"What do you already know about Kenabres?"

"I was here once before many years ago but only briefly and didn't see much of the place. I otherwise know only rumors of the sort that circulate the Worldwound and what I've seen in the last week."

She pauses for a moment to think.

"If you've heard the rumor that Terendelev insists that we sacrifice people to her in exchange for your protection, it's not true, Terendelev is Good — was Good. Apart from that... the big thing that makes Kenabres different from the other forts is that it isn't just a fort, it's a whole town. That means we have more civilians, but that also means we have more people who want to help, and who have skills that are useful, but who don't want to be soldiers all the time and aren't in the chain of command. ...Prelate Hulrun thinks it also makes it easier for cultists to get in, but I've never been to the other forts so I don't know for sure if that's true." She hesitates for a second. "I assume you've met Irabeth — Commander Tirabade?"

"I have, she's been assigning me and my party errands. I admire her very much. The main drawback of this being a town is that it has - some military disciplinary needs, and a civilian population, and these blend poorly."

"—The civilians aren't subject to the rules that only apply to the soldiers, no one is going to arrest a seamstress for getting drunk in her shop. ...I guess I don't know if that's bad for the soldiers, I've never been to another fort."

"I don't mean that the civilians need to adhere to all of the kinds of rules that apply to keeping order among soldiers, I mean - there are things of strategic military value here, and civilians for the cultists to hide among who benefit from the protections civilians are due. The Prelate has that much of a point. I suppose I don't know if the density of those is usually this bad, perhaps most of the time it's fine."

"People say the town's been here hundreds of years, I'm not sure how much choice they had. ...I do think it used to be smaller." 

"I don't have much history, I don't know when the wardstone line was pushed back to this point."

"What my parents told me growing up was that during the Second Crusade, everyone thought Kenabres was doomed and Mendev with it, but then Iomedae's herald came down from Heaven and personally set down the Wardstones, starting with the one in Kenabres. But that was long before I was born, I don't know how much truth there was to it."

"Ah, so it's always been here. I wonder why he made that decision..."

"I don't know, I'm sorry." She thinks they might have already lost most of the territory on the other bank of the river, but she's not sure.

"Well. Do I have your permission to further borrow the sermon book from its present keeper, if he's done with it?"

"Of course!"

"Thank you, Select. Please let me know if there's ever anything I can do to help you."

And he will leave the pantry (and make sure Thall is still there) and see about that book.

(Thall is still talking to Nenio.)

Kyado can be located! He scratches the back of his head nervously at the mention of the book. "Yes, of course, if Stasia said it's okay I'd be happy to let you borrow it."

"She's in the pantry if you'd like to confirm with her, but yes, she said it's okay."

"It's alright, I trust you."

The book is titled Collected Sermons; the preface explains that it has sermons from Iomedaeans, Erastilians, and Sarenrites, because (in the author's opinion) those are the three righteous gods whose priests have important lessons for anyone in Mendev. Iomedaean sermons are second.

He sits down and flips to the middle section and spends the evening reading.

The sermons are nearly all attributed to people with Mendevian names, and the extent to which they align with the Acts of Iomedae is somewhat variable, but none of them outright directly contradict what Blai knows of Iomedaean theology, even when the emphasis is clearly very different. Most of them are fairly short, only a page or two; a few of them are presented with a sentence or two of context.

...Our cause is not hopeless.

Iomedae is the goddess of victory over Evil, and were our cause hopeless she would never have bestowed her gifts upon us. For it is not the way of Iomedae to grant her followers her holy blessings merely because they are courageous, merely because they are honorable, merely because they are just. She gives us her gifts not merely for who we are, but for what we will do with it, and she does not waste her blessings on those who will simply use them to perish in service of a doomed cause.

Our victory will not be easy, but nor was Her victory over the Whispering Tyrant... 

...Is there a part of you that hears of his flight and wishes you could join him? A part of you that fears you will die here? Cast it aside and steel your heart! For if you perish here, the angels will welcome you into Heaven. You will have paradise with your fathers, your brothers, your brothers-in-arms. You may take up arms in Iomedae's service and continue to make war on the Abyss, or you can set down your sword forever and find peace in the Summerlands, and either way you will have paradise. As for him, he will be cast away into the torments of the Abyss. Do not envy his lot, for whatever trials you may face in this life, it cannot equal what he will face in the next one...

...and he told me that when he thought all was lost, he heard the voices of his fallen comrades whispering in his ear, telling him to have courage, and so he summoned his courage, and set upon the demons with his spear, and though he was still a novice his blows struck as strongly as a mighty warrior, for by the grace of the gods the spirits of his fellows had lingered to aid him...

...Your soul may ache to see them, knowing that they have given themselves over to the Prince of Darkness. You may wish you could reach out a hand and save them from their fate. But were it true that we would accept Chelish aid only to turn it against them, were it true that we welcomed their deserters with open arms, were it true that whenever their men stayed at our forts we sought to turn them against their Infernal masters, they would never have come to our aid to begin with. It is only because we can accept their aid without turning it into a weapon against them that they are willing to stand by our side. 

We cannot hold the Worldwound by our strength alone; they are our allies, just as surely as the people of Lastwall, and one of our great advantages over the Abyss is the fact that we do not wantonly betray our allies...

...Greatest among the virtues is courage, for without courage the other virtues can never be brought to bear against any true threat. But second-greatest among the virtues is discernment...

...You may think but I am a woman, but I have lost a limb, but I am too old.

But the Goddess does not need warriors alone, and though you may not be able to serve her by taking up arms, that does not mean you cannot aid her cause, nor does it absolve you of your responsibility to do so. Anyone can ask themself how best they can serve the war against the Abyss, and then do it...

Eventually a crusader interrupts his reading to tell him that his presence is requested at the final planning meeting for the Gray Garrison.

"Yes, of course." He stows the book and shows up.

They're meeting in a building near the Defender's Heart; their best guess is that the fact that they're definitely tipping off any demonic spies in the Defender's Heart to the existence of an important meeting is dwarfed by the risk of them potentially overhearing the actual words if any of them are in the building. (The Prelate has already identified one person as a cultist, and as much as Irabeth is frustrated by some of what the Prelate's been doing, this particular cultist responded to her asking him if he'd be willing to answer a few questions by attempting to stab her, so it doesn't seem like his suspicion was unwarranted.)

Present at the meeting are Irabeth, Anevia, Prelate Hulrun, Fiducia Rathimus, Blai, Staunton Vhane, the Luminary who was in the Desnan temple, one of the members of the Order of the Flaming Lance that was present at Blackwing Library, and two people that Blai hasn't previously been introduced to.

Hulrun is sweeping the room for demonic intrusion. (He's already swept it three times, and only the first caught anything, but it's not like there's a downside to trying again.)

"Good evening." Are there chairs or are they having this meeting standing up due to chair looters.

"Welcome, Select."

There are chairs.