"Yes, sir. Also he said that we call Arazni, and she dies, and we should destroy her body so Geb can't raise her."

That doesn't make any sense! If Arazni will die if they call her then they shouldn't do that! "Don't repeat that to anyone either. - do you have the books?"

"He said they're in his bag."

Aroden said this was important, as unambiguously as Aroden has ever said anything is important. Also General Arnisant suspects the city is riddled with enemy spies and history books about how to win the Shining Crusade are as useful to the enemy as to them - more useful to the enemy, maybe -

The city is under military control and she has the authority to seize anyone's property on grounds of necessity but she does not use it lightly and is troubled by using it to take holy books from a cleric of...her... how is he still channeling, since she's not a god in this timeline - not one of the most important questions here -

Losing the books to the enemy is probably irrecoverable and none of the other risks here seem similarly irrecoverable. "Bring the books to me, arrest him, I'll be there as soon as I can."

Right.

He will head back over to Blai. "You're under arrest. I've conveyed your claims to the Knight-Commander. She intends to come speak to you as soon as possible, and apologizes for the circumstances. I think you should not repeat the claims you've made until she comes to speak to you." And he'll take the books.

Augh he's back in the field of slow thought again why. "Understood. Do you take the armor or should I keep it on?"

So the thing is (Angelu knows this from firsthand experience since the Knight-Commander got arrested in Oppara last year), when you are arresting a cleric of an allied(??) god because the circumstances are confusing and you cannot afford incaution, you might well let them keep their armor, because you want to offer no affront to their dignity.

However. The Knight-Commander wants him brought in with the other prisoners, presumably so if there are spies in the city they'll think he's just one of the other prisoners and not report that a strange man claiming to be a time travelling priest of Iomedae is here, which would really now that he thinks about it be quite bad for the enemy to learn - they could just assassinate her, she's not a god yet and it wouldn't be that hard -

- and the other prisoners are deserters. And not just normal deserters, who they usually let die of wandering into the enemy rather than risk more assets tracking them down, but deserters who stole some quite valuable magic items before sneaking out. And those they will not allow to keep their armor.

Incredibly awkward way for the cleric of Iomedae to be introduced to her order, though. "I'll take the armor. I expect it'll be returned once we...figure out what to do, here."

He nods and starts taking off the armor. Having more thoughts on this topic takes him longer than it would have but he will just sound kind of slow, oh well. "The mace? The holy symbol?"

"Those also."

Some of the feelings he might conceivably have about the holy symbol are not strictly speaking "fear" but conveniently he isn't having them as much as he could have under other equally implausible circumstances because, like, his god is right over there somewhere.

His god has a truly extraordinary amount to think about and is going to make a very abbreviated report to the general's man - because she is a paladin the fashion in which it is abbreviated is 'and then Aroden aided us in a safe return to the city, the details and circumstances are secret' - and then take the holy books off Angelu and go to the chapel to pray. 

And someone else will herd all the deserters to the dungeons and if they get a stick to the kidneys quite a few times along the way, well, it's less than they deserve.

This does not actually give Angelu pause at all though of course he is not going to hurt Blai, who isn't a deserter.

"There was also a third book in my bag."

"Mmm?"

"Which might conceivably be of interest."

"I'll pass that along." It has not occurred to him that this exchange has anything to do with the treatment of the other prisoners. He's just going to stand here and if anyone goes after his prisoner he'll glare at them and they'll assume it's a paladin thing.

Oh, is he just going to be there. Radiating the inability to think. The whole time. Okay. Maybe Blai will get used to it.

Aroden has blessed him with conviction and fearlessness and by that conviction and fearlessness people know him blessed, yeah.

Aroden. I take it this man is important to your plans. Perhaps he is an answer to the question of how the Empire can survive and triumph in this war, and if the things he says are true there are great horrors in the future that we can avert with knowledge of them. Or perhaps it is something entirely different from that. 

But in case you actually, somehow, do not know already - the man says that Tar-Baphon is sealed, and you die, and that we call Arazni and she dies, and that Hell conquers half the Empire. 

And then she'll open Acts, and try to find the current year, and try to see if that account of matters is any less confusing.

"May I Prestidigitate myself a chess set?"

"I - what?" That's a cleric spell in the future? "I think you had better not."

"Okay."

"He claims to be from the future, and had a book giving an account of the Crusade. It says that Aroden tells us to call Arazni for aid. ...and that she dies helping us, but not for twenty years so perhaps she can still help, just for less time than that, or informed by the thing that happens in the histories. Aroden sent a miracle to ensure we recovered him. I request you order a Commune to learn whether we should call Arazni and whether we should take the books to the Church in Oppara."

"- is there any reason not to just send the books to the Church in Oppara and let them run the Communes from there?"