Marit turns around and knocks numbly on the door of the mansion. He's pretty sure he's a first circle priest now.

Uh. Yeah. Ok, angry crowd is dispersing. His bodyguard help him pull away the furniture barricading the door.

He steps inside. Arn is looking back at him, dazed and of course mildly horrified. 

"Well that went - incredibly well."

"So," he says, and his voice sounds very strange to him, like he's hearing it from outside his own head, "theological point that I hadn't gotten to and wasn't really expecting to come up, but - we actually consider it extremely embarrassing when something like this happens."

The civil authorities would have preferred to receive this report about ongoing diabolist activity in a different format.

Far be it from him to guess why the Goddess can afford this but not to choose some fucking clerics. It's obvious if you understand decision theory, of course, but he doesn't.

Well, looks like Enric pretty decisively won his argument with the other guys at the lodging house. 

Llei kneels on the ground, crying, and prays for the first time to a goddess he's sure doesn't hate him and want him dead.

Dolor is feeling really awkward about this whole business, especially the bit where she had to be told some things that are in retrospect really obviously stuff she could have figured out herself. She needs to figure out what her new plan is for the committees she's on, then, and what to do about the army if she doesn't fix it here because guerrilla warfare is probably not her best option.

That seems like it was probably meant for somebody else and anyway Iomedae is not his real mom. He glances over at Victòria, shrugs, and resumes burning down the school.

Okay?? The mob is backing off now?? That seems good? He channels, includes himself, stops bleeding and stops feeling like he's inhaling glass when he takes a breath.

They got a miracle and it probably saved his life and it did not make what he is supposed to do next any clearer but maybe if he is very lucky Iomedaeans will take some time from their busy schedules to make pilgrimages to the site and he will be able to corral one for a CATECHISM CLASS.

Honestly, Valia seems way cooler than Iomedae. Delegate Ibarra is probably brave, and he might even be trying to cooperate with people sometimes, but that doesn't make what he did okay. She smiles back at Raimon and continues burning down the school.

Dear Temple of Iomedae at Westcrown..

While Attempting to Preserve my Urchins, I was Forced to take Drastic Action and Teleported them All, in a Sack, to my Most Secret Lair. The Riots were then Immediately Obviated by Divine Decree. This seems Unfair and I wish to Protest!

Lady Eriape, the Undying, Princess of Badgers.

Hmm. Was the goddess saying, when she said diabolists "do not threaten the city", that diabolists weren't responsible for this pamphlet? That they no longer are a threat to the city now that Iomedae has both revealed the pamphlet was entirely nonsense and reported them to the civil authorities? That they did not directly threaten the city, that they only had any power insofar as the idiots were being idiots?

It probably doesn't matter. She should go to Abadar's temple in the morning about getting a reduction in what she's paying for business insurance, though. Iomedae's intervention not only directly reduced riot-related risk, it implies that Iomedae considers a whole swath of other possible risks to the city be negligible.

Wow, those mage's decrees can be really convincing when cast by an archmage!

Tomàs sags, holding herself up with her pike like a staff because the mob isn't gone and if she fell to a knee she'd be unprepared for a fight, which is unacceptable.

So that's Iomedae, she thinks, seeing herself as the goddess does. She wouldn't shame the Order as a patron. Or hate us.

Rosa is not particularly pleased. They'll be back to their old misbehavior soon enough.

But they obey the Law tonight, and that will have to do.

Sorry – the gods paid for the Galtan revolution? He knows some people who think they had a little something to do with it. 

It seems an attorney's capirote does not block Iomedae Herself from leaving you with a splitting headache ringing with the True Name of a certain archon and an agonizing thought-impression along the lines of CALL IT, MORON.

(This intervention paid for on the side by Nethys, who has seen the cool archon and wants to get to it already.)

Well. Two out of three is more than he expected. And She doesn't seem likely to be including him on the reported list.

Oh, good. Then her earlier report was retroactively correct, and she can just go back to sleep.

Also? Goddess? She didn't do any of it for your approval, so kindly fuck off with your shit. It makes her want to run off into the woods and resume a campaign of blighting this country's crops on general principle. She's not going to (unless these idiot humans force her hand) because she's an adult who makes reasonable decisions, but. Saying you approve of her makes her want to burn this country to the ground.

Anyway, yes, zzz.

You are not my goddess, Sergi thinks, but I thank you for your blessing and the warmth of your gaze all the same. He knew he was trying, but to have the gaze of Good on him confirm it means a great deal.

He pauses a moment, then goes back to writing his letter. Cheliax still needs Sarenrae.

How interesting.

Interesting, to know he is true neutral like his patron, interesting, to see that Iomedae disagrees with everyone under the old regime who called him weak and useless, interesting, to learn that much of his apathy was, from a certain viewpoint, the closest he ever came to resistance, interesting to see that, from that same viewpoint, the apathy has outlived its usefulness, interesting to see the quiet disappointment Iomedae feels in him, the belief that he is a soul potentially useful to her cause, but one predicted with medium to high confidence not to significantly realize potential.

He would probably have stronger feelings on this if he had made up his mind about Iomedae. 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz