Iomedae doesn't know how donating money to the order works!! She doesn't know how anything works! "That sounds good, thank you. And I'll try asking him directly."

She complains to Alfirin that evening, though. "It does not feel intrinsically dishonorable behavior, to me, to have said to us the day we decided that the war would begin in the spring, 'also, if we had another four hundred thousand Absalom pounds here's how we'd spend them'."

"I think if they had said that I would not have thought giving them four hundred thousand Absalom pounds was particularly optional."

"Well, they could've said it was optional! What are paladins for, if not that?" 

"Hmmm. Maybe I'm imagining it wrong but I don't think they'd naively come up with a set of reassurances that would work, for that. I don't know what would."

"Huh. I'm trying to think why I feel differently… oh." Sheepishly. "It's because at some point my brain decided I trust Cansellarion implicitly, and if he said it wasn’t an order that’s good enough. That's…probably bad."

"It doesn't seem like the best lens through which to evaluate how trustworthy he is."

"It's not that I'm going off nothing at all. He follows, very closely, the thing that - it feels to me like paladins are for - and he's careful about important things, and obviously he picked the most important problem in the world to work on. And saved me, I guess I'm also giving some credit for that. But also probably to some degree what is going on is that I feel safer and happier when I trust the people I work for and that probably caused me to trust him more, even though it really shouldn't work like that."

"Hmm… It does seem like it's - making a mistake, kind of - but I don't know how anyone wouldn't make that mistake. Except I guess by never trusting anyone, no matter how trustworthy they seemed, and that also seems like a mistake."

"Well. Maybe he was correct to not bring up the money. But I think I want to give it to him. On a purely selfish practical level I want Abrogail Thrune dead inside the year, right, and on a purely altruistic level I also think that winning the war is the most important thing. I'd feel tremendously stupid if the war went badly in a way that fabulous riches could've solved, and I can't imagine anything I'll find to spend it on where I'll wish I didn't spend it overthrowing Cheliax."

"You're very Good." She says it fondly.

"Well, yes, but am I also being an idiot?"

"I think you're being more trusting than I would be, but not an idiot, here."

"All right. If it turns out I was wrong to trust him I will try to do less trusting people. …Evelyn turned out to be trustworthy."

"She did, but - the stakes were lower. I'm not saying I think you're wrong to trust him."

"I will keep enough for a Teleport out, at least. …and enough to set up another broadcasting station."

"I think that's very responsible of you but you know if you had to get out I'd pay for it… if I wind up dead somehow keep enough for a Teleport out and a new broadcast station."

"If you wind up dead somehow I shall raise you. …so, enough for a True Resurrection. And a Teleport. And a broadcast station."

"Irretrievable, for some reason. Obviously you'd raise me if I just normally died…Also I appreciate you setting aside the money for it but I left you everything in my will, so I don't think you'll have trouble affording it."

"Well, you simply mustn't die irretrievably and if you do I will have a very expensive research project on my hands so I guess it is wise of you to leave me money for it."

"I don't plan on it."

"I should have asked this a while ago," Iomedae says. "But I have four hundred thousand Absalom pounds. How do I use them to take Cheliax away from Hell?"

He sighs. "Everything I can think of better than 'give the money to me to spend on the Order' I've already spent the Order's funds on until it's not a better way anymore. But we try very hard to discourage the sort of culture where our paladins give all their pay right back to the order.

…I'm inclined to ignore that in your case, but only because of your - family resemblance. If you're trying to avoid special treatment."

"It makes sense to me that it would be - bad for the culture of the order, that it'd make it hard for people to have a felt sense that they are - earning money, independently, the effects of which they are responsible for independently, that it feeds the inclination to - trust anything you're in any event acting like you trust, to take your own sacrifices as evidence of their correctness. I do have that tendency, though I try to ignore it. 

But also it really seems like this is an unusual case. Not because of the family resemblance necessarily but because - it's a lot of money, you didn't pay me most of it, I'm going to earn a lot more of it, and if I'd suddenly decided I cared about nothing but my own long life I'd still really want you to take down Cheliax inside this year. And if it makes you feel better I was planning to keep enough for a Teleport and to build a new broadcasting station, if I ever want to leave."

"Are you planning on putting anything aside for things that make you happy? It's what I'd be concerned about if it were another idealistic young paladin. I do think since it's mostly not your salary - entirely not your salary if you're setting aside a teleport and a broadcast station - a lot of the usual concerns don't apply."

Iomedae looks puzzled. "Making guns makes me happy. Shooting damned people probably won't make me happy but I can't think of any other work I've done or expected to do which I didn't like. I guess I should occasionally buy Alfirin presents?"