"The Church of Abadar agrees with this analysis to the extent that they believe Lastwall to be presently committed to neutrality at all."

"Okay.  Unrelated question - mostly unrelated question - what did Iomedae say, when She directed you to raise us?"

"She didn't direct it, exactly. Just told me that I could resurrect the mortal Iomedae. I could check the incident report for the exact wording if you have a question that turns on that."

Incident report?? "- I don't think so, I was just trying to get a sense of how much I could assume that our being here and doing this was Her intent - is it normal for Her to say that little -"

"Yes. It's expensive for Her to send a vision and more expensive the more She communicates."

"So we can make some inferences from the fact She spoke to you but the rest we just have to figure out? Is what She said to you secret?"

"Well, it's much less expensive for us to ask Her questions via commune, so we can ask Her for clarifications. We asked Her if we should proceed with industrialization, for example. We try to be proactive about asking things so that She doesn't have to do the more expensive intervention of contacting us. What She said to me is secret, but only insofar as your identity and presence in the world and how you got here are, you can tell Alfirin or anyone else who knows those things."

"Those were the only questions I had." Though she would not be unhappy if he'd picked up on new-Iomedae-with-fewer-political-opinions and wanted to ask about it, declaring things about it would run counter to new-Iomedae-with-fewer-political-opinions.

"Dismissed, then, we both have things to do."

A few nights later Iomedae wakes up screaming. Her skin is cold and her nose is bleeding and she doesn't remember what woke her but it was very very terrible.

Alfirin jerks awake and - looks around - rushes to the door to send one of the guards for help, because something is wrong and she doesn't know what.

She holds Iomedae. "What happened, is it still here?"

Iomedae spent the few seconds Alfirin was getting help fighting her way through the pillows on Alfirin's side of the bed panicking about the fact Alfirin wasn't there, never mind that she could literally see Alfirin standing a few feet away. "- I don't know. I don't think so?"

"You're hurt." It's a stupid observation.

"I can heal myself but maybe useful for figuring out what happened? If I wasn't hurt I'd think I just - had a nightmare - but I don't think nightmares punch you in the face. …but if anything hostile was here we should both be dead." …cling.

Cling. "Yeah I can't imagine how someone could try an assassination that got here and then didn't succeed. It's okay, I'm okay. A cleric will be here soon, I hope."

Iomedae will hold Alfirin very tightly until that happens. 

A cleric arrives. "What happened, did you need healing?"

"I'm not very injured," Iomedae says. "But I am injured and that's fairly concerning, since I don't think anything should've been able to get in here. I - woke up to something very terrible and I was bleeding. That's all I remember. I'm sorry. - Alfirin did you notice anything before I screamed?"

"I was asleep until then, and I saw the blood and - No, I didn't notice anything before that."

"A nightmare, then. Not just a bad dream, the magic kind of nightmare that evil wizards send to their enemies. There's not anything to be done now, except heal you. I'm guessing someone will talk with you about security measures in the morning."

That's a thing that can happen? "I understand," says Iomedae, more than a bit shaken. "I can heal myself."

The priest departs.

"You were right," Alfirin says, "I've been thinking it ever since they tried to abduct you - that I should be trying harder to become a wizard, because things like this are just going to keep happening, aren't they, and I can't protect you with lathes."

Iomedae hiccups shakily. "It's not - fair for it to be your job to protect me on top of industrializing an entire planet."