"The temple was nearly destroyed, we're holding it nearby at the cemetery on the north side of town. The one named for Zacharius the Martyr, not the one with the temple to Pharasma." He can provide directions.

And Blai will note the location and exact time accordingly.

They're starting to get close to the scheduled announcement, but it's not quite here yet; Anevia will briefly drop by to check whether there are any specific policies he wants to enforce in terms of monitoring the army for cultist infiltration, or whether she should use her best judgment.

"Can I have the one-minute version of what you'd do without direction?"

"Sure. So, at this scale, we've got to go partially based on what's feasible with ten thousand people. In practice, that mostly looks like having paladins tip us off if anyone starts to ping Evil, having some of the clerics prepare Detect Magic and tip us off if they see someone under an illusion or an enchantment or an abjuration that isn't accounted for from the patrol schedule, and doing the schedules to make it hard for anyone getting powers to secretly pray for spells at dawn. Now, don't get me wrong, we're not arresting people just for pinging Evil, but we do try a Detect Fiendish, and either way it goes we keep an eye on them — the ideal case there is that we can follow them back to some kind of cultist meetup, sometimes it's worth letting a cleric have a couple extra days if it means we can catch the people they're working with. If we catch someone doing something mundanely suspicious, sometimes we'll tail them, other times we bring them in for questioning right away, depends on the details. I know there's parts of the Wound where they use Detect Thoughts on everyone, but we really don't have the wizards to make that feasible. And then for individual cases we might do something more complicated, but even if we had the money to pay Fiducia Rathimus for ten thousand Truthtellings he doesn't have that many to sell us."

"The coverage of Detect Thoughts even at Chelish forts is substantially exaggerated; someone who is not risk-averse could avoid being caught for some time without other measures in place. That all sounds fine, minding that if we spend any time working with Hellknights or Chelish detachments you will get extraneous positives on Evil and Fiendishness both."

"Yep, we've worked with both of them before, we're not going to do anything stupid about it. —I haven't gotten word yet about whether we've got any of the Inquisitors coming with us, if we do they'll be able to check for Chaos — which tells you even less than Evil on its own, at least in Mendev, but it means we're less likely to waste resources following around Lawful Evil folks who're here to help."

"I would like to know if we can expect Inquisition accompaniment when you find out, please."

She nods. "I'll let you know once I know one way or the other."

At this point, one of the Queen's guards will quietly inform him that he should head over to the staging grounds where the Queen will be making her announcement. (The rest of the tavern doesn't need to head over quite yet, but they want to make sure he's there nice and early.)

Yup.

He casts his first Eagle's while he waits, to reconsider details before the live fire test.

(Eagle's thinks the phrasing 'Here I have met among the finest allies I have ever fought beside' is a bit of a mouthful. 'Ever known' flows more smoothly in the Hallit.)

Other people gradually start to trickle in. His advisors are seated in the front row, near him. There's a little stage set up for visibility.

"Good afternoon, Select. I hear you are to have a Heroism; would you prefer that I cast it now, or wait until we are much closer to the event? It will last more than an hour, so there's no need to worry about it expiring."

"Does it matter if it's cast close to the Songbird's spell?"

"I should cast it before he casts his, but it's fine if there's a bit of a wait in between."

"If we're going to get underway presently then now is fine so there's no risk of it turning out to be inopportune at all closer moments."

Heroism.

People occasionally compare the spell to a paladin's aura, but it's not really as similar as some descriptions make it sound. It makes it easier to show bravery, yes, but it also makes it easier to do just about everything else one might be interested in doing; it's just that on a battlefield, quite a lot of what one needs to do is 'show bravery'. A clever burglar could just as easily take advantage of it to dodge out of the way of a trap; a lost adventurer would find it easier to endure the cold on the Worldwound's northern border. It can, in fact, give an orator a better intuition for how to pitch their speech to the audience; it can also make a wizard's thoughts sharper as they sketch out the design for a magic item, a dancer more graceful as they whirl across the stage.

It reminds him of a Guidance, more than anything else, though he believes they'll stack; it does not make him less afraid, or even more alphabetized, it's just there to rely on like a staircase banister or enough light to see by or a really good pair of boots or a detailed recent map of the situation. The sensation of having these things and not needing them. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

More people gradually file in. Sosiel casts his Clarion Call right away, but his other two spells are shorter-duration.

 The field behind them is starting to fill up with soldiers too, packed tightly together as they gossip about what exactly the Queen is going to announce and try to secure positions with a good view of the stage.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Sosiel gives him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, you're going to do great!"

This instruction is inactionab- no, actually, he could find a paladin to stand near. But he's not going to do that. Sosiel is not the boss of him.

"If you get nervous, just imagine the audience naked!"

"—That advice doesn't work for everyone, Nurah." He looks back at Blai. "If you get nervous, just stay focused on the speech, like you practiced."