"- Seems like it's missing the point? Or, the second part is."

"I mean, it's not entirely irrelevant, it's worse to do witch burnings if there aren't even any real witches. But yes. It felt like they agreed it was unfortunate and would do something about it if they saw something to do about it but did not feel like it was a colossal betrayal of everything their goddess stands for that they should immediately all go on the radio and vocally denounce - though maybe when I get a magistrate they will feel that way, I was advised to get a magistrate."

"Why a magistrate, did Valentina think you could get the convictions overturned or something?"

"No. Different legal system, and anyway if they're dead it wouldn't help that much. Just to speak on the radio about how the law's supposed to work and what they're doing wrong if that's what they're doing in Kenabres. I am tempted to go to Kenabres myself and ask questions pointedly, though - many possible ways of doing it are an unacceptable risk - and if I talk about it on the air it implies a lot about the resources of my organization-."

"Yeah. Risky to go to a war zone for interviews, and it tells the world that you can afford to teleport to a war zone for interviews." Probably it would be good - for the radio show, for her sanity - for Iomedae to leave Vigil occasionally to do some reporting, but it doesn't seem very safe, and 'the border of the worldwound where people get executed for not reporting their friends to the inquisition' seems like a particularly unsafe place to go.

"The fact it's risky is why it'd be such good radio, though," Iomedae says dreamily. "I could confront the corrupt priest - I am aware this is stupid and reckless and the same part of me that wants to go to Hell and duel Asmodeus -"

"No dueling Asmodeus. I veto."

"If you say so… I'll save my intrepid reporting from Kenabres for when the war starts, and Cheliax has bigger problems. I assume we'll be even busier but it could be done in a few hours and it'll be good for me and someone's got to take it appropriately seriously. …I guess I do need to confirm that the plan is for me to remain here for the war's duration. Most of the order's empowered paladins are, you know, participating in the fighting."

"Mm." Alfirin holds her tight. "You're probably still more useful at the radio than on the front lines, I imagine? For morale and stuff."

"I think so. I am a mediocre rifleman and unparalleled at making fun of Abrogail Thrune."

"You know when we were planning all this back on Earth I never imagined that when it came down to the actual fighting they might want you sheltered away from the front and me at it - They don't, I expect, but if we'd had the tanks and artillery out sooner they might've."

Iomedae's turn to hold Alfirin tight. "I don't want you at the front lines. You might die. I am a tremendous hypocrite here, I know."

"You are. I don't want to die either, though. Even if they tell me to go I won't."

"I don't think it makes any sense right now. They need bullets more than they need field engineers, they're going to be giving up on anything a Mending doesn't fix and we could only with difficulty improve on that… if we had ten years we'd have such a good army. I don't think it's worth waiting but I was definitely imagining we'd have more time before it was directly engaged in the most important fight."

"It doesn't seem worth waiting, no. We'd have had such a good army, though… Maybe it's for the best. If we decide when it's all over that it doesn't make sense for Lastwall to be holding all the guns, we'll probably be glad they don't have planes or howitzers." Or nuclear weapons, but they don't speak of those anymore.

Iomedae asks her secretary to find her a priest who can teach her about her religion. Ideally one who is allowed to know who she is, though she can probably also work with one who isn't so long as they're not imaginative enough to guess.

…Any priest, or does she need someone senior or a theologian or something?

There are theologians? What…is the difference between a priest and a theologian?

Theologians are basically all priests, they're just priests with more of an - academic? - focus. They're usually not empowered themselves, and they do things like formulating communes and giving policy recommendations and stuff.

Iomedae is mildly surprised that they haven't asked to meet her. She sort of imagines that if you want to understand your god it'd be useful to have a version of her on hand even if it's a teenager who isn't sure she agrees with the god. You could at least pick out which were the persistent tendencies and which ones were situational. Raise a hundred Iomedae-clones in a hundred different families in Lastwall - she should suggest that, actually - no, the technology's way too distant - "I don't know. I'm trying to figure out if I should trust the Goddess. Is that a common problem?"

"It's not a very common problem, I think, and most people who have it are coming from a position of greater ignorance than you…"

"I actually don't know all that much formal theology. I read through the holy book but" now she's embarrassed with herself, "the week I got here, when my Taldane literacy was pretty shaky. I - maybe you should get a theologian who doesn't know who I am but would be very qualified to notice any ways in which I am a heretic, that would probably be very informative all by itself."

"Okay. I'll set something up."

"Young lady, I hear you had questions about the Goddess?"

Iomedae is not in her scifi jumpsuit or in uniform, in favor of looking like a wizard she saw in Absalom once. She isn't sure how to expect this to go but it probably goes differently if it is established she's already an empowered paladin. "I am trying to figure out if I agree with Her, and if I understand Her. The difficulty I'm having is that it seems hard to guess what She would want, if there weren't a country ruled by Hell and a rift to the Abyss, and if She'd finished her war with Tar-Baphon, and - I don't know. It's hard to evaluate a god who seems mostly busy barely not losing a lot of different wars. I think I want Her to win those but it's not the same thing as trusting Her. Do you trust Her?"