"But if she did convey marching orders, you'd follow them, in the fashion of a chess piece?"

"Well, yes, unless they were illegal, the illegal orders rules apply to Her. Also probably most people who claim to be Iomedae and tell people to do things on this basis are actually succubi or something like that, it's an obvious thing to try."

"Illegal orders rules?"

"When I wrote for instructions I got a copy of the Lastwall disciplinary handbook and it has rules about some orders being illegal to give and the recipient's responsibility to disobey and it explicitly says that this applies up to and including to the goddess Herself. The actual holy book is also interesting and the other guidelines were also useful but that was the part that was really -

- capable of distinguishing Her people from pawns."

Thoughtful nod.

"That speaks very well of Iomedae, to me."

Nod nod.

"Is it better, in your opinion, to be working for Iomedae?"

"...yes?" That's kind of a weird question.

"Seems to me that is also a way in which you can be distinguished from a pawn."

"It happens to be the case that pawns don't have opinions but if they did I don't think this would affect gameplay."

"Hmm, I see your point. On the other hand, if a captured pawn could put in a petition for which side to be deployed to next..."

"...I didn't. I didn't even know it was Her at first. I tried Abadar's symbol before I tried a knife. - I'd make a terrible Abadaran but it would have been less metaphysically surprising, He's neutral and can have evil clerics if He wants."

"So Iomedae being able to redeploy you implies that you weren't evil?"

"I am at least Lawful Neutral as of the time She selected me. Which might be part or all of the explanation for why it took a few weeks, it's not impossible for Asmodeus to have a neutral cleric either but serving Him is pretty Evil."

Thoughtful nod.

"And what if you find yourself at loose ends again? If something were to happen to Iomedae? Would your opinions about potential patrons influence your redeployment then?"

"- well, my alignment would and I may hope to eventually be formally Lawful Good. I'm not sure anyone else would want me except insofar as I suspect I'm cheap for a third-circle, probably only as expensive as a new first-circle. I could I suppose in theory try proactively praying to someone but -"

She waits to see if an end to that sentence is forthcoming. Makes another move while she's at it.

He gets a knight out.

"Well, I'm on this other planet now, and that throws a lot of my heuristics about what I should be doing with my life into question. But my career was spent at the Worldwound. There are individual clerics of other gods there, but the major institutional churches that hold it are - were - the Asmodeans, and the Iomedaeans. With the Abadarans providing the financial scaffolding. I like Abadarans but I'm - not one. He might take me anyway if I'm right that I'm cheap, and I'd try, but I lack the - acquisitiveness."

"I would recommend a local godlike figure if I knew of any worth recommending, but I don't, and don't even know if they could take clerics if it came up. The local equivalent of a career at the Worldwound probably is following me around helping me solve problems, though I lack the level of institutional support you seem to have had. There's some institutional support but it's... of mixed quality."

"Mixed quality how?"

She spends a moment thinking about how to answer that, and makes a move while she's at it.

"...The Watcher's Council—the organization Rupert has connections with—does not have an illegal orders rule, and I've seen things from them that make me wish they did. Our relationship is accordingly a bit tense."

"...would they be interested in adopting one?"

"We can suggest to Rupert that he make the case for it but I doubt it'll take. Their approach is, hmm..." How does she put this... "I think they would like it if they could deploy me as smoothly as a chess piece, and the quality of their strategic and ethical decisionmaking is not high enough for me to be okay with that."

"Where does it tend to fall short?"

"So, the usual situation when a new Slayer is Called looks like this: The Watcher's Council locates the new Slayer, who'll be about fifteen years old at the time, and sends a representative Watcher to explain what's happening and what she needs to do about it and provide her with resources and training. They expect her to do what her Watcher tells her to do, and in fairness that's often a good idea since she's an underinformed teenager and her Watcher is an adult specifically trained and educated in the things relevant to doing her job. Then a few years later when she turns eighteen, they use the pretense of a training session to secretly drug her with a temporary power suppressant, then set a captured vampire on her in a way that's meant to look coincidental. If she survives, she's congratulated on a successful coming of age. This seems to me to be both an evil thing to do and a stupid one. If she dies it's a waste of her training; if she lives it's a waste of her trust. Either way it's very literally and directly doing the vampires' job for them."