"And why didn't you?"

"I thought Asmodeus was going to win."

"So you didn't think it was really a chance to escape. And how long was it, again, between realizing that Asmodeus' victory wasn't inevitable and deciding to work against Him?"

"I don't know that I had actually decided to work against Him when Iomedae picked me. - I guess I was trying to get people out of Hell. But only because I thought they'd do better somewhere else, if there were going to be anywhere else.

I'm not planning to run out on Iomedae as soon as it looks like selfishly a bad idea for me to serve her, or as soon as She can't make me. The palace operation wasn't - selfishly a good plan for me - I expected I'd probably die horribly."

"I didn't think you would. Because She has more going for Her than a threat of torture." They're there. The room with the antimagic field is a prison cell. Tivath goes in first.

There really isn't that much to be scared of. She is Iomedae's, it'd be wasteful for Iomedae's church to kill her, and Aroden'd notice eventually and be annoyed with them.

She knew, when she was coming here, that she was putting herself in the power of her goddess's church, because she wanted them to improve her. It is stupid and pathetic to have reservations about plans you've decided to embark on. 

It isn't as scary as Aroden. Somehow, though, instead of the sensible thing where nothing else will ever be scary in comparison, it's like the fact that happened yesterday is making this worse. Mortals really are contemptible.

She'll follow. 

There's an inquisitor present, outside the antimagic field, who asks Carissa to repeat the story of how she came to be Iomedae's cleric and the future queen of Cheliax. He interrupts somewhat frequently, to ask for clarification about some details, from her visions or Iomedae's appearance to the particular species of her cactus familiar. At the end he asks if she's been lying or trying to mislead them at all.

She hasn't! That seems like a terrible idea!

If they let her out of the antimagic field she can do an illusion of what Iomedae looked like. She looked like a Chelish woman, older than Carissa but not old, dangerous and stubborn and proud and quite pretty but not at all in the way every pretty person Carissa has ever seen was pretty. She has more descriptive vocabulary for the armor. 

After the questions she can come out of the antimagic field and do the illusion, and cast one of her cleric spells (It doesn't matter which one), and channel positive energy (The inquisitor cuts his left arm to enable this).

Illusion!

Channel! Lesser Restoration what with how it's the only spell she prepared that couldn't technically be a wizard spell (though it should look different, and she's not making the gestures to cast it as a wizard.)

That seems to satisfy him. They would like to assign her a liaison while she's here, does she want Tivath or someone else?

She likes Tivath and has no reason to prefer anyone else.

(Those things she finds frustrating about Tivath are probably just Good things that no one has yet managed to convince her are correct and that everyone else in Lastwall will also do, like the not torturing her.)

Excellent. In that case he has new orders for Tivath, and a passport for Carissa, and the standard warning not to go any unauthorized places in Vigil, because there are forbiddances up and also trespassing is sometimes a capital crime.

As it should be. 

Carissa will take her passport and go wherever she is next expected and it's kind of ridiculous that she still feels nervous, after everything. Iomedae wouldn't feel nervous. ...because She was a paladin and literally incapable of fear. Is it a precept of Iomedaeanism that you are supposed to be like her and not feel fear? Now that Carissa thinks about it it seems like a reasonable precept for a religion.

There's not actually somewhere in particular she's expected right now. Given her questions and future position she has an appointment with the Lord-Watcher but that's hours away, the Lord-Watcher is a busy man. If Carissa wants, Tivath can also put in a request for a meeting with someone in the civilian government in Vellumis.

She should probably plan to spend a week in Vellumis but later once she is more fundamentally oriented about Iomedae and what Iomedae wants her to do. She has - a big gap in her present understanding of what Iomedae wants her to do, where Iomedae's interests are obvious at the level of analysis "have people obedient to Iomedae running prosperous and powerful countries in such a fashion as to produce Iomedaens" - any reasonable being would want that - and obvious at the level of analysis "conquer the Evil afterlives" - but pretty nonobvious at any intermediate levels. Presumably the people in Vellumis will know things about how Carissa should run a country so as to produce Iomedaens and if that's all Carissa is supposed to do then it's certainly enough to keep anyone busy but if there's - more - then she should go in knowing what it is, and she doesn't. 

...she'd also like to know things about the Lord-Watcher. She's not here with the aim of not embarrassing herself, she is ignorant and won't fix it while concealing it, but she does want to not cause a diplomatic incident in her ignorance.

About the position, or about the man in it?

The position is presumably 'Queen' except Lastwall calls it something different. The person whose word is law. ....if that is false then maybe she also wants a description of the position. But she meant the man.

Well it's not quite that simple. Lord-Watcher Zima is head of the army, not the state. His word is not law in civilian matters, and even in military matters - Lord Zima is probably in many ways much more constrained in what he can order than was Carissa's last worldwound garrison commander. Lastwall has the concept of illegal orders.

As a person - well, Tivath doesn't really know him personally so she's just going off mess chatter and what she can see of how well Lastwall's been run since he got the job - He's a crotchety old bastard, stricter than most commanders, but he's good at what he does. The joke is that he would've been a paladin, but they're required to have fun once a month and he couldn't stand that. He's less charismatic than you'd expect, whether you're imagining a head of state or a great general.

"What is an ...illegal order, if it's not an order your bosses' boss will get mad about, which wouldn't seem applicable here."

"I suppose you could think of it as an order the boss' boss will get mad about, if you say Iomedae is lord Zima's boss. But - She'd be very disappointed in us if She had to directly intervene because Zima was running around giving illegal orders. What we have is a set of rules and laws that the Lord-Watcher cannot just change by fiat, that we are supposed to follow and prioritize above any orders from our officers. The central examples are things like - don't murder civilians, don't torture prisoners - It doesn't come up very often, that someone in the high command gives an illegal order, but the reason it doesn't come up is that we all get lessons on how to recognize one and the high command knows that the order wouldn't be obeyed."

And Zima has a separate staff for when he needs to torture people or murder civilians, got it. So the paladins can keep their hands clean. 

" - are paladins really required to have fun once a month."

"Yes. It's considered to be unhealthy and to impair one in the long-term if one is always laboring for selfless Good and never doing anything for oneself. And it's an easy trap to fall into, for paladins, so among the duties that a Knight of Ozem has is to enjoy themselves occasionally. Less than once a month is the point where they start getting censured, many Paladins have more fun than that."