"I would hope She'd drop me if I was controlled by a vampire! Not because I did something wrong but because you don't want a paladin to go around controlled by Evil, that sounds like a disaster to the name of paladins everywhere!  I hope She'd pick me back up afterward," but he does sound troubled by the possibility that She might not.  "...Probably not if it only took a Suggestion to do something evil or break my word, because that shouldn't happen, but if I was Dominated into something then it... wouldn't generally reflect badly on me, unless I was stupid in a way that let it happen, and then maybe She'd have a point..."  He closes his eyes for a moment, smiles in the calm way of someone trying hard to be brave about something and succeeding.  "And then I'd go to Lastwall, and trust them to straighten me out."

Khalida's looking worried but thoughtful for most of this, but she winces just slightly at 'unless I was stupid in a way that let it happen'.

"-She'd pick up folk She dropped again?  They can do that?"  

"Yes, why couldn't They?  If I did something wrong that made me no longer worth Her power, I could fix it, and if I did it right then I should be the sort of person She'd want again."

"... If it was something I did wrong, and not some circumstance I couldn't fix.  I don't think Asmodeus dropped all His clerics because they did something wrong."  How did they get to talking about this.  But maybe they need to.

Cambra doesn't flinch.  (He does go more unreadable for a heartbeat.) 

"Of course, I shouldn't ought to've said 'can', surely She could do so if She chooses."

"Would've had to be some kinda thing they did wrong, all on the same day with no warning,"  Ferrer cuts in.

Oh no.  He nods at Ferrer, distractedly, because Cambra is doing a thing and Marcus hates that he just made that happen.  He's picked up enough about Chelish people that he does instinctively try to restrain his reaction, and halfway manages, but now his words are getting tangled up.  "I'm not going to--" he's not even sure what it is that he's definitely not doing-- "I don't think She cares that you got a word wrong, and I sure don't." 

And he can just keep talking about the actual subject, that's how not making a big deal of things works.  "But yes, it definitely happens that paladins Fall and Atone and are paladins again.  Less often for clerics, I think, but just because clerics have fewer rules to break in the first place."  And he could make some guesses about Asmodeus, but he's not, on second thought, sure the two men want to talk about that at all.  Even he wouldn't, in their place.

Khalida's also noticed that, and is a bit easier to read about it- a little awkward, a little defensive, a little warily tracking how he and Argil react.  She takes a breath and forges back in to pick up the conversation, "Nethys has scarcely any- at least so I've heard, I haven't been to a temple since He chose me.  Perhaps the priests have best estimates they discuss with one another."

(Argil is eating his stew, not very interested in the gods conversation, but not reacting badly to any of it either.  He made a bit of an amused face at Marcus's upset reaction.)

"There's being the right alignment, if not much else.  But I'd also be less sure about Nethys picking someone up afterward.  Not that I think He wouldn't, just-- He's less predictable, and not very comprehensible at all, I think?..."

Unhappy nod.  "He's not impossible to comprehend, He sends visions, but- it's said the more one understands Him, the less one may be understanded by other people?  I've heard Nefreti Clepati can just- talk to Him, without needing a Commune or anything, and also the senior priests must translate her for the junior priests, not even only the laity."

"It's understood, not understanded.  And, ah, that sounds terrifying.  Maybe it's less so for the sorts of people Nethys would choose?"

Shrug.  "I shouldn't call it terrifying, so I suppose so?  Annoying perhaps.  If she couldn't understand other people, that would be much worse, but I don't think that must follow?  And she does have the senior priests to translate her, she doesn't wander in a foreign land."

"I would hate so much for people not to understand me. But yes, maybe that's just me."

"I don't think I'd much like it either, but I figure if wizards cared much about people understanding them, they wouldn't be wizards."

Khalida giggles a bit at that.  "Well, I expect if I had to pick I should pick wizardry, yes.  But I hope I shouldn't have to, most people aren't Nefreti Clepati.  It's as, um-?"  She glances at Ferrer.

"Would y'rather fight an angry ice bear, unarmed an' blindfolded but in full plate, or half a swarm of vescavors, naked but wi' nets an' alchemists fire an' time to set them up?"  he supplies helpfully. 

Marcus laughs, and can't help pausing to think about it.  "...The second one, but I see your point."

"What do you mean the second one??"  Argil shudders.  "Something's horribly wrong with you." 

"No, something's horribly wrong with Chelish proverbs," laughing.

"Oh, it ain't a proverb- last time, we didn't say blindfolded an' the whole squad picked the bear," he adds to Argil.

"I still say there's not such a thing as half a swarm."

"So, it's a swarm with half as many in it, same thing."

"Can't say I've ever tried counting them anyway!"

Khalida finishes wiping up her stew with a last bite of bread.  "I ought channel, do you know when the squad we'll continue south with leaves?"