"Either of them could've told me I was being an idiot, it speaks poorly of all of us that that fell to Ember. I assume Cansellarion didn't want to embroil Lastwall in the whole mess and had no particular reason to believe I'd take it well. Seelah wasn't on the same page as me about what we should do, and knew it, which probably makes it harder to make an unrelated objection."

"Is there any set of policies you think Lastwall's high command could have set out which would have prevented or mitigated this incident?'

"They could've sent the Crusade more support, or specified what'd have to be true of it for it to merit that. I have no idea what those people are otherwise doing, quite possibly it wouldn't have been worth it, but it is very very difficult, building out a trustworthy team when you've already got a crusade providing lots of other motivations for people to show up. If I had interacted with paladins of Iomedae who seemed to me to have a decent theological education - there are some here who are lovely people, but it's good instincts, not good training - I'd have more confidently trusted Cansellarion with the arbitration, and if I'd had three competent administrators who wouldn't steal from me I could've delegated a lot more. ...Irabeth, one of my primary advisors and a third-circle paladin of Iomedae, traveled to Lastwall and sought training in the Crusader War College at one point and was rejected, it'd be tremendously useful if she'd obtained and now possessed that training."

He notes it down. "If you'd like, I can request the War College's records on Irabeth. They may not have very much, of course, but if they made any determinations relevant to her commanding officer they'd pass those on."

"Did you request more people from Lastwall - again not criticizing, but 'Be more responsive to personnel requests from our allies' is a different policy change than 'proactively look harder for places to send people'."

"I asked Galfrey about it and was told Lastwall usually couldn't be bothered, and when a few people did arrive I asked them and was told very politely that you were likely too overstretched to send more. - obviously if I'd communicated more about my identity I could've gotten them, but I considered it quite plausible Lastwall was dangerous to come to the attention of so I didn't seriously consider that. ...I confidentially informed some assessors in the Church of Abadar of my identity during loan negotiations. I did this because I know it to be true of Abadar that if they leaked it Abadar would strip them of their powers at a minimum, even if they were geopolitically important. Observing Hulrun and Galfrey did not offer me any confidence that similarly trustworthy institutions exist within Iomedae's Church.

I reached out to Cansellarion individually after hearing good things about him."

"He's a good man," Aarind agrees, "Who'd you hear it from?"

"Prefer not to specify. He is. This would otherwise have gone notably worse."

"Alright. Is there anything else about this situation that I should know, for the report, that I haven't asked about?"

"I'm not thinking of anything."

"Thank you for your time, then. Final report should be about a week, unless something else should come up to keep me busy."

Marit's expression is hard to read. He nods. 

Tell me about Lastwall, he says to Alfirin. 

What about it? It's - the Crusade, plus nine hundred years. Held up - better than I would have expected. Fewer serious fuckups in that time than most countries, by a lot. More than most gods, by - one.

They're not fighting in Cheliax.

Pledged neutrality when it looked like it was just a bunch of Chelish nobles fighting over the crown.

Does - Arazni - make the slightest bit of sense from any angle -

No. That's the one. Can't imagine they did it without consulting Her and -

And how could She. How dare She. What could She possibly have been -

You weren't planning to work with them.

Not…openly. I put Cansellarion where he is because he seemed - excessively reminiscent. He'll fight them, when he gets an opening, and I'll give him one when everything else is ready.

They are running an apparently competent error analysis for their paladin trying to assassinate me - I know, I know, she's not exactly their paladin - and I can't decide whether to surround myself with people who speak my language and pretend that's what being at home is or to 

- run as far away from it as possible and never again touch a substitute for the thing he misses until he no longer misses it - that's not a real alternative, he demanded a Commune-capable priest - what's a real alternative in that spirit -

- schedule one hour every fortnight for tolerating it. 

I can't advise you there. You know what choice I made but - I was never really at home, on crusade.

...What was their error analysis?

Oh, failure to appropriately delegate. Gets you every time. You could really write 90% of error analyses in advance.

…You didn't have anyone on diplomacy with Nerosyan?

I had Konomi and her aides, who I do not trust, and I had a couple people in the city reporting to me. But. Broadly correct.