...She takes a closer look at that soul.

It isn't hard for a god to see it, once she knows to focus on it. There's a tiny spark of what the mortal who preceded her might have called godhood, or a step on the path to it, though of course from a god's-eye view the reality is more complicated. She — would not have expected the Wardstones to do that, even knowing the truth of what composes them. Perhaps her understanding was incorrect — even the gods rarely see this variety of soul — or perhaps it has something to do with the extended period of time when the soul was incapable of taking actions towards its goals and she had very poor visibility of what was happening to it. (Though a smaller spark seems to have attached itself to one of her paladins, and to this other moderately-visible mortal, and she thinks also to these other very blurry mortals, which is a problem with that hypothesis.)

(She is also tracking the various reports from her paladins asserting a 'miracle', some with direct knowledge of what happened, but mortals have a predictable tendency to interpret unexplained supernatural occurrences as miracles regardless of the underlying source. To the extent that the Wardstone was a contributing factor, it might not even be entirely inaccurate.)

Regardless of the cause, though, this is an opportunity, one of the best opportunities on this planet in the past several years.

(Oh, and here are the spells he asked for. If he's paying very, very close attention, there's something that feels slightly different about the Delay Poison.)

Is something WRONG with it?? - Iomedae would not give him a spell with something wrong with it but what if it's different and it's in a way where it's important to be able to predict and he can't -

As expected, Iomedae does not clarify.

WELP

Okay. Time to start the day. Anybody who wasn't just immersed in prayer for an hour have any news from the last sixty minutes or should he just eat breakfast?

"Select boy, do you happen to remember how many spells I was capable of preparing yesterday?"

"You did not report to me about that."

"Unfortunate. I appear to have roughly double the typical quantity for a third-circle wizard, but I am uncertain as to whether I am simply unusually talented or whether my arcane talents have improved recently."

"I... don't think you were that profligate before."

"Fascinating. Do you have any idea what could have caused this to happen?"

"...side effect of the business with the Wardstone?" he hazards. "Something feels odd about one of my prepared spells and I have a new thing that feels like it might be a distance casting Inflict or Cure power." Time to round up everybody else (and Ember, who wasn't there) to see.

Everyone but the Count can be located! (Seelah is outside, petting a horse.)

"What's up, Chief?"

"Anything odd about your spell preparation - or anything else - this morning? - Ser, is that your horse, are you," a horse paladin - there has to be a better way to say that - there isn't, is there - "a horse paladin?"

She smiles broadly. "I am now! This here is Valor. He used to be Ser Cuthred's, but he died when Deskari attacked."

He'd kind of been hoping to keep it secret, but he's not going to try to pull a fast one here.

"Now that you mention it, Chief, I could build a way bigger scaffold than yesterday morning."

"I had more spells but not more than I thought I'd have when I found out I'd hit third. ...But when I was preparing my summon spells, I noticed a — I don't really know how to explain the math to someone who isn't a wizard. An extra loop that I wouldn't have thought would fit, but that worked anyway, like the magic equivalent of connecting two dots on a paper by drawing a line to the edges and then connecting them on the back of the page."

"I'm fourth as of this morning," Blai adds for completeness. "But that doesn't seem so astonishing. Lann, anything?"

He thinks for a few moments. "I definitely feel stronger. But I've got the same number as spells as yesterday, which is to say none. It might be easier to tell if I tried shooting at something?"

"Well, so long as you have perpetual Abundant Ammunition you could try for -" What's around that doesn't have any unfortunate consequences should he miss.

There are some targets set up in the yard around back.

His first few shots are unexceptional. Then he lands a hit on the bulls-eye and the arrow splinters, each splinter lodging itself into one of the targets on either side of the one he'd been aiming for.

"Did you see that!?"

"Nicely done! - Finnean, anything unusual for you this morning?"

"You know, for some reason it's really hard to tell for sure! But I definitely feel more athletic today."

"Athletic. Huh. And Ember, you weren't there, am I correct in guessing that you find this to be a normal morning?"