It looks like they’ve been split into pairs, one of them blindfolded and one not, with the one that can still see giving instructions to the person who can’t on how to navigate a reconfigurable obstacle course.

Oh, how clever! How are the soldiers taking to it? Whose idea was this, she wants to radiate approval at them.

The soldiers do seem to sometimes be annoyed about the whole bumping into walls deal, but mostly just in the moment; if anyone is carrying a grudge or mad at the instructor over it, it's not obvious. The NCO running the exercise learned it from his own training back during the 4th crusade, where he thinks it was from Lastwall but isn't sure if they invented it or copied it from somewhere else.

She wants to try it. Who would like to give blindfolded Ky directions?

Having your boss' boss' boss come join your training is kind of intimidating; having her ask to join in is somewhat terrifying. Fortunately the intimidation is balanced out by excitement, especially once people get a good enough look to realize the rumors weren't exaggerating about her having the sword of an angel. She can get a number of enthusiastic volunteers, though a look from the Sergeant-major keeps them mostly composed. She's welcome to either pick someone or have one picked for her.

She will attempt to diminish the intimidation factor by blithely bumping into walls when directed to do so by... that guy, he looks particularly thrilled by the concept.

He looks even more excited to be chosen!

Navigating even an obstacle course as simple as this one by verbal instructions is harder than it sounds, especially with the main units of distance on offer being steps and getting a diagonal turn exactly right being something of an exercise in frustration; it honestly seems as much a lesson in the virtue of giving clear commands and good leadership as in learning how to rely on them. Still, Kybele is more than fit enough not to struggle with any of the obstacles she needs to climb and the test is fundamentally designed to be solved, so she'll still make pretty good time and get out with most of her dignity un-punctured by walking face first into a wall.

She takes a bow at the end of the course and thanks her instructor.

The soldiers applaud, somewhat more loudly than they'd been doing whenever one of their pairs completed it, and the sergeant-major gives her a nod in approval.

"Keep up the good work, folks!"

And she's off again. She wants lunch.

Where would she like to get it? There's a soldier's mess she presumably qualifies for, or she could stop by a temple again, but there's also places selling food that she could either pay for herself or try to track down whatever wages she's supposed to be getting as knight commander.

That's a good question, actually. She'll try the soldier's mess - she feels reasonably qualified to take Irabeth's advice about talking with rank and file occasionally and it's a way to do it - and then she will go ask Wilcer Garms about the budget situation or who she should ask.

The food from the mess isn't the tastiest she's ever had - certainly not compared to the restaurant she went to last night - but it's not bad, and 'hot' and 'fast' both have quite a bit to say for them. She'll get a few more double takes along the way, though.

"Your salary? Certainly, let me just check that."

Wilcer Garms frowns, then goes digging into the papers in his temporary desk. Over the next few minutes he goes through several stacks of paper, but judging by the creases on his forehead doesn't seem to be having much luck.

"I'm not sure what the payscale is for the knight commander - it's not listed in the normal place or the charter, and there's not even anything in the legacy files from the fourth crusade..."

His voice trails off, filled with dawning comprehension.

"That would explain it. I don't think Mendev has ever paid a salary to a knight commander before, since up until now that's just been the queen and because Mendev's crown has been the one doing most of the funding for the crusades it would just have been her paying herself. Uh, I can authorize pay for you as a staff officer, but if you want more than that you might want to get it cleared with the Queen before she leaves town for Nerosyan."

"How much are the staff officers getting?"

"A hundred twenty crowns monthly, with ten more as allowances for those in the cavalry for upkeep of their horses."

"Is equipment like magic items budgeted separately?"

"Not directly. You can get purchases of items you use on crusade partly subsidized, if you can get your commanding officer to sign off on it, but the subsidy isn't that large - ah, as knight commander you would count as your own commanding officer, as well as for most of the other higher ranking staff officers. Aside from that there are also procedures for loans of magical items for a specific strategic purpose, like wands of glitterdust for wizards tasked with stopping invisible demons or potions of healing for high value combatants, but they don't just get to sell it when the crusade is over if they have charges left. Most of our staff officers will probably end up with enchanted weapons and armor, and maybe a few items or full plate for the ones with independent wealth, but unless you're like... raiding dragon lairs the really expensive stuff you see in high end shops mostly doesn't get sold at all."

"Damn, okay. Staff officer salary will do me for at least the time being, thank you."

"Not a problem. I'll try and speak with the queen about it; it doesn't feel right for us to be asking the knight commander to work for less than her subordinates. In the meantime we can see about compensation for the commodities you're supplying. I don't want to commit to a hard valuation right now, especially when we don't know what it'll look like in practice, but some back of the broadsheet calculations suggest your abilities at producing paper will save us easily twice what we're paying you in wages and five times that if you can also make enough paper to use as fuel. Maybe even more value than that, if it turns out that having you available means we use significantly more paper than we otherwise would, or less weight being transported brings down the price per pound, but that's even harder to evaluate. I'm hoping to get Rathimus or a colleague of his to weigh in how to split that properly, but at the very least a large chunk of that ought to go to you like how we still pay wizards for scrolls they make the crusade."

"I'll have to experiment with getting it to come out compressed or otherwise suitable for use in fires that last longer than five minutes, but it's probably doable."

"Inheritor willing."

He's certainly not going to suggest she go elsewhere if she has more questions or is interested, but his experience with most officers is that most of them are unconcerned in the nitty gritty details of making an army run, and as long as there's someone to delegate to are perfectly happy to not deal with it.

She peeks over his shoulder briefly but next on her agenda is to find Baroness Guanther and ask her about swordfighting lessons.

That's actually quite flattering. Gaunther is skilled at using a sword - any noble worth their salt is, and a half dozen other weapons besides - but insofar as her personal combat abilities get attention it's mostly for the fact that she can do magic while fighting. She can definitely take some time to help out Kybele with lessons.

Ky would like to also know how to do magic while fighting, but in truth her strength and speed have far outstripped her skill, and she isn't under the impression she can coast forever.