That sounds a lot like the reward for work well done is more work, doesn't it?

[She doesn't exactly sound plaintive, just... puzzled. As if there is a logical step there that she just cannot take, and ends up floundering instead.]

But... you say it's a kind of exchange. Where Gods sometimes give humans what they want, and humans maintain their existence through hope that it might one day be them. [A brief pause, and then she adds more softly:] Or the fear that they never will, if they forget the Gods. Isn't that so?