"My other plans have been... I think thoroughly derailed, though if I'm mistaken I'll know in a few more weeks. Though if I receive some kind of instruction from the Church authority I'll go where they send me."

Usually when foreign priests of the Goddess pass through Kenabres they say they're going somewhere else where they're needed more, so she doesn't want to get her hopes up too much, but admittedly that was all before Deskari showed up, killed Terendelev, and threw the Wardstone across the city.

"We'd be honored to have you, if that's what you decide."

"Do you have particular Church superiors you get instructions from? Where are they?"

"Select Heinrich was in charge of the temple here, and then his superiors were in Nerosyan." 

"Did they report to Lastwall or is the Mendevian church organized completely separately, like the Osirian Abadarans are separate from all the others?"

"I don't know much about what they do in Osirion. What Select Heinrich told me is that the temple in Nerosyan has superiors who are in Lastwall, but they're separate from Lastwall's government, and they can't give orders that override Mendev's laws or the Queen. And all the routes there go through dangerous territory, unless you can Teleport, so I don't know how often they get instructions."

"That makes sense."

"...and I don't know how badly Nerosyan was hit last week, supposedly there was some sort of attack but I don't know all the details."

"- that would explain some things."

"The army might know more, when they get here."

"I look forward to it. Do you - report in about Select Heinrich's death and get an update on how the chain is arranged, at some point -"

"If the army says there are still priests alive at the temple in Nerosyan, I'll write to them about it, and they'll be able to give me instructions. It might take longer than usual to hear back, depending on how many places were attacked. If not... I don't really know how I'd figure out who to write to, but I guess I'd do my best?"

Nod. "There might be priests attached to the army."

"The army has its own chain of command. —Though I guess some of the Nerosyan priests might come along even if they wouldn't normally be with the army." She vaguely has a sense that all the priests in Nerosyan are people who for whatever reason can't fight with the army, but she's not sure whether it's actually true.

"Topping out with... the Queen?" he guesses.

"Yes, for the soldiers and priests both."

"That makes sense. Does she have someone trained to cast Commune, do you know?"

Stasia has heard of Communes, they're mentioned in the Acts, but she thought of them as the sort of thing that people like Iomedae and Arazni could do because of being Iomedae and Arazni, not the sort of thing someone with the army might be able to cast.

"I don't know. —Is it that... common?"

"...commune is fifth circle. If I have a month like the week we've just had I'll be able to cast it. But I don't know how many people get the training to do it properly."

Wow. Stasia is not particularly trying to hide that this is kind of astonishing.

"I've never heard of anyone in the army that could cast it, but I might not know even if there's someone who could."

"Understood. I'm just - trying to suss out the nature of the organization. I think I possibly came to excessively self-directed conclusions about how much organization there was."

"From what Liotr says I think things are different in Lastwall. I don't know how they are in the — south?" He looks southern, and most places are south of Mendev.

"This is my first contact with the organization, I -

"- there is some moderately sensitive information about my background that I probably cannot elide forever even if no one asks me about it -"

"...do you want me to ask or do you want me to definitely not ask?"

"I'm just not sure how to lead into it. I would like you to not further spread it. Ser Tirabade and her -" okay no he can't actually say the phrase 'her wife', he likes them both but that's WEIRD, "and Anevia both know."