Oh, he's pushing them to be next to each other while he chants, there's a fair amount of fiddling you do over the course of ten minutes to help the spell along.

"Well how about that. You could sell that, probably. Not in Bordertown so much. Expensive fiddly little things exist. Cybernetics, specialist electronics... But I should be going now. Long day."

"It can go among the rumors. Have a good long day."

He gets some more of the desert people who have come by in the past, coming by. They take the news that he's already spent his channels pretty well, all told. He can still do water, right?

The atmosphere is different. Excited, maybe a bit wary. Someone asks him what Iomedae would do. Just, like, in general.

He can still do water and he can burn spells for Cures if he does get smaller numbers of injured.

"She would find the best thing to do that was within her power, and do that thing."

"Best in what way? Best thing for me might be to steal some guy's stash, right, but I can't imagine that's the point."

"The most good thing. The word for most good is best? Good is helping people and making the world more good? I am still new at English."

"Okay, so you're talkin' about some kind of abstract, moral version of 'good'. Like, a donut can be a good donut or a bad one- If it tastes yummy or awful, but it's not good good except in the sense that delicious food causes joy?"

"Yes, that is right."

This starts a debate among visitors about what moral good is exactly, including throwing around half-remembered ethical questions, like the Prisoner's Trolley Problem.

Would they like his translation in progress of the Acts to consult on this matter? Iomedae has some recorded sermons on the topic!

Sure, sounds like a good use of (nobody's saying the quiet part out loud, but) possibly the last few days of knowing him.

...well. Here's what he's got.

The wheel turns...... The great dice of the galaxy roll......

In the middle of the night, three goons with guns, knives, and improvised restraints try to sneak into his church and capture him. They're smart enough not to bring any loud vehicles near, it's parked a mile off, and proceed on foot, but they're not exactly street ninjas or stealth experts either.

Blai is a light sleeper. He doesn't sleep in his armor, so he doesn't have it, but he's got his gun in arm's reach, and if they've got light then so does he.

Three masked people, with, yes, flashlights and knives. Pistols are holstered, they want him alive. "Shit, rush him!"

And they attempt to do so.

"Qualm," he says, holding up a quelling hand at one of them. The one on the left.

The one on the left freezes in indecision. The other two run forward, going for a grapple more than anything seriously injurious. One is focused on his gun.

"Don't resist and we won't cut you!"

That's a lot of negations and one advanced verb to ask Blai to parse at two in the morning. He shoots.

The range is nearly point blank and he's slightly trained, but sometimes fate is just not on your side. He misses. The sudden light and noise seems to disorient his attackers though, and the one going for his gun flinches away, grabbing at it with his hands and managing to wrench it so it's pointing at the ground, but not shaking loose Blai's grip. The other one goes for a meaty punch to the gut.

The effect on a third circle cleric of an unarmed strike is not impressive. He barely grunts. Can he have his gun back now?

The ability of a third circle cleric in a grapple is fairly impressive. He can have his gun back. The one he qualmed shouts, "Soft target, my ass! Fuck this boys, let's get out of here!"

"Goddammit!" gut puncher comments.

He's not actually sure it's a favor to these goons to let them run back whencever they came without at least a stern talking-to.

...He'll keep the one he Qualmed, perhaps, and find out what's what from that one.

They'd really rather all THREE of them leave, actually!

"Hey hey hey! We fucked up, okay, we'll leave you most of our shit and fuck off and you'll never see us again!"

She doesn't seem to expect this to work, but it's a useful break from struggling against a grapple.

"I do not want stuff. I want to know what has happened."