Also, because I've had a discussion about this with a friend recently: why is the vocabulary punished, rather than the intent? "Damn"'s an angel down but "drat" isn't? Where's the line? Could she say "catch it" with ill intent?

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Logically it would make sense for intent rather than vocabulary to be punished but that isn't what actually happens (at least not in my experience). What's punished is the use of "magical bad taboo words" the selection of which is culturally dependent. Intent (at least in my culture) is not the punishable offense in swearing, the use of "taboo words" is.

Anyway, because I want to keep my story as more of a culture observation than an internal morality tale I'm not going to change it to Aida being punished for her intent. But thanks for the idea. It gave me something to consider and an interesting question to chew on for later thought.

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