Many thanks calluna! :D I agree completely about the burden of making a choice like that for another. I can imagine a decision like that making even a godly being uneasy!

As for his mum, the way I choose to imagine it is that her boyfriend does indeed spend the rest of his life trying to be a model husband. At first he does it just to keep from being annihilated, but as time goes by he comes to actually respect and even love her for her own sake, and he levels up into a somewhat better human being. Theo's final act and Vartuk's first miracle. :) Thanks for the great opening and letting everybody run with it!