Your sister does not need cultists killed every day. We have gone many days without killing cultists. Unfortunately.

“Ok…” the girl thinks hard. “Ok, um, half-elf person? What do you do? Because I think probably the best thing would be for me to get sister to pay you and free you and stuff, but the voice says she’ll probably only do that in exchange for goods or services? Is… that what you want?” 

"Oh! Um... Mostly I'd like to go home? It would be neat to be...free? But I'd really prefer not to be kidnapped and sacrificed by cultists, if I have to pick! I can do some things that people would pay for, if they need them? I, um, help people, mostly. If someone gets hurt, but not enough to go to a cleric, or if they don't want the church to know? Or if they want to talk about something but they don't trust the confessor? Or if they want their kids to know how to read, but the bishop doesn't like them and won't let them into the children's school? I guess I'm kind of like a priest but if you don't want a real priest..."

“I…” the girl takes a deep breath and attempts to gather her scattered thoughts. “I’m sorry. Stupid crazy princess of Ardholm. Ruins everything. Except she’s not a princess anymore, because she went and got crazy. Told to kill the cult, cult is killed.”

She smiles as if this explains everything. The smile fades, somewhat. “I’m not going to hurt you,” she continues, “and neither will the cult. I… you can go home? I… I’m… um… I think I’m hurt, but not in a clerics kind of way?” She brushes absently at the still bleeding laceration on her shoulder. “Hurt in the brain,” she clarifies. “Is that something you can heal? Fix my brain so sister loves me again and mother and father come home?” 

"Your sister and parents aren't really in your head? So, um, it's harder for changes in your head to affect them? But that's okay! Cause you can still make changes that make your life better, or that let you feel better. Regardless of how other people act. I guess I know a little about that?"

Not addressing crazy statements about princesses. Those sound dangerous to acknowledge. Or remember.

“Ok,” the girl agrees. “So… you go home, and I clean up here, and then later I can find you and you can fix my brain, and I can get you money, and everyone will love me again and we can be friends? Does that sound alright to you?” 

"Um, that sounds pretty good? If things work like that? I could also help clean up? If you want help with that? I guess you'd need to untie me. I guess you'd need to untie me for me to go home anyway? Unless you carried me home? But I could walk without taking off the blindfold if you don't want me to see you, and I don't think I can help you clean things with the blindfold on."

“Oh, right,” the girl hastily unties her new friend, and removes the blindfold. “I’m sure it’s fine. If sister gets mad, she’ll be mad at me, not you. Probably.”  

If the half-elf has ever held a coin, read a newspaper, or attended a royal address, she may recognize the girl’s face. 

Eep!

Time to try to forget that as quickly as possible?

Meh. If she has to justify herself in a Circle of Truth she's already screwed. Avoiding new thoughtcrimes won't help.

"Oh, thank you! Do you want me to help clean, then?"

“I’ll just burn everything,” the girl shrugs. “Or ask the voice to burn everything, I mean.” 

"Okay! Then, um, should I...go? Or do I need to...tell you where I live?"

“That would probably help, yeah.” 

"I live by the...huh. I guess I don't. I live...with my mother? Outside the Sunrise Gate, near where they dry the hemp? If you ask around for the elf someone will know where she is, she lives behind the sackweavers."

“Okay!” The girl gives a very large, only slightly forced and maybe a little apprehensive smile. “Wonderful! I’ll see you there then. And then you can fix my brain and I can have a friend!” She withdraws a scroll from one of the many cases at her belt. “Probably you should go now. Everything will soon be fire.” 

Should she ask for something to sell? A cultist's ring?

No, that's evidence. She still has the book. That's the only important thing.

"Uh, thank you! I'm going to go! I'll...see you?"

“Stay safe! Don’t let any more cultists grab you.” She waves a cheery goodbye, then retrieves and cleans her sword. “Ok voice, burning man?” 

Take the jewelry first. No need to waste resources.

And the voice will read the scroll.

The girl takes the jewelry, even if she doesn’t quite understand why. It’s not like she wears jewelry after all. 

There is however surprisingly little finery of any sort- more on the lower ranks than the higher, but surprisingly little overall. And then, of course, everything is fire.  

It's an apocalypse cult, they clearly weren't in it for the snazzy perks. But they have a bit of gold anyway, which can be hidden somewhere a weaker body couldn't reach it. An inconvenient rooftop or the eaves in one of the palace's secondary chapels, perhaps. There are easier ways to obtain a chestnut.

There are indeed coins stashed beneath a rock in the priest’s study, along with a ledger of cult expenses. One of the more recent entries is for a slave. There are many previous such entries. 

The girl coughs as smoke billows. She perhaps chose an unwise order of operations. 

The ledger will perhaps be left, slightly singed, on the stairs. Where it might be found by an eventual police investigation, which will determine, amongst other things, that all the purchased slaves perished in the fire. After all, there were certainly too many bodies found to account for the incredibly small number of upstanding citizens that would ever be involved in such unsavory activities.

The smoke will damage their lungs, but not enough to kill them before the next time they get healing. The voice directs the girl to leave.

She flees the subterranean refuge, makes use of her cloak to dodge past the guards’ cordon around the crime scene that is the ground-floor shop, and then… what? Chestnuts maybe? She knows she made mistakes, but she was trying her best. 

Hm... Your performance was poor, but the experience was satisfactory. I've had my fun, you may have yours.

We passed a chestnut cart on our way here. Did you notice? They should be closing soon. Stay out of sight, and follow the cart after it closes.