Oh. So it's like that, is it.

"But I am not easily satisfied. The same gift offered too frequently will cause the price to be lowered. Yet fear not - over time, it will grow in value once more."

(Is this where all gold comes from? —she should think about this at a time that is not now.)

"Give me proper tribute and you shall be rewarded."

And now they can go home.

"Fuck," she realizes aloud, standing atop the big stone circle, "I forgot that necklace—"

Where's Amdusias? She can present it along with his flowers.

Right over there!

She hands him an enormous bouquet of camellias, "and here, this is for you." Necklace.

"My lady's generosity is boundless!" he says, looking so overwhelmed he might faint.

She smiles awkwardly.

"Now I just need to work up the courage to talk to them..."

But, as he awkwardly puts on the necklace with one hand holding the bouquet, a familiar glow peeks out from under his contentedly closed eyelids.

The crown eagerly connects, and proceeds with the by-now-familiar exchange of power for strength...

...and now they can forge another Doctrine, if only they can figure out which one they want.

Well. —no, first things first, they should go unpocket that monsterfolk—

The former Eyeball Thing gratefully becomes a snow-white shrewfolk and gives their name as Agares.

Right. Now they can go sit at the altar in the Temple and think about what Doctrine to forge next.

What are my options? she asks, and the crown does try to show them all to her in a comprehensible fashion. Fails, but tries. Okay, let's narrow it down a little. What comes next after resurrecting the dead?

The two sides of the next doctrinal coin are both about reassuring followers regarding their place in the world, in life and death. One option will have them be gladder about growing old and dying of natural causes, and happier to see their fellow followers grow old and die naturally, but less happy to see them resurrected; the other will have them be gladder to see their Leader's power work upon them in death, through sacrifice, ascension, or resurrection, at the cost of upsetting them very badly when someone manages to die of natural causes instead.

...hmm. Well, between those two, she definitely knows which one she'd rather pick. And from the way they've talked about this before— I'm going to have to choose one or the other on all of these eventually, right, if I want to be as powerful as I can be?

That's right. Every Doctrine forged increases their power and deepens their connection to their Cult.

Then... let's do it. It's probably not going to come up, right? She saved Valefar from starvation. Her crown spotted that necklace of health, and maybe they'll find more, or learn how to make them. As fast as she's knocking off those Bishops, she might not even be here long enough for anyone to grow old on her.

(She resolutely doesn't think about what might happen when she's done knocking off all the Bishops.)

And hey, if worst comes to worst... this way, they'll appreciate it even more when she brings her lost follower back to life.

The crown calls everyone in for a Sermon, and they forge the Doctrine together immediately afterward. It almost feels like she can follow the process—but when she really tries to think step by step about how it works, it's all just a complicated blur of senses and faculties she doesn't have and doesn't understand, working together in delicate harmony to manipulate powers far beyond her mortal comprehension.

Meron, her very first convert, approaches her after the sermon.

"My lady... have you given any thought to, um, decoration?"

She stares blankly at him.

He wilts slightly, but rallies. "We need beauty to celebrate your glory! Please?"

Leaving aside the question of whether she wants her glory celebrated (she does not, but the looming threat of the One Below isn't likely to care), she's sort of at a loss for how to make this happen...

Ooh!! Her crown has an idea!! Can she grab just a sip of Devotion so it can throw together a quick Inspiration about it?

...sure. She tells Meron she'll see what she can do and heads over to the Shrine to pull whatever it's got stored.

And the crown concentrates, and a picture forms in her mind of a statue of Leshy's crown that honestly is kind of glorious. A trophy of her success. But she doesn't immediately start building it in a daze, because...

I don't understand, she says, peering at the shape of it in her mind. It wants wood and gold, but... different from the wood and gold I already have?

Her crown sheepishly admits that it may perhaps have gone a bit overboard. But! But!! It knows where to get those resources, just as soon as she pulls together another Inspiration. Then her worshippers will be able to sort of infuse their Devotion into materials instead of collecting it at the shrine, and she can get consecrated wood and gold that way, and then they can build the magnificent trophy.

The Lamb sighs.

In the meantime, she makes a halfhearted effort to spruce the place up. She can at least pull up some ugly weeds to get them out of the way, and by studying the flowering vines someone draped over the Temple doors she can figure out that they're the same as those patches of flowers at the edge of the clearing and carefully pull some up to transplant over to the dormitory, and at that point she is deeply tired of decorating and really wants to go kill something, so she heads out to the gates—

Oh, but what's this?

It's a strange chest, perched innocuously on the ground near the Shrine! Its lid closure bears the mark of a golden pentagram coin.

Ah fuck. She forgot about that too.

Nervously, she looks around for something to offer. Food is traditional, right? She can give it a handful of berries (it burps up a coin), an unpocketed log (it burps up two coins), and... a... flowering vine? (It doesn't care for that one.)

—and now she can head out to the gates to take another swing at the creepy mushroom frog place.

Cultists! Leaf monsters! Mushrooms! Frogs!

Murder! Murder! Mild disquiet! Murder!

Whatever the fuck this thing is!

She has her sword out and is actively swinging it when she hears—

"Please don't hurt us!"

She manages to turn aside at the last moment, but it's a close thing.