Snort. "Welcome to Cincinnati."

"I've seen worse, in some respects."

"You're also seeing the people with the fewest options here. The most desperate. Which is why we're out here. The quiet ones don't stick in your mind, the loud idiots do."

Nod. "Will you tell me if there is more reason to move the names on my list that I do not see?"

Peer.

"I'm not aware of any reason to move these names around at this time. Oh, wait. That one. He's a frequent flyer and a drug seeker- Ah, that means he asks for medical intervention often and tries to get us to give him painkillers that will get him high. I'd bet - hundred bucks, maybe not a thousand, there's nothing wrong with his hearing. Technically I'm not supposed to share private medical information like history of painkiller use, patient confidentiality, but you relevantly count as a consulting treatment specialist."

"...it is not fun to have the spell cast. It will feel like nothing if it does nothing," blinks Blai.

"Perhaps he assumes it will have some unexpected beneficial effect. Perhaps he assumes he can substitute someone who has paid him at the last moment. Perhaps he mistakenly believes he is deaf. I try not to contemplate such a mind too much."

Blai nods and moves the name down.

"The plan was to send you back to your church now and fetch you again this evening for the second channel, but I hadn't considered the other 'spells'. It was really about the channel. Which I estimate has saved about a dozen lives and generated many thousands of dollars of value when you consider time and supplies not used for treatment and suffering avoided. Largely by allowing us to reserve more supplies for emergency cases, leaving non-urgent ones to the channel... If someone attacks this location to try to get to you I would appreciate it if you left quickly, to reduce collateral damage. We really cannot defend you in any serious fight."

"Understood. Would it make sense for me to have and learn to operate a vehicle?"

"Not sure so I'll just describe the factors. You can afford a cheap one, and fuel to run it, easily enough with the payment I know you to have received. Four to eight thousand to buy, maybe fifty or a hundred bucks a day in maintenance and operating expenses, it depends. Learning to drive to the point where you're not liable to immediately crash... Probably around sixty hours of practice? Half that with an instructor in the vehicle."

"Sixty hours! I don't suppose I can get a horse instead."

"That's sixty hours to get proficient at it, learn the rules of the road, ingrain the small habits. I'm sure you could go real slow on smooth roads and not crash as long as you're very careful after two hours or so. The same way I imagine new horse riders can technically sit in a saddle and ride somewhere after two hours, but would they be good at it? Cars don't have any self-preservation instinct the way horses do. And I really don't suppose you could get a horse, no. I wouldn't know where to even ask."

"I suppose even if there were a horse to be had it would not have training the opposite of mine," he muses. "I can instead walk out, if necessary. I will not be able to magic up a horse until and unless I gain another spell circle and then it would be quite the tradeoff anyway."

"I can arrange free driving lessons if you think it's worth your time. I just - don't understand you and am trying to make absolutely no assumptions."

"Is there a question that would help you to understand?"

"People have different reasons for helping the Mercy Crew. Because they soberly decided it was the right thing to do. Because they feel guilty over something. Because helping people feels good. Because they believe in the social contract of 'paying it forward'- When someone does a good deed for you, you should do a good deed for a stranger in turn. Because they want to appear to be a kind and generous person. Because they can't stand to see suffering and not try to help. Because they want a good reason to be out in the Bordertown for illicit activities. Combinations of all of the above and more besides. But... Your motivations would not really change things... I've been imagining a vaguely medieval person, someone who answers to a King or some other noble, who travels on a horse or a boat or on feet, from a land where most people are farmers and things like engines and smartphones are incomprehensible wizardry. Is this broadly correct as far as how I should aim my explanations?"

"Wizardry is comprehensible. I have met many wizards. But yes."

"Alright then, I can just keep doing that since I'm too tired for a more nuanced evaluation and I expect you to only be available to help briefly and so want to maximize short term effectiveness."

"It does seem fairly likely that at some point I will be kidnapped or assassinated, yes. I hope I can finish the translation of the Acts in case that is helpful to this planet, first."

"This is the holy book some people have mentioned to me? I can score- that is, acquire- a photocopier or digital scanner easy enough, which make copies of pages on new pieces of paper and convert pages into images stored on phones and computers respectively."

"I can copy the book at a minute a page, given paper and ink, but no one can read it until it is translated. Phone pages might be good as well though."

"A photocopier can make a copy of a page about every six seconds."

She yawns.

"Why do you consider this book potentially helpful to the planet? So I can give it a priority level on my side of things."

"I do not think it will help very much by itself. But it will - leave open the chance for people to seek the other Good gods mentioned in it - Iomedae Herself is having an expensive year, but She has allies in Paradise, who might choose clerics here, if there is not some reason they have not already done this."

She thinks about it for a bit.

"Right, powers granted by a god. And there are more than one of those. As mathematicians sometimes joke, there are only three real numbers- Zero, one, and many. Turning one cleric into many clerics is... Low probability, extreme payoff. Worth investing in."