"The Order's enclave is there," she says, pointing at a white wall-circled group of rather churchy-looking buildings set around a flourishing courtyard. There are people and large mount-sized quadrupeds milling about. "I will give you your token, and then if you aren't burned I'll need a short while to stable Ragnar properly before I see what's next to be done with you."

"And if I am burned, you - uh, stab me with a sharp object. Right, no pressure."

Kaja raises an eyebrow. "Well, with the luxury of being in the middle of the enclave I might try to capture you, instead, but I will feel entirely free to stab you if you are a dark thing."

"That's very cheerful."

"I'm a paladin, not a philosopher. Dark things get stabbed."

"I believe you. But I am pretty sure I'm not a dark thing."

"I doubt very much that you are dark," she agrees. "Dark things would likely not follow a paladin straight to her enclave after catching her alone."

"Yeah. That. That's the sort of thing that gets dark things killed, I'm guessing?"

"Oh yes."

"Exciting. Well, no point in procrastinating about it. Lead on, let's prove that I am definitely not a dark thing."

Kaja directs Ragnar into a neat landing in the courtyard outside the stable, dismounts, bids him stay, and plucks from the outer wall of the stable a string of gray flat stones, pierced to turn them into beads and marked with white etchings of snowflakes. She unties the end, pulls off one stone, reties and replaces the string, and - one hand on her swordstaff - tosses the rock to Darren.

"Very good. Wait there, hold that, I'll put Ragnar away and take you to the Bright Sister."

"Sure," he agrees, tucking his wings away. "Uh. Is there any sort of - she sounds important, is there a way I should act?"

"Call her Sister, don't be rude," says Kaja. "You've taken no vows beyond that."

"Okay. I try not to be rude anyway. Thanks!"

Darren follows her, glancing around curiously and trying to figure out if he needs to dual-class into paladin or stick with being a runecaster. Probably stick with being a runecaster, he still does want to get home.

"Normally I'd take off my armor but I don't want to leave you standing around," Kaja says. In they go to a building and down a hall. "Are you likely to be able to earn your keep or are you a charity case?"

"That really depends on what 'earning my keep' defines. I can do magic things? Like - making scrolls for paladins, or teaching people how to do my kind of magic themselves."

"Scrolls that do what?"

"Uhh... the things I can definitely do with a scroll - invisibility, shielding, healing - that one would need multiple types of scrolls, considering how many things people can get hurt by - and some more actively offensive things, but I'm a little nervous about handing a scroll that sets things on fire to people I technically barely know."

"We're paladins," says Kaja.

"And there aren't any paladins running around where I'm from," points out Darren, reasonably. He doesn't bring up the ones from gaming. That would just be embarrassing and confusing for Kaja.

She shrugs. "Well, you'll want to talk to Sister about that, I guess."