"Lawful subterfuge?" she asks, deploying appropriate countermeasures.

"I think it's possible for Lawful Good people, whose orthodox presentation involves declaring themselves including to their enemies, to be spies. Somehow. I just don't know how it is they do that. I would be concerned about failing to rederive some principle that is important even at lower grades of - acting incognito - if I were going around casting from a knife that was not particularly reminiscent of the sword-and-sun. I did it for a few weeks before I came by the materials to fashion this one but I did it in a fortress full of my own men whom I'd loudly and publicly announced the situation to."

"I would personally tend to think that displaying your holy symbol openly is much less meaningfully communicative, and therefore much less necessary, in a world that's never heard of your god. But I can see how you'd arrive at the conclusion that you'd better stick to it."

"Oh, it certainly is far less communicative, but - hiding it isn't right either. Especially since I will not share a language with most people I might encounter to explain the situation at greater length. If they can derive something from the sword as a symbol that they wouldn't from me having a table knife in a sheath they're entitled to it."

Contemplatively: "But then that gets into the question of how to communicate across cultural and language gaps more generally, and whether there are times when it's more appropriate to conceal something than reveal it because revealing it is more misleading - like hypothetically if you went somewhere where a sword-and-sun symbol was in use by a local organization that has nothing to do with you and whose goals are broadly opposed to yours."

"Hm, that's a puzzle. I guess I could put the little sword on a backing of Iomedae's mortal heraldry, which is completely wrong as a matter of how devices are supposed to work but I don't immediately have a better idea for how to display it without telling a - visual homophone of a lie -"

"I don't know of any such organization around here but I can imagine contexts where even if it was important to me to be known to associate with a symbol like that, I'd hide the symbol because it would tell people more false things than true ones. I think I have different priorities around truth than you do, though."

"Well, all that aside if I don't display it I'm delayed in casting or channeling with it by having to draw it, which is a pretty serious practical drawback."

"Yes, that's also an important consideration." She's making moves that don't advantage her much in the short term but hint at possible future plans. "What are the constraints on what counts as a symbol? You could potentially come up with something that looks more unremarkable but still works for practical purposes. I don't expect you to need to do much casting under conditions where looking unremarkable is a high priority, but emergencies do hate to be predictable."

"My understanding - which is for reasons relating to my personal background very poorly catechized - is that it has to be a genuinely sharp blade at least loosely in the form of a sword or knife, but the sun is for practical purposes optional. I could just carry a sword instead of the mace but the mace is magic and I haven't been trained on a sword. I do usually carry my table knife and that has worked before and would work again if my symbol were damaged or something."

"I have spare swords and can teach you to use them," she offers. "A sword is a much bolder fashion choice, and might be illegal to carry in some contexts, but it seems like the sort of thing that would be useful for you to have as an option even if it's presently kind of a niche option."

"Swords are illegal to carry in... what contexts?"

"I'd have to look it up. The laws of this country aren't designed to account for monster attacks, and swords haven't been at the forefront of military technology for centuries, so carrying around a big weird old-fashioned weapon is the sort of thing a person is more likely to do for trouble-causing reasons than reasons of personal defense. I have to do some carrying of big weird old-fashioned weapons myself in the course of my work and I try to keep them away from contexts where someone not in the know about magic might be as confused as I am about whether they're legal."

"Is the mace legal?"

"I can double-check if you're worried but I don't think it has the same problems because it's not sharp."

"Curious. Well, in anticipation of situations where swords are legal and displaying my holy symbol unwise I guess I should pick up the rudiments at some point."

"I haven't done much teaching but I expect to manage well enough to get the basics across, and hope to manage better than that." She makes another move. Things are still going well for her but she's not giving it her all - too focused on the conversation.

The conversation takes as much room as it takes; the chess game chases away anything else that would have been bidding for attention. That bishop was defended, better luck next time. "I've received training on crossbows but don't have one with me, the border my fort helped to hold was having some supply issues at the time I left and I couldn't justify taking ammunition."

"I have access to crossbows. They're a bit of a niche option for me but there's times when I'll take one hunting vampires—the classic way to kill vampires is a wooden stake through the heart, so a crossbow bolt with a wooden point works just fine if your aim's good enough, but you do need the aim or it just annoys them."

"I'm not very good with them - haven't the grace - and don't expect I could reliably shoot the heart. But there's a spell that creates ammunition and an enchantment on the quiver of it can affect everything it creates that way, and it might be worth seeing if holy or axiomatic bolts work well even if they don't strike the heart."

"Holy sounds potentially promising; what's axiomatic?"

"The same thing but for Law instead of Good."

"Worth a shot, I suppose. So to speak." She makes another move. Several things about her long-term strategic plans begin to come clear.

"I can get Align Weapon for Law as a domain spell, but my other option at that circle isn't the same for Good, I get Qualm instead - makes the target question all their decisions and worse at doing things till they stop and collect themselves for a moment."

"...interesting. That could come in handy if it wasn't scarce - a moment of distraction can easily be decisive when fighting a vampire, but it's not unusual to meet multiple vampires in a single patrol. Depending how the weapon thing works and whether vampires have a problem with it, that could end up being better."