mused, nodding towards the boy's hooves. "Think of how far you travel each day. Without wings, you must move on the ground. How many bugs and small creatures die beneath your hooves? How many seeds are destroyed, barring future life?" Her head shook and she tried to smile to indicate that her words were not meant as a criticism, but as a comfort. "Death is not always immediately meaningful or extreme, even if it does happen for a reason." Pausing, she winked towards the boy as he indicated that the god's actions did not seem particularly wise. "Don't mistake reasons with good reasons." She said with a chuckle.

At the sound of Gawen's voice, Isopia's head turned towards the cream and mud coloured boy. Questions rushed from his lips, and once again, Isopia was reminded of Zero and her heart longed and ached for him. "Favoritism and bias is most easily grown and cultivated when it is limited to one relationship." Isopia answered immediately. "Many who worship the Gods care little for balance or the prosperity of Helovia as a whole. They visit the shrines rarely to pray, but frequently to ask. Usually it is the God who aligns most clearly with their desires - whether it be political desires for power, or the base elements that comprise their magics - towards whom their attention is focused." Isopia's slender and tall shoulders shrugged as if unbothered by this answer.

"If balance was truly the answer, then surely the Gods would strive towards it as well. But they don't. They each guard a land, sometimes with hostility towards their kin. They ascend those that they favour." Again, Isopia's shoulders shrugged. Such was the way of this world.