"Are you planning to try to escape? Please don't do that. The set of circumstances where it would help are very small, I expect it would be enormously damaging to your and my interests, and I cannot assist you in identifying the circumstances where it would be a good idea."

"I am not planning to try to escape, sir." Some internal checklist that is still struggling through the motions suggests that he take a deep breath at this juncture. What for. He is unafraid and deep breaths are not attested for help with feeling suffocating swathes of vast choking Nothing. "I am from Cheliax - Dekarium on Lake Sorrow, I don't know if the city exists yet - and Cheliax as I explained was conquered by the forces of Hell. There was universal compulsory education and systematic attempts to identify potential wizards and clerics. I was for some two decades a Chosen of Asmodeus."

That sentence ended before providing most of the context which she would most want to have and she is left wildly extrapolating for the rest. "...and then you switched sides?"

"He dropped all of His clerics at the same time, sir, not long after the archmages took Cheliax, and She picked me up a few weeks later."

"Has there been - some kind of inquiry into this situation, by you or by the Church of Iomedae or by the Empire?"

"I wrote to the Church immediately - those are the letters I have in my bag, it's why I have the handbook and the Acts. I am not qualified to be in the Church command structure, that's separate from being selected. I was at the time in the command of a fort on the Chelish-held part of the border around the portal to the Abyss and was not exhorted to leave my post to seek immediate catechism. Later I was summoned to some kind of political advisory role for the new Chelish government and was traveling to that and hoped to meet a catechism instructor in Westcrown but had not made it that far south as of the attack from the time travel monster."

"How long ago were you renounced by Asmodeus and selected by Iomedae? Do you know if this occurs frequently?"

"I don't think it's common at all but I would not have been informed if it were a known phenomenon in Chelish clerical defectors. I wouldn't have been told if there were ever Chelish clerical defectors. It was a few months ago."

"And the total of what has been conveyed to you about the teachings of the Church of Iomedae is - the holy book and... the disciplinary handbook of...Lastwall? Their order for handling the portal to the Abyss?"

"Lastwall is Her country; it's on Lake Encarthan and my attempts at a map would be poor but perhaps better than nothing. They hold part of the border around the portal; the Commandant my letter reached sent me the handbook as a guideline for updating the management of my fortress. In addition to the books there were a few occasions on which I encountered Iomedaean paladins as part of Worldwound border management operations - the treaty mediating everyone's participation in the defense is very robust - but I picked up relatively little from them." Because they hated his guts. "- I wasn't sure immediately it was Iomedae. I tried a key first."

He's talking too slowly and he can't be afraid but he can be embarrassed.

Where are his thoughts

and why are most of them worrying

and why can't he just get them in some more convenient format now.

"And do you still worship, or consider yourself to serve, Asmodeus, or have oaths that you have made to Him or organizations of His on the Material?"

"No sir."

"You were a cleric of Asmodeus's for twenty years and you did not make any oaths to his organization, or they had a procedure for lawful dissolution?" It really does not seem Asmodean for them to have a procedure for lawful dissolution!!!!!

"...I made some oaths about military service but was disentangled from them at the time of the - time travel - so that I could travel to the constitutional convention that the new queen's party member wished to hold..."

"Do you know anything about why Asmodeus renounced all of His clerics at the same time?" Is He dead?

"Speculation only. The archmages were presumably very busy even when their public-facing whereabouts and actions were not fully explanatory and I don't know what preparations they may have made before conquering Cheliax. And also closing the Worldwound, which they did as well. He may have required - emergency budget, or something."

"What things have you achieved that you are proud of? What are you hoping to accomplish?"

"Sir, I am - failing to - acclimate to the paladin aura and will probably acquit myself better at this kind of conversation without it. Is it possible to turn it off or has that not been invented yet."

" - it only encompasses allies so in principle one could -" not think of someone as an ally, except that the magic isn't going to be tracking her deep convictions, that isn't how magic works -

- there. He is not in her aura; she is not extending Aroden's assurance to him.

OH wow that is so much better in the sense that now he's a completely normal amount of terrified but at least he is terrified QUICKLY! Why is he like this! "Thank you sir. If you are asking about my accomplishments because you are trying to figure out what made me an adequate Select my speculation is mostly that I was well-positioned for something - possibly the Constitutional Convention, prophecy is broken but I don't know how long the planning stages went on or how long it was planned to invite clerics - and also inexpensive for a third-circle cleric, but my fort performed well in the defense of the Worldwound. The insurance adjuster said it had the best rates on the Chelish side of the border. I had not at the time of the monster attack divined any specific likely mission I might have been intended for besides voting with the Church at the convention - the letter inviting me specified that it mattered that I was native-born."

Wow that is a completely different person. Huh. There are a bunch of fascinating fragments of things-that-don't-exist-yet in his speech - forts insured like merchant ventures? and their commanders assessed by the rates? - and also she has no idea what a constitutional convention is but that's not really the priority right now. 

" - so you don't know what Iomedae intended. What were you intending?"

"...to go to the convention and meet with the catechism instructor I sent for there, sir, I was hoping to catch up enough to be formally in the chain of command as quickly as possible."

"Why?"

"Because I expected the Church would have a lot of information relevant to what I ought to do. The Acts are... epic poetry about your adventures, sir, their applicability is not always obvious and there has been some refinement since then of how to implement the principles, as derived through Communes and experimentation and such. I had only very limited previous exposure to Iomedaeans and they spent the entire time understandably loathing me so most of what I was able to learn was things about their operational limitations and not things like how they would cast votes or why."

"I think I have a good understanding of why, having decided to spend your life in the service of Iomedae, you would have sought out guidance from the Church on how to do it properly and been cautious while having not yet received that guidance, but I do not understand why you decided to spend your life in the service of Iomedae."