"Yes, this way. Call her Sister - just call any paladins you see Brother or Sister if you don't know them, but her especially - and be polite and I think that's all the important formal protocol."

"Can do."

"My initial plan is to learn the local language, and see whether my judge's gifts - lie detection, a sense of appropriate punishments, and an aura of calm and respect, all very limited - are as useful here as they were where I grew up. Kaja mentioned you might let me stay in the novice's dormitories for some short time, until I can communicate with ordinary people. I would appreciate that very much."

"Hm," says the Bright Sister. "Well, you can stay. It's possible we'd have a use for you here, even, depending on how limited and whether you prefer to live your life in a way compatible with the Winter Light's wishes for its paladins."

"I'd certainly be happy to help; your work seems valuable, and I owe Kaja my life, so I do feel a certain debt. But I expect I'll be more at home in the town, once I can communicate there."

"It went fine. She doesn't usually give people a hard time without cause. Do you read?"

"Yes, though presumably not in - Cirth, was it?"

"Cirth," she nods. "But if you do read you may find it easiest to start with the alphabet and someone who did not have any alphabets already might not."

"True. I presume you do, as well?"

"Yes; in our order all paladins can."

"Sensible. Judges are all expected to learn as well. It makes it easier to learn from old examples. Especially unusual situations that no living judge has encountered; I imagine you'd read about recognizing unusual dark things sometimes."

"There aren't any dark things so obscure that we won't see them in our lifetimes, but yes, the novices read about them rather than go into the field with only hearsay."

"What kinds of dark thing exist? I saw the zombies, but I don't know what I'll want to be on the lookout for."

"There are zombies, imps, liches, woken shadows, tainted beasts - sometimes tainted people too - wraiths and banshees and ghouls."

"If I stick to relatively civilized areas, which ones am I most likely to need to run away from?"

"The shadows. They're good at hiding. Maybe imps, but not because they're common, just because the shadows - running doesn't work."

"Void. I was hoping shadows wouldn't be one of the ones you mentioned."

"Mm?"

"Monstrous things are not pleasant, but there are a lot of shadows anywhere there are people. If some of them are 'woken'... well, I suspect you have more paranoids than home does."

"If you are plagued by a woke shadow it is more likely to hide in your ear than under your bed."

"I don't think that sounds much better."