"Draconic. Geography and noble houses. Warfare. The Acts, lately. Riding, and a bit of fencing and some work with other weapons. Used to do etiquette sometimes, but not right now. Most of the rest of it doesn't matter without archery or wizardry, though."

He wants to know what the man thinks of Acts. He absolutely cannot just ask that. “I guess the etiquette is probably going to change quite a bit. Did Acts inspire any questions or confusions?”

"Well, they're sort of hard to follow. We didn't know any of the history behind them, so we had to kind of puzzle out what the Empire looked like and which things happened where, and I don't know if we got it right. It's a lot more interesting as a story than other holy books, but I've only read two of those."

“Oh, it should have occurred to me that the Asmodeans probably destroyed all the history books, they’d have shown the Empire in Her day was twice as large.”

"They used to burn and replace them every year, actually. Nobody's come to do it for the current ones yet, though."

“Every year? Uh. In most countries it’s legal to buy books from lots of places and once authorized they stay authorized and of course everyone has a slant and some outright lie but you can tell what everyone from Taldor to Ustalav agrees on and they agree on things like the bounds of the old Empire if not how justified its wars were or how virtuous its kings.”

"Well, I hope they come by with new ones soon. Maybe the parts about the war will make more sense then.

Do you have other stuff you need? I'd talk longer, honestly, but I can't eat until I hit six hours."

“No, just trying to make sure we hear anything anyone wants us to know about. You might have an easier time learning magic well-fed, though, most people do.”

"You should tell Mom, not me. Maybe she'll budge if you remind her that feeding people is Good."

“I will tell her that. Thank you.”

A woman who is seven months pregnant by one of the Archduke's nephews wants to know if they can possibly get a cleric who can channel in the next month, or if she ought to be traveling to see one somewhere. One girl actually does have questions about the acts, particularly about the part where Iomedae talks an undead monster into killing itself and whether that's a good act because it's always good to kill undead monsters. Estel is giving private lessons to her nine-year-old, one of the boys they saw doing archery the other day, but is of course available to speak to the Iomedans at any time they wish.

He's going to write to Lastwall right away emphasizing that there are literally no open clerics in the city. He doesn't know if they'll arrive in a month even if they're sent at once. He and Marit do have one cure potion for emergencies and would of course share it if a birth goes badly but if there's somewhere she knows she'd find one that might be safest.

The woman is not going to complain to him, in particular, that teleporting or traveling north through the gap to Kintargo is also not especially safe, relative to how safe one can expect to be with a cleric on hand. She thanks him for his time and assures him that she understands, and is capable of making it sound sincere, since to do otherwise might imply that she wishes they had their Asmodean Chosen back.

He'd really like to get these people a priest! He is sure the Goddess would too! He'll write to Lastwall and he doesn't know what'll come of it. He will write promptly, though.

Marit will meanwhile talk to other people to try to get a sense of whether there are murders on the immediate horizon, what facts about the world outside Asmodean Cheliax it is useful to establish for sermons, and whether people are confused about other straightforward things.

Valeria will invite him for tea and manage to talk quite a bit without afterwards obviously having said anything. Apart from her, a collection of minor noblewomen with not immediately comprehensible family connections gossip in the courtyard together and play with children or instruct them in reading or mathematics. They're happy to include an Iomedan, even if it does cause them to determinedly turn the conversation to the subject of what virtues a person should strive for instead of whatever they were talking about before. None of them seem especially likely to murder the children in question.

The noblewomen in the courtyard will have him as long as he wants - apart from Carles and Narikopolus himself and various retainers who aren't part of the family itself, there do not appear to be any adult men in the castle right now - but the rest of the household isn't otherwise showing up to talk to him.

He would like to talk to the servants and the slaves but it seems a terrible thing to do to them before he has a confident assessment of whether Narikopolus will retaliate against them if they complain. He puzzles over the problem for a while and decides to mostly give up aside from going to the kitchens to make an announcement that he thinks is almost definitely futile. 

"In an Iomedaen country it is important that every person can report wrongs that were done to them, no matter who did them, and it is important that no Evil is done even - especially - to the people who are not important and not rich and not powerful. And in terms of souls to save from Hell it does not matter at all who those souls were in life. If any of you would like our advice, we are here to give it, and if there is anything you want to tell us, we are here to listen. I do not think I can protect you if you tell me anything you have been ordered not to. But if you were so ordered, that was Evil, and Iomedae hears your prayers as loudly as anyone and weighs your souls as highly as anyone's and will not consider Kantaria hers if law or custom allows that any of its people are mistreated."

The people in the kitchens will stop working and listen in polite unease and not especially know what he's looking for them to tell him. The head cook will assure him that if they become aware of any wrongdoing they'll of course tell him immediately.

This is about what he expected but it's still fairly upsetting. He thanks the head cook and gets out of their way and works on a first sermon about the Acts, 'these people have never seen a real history book' edition.

One of the servants will come to tell him privately later that one of the other servants is still praying to Asmodeus, in case that's the kind of thing they're meant to be reporting now.

He appreciates it, thank you. Which one? 

It's one of the housemaids. Early twenties. She had a child a few months back and killed it, too, if that's also the sort of thing they're supposed to be reporting.

It is really very important that people stop killing their children, yes. Is there some specific thing that could be done that would make it seem like a less appealing thing to do.

Well, this servant would obviously never kill her children, so she really couldn't say.

Right. He appreciates the information. 

Last thing before evening sermon, inform the Archduke's mistress Estel that people who have eaten adequately actually learn faster than people who have not.