Ok and also... a lot of Fjord’s journey has been marked by self-harm — from waking up coughing water like he was drowning, to the stone entering him painfully (not to mention watching Avantika’s stone being ripped from her hand), to that blood sacrifice with Caleb...

In the kiln just now, he starts by trying to negotiate with Uk’otoa in the same way, cutting into himself, threatening to destroy himself as a physical asset, but really hurting himself in the same way that he’s been all of his arc.

But when it changes — when he decides to throw it in instead, and feels the Wildmother — he’s refusing to hurt himself anymore. He’s done playing with a creature that demands the sacrifice of his body. He chooses healing. And so he goes first to Caduceus.