In that case if she wants her own copy of the records now she might want to buy it, scrivener's chant is a cantrip and orison so the price only scales with the spellcaster in question's time rather than the opportunity cost of other spells.

For most of the past century it has primarily supported only reading in house, but the library charter permits lending and Rathimus thinks that charging a small fee for this privilege is a sensible way to allow a public good to pay for itself without interfering with its core purpose. There's also allowances from the same period to spend library funds on literacy programs but given the funding involved this was never really more than aspirational.

"Is there a lot of demand for literacy programs?"

Well, most of Mendev's population is fairly illiterate and there's studies showing that literate populations are wealthier and more productive, so for that and the fact that they were generally in favor of useful education it tended to be a pretty popular tack for Aroden's church. Mostly the people in Kenabres that can afford to have literacy taught to their kids already does so though, so probably any interest would have to come from those who are at the borderline of where it's worth the cost to pay for a tutor deciding to take advantage of economies of scale. Things were a bit better a century ago, but not that much; Rathimus suspects that the reason it got added was due to people enthusiastic about the upcoming age of glory.

"Well, in that case I should set up my printing tools sooner than later - giving people something relevant to read helped a lot where I'm from, I printed a newspaper."

Rathimus thinks this is an excellent idea. He understands that they have that kind of thing in most major cities on the inner sea like Absalom and Isarn and Oppara and it does seem to provide lots of easily obtainable value only gated behind literacy. He's unsure if it'll affect those on its own or just incentivize more borderline-worthwhile cases to pay for tutoring, but either way if she does so and the effect manifests he'll arrange to pay her an amount corresponding to the church of Abadar's fair-share-due-to-received-value (a two syllable loanword from Aktun) of the costs of printing.

"Marvelous. I don't think I need a loan to start it up, as I have some independent funds and the materials shouldn't be too hard to come by."

Then Rathimus will return to his temporary office at the defender's heart, at least until the area around the bank is sufficiently secure he can unseal it and conduct business from there again.

Later that afternoon, the word comes in via the rumor mill that the queen is only about half a day's march off with most of Nerosyan's standing army and the levies she could call up at short notice; scouts riding ahead of the force have already made contact with the patrols on the south side of the city, and her arrival is expected tomorrow. Many people are cheered at the thought of them sweeping clear the city of demons and allowing Kenabres to return to something of normality.

Well, she's a bit late to be of use in the main event but presumably there are still valuable things for her to be doing.

When the army arrives the next morning, Kybele might well have a chance to ask her if she wants to. Apparently the queen wants to meet with the heroes of the attack on the Garrison, an invitation to which is relayed to Kybele, and thank them personally. Any other details about what might happen there are thin on the ground, but there's betting going around about whether or not count Arendae will find an excuse to skip it.

Ky is more than happy to go meet with the Queen about her heroics. As soon as she's placed an order for movable type in the local alphabet.

The first smith she goes to mentions they're swamped and not sure they could accomplish what she's asking for regardless, but directs her to Jhoran Vhane, who is apparently one of the people she didn't recognize from the casters accompanying the main force at the garrison. It takes him a little bit to understand what she's getting at, but he seems quite intrigued at the idea once explained and claims it sounds like an interesting diversion for whenever he needs a break from repairing weapons and armor.

Great. She can sketch diagrams and such, here's her guess of how many she'll need of each letter.

He expects he can get that for her inside the week - faster, at his current rates, but the army is expected here soon and there'll be enough fighting that he's sure he'll get a deluge of extra work orders.

When the army from Nerosyan arrives, the first order of the day is clearing the city. With the added numbers, it's possible to form a perimeter across the entire city to prevent anyone from slipping by and still have the numbers to go house to house without spreading themselves so thin they start taking serious casualties. Between a numerical advantage in veteran fighters and the addition of extra healing, it's more busywork than adventure for someone on Kybele's level, but they would hardly turn down her aid if offered. The queen is apparently personally involved in the early fighting, but will attend the meeting as scheduled around noon when they've hopefully made significant progress.

She'll put in an appearance. There's all these new people to show off for.

Unfortunately for her plans at showing off to large numbers of people they mostly want her to stick with one group since that means they can rotate some of the veterans to reinforce other areas on the cordon, but her demon fighting skills do seem to be very impressive, as does her sword. When it's nearly noon, the advance slows at about a third of the city; instead of continuing to go house to house, a smaller number of soldiers rotate through holding the line while others get food, water, or just take a short break, then take over from their compatriots for a spell. It's at this point that a runner tells her the queen is ready to see her.

Queen Galfrey of Mendev is remarkably well preserved for someone any history books she's read will tell her is over a hundred years old, and looks every inch the noble warrior-queen. She has a casual presence to her that has everyone in the room paying her close attention, and when she focuses on someone it really does feel like you're being taken seriously. Most of the major players from the attack are there, including Ember after she was eventually convinced they could spare her healing for an hour, but Daeran Arendae is notably absent.

"Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. Mendev owes you all a great debt for your service, which helped prevent a tragedy from turning into a far greater disaster. It is thanks to the heroism of people like you that the line has held all these years against demonic incursions-"

This is, apparently, when Count Arendae chooses to arrive. He looks like he would rather be literally anywhere else in the world right now and yet has to make an appearance anyway. When she stops to look at him upon his arrival, though, he forces his appearance into a painfully fake grin.

"Greetings to you too, cousin! I'm honored beyond measure that you chose to show up here just two days after everything was settled. No, go on, don't let me interrupt you."

Ky waves at him a little bit and returns her attention to the queen.

"Ahem. Thank you, Count Arendae."

She does a good job of projecting the image of being unbothered by his irreverence and interruption, but it's somewhat noticeable for a few seconds before she gets back into the swing of things.

"It is thanks to the heroism of people like you that the line has held all these years against demonic incursions, and that the lands beyond the wardstone line may know peace. I am deeply honored to live to see such acts, both from our nation’s brave defenders living up to the oaths asked of them in the most difficult of circumstances and from those who, despite having every option to look out for their own safety, still fearlessly chose to do what was right. Though I have no right to demand it of you, I would be very grateful to any of you who continue to embody such virtues in the future. May the inheritor bless you."

After her speech concludes, Queen Galfrey starts speaking with her guests one on one, sometimes just a few brief words and sometimes for a somewhat more extended conversation. Kybele is apparently near the end of whatever list she's going down, so she has a bit of time before anything is expected of her.

Then she will mingle and meet people! If that seems to be the done thing.

Most of them are people she'll at least vaguely recognize; Ramien, Irabeth, Hulrun, Rathimus, and so forth, but there are also a handful of unfamiliar faces if she's looking to meet someone new. The queen has a pair of... either guards or attendants in the room, it's not entirely clear which since of course the queen also wears armor even outside of combat situations, plus a couple of Paladins from Kenabres she doesn't recognize, Joran Vhane, an elf archer, and some people who are probably clerics of a god who's clergy she hasn't met yet.

Given the choice, generally new people. Who's the new god, she can fill some conversational space asking about that.

One of them turns out to follow the chaotic good empyreal lord Pulura the stargazer, and usually ends up working with the Desnans on channel rotations because her congregation isn't big enough to rate its own temple and their gods work closely together. Another follows Gorum, the god of war, and carries with him at all times his full count of weaponry; he's happy to talk religion with her, but emphasizes the more practical aspects of the faith over theology and so admits he might not make the best advocate for it. The last, on closer inspection, has the same holy symbol around his neck as Joran Vhane did and identifies himself as a follower of Torag, the god of honor, protection, and the forge.

Good to meet them all, how do people become clerics around here?

The Puluran cleric has family from Sarkoris-that-was, on her mother's side; she grew up venerating the north star and aching for the past they lost and could no longer experience. When they were in their early 20s, Pulura selected them as a cleric and they've been helping out ever since.

The Gorumite was a third son of a farmer with no prospects for inheritance, so they struck out to seek their fortune. They flirted with banditry, like a lot of people in that situation do, but while the fighting stuck with them they weren't really a fan of the bit about making their living as a parasite. Instead they made the switch to being a mercenary, which is of course a lot like being an adventurer but with more working in relatively large groups for countries fighting against people and less monster hunting. They ended up fighting against Cheliax for Andoran near the end of the civil war there, then some tours fighting both for and against the galtans and up through the river kingdoms, then at some point in one of their battles they found they could heal themselves and keep fighting. These days they fight at the worldwound, since the enemies are both numerous and capable and there are plenty of like-minded folks to fight alongside.

The Toragdan mentions that while it may seem unusual, in fact lots of humans end up getting picked by Torag; he resonates strongly with the dominant cultural mores of dwarves and sees almost universal worship there, so of course a lot of the people he picks can be found amongst their people, but hard work, loyalty, and careful craftsmanship can be found in every species. Lots of people ask him why he didn't choose to follow Iomedae, but while he dislikes evil as much as the next man he resonates less strongly with the idea that you ought to try defeat it yourself by force of arms.