(Selma looks thoughtful for a moment when Liliana mentions a slave revolt.)

"That's just as well, as it's technically illegal," replies Malia, although the stress on 'technically' suggests she doesn't exactly agree with this. "The Senate really has been quite keen to keep the Confederacy sweet, so whatever you plan, probably best make it subtle and deniable."

"I don't have plans, yet.  Just... well, I'm not even sure about most of my goals anymore.  Should I be trying for revenge, or -"  She throws up her hands.  "Or just trying to help the people I was forgetting?  What are your plans, or your goals?"

"I mean, personally, gathering information is just a sideline," replies Melia. "I'm mostly here for the courageous chasing off of bandits and rescue of refugees, ideally before anyone from the Confederacy notices and demands to be allowed to round them up again. If we can at least get them away from the border, it's less likely they get accused of border raiding.

I'm also keeping half an eye on Kahraman, the Jotun might be the better masters compared to the Confederacy but they're still a bit too into the 'thralls' thing for comfort, if things are going badly there I might try to encourage Yasmina to pack up here and go lend the army a hand for a while.

So I guess, in more general terms, go wherever my sword-arm is useful and keep people free?"

"Freedom.  All right.  And who'll you be telling this information to?"

"Do you know why the army's actually... fighting? the Jotuns, but there's just you here?"

"I'll send edited highlights in a letter to some people I know are politically active," she explains, "and, uh, 'freedom' without qualifiers is generally considered a worrying thing to say because the false virtue of Anarchy tends to masquerade as it. Not that I actually give a shit, but I like to avoid synod priests getting up in my business about it.

If there's anything you don't want me to pass on to anyone in particular, let me know now and I can annotate it?"

She turns to smile at Selma directly. "Yasmina hates fighting with armies - she used to be a general, so she's constantly itching to tell their generals that they're doing it wrong. We get to do it sometimes anyway, if it's important enough, but usually she prefers to take us on independent operations. Of course, if I dislike what she's doing enough, I can just leave - but she does a very good job keeping us in supplies and finding actually good causes, and nobody else in the family is running a military unit right now. And the kohan take themselves much too seriously for my liking."

So Melia's not just working for the Empire; she's playing her own game somehow.  She seems to be working on the right side, but Lilliana herself had better (she thinks) get a better handle on the politics before aligning herself too strongly...

... if she's going to play politics.  If she's going to risk her new cursed bad habits resurfacing.  But she doesn't really see another course now, if she isn't going to seal herself away and forget Achard and not try to clean up her mess.

"I mean, why is the Imperial army fighting the Jotuns but not the Iron Confederacy?"

"Oh!" replied Melia delightedly. "That's because they're cowards."

"Melia," says Alvero, in a warning tone. "That's not totally fair, now, is it?"

"I don't see why I should have to be fair," she replies cheerfully. "I know, I know, we can't open another war front and if we did it'd probably be the Grendel, who are going to buy the whole Coast at this rate. But really, she's got a point."

Alvero doesn't appear to entirely agree, but isn't going to push the argument.

"Send whatever you want," Liliana says.  She's not going to try to stop her now.  "And... who's stopping a second war front?"

"The military council," replies Melia, derisively. "Something about how we can win two wars, survive three wars, but a fourth is too much. Not that it's stopping the Navarr."

"The military council don't control the Navarr efforts against the Vallorn," Alvero points out. "They barely control the armies. And the Vallorn is..."

Melia rolls her eyes. "The greatest spiritual threat to the Empire, yes, I know, you only told us that almost every day already. If you love it so much, why don't you run off to Broceliande and start wearing brown and green?"

"Anyway, there are several other stopping points of the oncoming war against the Vallorn, I expect they'll be at least stalled. Or did you want to be a thrall to the Jotun or a slave to the Grendel?" Alvero challenges her. They appear to have forgotten any intention not to fight in front of the guests.

She listens with one ear, while wrestling with whether she should even pay attention to these politics.  She should figure that out first.  Really, she needs to figure out herself even before rescuing Achard, or else she'll get sucked back into all those bad habits...

"Don't be ridiculous. The Empire went to great lengths to get everyone in Feroz out who wanted to be out. The Jotun let anyone leave who wants to leave, and the Lasambrians aren't even taking thralls, just an oath that they're not going to be stabbed in the back. I'd take either over being a Confederacy slave."

"Pick too many fights and there won't be an Empire left."

"Then I'll be a Lasambrian. We spent all that effort converting them for a reason. If they absorb a lot of Imperials, we could take over the Jotun from the inside."

It is at this stage in their argument that Camilo opens the tent flap again, with a tray of tea. There's a large glass teapot, several small beautifully-decorated cups, and a small ceramic pot of honey with a tiny spoon.

"You sound like you could do with some tea," he opines, "and please remember that tents are not soundproof."

This makes Melia and Alvero stop arguing and look guiltily at each other; they had rather been starting to raise their voices.

Selma is visibly surprised at hearing the Jotun and Lasambrians aren't taking thralls, and the Empire actually evacuated everyone from Feroz.

A bit after they fall silent, she asks, "Do I need to do anything to be a real citizen of the Empire?"

"Yes," replies Alvero, happy to be on a more solid and certain subject. "If you want to become a citizen, you will have to decide on a nation to join; obviously I think the Brass Coast is excellent, but many other options are available, I can take you through them if you like. Then you will have to seek out that nation's Egregore and swear the oath of citizenship to them.

You may want to remain a foreigner for some time - although in your particular case, that does come with dangers. The Imperial legal system is generally more lenient towards foreigners, especially in religious matters, but the leniency generally takes the form of ordering exile rather than the harsher penalties, and that might not be something you wish to risk..."

If Alvero's very perceptive, he can see Selma shivering a tiny amount at that last sentence.

"I'm not sure what my religion is at the moment."

(She isn't going to mention it in front of Liliana, but Liliana's vision is making her even more unsure.)

"What are those harsher penalties?  And, what is the Imperial law on religion?  I've heard something back home - in the Confederacy - but I don't think I trust them to be telling the truth."

"Look, so, we're Freeborn, I'm not going to lie to you," replies Alvero, in a tone that implies he would actually really like to right about now. "Imperial Law is pretty strict where it applies - which isn't actually a lot, assuming you're not planning to go around murdering people. Almost all criminal penalties are fines, but if you escalate past that, if you're lucky it's ritual branding at your own expense and if you're not lucky it's some variation of death.

Now, that's generally for people who actually kill people, which seems fair enough, but it's also for people who unrepentantly damage other people's chances of reincarnation - if you're not doing it on purpose you will generally be given the opportunity to say so and be assigned someone who will check on you and report in, but it's still on the books.

That includes heresy - promoting false paragons, false virtues, or discouraging people from following the true virtues; blasphemy - promoting false doctrine or discouraging people from believing true doctrine; and idolatory - worshipping or subsuming your will to anything that isn't human.

So, it's generally advised to have a good religious education before becoming a citizen - if you're a foreigner, it's much more likely that the magistrate will believe you made an honest mistake you don't intend to repeat, and give you a lot more benefit of the doubt, about religious crimes in particular."

"And desecration," Malia can't resist piping up.

"Yes, yes, and desecration, but they're hardly going to do that by accident - basically, if you can take down spiritual auras, be really sure it's not a spontaneous, miraculous aura before doing it."

"The Egregors aren't nonhuman?  Or... do you not really give over your will to them?"

"We absolutely do not give over our will to them!" exclaims Malia, hotly.

"Quite the reverse, actually," explains Alvero. "They are embodiments of our will - of the will of the entire nation. And they can do nothing without the consent of a willing human host."

Liliana finally looks up from her musings.  "How does that work?"

Alvero explains: "You'd want one of the hakima to talk about the details - or Yasmina, I suppose, when she gets back. It's a ritual, cast back at the founding of the Empire; the Freeborn demanded that something was done to ensure the nations retained their cultural distinctiveness - that the Highborn didn't just subtly work to make us all like them, in the end. And this is what was done."

"That sounds like I'd either love being a part of it, or hate it."  And she thinks she probably still wouldn't be sure even if she knew all about it.

"That's why it's important to choose your nation carefully! I think there's generally at least one that suits any person, but that's also why we let foreigners live and operate here without becoming citizens if they'd rather, as long as they don't cause any trouble."

"What is it like when the egregor's acting on you?  How much power does it have over you?"