"The problem," he says regretfully, "is of course that if one thing goes wrong you die, and then we're back to not having any epic heroes at all. Of course one thing usually doesn't go wrong, if the gods are on your side and you're up against the Empire, but I don't want to risk the sudden complete game-changing factor. And I can't test a Final Strike, even if I can test everything else." 

"Final Strike?"

"- Not something where you come from? Mages can detonate themselves to produce much bigger fireballs than they can throw, scaling with their power; an Adept's Final Strike is sort of the ultimate argument against packed formations. Tends to leave craters."

" - craters how far across." A Meteor Strike's each strike hits a forty foot radius, and it would barely inconvenience Iomedae, but you don't want to get overconfident."

"A mile, if you're strong enough." He pauses. "Adepts mostly Gate out. But if you're unlucky -"

”They will almost certainly try that once they realize nothing short of it will work. I don’t know if it’ll work, but it does suggest not making it apparent that they need to. I’ll ask Aroden for guidance, but if He doesn’t give it, and He probably won’t, then I think we can’t afford to make it too clear to them what exactly is going so badly wrong.

What was your plan, before me, to actually win? On the maps it’s a very large empire; from the equipment it’s a very rich one. You beat the army they have stationed here and I’d expect them to send a much bigger one.”

"Oh, that? Two different imperial generals in two different provinces are currently in revolt. Ambitious men - both lost their loyalty compulsions, both got news around the same time that they were being investigated for sedition, both panicked... I think Holy Ithik might end up supporting one of them for the throne. The Empire is not going to have the time to send reinforcements to Oris until it's an established independent state with diplomatic relations with the Empire's neighbors and a firm alliance with Ithik." He shrugs. "Also, of course - the gods are on my side. I can afford to gamble and trust the dice will come up my way; after all, they're divinely loaded."

The spells run out; her wings dissolve. She switches back to Mindspeech.

:I want to offer you some insight into what that prompts me to think about and work on, as part of trying to help you guess what I want and where I'll buy it off you. I'm worried this war will be much uglier than you anticipate, and I really want to find openings to make sure it isn't. If the Empire has internal problems I should learn enough about them to decide if I'm willing to offer to solve them in exchange for its departure from Oris. I'll do some investigation about that, but I don't plan to act without you knowing what I'm doing.

I also want to learn more about which gods have been aiding you, and what They hope to get out of it, and what to make of Ithik.

I've been operating on the probable-looking assumption Aroden will be able to act in His ordinary fashion here once His church is established. If that's wrong, then I think maintaining Oris's independence will be very hard, even with luck on your side. After all, I assume it was, five years ago, an independent state with its own alliances. But if I'm right, it shouldn't actually be all that difficult. He'll choose priests, all of whom can do the magical healing I just demonstrated every day, and who have additional magic that combats disease, and He'll give me another paladin order, which can be charged among other things with protecting the independence of Oris and anyone else who wants them.

I want to free Oris, but I also want to, if it is impossible for us to free Oris, if we are sufficiently overmatched, discover that as fast as possible, so as to minimize how many people we send to their deaths for a cause we had deluded ourselves about. You can sometimes win battles through sheer optimism and force of will but you broadly can't win wars that way.

I want to check promptly whether any magic here can touch me, short of a Final Strike. I want to ask how you plan to build a functional state out of a peasant rebellion, it's a very rare person who can actually do that though maybe simultaneously founding the church of Aroden will be sufficient. I want to get an outline of peace terms you'd be happy with if I did somehow manage to get the Empire to agree to them. I want to talk seriously with you about the after-lives and how to not damn every man who follows you. I don't feel strongly about prioritization among those concerns.:

:I think my first priority, actually, is clarifying a minor point: This isn't a peasant rebellion. The Empire won the war with compulsions; the only people who fought were a handful of nobles and holy orders, and they disbanded the Army of Oris without it ever fighting - and my central directory reconstituted it under my banner, paid for by a number of churches, states and individuals who really did not want Oris to be part of the Empire. So. The easy-to-answer questions all have the response, "you're underestimating me, and you're overestimating the last king of Oris." We have the nobles, we have the churches, we have the army, we have mages and we have mutineers, and he didn't even have someone who could keep the Empire from ordering him to hand over his kingdom.:

:After that, the thing I most care about is getting a second priest of Aroden; I've asked someone to get you a fair copy of our peace terms, both the ones we ask for and the ones we'll accept, and we need to make sure you're safe against anything a strong Adept can do. The rest of your concerns - seem like something we can talk about in a week. Unless I'm wrong, dealing with the gods of another world?:

:- that is a considerably stronger position than I feared. All right, good. I like your priorities. Aroden isn't impatient and frankly probably can't see anything very clearly this far from home in territory where He isn't worshipped.

I want your word that, if I'm not in fact safe in testing against some things a strong Adept can do, you'll stop doing it once that has been determined. Compulsions shouldn't work on me, but I do see the obvious temptation to try, in your position, if you find something that would, and I think in the long run that's a route that ends very badly.:

:I give you my word, but you obviously shouldn't trust that if your spell has in fact passed; if I'd enslave an ally I'd also lie to one.:

:I actually know some people who wouldn't! One consequence of the differences in how the gods act in our different worlds, I think. I have enemies I'd gladly destroy and who'd gladly destroy me whose word I'd also rely on - though I'd be sure it was very very very specific -- and if I were in a situation like this one at home I could arrange with the Empire to conduct negotiations in which they were pledged not to use the information divulged in those negotiations against us in the war, probably by quarantining the negotiators and granting a Lawful church review over their communications. I have made the inference there is no way to do things like that here.:

:That sounds lovely, and you are correct to make this inference.: Though, in fact, Jean would in practice almost certainly find some clever way to get information out of it anyway and so cheat. It's what he does.

:Aroden's church will enable it but - it'll take time. It's the kind of institution that stakes its own credibility, when it acts, and that credibility has to be deep and important to everyone involved before I'd want to test if it holds up to really high-stakes things. And of course the Empire may still refuse to cooperate with it, but - I'm actually wondering if they'll develop some pragmatism about religion once we have things set up. Most places do, for the healing and the clean water.:

:If you can provide them with an actual reason to tolerate religions other than 'people care about it', that might do it. The Empire is obsessive about maximizing its resources, and they think of priests as equal parts parasites and traitors. If you can give them a reason for approving of priests that will appear in yearly budget summaries, that might make them reconsider - if anything will, which I doubt.:

:I would be interested in hearing more about your time in service to the Empire.:

:That's one of the things I don't like talking about much. Suffice to say that fixing it will not, in fact, work from the inside. Try and you'll - get burned.:

His account of the injuries earlier was 'horrors of war'. But she doesn't push it. :All right. What next?:

Deflection: Successful!

:Next we go confirm the rumors about my miraculous healing and credit Aroden, you try to give the best priest-candidate person the short form of Aroden's teachings and if you can do it overnight consecrate a temple, and my best combat-Adept sees just how immune you are to everything he can throw, and tomorrow you go north or east with us depending on the results. Seem reasonable to you?:

:Yes.  -there's a spell to consecrate a temple at home, and I don't have it, but I might be able to make something Aroden can work through all the same.:

He nods. :I expect that's one of the reasons the gods brought you here.: He turns back to her. :Shall we go?:

:Sure. I'm skeptical that Aroden brought me here, incidentally. He'd probably have told me first so I could pack, for one thing, and ...I think He would have preferred not to drop me where I was in fact dropped.:

:Oh?:

:I found myself beside a village where the Empire was carrying out executions for support of the rebels. Aroden's - Lawful Neutral. There's a spirit of fair play. I don't know precisely how to convey it, but it's out of character, making me decide right then and there if I'll overthrow the Empire or not, and I think He'd have been much more inclined to drop me somewhere where I could make the decision through research and reflection. I, of course, am attempting to make the same decision I'd have made then, but - it feels like an attempt by whoever did it to maneuver me onto your side, and Aroden, quite apart from how He could just tell me to back your side, disprefers doing things like that.:

:Mmm. Probably one of the local gods, then.:

And he'll sweep the door open, and, without breaking stride, "Tell the Marshal that we just won the war," and keep walking.