Yes, let him do that, Penric. Des added her own commentary. It wasn't just that Gadriel was falling into the same category as Quadrenes -- a deeply ironic comparison that both Gadriel and that group would hate, as the main thing they had in common was 'four gods' and 'would kill Penric if they knew what he was' -- it was that Penric also had a streak where he'd take on harm for others, and someone in the partnership had to look out for Penric. (And that was what Des considered her job.)

"And no balancing gods for orderly things?" Penric was not going to go with the commentary on disruptions to order as not being inherently negative, because that particular sermon didn't go over well even in his own religion, where the Bastard was seen as a god to be propitiated rather than asked for things. But balance was a thing that was useful.

(Alas that Penric is still a few years before 'that time my patron deity gave me the revelation to how a novel disease was being transmitted by having the species of horsefly that carried the disease bite me', which answers 'who gets diseases by divine intervention!?'. The Bastard might be far more benevolent than Gadriel's chaos gods, but Chaos has to Chaos.)