For a moment, the thought flashes through her mind that maybe both the elves are Evil and she accidentally pledged her loyalty to Evil ends again.

But—this isn't what Evil feels like. Even the sense of unease that normally accompanies detected Evil is different. She's detecting… Chaos, perhaps?

No.

Deep in her gut, she knows what it really is.

But why did the Twelve Gods switch out her Detect Evil for Detect Good?

Maybe… maybe they realized that she needed more help determining which causes she should align herself with. After the confusion with Lord Shojo. He was clearly Neutral, at best. And if she'd had Detect Good back then, she would have known. Could have done something.

Then why does it feel BAD

It isn't appropriate to question the judgment of the gods, especially when they've given her a second chance.

The elf is looking at her.

"I'm sorry," she says sincerely.

… She doesn't know what this child is apologizing for. She still feels instinctively suspicious of the elf, but. The gods are telling her that she is Good. She needs to trust trusts the gods.

"You don't need to apologize, little one."

(Her voice is shaking, a little.)

She tilts her head to one side, birdlike. "No one needs to apologize... you do it because it might help. Whatever hurt you, I didn't want it to; so, if it was me, I'm sorry."

Miko could say that it wasn't the elf girl, but that would be lying.

But "I was put at ill ease because of your Good alignment" would also give this kid the wrong idea.

She supposes she can truthfully say that she was more hurt by realizing that the gods took away her Detect Evil and by Good feeling bad than by the elf herself.

"I see. Still, you did not do anything that hurt me."

After a moment:

"Thank you for your concern, though."

"Oh," the elf says, troubled.

"You're welcome," she says a few seconds later, "but I wish it was something I'd done. It's usually better that way... then I could change it. You can't learn if you never do anything wrong."

She wanders off, humming distractedly.

???????

She… wishes that it was her fault???

While she's trying to process that, Confusing Elf Girl leaves.

Miko's tempted to follow, but—she's conveniently alone, now. She kneels down near the tree, amidst the poppies. Normally she'd light twelve candles, but all her belongings were confiscated when she was arrested.

Then again, she's not wearing the same armor she died almost died in and has a pair of new magic items. Maybe she's got new inventory?

Her new inventory includes:

• a headband she hadn't previously noticed, which seems to be boosting her Wisdom and Charisma at the same time despite being neither a Periapt nor a Cloak

• a belt, doing the same for Strength and Dexterity

• her armor, which turns out to be enchanted both for protection and for ??hygiene?? - it's absorbed the blood she spilled on it, and looks glossy and somehow satisfied

• two sheaths, sized for katana and wakizashi but containing no such weapons at this time

• and general adventuring supplies (sans rations) in a Bag of Holding, including fourteen candles. (Also a collapsible ten-foot pole and two hundred feet of silk rope.)

… Wow, the Twelve Gods have been very kind to her, as far as magic items are concerned. She'll need to take good care of them to properly show her gratitude. She wishes that she'd been able to keep her weapons, and would plausibly trade the headband and belt for them, but. She's not going to be ungrateful.

Besides, before she was a paladin she was a monk. Perhaps the gods are telling her that she needs to take greater advantage of her monk levels.

(She's still going to prioritize getting her hands on a proper blade, of course.)

She's amused by the ten-foot pole. Apparently she's now one of those adventurers.

She—moves away from the tree so she can have enough room around her to set up her candles in a circle.

She lights them one by one, murmuring each god's name in turn. Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon…

"Thank you for sparing me. And for the magic items. And for restoring… most of my class features. I promise to use them, and my life, and—my ability to Detect Good. To do your will. I promise to help Terendelev and Hulrun without asking for anything in return. To—to do as Lord Soon asked of me.

"Please, Twelve Gods, if you can tell me… how did you save my life? Why? What do you need me to do? Why do I have something strange inside my body? Why am I here? When can I go home? Is Azure City in good hands?

"I only ask for understanding so that I can be a more effective servant to you. I am faithful to you always."

A strange insect has landed on the ground before her. It begins chewing on the poppies, ripping them out of the ground with strength belying its tiny size, not even eating them, just destroying them as fast as it can.

Then there are two.

Ten.

The locusts swarm out of nowhere, droning a horrible drone and shredding through whatever they can reach. All around, festivalgoers are screaming - or they're cackling as they shed their illusory human forms to reveal demonflesh beneath.

And the drone reaches a fever pitch, and the sky is torn in half, and a great and awful creature steps through. Gargantuan, at least, with a scythe of bone and chitin, and wing-like swarms of those same demonic locusts flapping behind it.

Terendelev rushes forth into the square, casting spells left and right, blasting demons like papier-machê. And she starts to change - her neck lengthens, her hands grow razor talons, and wings burst from her back, until she stands not as an elf but as a full-grown dragon with scales like moonlight.

"Back, Deskari!" she bellows. "Return to your fetid pit, away from my-"

The scythe swings down into her with a terrible inertia. It goes straight through her skull and pins it into the shattered flagstone beneath.

"No," he says, simply. It reverberates through the courtyard, above the screams.

She opens her eyes, shocked. Her first impulse is to Smite them—but no, they're clearly a symptom of whatever disaster has struck, not the cause. She abandons her prayer circle to rush into the town square.

Why did the gods take away her ability to Detect Evil? She could have—

No time to think of that. She has to focus on what she can do now. She can tell that she personally stands no chance against Deskari, not if it instantly killed a dragon like that.

She can attack the demons on the ground, though. Her slightly-less-short-term goal is to protect Terendelev's body and increase the odds that a cleric who can Raise Dead has access to her.

She's joined by a handful of guards, who seem to think clustering around the high-level adventurer sounds like the best idea available.

This lasts until a Glabrezu blasts her location with a Cone of Cold, which she handily evades, and which the low-level warriors around her don't.

"Hsst!" hisses a halfling down a semi-blind alley. "Over here, woman! You can't dodge forever!"

Miko ignores the halfling. A paladin never retreats, and certainly never abandons those weaker than herself.

(Even though currently she's defending a handful of corpses.)

Besides, 90% of people fighting a seemingly endless wave of demons give up right before defeating the demons.

"Damn it all," the halfling mutters, and dashes out to press something into Miko's hand.

It's a throwing knife, made of... obsidian, maybe? It won't do her any good in close quarters, but it's well weighted and it'd carry well through the air. It glows, in a way that feels right.

"Aim for the big bastard," the halfling says grimly. "Give him one in the eye."

Then he's gone.

See? Obstinately sticking to her principles rather than selfishly prioritizing her own survival was the correct move. It even inspired the halfling to a moment of bravery!

She appreciates the feel of the dagger for a moment before lining up a shot and aiming for Deskari's eye. Dexterity-and-strength-boosting belt, this is your chance!

The dagger flies true. As it flies, it seems to grow - not in physical size, but in meaning. In import. This, it says, as it soars closer and closer, means something.

It sinks deep into Deskari's compound eye, and he screams. Black ichor wells up from the wound, and one perfect drop of it falls to the ground, turning to crystal along the way and clinking off under an overturned food cart.

He turns and sees Miko.

"Insolent little traitor," he snarls. "I will send you to the pits, and you may tell whatever sniveling fiend favored you that its days are numbered."

His scythe has long since been freed from Terendelev's corpse. It comes down faster than sight, and the earth splits beneath Miko's feet.

… If she sees the halfling again, she will thank him.

She knows that Deskari is much more powerful than she is, that she's almost certainly going to die again. And she's—confused, by what it says. She's not a traitor to anyone and she certainly doesn't comport with fiends!

That train of thought takes a backseat, though.

She wakes to a distant voice. "-it's not that bad. Um. Really, it's not that bad... I've seen worse..."

"Lies," grunts another voice, "are not anesthetic. You're thinking of alcohol."

Honestly, this isn't as bad as the first time she woke up today. Unless she's somehow in yet another foreign city with even worse demon problems.

She opens her eyes.

She's underground. Looks like she fell a few hundred feet. Doesn't look like the crevasse she fell through was considerate enough to stick around after she was done using it.

Also, either this cavern is surprisingly well-lit and her armor lost those red accents, or she's got Darkvision for some reason.