"Yeah, the Jealous God gets his time to shine just as often. Luckily for society, magically-good thieves and tyrants work together less well than judges and knights, so we hold up pretty well."

"...Wouldn't an effective tyrant have a lot of other people subordinate to them, even if those other people were not magical at anything?"

"Tyrants are definitely one of the scariest. When one shows up, there is usually a war, and he's effective and threatening, but has a hard time finding allies. And then we try to lock the relics away for another century or three, but eventually a thief or something retrieves them."

"What magic powers do magic tyrants have, anyway?"

"You know, I couldn't tell you? The last one was at the other end of the Old Kingdom from my hometown, and he was defeated when my parents were young. I think they're persuasive and good at finding dissent, or something, but people don't talk up the virtues of the nasty paths much."

"I suppose that makes sense."

"Everyone hears about some of them; kids who think they're rebels all crow about the Thief, thieves can go silent and hard to notice, and skilled ones can pass through spaces they shouldn't be able to fit in, which all makes it hard to keep them out or in. But for the scariest ones, there's a decent lid kept on it."

Kaja nods. "We don't allow people to publish information on how to summon up the sort of dark things who need to be summoned," she says. "Just in case someone who wants to doesn't already know how."

"Yeah, as much as censoring information is a little morally dubious, there are things everyone recognizes it's better to keep secret."

They're approaching a city-looking thing now. "Andivar," she says, pointing at it. "But non-paladins won't be able to speak or understand your language."

"Right. That's inconvenient; I expect I can't make any kind of living until I learn the local language. Do you think I could get magical help?"

"The Winter Light tells me what words in your language mean what I want to say, but I can ignore it and just speak Cirth - most of the time full paladins are busy, though, so ideally you would do a lot of self-study once you had the alphabet and a few words."

"I'll try not to impose. Though if I can stay in your compound for a couple weeks, that would be very helpful. I'll help however I can."

"We can probably accommodate you for a while in the novices' dormitory."

"That would be great, thanks. And like I said, my judge's gift will be at your disposal if it's useful to you all."

"It might be, depending on what we come across. Every now and then we have to track down someone who's waking shadows or trying to become a lich, and we have no special advantages there."

And now they are on the ground!

"If you're not in a hurry I'd like to get out of my armor, and of course see to Ragnar, who has had a long day."

"I have nowhere to be. Go ahead."