The path finally climbs out from the trees and zigzags up the pale rocky slopes of the mountain until she is almost at the snow line, and comes to a windswept ledge with a single white altar in the centre. It is the plainest altar she's ever seen. There is no decoration, no offerings scattered around it, and no real sign that this is a holy place at all beyond the altar being quite distinctly altar-shaped. And a pure, perfect, clean white. 

And the view, she supposes. The view is quite astounding. The wooded slopes of the mountain spread out before her, all resplendent in autumn gold, and beyond them she can see the tiny village huts clinging to the cliffs, and beyond that the sea shines silver all the way to the horizon. Above it all the sky seems so open, as though it is somehow more huge when you are closer to it, and the deep gorgeous blue is unbroken by clouds. The humans are so tiny and so fragile from this distance, and yet that village is more important and valuable and wonderful than anything else in the view and... it really is quite a glorious way to see the world.

She retrieves a single candle from her pocket, and flint and steel, and takes four attempts to light the candle because her fingers are stiff from the cold. She places it very carefully on the altar. And then she goes to the edge of the rocky ledge and sits down looking at the tiny village clinging so precariously to the cliffs by the sea, because that is the sight in this place that most inspires her to think about Goodness. 

She's bruised and battered everywhere. After the first hour of studiously thinking about how much she loves everyone and wants everyone to be happy, she ends up lying flat on her back and staring into the sky. It is really so very remarkably lovely, as a shade of blue. There is something poetic and wonderful about not knowing how far up it goes, and not knowing whether she will ever be strong enough to touch it, but it being so very vibrant and bright and unhidden. Like it's always calling, always telling her how beautiful it is up there. She likes pale pink dawns and deep orange sunsets and stormy greys-lit-by-silver almost as much as she likes the deep blue. 

Who are you? 

The voice doesn't sound like anything at all. It sounds like reading text on a page, but it also doesn't look like anything at all; it looks like sound. Maybe it smells a little of honey but she's... probably imagining that because she's hungry. 

"Lucia."

Your name isn't what I asked. 

"I'm.... a paladin? I need help." 

What do you want? 

Usually Lucia says she wants help finding something to bind herself to, so that she can get stronger as a paladin. She can't get any stronger until she has something, whether it's an order she can join or a god she can serve or just a well-written book that she actually feels she can live by, but she has to swear a magic oath and that feels pretty serious and so far nothing has been good enough and also several orders have directly turned her down.

But it probably isn't a good idea to lie while interviewing prospective gods. So she says the thing she most badly needs help with. 

"I have to overthrow the king." 

Is he evil? 

"I... I guess I don't strictly know whether he meets the magical definition or anything about.... I haven't met him, but it doesn't matter, the standard to be king shouldn't be just not being evil. His soldiers came into my village and said they were conscripting people for a war, and I told them they couldn't take everyone because we needed some people to defend us because the bandits have been such a big issue lately, and they laughed at me and took everyone and - I tried to fight but they just had two guys twice my size sit on me and laugh at me. And I didn't even get my paladin powers then, that was only later when I fought the bandits. And there's going to be a war." 

It sounds like you've figured out what you need to do, so, go overthrow the king. 

"I'm going to try but I'm not very strong at all yet. I need a something, an order or a god or an oath or - well, I came up here looking for a god and I haven't even asked your name, sorry. The villagers didn't know what it was, or what kind of sacrifices you might like." 

I don't have a name. The only sacrifice I ask for is giving up acts of evil. 

"I try not to do any acts of evil?" 

Since you came up here you've stepped on several bugs, gotten candle wax on my altar, wasted half a candle, failed to ask my name, thought about lying in terms of whether it's a good idea rather than whether it's wrong, made excuses about not having overthrown the king yet, and failed to ask any of the important questions. Just as an example.

But you're learning and you're trying and that's the best sacrifice you can get me. It is harder than burning a dead pig. 

This is the first time in a long time that anyone has told Lucia she isn't Good enough. 

Plenty of people tell her she isn't good enough. She isn't training hard enough with her sword - she knows that because she still loses fights she needs to win. She isn't smart enough or well read enough to be allowed to argue with the law. She isn't rich enough for buying armour or skilled enough to make it. 

But when it comes to Good she's so used to people telling her she's got too much of it. They warn her that she's trying too hard and she'll only tire herself out or waste her time. They tell her that she makes other people feel bad because it hurts people to see anyone actually doing the things they merely feel they ought to do. They tell her she's going to get herself killed by fighting everything evil without reservation. 

This feels like finally having someone who is on her side.

"...I am glad." 

Answer my questions and, if you still want to be one of my paladins, you can be one.

I turn almost nobody away. But almost nobody stays. 

"I only want to be your paladin if you will help me be the best I can. Um, no offence. I know you're a god and all. I've been told I don't have a filter but I figured I'm in your holy place and you can probably hear my thoughts anyway and - wait can you?" 

Yes, here. 

Okay. What are the questions then? 

If you want to be a paladin, then: What ought a paladin to do? 

Uh. I'm not sure yet because I'm not a very good paladin yet but - train hard with weapon and shield, and save people, and smite evil? And be just and brave and loyal and truthful and kind? And try their best every day? 

That's totally wrong. Paladins ought to do good. 

But those are.... kinds and ways of doing good, right? They're not the only kinds and ways of doing good but - paladins are really good at smiting evil and surviving difficult fights and bringing light to the darkest places, and we're not very good at, I don't know, teaching scholarship or building cathedrals or investigating crimes. 

You ought to be good at those things, because they're good things to do and you might need to do them. You should work on that.