Brenda heaves after the manner of construction equipment, matching her steps to the other pullers the same way they're matching with each other, and the Wardstone glides along its intended path at a steady pace. It's satisfying work: no stealth, no violence, just "put this thing over here".

Even with this many people pulling it, it's not a fast journey; the streets of Kenabres are not exactly straight, and even in the stretches where it is the wardstone's speed is limited to that of the people pulling the ropes. Still, the journey north passes without incident and the better part of an hour later it's time for the more delicate job of setting the wardstone back into its fitting.

Once the Menhir is settled into position, a sequence of clerics conjure walls of the same grey stone that makes up most of Kenabres' defenses, and less than a minute later it's impossible to tell the Tower of Kite was damaged in the first place. A number of the people who had been pulling cheer.

Yay! Brenda cheers too. Fantasy Novel Logic had her expecting things to go wrong somewhere in there and while they could still go wrong in the next thirty seconds with excellent dramatic timing, it's starting to seem like they won't.

If there's one thing her feats of strength were not, however, it is subtle. Once the work is done, the queen heads over to where Brenda and her friends are waiting.

"I'm told you're the person I have to thank for how well this last week went? I must confess, when I heard news of another major demonic attack on Kenabres I feared the worst."

It's much easier to be blasé about the whole concept of a queen when she's not right there looking at you being more like a President than like someone who occasionally gets mentioned on the covers of supermarket tabloids. Also she did some very impressive magic earlier. Aaaaaa.

"I, um, thank you, your majesty. A lot of people did a lot of important things. I'm glad I was able to contribute." Argh that makes it sound like she was glad there was a demon attack, shutting up now.

"There's no need to be so nervous. It's not every day that Mendev finds itself in debt to someone your age."

The queen smiles approvingly at her as she talks, and it's very easy to understand where all the talk about her charisma is coming from.

"I hesitate to ask this of you, after you have already done more than we can repay, but if you were willing there is something else you could do to help. I've heard you already had a recent adventure in Drezen?"

Okay this isn't a social event it's a plot hook. A very fancy plot hook. Relax and find out what the quest is.

"I have, your majesty. And--I would love to hear what else I could do for Mendev." Maybe there's some important item or piece of information in Drezen the queen wants her to sneak in again and get.

“When Kenabres fought off this attack, it did more than simply defeat the demons in front of it. Those demons represented a core part of Deskari’s current army - demons loyal or fearful enough of him that he could compel them into a suicide mission despite their ability to teleport. If he wishes for Khorramzadeh to rally him another army that amounts to more than simply Derakni and lesser demons, he will need time - time I do not intend to give him. I plan to declare the fifth crusade, and I would like for you to lead it.”

Brenda nods along with the strategic considerations, then stiffens.

"I--it's not that I'm unwilling. I know the importance of taking territory back from the demons. But I know nothing of military strategy, very little of army tactics, nothing of logistics, nothing of inspiring or leading troops. Surely you have generals who would do a better job."

Even as she protests, though, she knows she's going to end up doing it. The weight of Fantasy Novel Logic is too great. There's going to be a dream or a curse or a prophecy and she's going to learn how to lead an army and she's going to make mistakes that cost lives. 

And the worst part? She's kind of excited about it.

She remembers that first massive battle in the streets of Kenabres, how her mind expanded to match the scope of the problem and she did things she hadn't been able to imagine. She wants to find out if she can use Battle Demon with an army as her weapon and another as her foe.

"It's good that you're nervous. This is a large responsibility, and I'm glad you're taking the difficulty seriously, but I'm not asking you to handle it alone. I will be sending advisors with the army, to help and teach you what you need to know. What a Knight-Commander needs more than any of that, though, is to be someone that people are willing to believe can win, and after speaking with Terendelev I'm convinced you're the best candidate for the job."

That's not surprising, and it's a lot better than having to scramble to recruit people based on recommendations from Terendelev and Rathimus. It also sounds like she's going to (quite correctly!) be something of a figurehead there to look inspiring and destinyful while the advisors run the show, at least until Anything You Can Do gets her up to speed, which could take years. At least it shouldn't be hard to make either friends or rivals out of all of them she should not deliberately become rivals with her coworkers to learn faster.

"Thank you. Is there a, a list of advisors I should be meeting with, a written description of the crusade's objectives, something like that? I'm sure there are a dozen things I ought to be doing but I don't know what they all are and which ones can be started yet." Her closest relevant experience to any of this is one summer of working the cash register at the supermarket; if the amount of initial paperwork scales proportionately with the size of the enterprise, she'll have a stack the size of the Wardstone by the end of this week.

"Unless you have a reason to delay it, I will be announcing the crusade and its officers this evening, but there's certainly no harm in you learning sooner. My planned appointments are captain Harmattan to recruitment, Baroness Guanther as your strategic advisor, Quartermaster Garms on procurement, my advisor Nurah Dendiwhar to assist with the diplomatic aspects of the crusade, and Sir Tirabade to serve as your second and assistant. Your head cleric is not yet picked out; I hope to persuade Forgemaster Vhane or Fiducia Rathimus to take up the role, but if neither proves amenable I will have someone teleported in from Nerosyan. I'm not going to send out a crusade without someone able to cast raise. The strategic goal of this campaign is to retake the crusader city of Drezen, which is why the success of your raid on the city is such a positive omen."

Irabeth is awesome; Brenda should have no problem becoming good enough friends with her for accelerated learning. Rathimus would be a very convenient choice since he already knows about the diamonds (and wow is that about to be even more important). 

"I've met Sir Tirabade and Fiducia Rathimus and they're both excellent; I'm sure your other choices are as well. I see no reason to delay the announcement. Would it be convenient for me to spend the time between now and then getting acquainted with the other officers?"

"Certainly. Should I send word to have them meet you at the temple of the inheritor, or is there another location you would prefer?"

"The temple sounds perfect, thank you your majesty."

The first person to find her once she gets a room in the temple is a slate-gray man in golden armor.

"Pardon me, have you seen a woman named Brenda?"

"That would be me; pleased to meet you." And eventually she's going to have the sort of collegial relationship where she'll be able to ask to DFEW him. Even if right now he appears to have been expecting someone older. (Dressing Room put her in what she's pretty sure is Mendevian formalwear before she arrived, but there's only so much good tailoring can do.)

"I see."

Whatever thoughts are going on inside his head, nothing shows on his face or in his voice. 

"You asked to speak with me? I am Captain Harmattan."

"Yes, I'm trying to get acquainted with all the key officers and learn what they need to get things up and running. Short medium and long term goals, problems you forsee having, ways I can make your life easier, and so forth."

"My job is to make sure we have an army. That means I'm handling recruitment, conscription, basic training, and working with the quartermaster to make sure we have enough gear to equip them. I also handle the things that make sure our army can fight, like troop discipline and having competent officers. That probably also now includes making sure people accept the fact that their commander looks like a teenager. My work for the next few days before we set off will be swelling our numbers from militia, guards, and crusaders living in Kenabres or its surroundings; after that, the recruitment job gets harder because we need to raise troops somewhere we aren't and then get them to us without being ambushed by demons. You could make my life easier by being the kind of leader people are enthusiastic about following, not undermining discipline, and not promoting people on a whim."

Oh no, she has to tell him.

"I might be able to stop looking like a teenager if it would help, but, ah. I am a teenager. I'm happy to let you handle discipline and promotions without getting in your way, but we should get on the same page about your general policies first. Have something written down we can cite if someone claims you're being arbitrary, that sort of thing." Aaaaa he's going to be so annoyed at working for a teenager but she can't just let him go all historically-accurate with the discipline without pushing back. Maybe he won't be inclined to.

Captain Harmattan is far too professional to wince at that admission of her age, and it's not visible on his face either. It's not his job to second guess the Queen's staffing decisions.

"Generally speaking, this is one of the areas it's best to give the officers discretion. You don't want your officers not punishing misconduct, yes, but if you give out specific guidelines they're less likely to reduce the penalty even when the case genuinely calls for leniency."

"That makes sense--a written policy can never fully account for every possible situation and we shouldn't try to make it do so--but I do think there should be some kind of broad guidelines, so that recruits know what's expected of them and to avoid different officers having wildly different standards from each other." 

He still thinks describing exact thresholds for what punishments to give to what actions is a bad idea, but he can give some examples of times he thinks punishment was properly applied, and if she wants give those examples as training for new officers. The captain doesn't go into exhaustive detail, but it's easy to get a sense for the kind of punishments Mendev employs. Minor things - mutinous muttering, poor marching order, oversleeping, and so forth - tend to get punished with unpleasant duties like digging latrines or half rations, while more serious violations get punished with lashes or transfer to the penal battalions. They don't seem to make much use of the death penalty except insofar as being put in high risk positions counts, but a few things do qualify like high treason, being a demon cultist, and a few kinds of desertion in the face of the enemy.

Would he mind explaining the concept of penal battalions? She would naively have expected that putting the worst soldiers all in the same place would lead them to drag each other further down to the point where you might as well dishonorably discharge them and have done, and if she's wrong about that that sounds important to know.