No, he's heard that one, so courage makes sense. "You're sure she's honor, too?"

"I think so. I've always heard it honor and courage or honor and glory."

"Wouldn't have been much of a goddess of Menador if she wasn't, would she."

"Alright, then ask her what she's arresting us for and what they do to prisoners if they haven't done anything, and have her swear to it."

"It'll be the same either way."

They could fight otherwise. "Ask her."

There's a little bit more heated whispering before Oriol threatens to do it himself, and then Ferran takes a deep breath and clears his throat.

"Excuse me. The men want to know what we're being arrested for."

"On suspicion of assisting a priest of Asmodeus illegally operating in the Empire."

Have they done that? They didn't bring him here intentionally. He can't think of anything they've specifically assisted him with since they got here. Of course they've done many things you could call that - but not anything you could call that that she hasn't herself witnessed already -

"Are we being arrested for something you believe we did, or something you know us to have done." He's speaking too quickly but he doesn't know how to stop doing that.

"I could arrest you for claiming to be of the house Narikopolus, which I do know you to have done. But I would prefer not to, and in fact don't care very much about that if you're not going to do it ongoingly, whereas I care a lot about the fact you are Asmodeans and your Asmodean priest somehow contacted assistance and fled. I would be relieved to learn that whatever his and Asmodeus's plot you have no knowing part in it, and don't currently know whether or not you do."

He's not even certain the priest was taken by Asmodeus, though of course that's an obvious guess. This still seems like it might be protective if ignorance is actually protective here.

He glances at Guim and Oriol.

"The men want to know what you do with prisoners."

"We're a paladin order. ...do you know what a paladin order is?"

Well they are ILLEGAL. 

" - I've not known any myself. We fight alongside them at the Worldwound, but I've not served there."

"Paladins are chosen by the Good and honorable gods, like priests, and renounced for many more things than priests are. For dishonorable conduct, of course, but also for willful cruelty, for killing innocent people, sometimes just for failing to defend them. No one has died in the custody of my order save for if they were convicted of murder, or desertion, or of work in the service of the Enemy. ...this may not help you, if you are serving Asmodeus. But if you aren't, then when it can safely be done without furthering His schemes here or those of the other evil gods, you will be released. We will not steal your possessions, or charge your food against them while you're not permitted to leave. We don't torture people. I don't know if that answers your question."

He swallows and glances at Guim and Oriol before turning back to Iomedae.

"We want you to swear that no harm will come to any one of us in your custody who's committed no crimes in your territory which you've not already witnessed or learned of. On your honor as a warrior of Menador."

That should really be a request, but at least the kid is trying something. He has an awful feeling about what the kid is trying, but he's not going to be able to get an uncooperative Ferran out.

She does not need their cooperation, of course, and it is unwise in a confusing situation to bind oneself to a particular handling of it that Asmodeans requested when they had more context than she does. 

But also, it seems that there is something like this which ideally any person surrendering to any authorities would be assured of and she should set the Asmodean element aside and think about what that is and whether she can promise it.

"I have not witnessed or learned what you said to your priest before he fled, or whether any of you spoke to the wizard who arrived for him, or what he was doing prior to that and whether you could have interrupted him in it. I do not understand what forms your devotion to Asmodeus takes, and many forms of it are crimes, in this territory, not all of them crimes I would have known I was witnessing. If we determine that a man has had no part in any crime beyond what was said to me when we met, and what I have witnessed since then, I can promise he will not come to lasting harm at the hands of my men or with my leave, though we may not release him until we know Hell's plans here and whether he is an instrument of them, and we may make it a condition of his release that he not further those plans.

Aroden can issue orders that take precedence over mine, in this matter; so can Arazni; so can the commander of the Crusade General Arnisant, or the Emperor. They never have, I do not believe any of them will, and I think they are all more likely to kill you if you don't come with me now.

Would this be reassuring to your men, if I swear to it?"

Devotion to Asmodeus isn't, like... a thing you do... he doesn't think that he has personally worshipped or prayed to Asmodeus since he got here, but that being in some cases an entirely mental action he's not entirely sure he can be sure of it, and if it's just, like, being okay with Asmodeus he doesn't really know how you would even stop doing it -

He's also so bad at contracts, gods, he doesn't think he remembers all of that. 

"Not counting whatever any of us may have done before we arrived in your Barrowood today?"

"I think under most circumstances it would be unjust to punish things done in another land, and it is not our custom, but the situation is very odd and I am not sure how I'd evaluate past acts that imply significant future problems, like if someone ...has a bow that is actually an enslaved dryad whose clan now wants revenge, or promised their firstborn son to Hell - I'm not saying that even an Asmodean would do that, there's just a lot of things I would be promising to ignore, and I do not trust my own imagination that far."

"I think that we have all obviously done things in the course of our entire lives that would have been crimes if we had been living in another land."

Of course there's no particular reason they'd be entitled to any better deal than 'unconditionally surrender or we'll kill you, and we may decide to kill you anyway' if their captors can easily kill them, but if they're going to count every act they've taken in their lives towards 'work in service to our enemies', and treat 'work in service to our enemies' as a capital crime, then he doesn't really see that any assurance whatsoever to enemy prisoners is possible. It's not obvious why you would even bother taking them.

- because they have information, they said. Right. Otherwise they would in fact be executed.

"Yes. And in most cases I can imagine it would be unjust and evil to charge you with those. But this situation is very unusual and I have a very poor understanding of what we are dealing with here, and so I am unwilling to promise that nothing done before you came to our lands would possibly be relevant, though if you want to provide a specific example I can maybe offer a more specific assurance."

So, what that is is instead suggesting that he immediately confess to everything he's ever done that he thinks could possibly be a crime, which specifically will not improve the situation for him in any way, but will significantly lower the amount of effort she needs to put into getting him to confess to any partiular crime.



"I can't think of any reassurance you could give us, then."

"Understood. Are you going to go with Alfirin?" 

He tries, for another moment, to think of something brave and noble he can do in this situation instead of being absolutely pathetic and useless.

He's pretty sure there's nothing. That's what being a prisoner is. He has been captured by enemy forces, and is utterly at their mercy. He has no power and no dignity and he shouldn't have engaged. He thinks possibly talking to these people is in general a mistake. He wishes he were back in the forest with a mangled foot, and he really especially wishes that he were home with his wife and his nephew who he hates. He wishes he could run a model of how they could possibly get out of here, but he can't even really think about that very well anymore. 

Maybe everyone else is less dumb and will manage to escape somehow if they don't have a bunch of dead weight to deal with. 

"Fine. I and Guim and Oriol will go with you."

Yaaaaay.