"If you want to come to morning services every day, I can mark out a circle around where I'll plan to sit and that can be the courage aura area, but I don't know if you'll find it easy to concentrate on spells during a sermon and sometimes the pews are packed very tight."

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem - unless it's Evil to not pay attention to the sermon? But then I probably shouldn't go to sermons at all unless I can be in an aura. I hadn't thought about that part when going to sermons came up earlier." 

"I don't think it's Evil to not pay attention to the sermon but if it's extremely crowded you might be displacing someone who did want to hear it."

"Do you know if wizard spells always need to be prepped first thing in the morning or if you can prep them later in the day? I don't remember that part, at school they always had us trying starting early in the morning. If it's often very crowded is there anywhere else some other time that I can be near paladins that can do the aura? I won't be a bother, I think I can very reliably not be a bother if I'm in an aura like this." 

"Wizards can prepare spells at any time. At times other than services it's likelier that more of the paladins who are using this temple as a home base will be at the convention or else on errands - Select Artigas just dispatched one of us on such an errand a little while ago - but we'll be erratically available."

"Thank you. I'd appreciate it if you thought of any other ways where it wouldn't be an inconvenience to the paladin for me to spend more time near a paladin aura, I'd be happy with a near arbitrary amount of inconvenience for it for myself, but this amount is already going to be very helpful." 

"...I suppose you could see if you can get a support-wizardry role in the Glorious Reclamation but I have never worked in the recruitment arm so I couldn't tell you how likely that would be to work."

“Probably I can find someone who can tell me, if I’m spending a lot of time here. Thank you.”

She directs that at both the paladin and the select.

"You're welcome. I've been reading convention transcripts, just now, so if you and Select Artigas are through you can come sit with me until something requires my attention."

"Thank you Ser Jornet."

He doesn't have to sit in Ser Jornet's circle during services, he'll just have to get there early and make sure there's still at least standing room outside of it.

“Yes, I think - that’s everything important. I’ll be easy for you to find if you get any news about my brother? I can also come look for you after some amount of time has passed if that would be more convenient. Thank you, Select.” 

it’s kind of pathetic how grateful she is but it turns out that that’s fine if she’s not also terrified of being pathetic. 

Nod nod nod? Will that make Ser Jornet go away??

Yup. Off she goes.

Olivia follows closely behind. 

Blai gives them a wide berth. Anybody else here for him?

There is! Silvia has been patiently waiting and watching how Blai talks to people. He doesn't seem to have been lying about anything? And it certainly looks like nobody's ending up tortured for their conversation. That alone means he's obviously not still a normal Chosen, even setting the paladins aside. Still, probably best to minimize how many people get clues about her history with the Church.

Up she walks. "Select Artigas? I have some questions I would like to ask, privately. —I'll swear not to harm you, if it makes any difference."

"I think I'm starting to make my bodyguard irritable; can I have your name first and some idea what you'd like to talk about before I send him away?"

Not too surprising. How much is she willing to say? The paladins seem mostly reasonable so far. If she avoids going into detail it's probably not a problem?

"Silvia. It's mostly about the Church of Asmodeus, how it worked from the inside. And how Iomedae's church differs."

"All right. I've reserved this room." He nods at the bodyguard to park by the door.

She would thank him, but she's pretty sure that's not how priests work, even if they're not Asmodeus's. She dips a little curtsey instead.

"I used to work for a Chosen, before the war. He spent most of his time worrying about the other Chosen nearby, avoiding their plots and trying to catch them unaware. Do you know if that's something Asmodeus was doing to the church? Was it just how big groups of people work?"

"...both and neither. It is not impossible for devout Asmodeans to be more merit- than sabotage-oriented, as is my impression of Hellknights, and separately it is a mortal tendency to sometimes find destroying competitors easier and more appealing than improving oneself as a way to reap the rewards of advancement. I think Hell's influence encouraged it in large part by damaging and destroying the kinds of... anti-escalatory protections... that better organizations have, and by making failure so dangerous for anyone already enmeshed in the competition."

"Does Iomedae's church try to avoid disagreements escalating, then?" Blai will be able to tell this is more important to Silvia than she's trying to make it sound. 

"Yes. Very much so. It helps no one but the enemy if Iomedae's people are fighting amongst ourselves. There's a hierarchy but it's complicated and one isn't automatically in it even if selected by the Goddess - I'm not because I haven't learned enough to be competent to take meaningful vows, for instance, which means that I can get advice but not orders - but even within the hierarchy it's always permissible to go over one's superior's head and get a dispute settled, or ask for a reassignment, or complain of an illegal order."

Being able to go over a superior to resolve disputes is— wait, what?

"Illegal orders?"

"Illegal orders are an essential concept, at least to me - there are things that no one, not even the top levels of the church hierarchy or the commander of one's order or Iomedae Herself, is authorized to demand. Even from people sworn to obedience, even in wartime, even if they claim to have an exceptionally good reason. - sometimes you are allowed to volunteer for things no one is authorized to demand, but then it's not an order so it isn't an illegal order."