:If you try to run, I will kill you. Would you like some water?:

Uh. Blink. Pause. "... Yes?"

He is not going to try to run he is going to notice the blood of everyone else and throw up violently.

She hands him some water. It is not stolen off the corpse of one of his friends, it's stolen off the corpse of a different unit from several hours earlier, not that that makes it much better. 

:I'm going to search them: she says, :I'm going to dig some graves and bury them, and then I am going to pray for their souls, and then I'll let you go, if you think you can get to safety from here. You can help bury them, if you'd like. You can also help pray for them but if you do that you'd better not go back, probably.:

"You can pray for people's souls," he says, which is the clearest thing to fix on. "That they'll - have done their duty. That they made the world better. That their ancestors will accept them..."

He's going go try to drink some of the water, once he's rinsed his mouth out.

She pockets any paperwork that might be orders from their command. She still can't read any of it, and doubts the villagers can read any of it, and isn't going to ask this man to read it to her, but if she does run into the rebels it'll be proof that she's been picking off patrols, and hopefully they can read it. 

She's very very strong and has along the way acquired a good shovel, but it still actually takes a very long time to dig adequate graves for twenty bodies. She works in silence, keeps him in her field of vision less because that's important for keeping an eye on him (the helm does that for her) and more because it's important for having him know she's keeping an eye on him.

He'll help dig. He is not very very strong but he can still help.

Then they'll be done sooner, though she notes the difference in how long it took and intends to spend that time not conducting operations, so that his help doesn't disadvantage his people. 

She clips their hair with her knife as she lays each of them in the grave, and then starts the campfire. She has no magic for that, just decades in the field. :You can pray for their souls, if it's not to any god particularly? That they made the world better, that they did their duty, that they'll be reunited with their ancestors?:

"It's the gods who are our enemies," he says. "We - we're all working together." He's not very coherent. "There's a chain. Right back to the beginning. We're all working on the same thing, back to the first generation..." 

A fit of shivering.

She has a cloak. It's an extremely powerful magical cloak but it's also, you know, sturdy and heavy and warm. She offers it to him. 

(If he runs off with it she will simply chase him, with boots of speed and flight if necessary.)

It's more shock than cold, but yes, he'll accept the cloak.

"You don't pray to the gods. They'd just ruin it. They want the world how it is. We're trying to fix things..."

:I don't think that's true of my god. But it's a fair enough complaint about some of them.

Ordinarily, when I bury the dead, I pray to Anathei, to see Good in them, enough to save them from punishment in the world to come, and I pray to Aroden to show me something better. I don't know if They'll do anything, but - at worst They won't do anything, right, and it's just some time spent in thought.:

He has many objections, none which he can really put together because an hour ago everything was fine.

She isn't really expecting to have a useful theological argument, but if she's going to send him home she might as well do it with a partial explanation of why she is doing this. 

She prays. Not to a god, if that's not their own custom. That they'll be reunited with their ancestors, that they will be found to have been good men, that they will be found to have done their duty.  

:If I let you go from here on foot, will you make it to your people safely, or would you expect to meet trouble first?:

"I'll be fine," he says, not really believing that she will let him go. "I can - get home..."

:All right. You can tell your superiors that I'm not going to stop, though I'll restrict myself to operations in Oris at least until after we have some formal communication channels.

- I do need that cloak back.:

He can give the cloak back and then leave to go tell his superiors.

(Does she leave him his horse?)

No. She'd like more of a head start than that. 

Then he will leave on foot, very confused and expecting to die every moment of it.

And she'll leave in the opposite direction but the same spirit. The candle is now very definitely burning and she needs to find the rebels. There isn't a good way to do that, other than going into villages and endangering the people who live there, but -

Do most villages have a temple? Or the ruins of one?

What do her recognition skills look like for distinguishing those of this culture's buildings intended as temples, from buildings intended as barns or living spaces?

Well, were they burned to the ground by invaders?

This may not be perfectly distinguishing! There are entire villages burned to the ground by invaders she can find if she looks hard enough, though they're sure  a minority!

... But yes, buildings burned to the ground by invaders can be located.

(She waits the duration she gained from burying the bodies faster, in quiet reflection in a forest.)

And then she goes to a site that looks to her like it might have been a temple, and she clears away the ash and kneels at that site with her sword in front of her, and she makes it glow so it's visible from quite a distance, and she prays. And hopefully no one will imagine they'll be safe from the Empire if they come up to the woman who is doing that, but they might do it anyway.

There are people who will notice a woman with a glowing sword, and a child who nobody is currently keeping enough of an eye on will come over to stare. Women with glowing swords visibly praying are not common sights, around here.

She does not want to get a child killed. 

This is definitely a consequence of actions she has already taken, of course, that many children will die. 

:Hey: she says quietly when the child gets close. :I am a paladin of the god Aroden. It's not safe to come closer. I won't hurt you, but other people may be angry.: