"I don't have a lot of places available," he tells Ember. "Is there a kind of place that would work well if it existed, or...?"

She thinks for a moment. "I think there are lots of places that could be alright for them. It would help if it was somewhere where they felt like they could trust the other people, but the most important thing is that they be far away from the demons and far away from this army. ...and some of them saw me do a little magic and got scared, but I don't know which places have which kinds of magic "

"...your kind of magic is very unusual so I don't know exactly what they thought it was, but if they have the Sarkorin issue with arcane magic there are not many places that avoid that anywhere nearly so assiduously. I do not have a way to send them anywhere away from the Wound."

Ember swallows, visibly holding back tears.

"They expressed the hypothesis that bird girl was a witch," Nenio says helpfully. "Unfortunately, they were uninterested in my proposed follow-up experiment in which they would attempt to identify what sort of arcane magic I was wielding, so I am uncertain whether their assessment was accurate."

...well, he supposes she could be a witch, they have a bad reputation but that isn't everything. "We can let the Sarenrites see if they can get anywhere with them, and then hopefully wherever I do wind up sending them will be more comfortable," he tells Ember.

"They're scared, and confused, and they think they're protecting their communities, but I don't know if the gods will understand that."

"Intention counts, I think. ...being scared and confused does not, as far as I know."

Now there are tears rolling down Ember's cheeks.

"Perhaps once one of us has attained the necessary circle for Scrying we could conduct an experiment to determine whether Sarenrite counseling is efficacious."

"They're doing something like that in Osirion, though their aim is to get everyone Axis."

"What a strange ambition. Are they unaware that Ahkanefti is located within the Maelstrom?"

"Well, I was unaware of that, but I don't know if they are. ...they're Abadarans in Osirion these days."

"Surely Abadarans are capable of understanding the value of knowledge, considering the high fees they charge those who wish to make extended inquiries."

"At any rate, they are doing research on what leads people to end up in various afterlives, but I do not have much more detail than that."

Swallow. "...Thank you for letting me try."

"Is it sustainable for you, to do a lot of this if it seems to be usefully sorting?"

Nod. Swallow. "It wouldn't be better if you just killed them all without checking."

"Okay. Please do tell me if that changes."

And he can hand off some of the cultists to the Sarenrites and others to the Condemned. With a note that they're wizardphobic and should be assigned accordingly.

The next couple of days are — not uneventful, but mainly eventful in precedented ways, albeit with a significantly higher rate of demon attacks than before they crossed the border. His troops celebrate being paid on time and in full. Half a scouting patrol gets carried off by a nabasu who reportedly has an ego. A group of brimoraks attempts to ambush the army at range, and manages to take down a few people with fireballs before being variously killed and driven off. A yaenit teleports directly above the army and promptly impales itself on their polearms. One of the new people promoted to help with the accounting reports that the person who requested him appears to have been under the misapprehension that he was going to help him embezzle for personal gain. (He'd have gone along with it if it was important, but he's smart enough not to admit to that outright.)

WOW embezzlers are dumb except for all the ones he hasn't caught yet. He's prepping a Zone every day because there keeps being call for them and he can try the guy and get his duties reassigned (maybe even to the person who reported him, who if nothing else knows what side his bread is buttered on this month, whatever the next month may bring).

That evening, Anevia informs him that the camp was approached by a badly injured, not-very-coherent man who requested to speak to whoever was in charge, what would he like them to do about this? If he's a succubus or similar he's at least put in a little effort to hide that fact, he didn't trip any of the basic checks like Detect Evil, but they were waiting on his instructions to do any of the more intensive checks.

He didn't say anything at all about what his business was? The bird at least announced it was there on behalf of its master.

He was struggling to communicate much of anything. They are considering using more healing magic, there are people with unused Lesser Restorations and so on, but that'll require getting close enough to touch him and if (for example) the Knight-Commander was going to throw him out no matter what it'd be a bit of a pointless risk.

Blai'll take a short-running Protection from Evil and talk to him.