"I have been operating under the assumption that clerics of Iomedae like paladins were forbidden to lie. - that's not what you meant, is it. Please go ahead and corroborate as necessary."

She nods.

He'll leave her be. That could have been worse. Most things could be worse, if they don't already involve being on fire! That was one of them.

Is Seelah back yet, he needs to hand off her new sword. If she's not he'll finish reading the sermon book.

(As soon as he's gone, she's off to confer privately with Anevia about whether Select Blai is secretly a succubus-or-something in disguise.)

Seelah is still out lifting heavy objects. Blai's read nearly all of the Iomedaean sermons by now; does he have a preference between the Erastilian sermons and the Sarenrite ones for what to read afterwards?

He is recently favorably disposed toward Sarenrites!

...I do not mean to tell you to set aside your swords. Sarenrae does not wish us to be defenseless against the demons; she does not condemn those who take up weapons to defend Mendev from their rampages.

But we cannot live by the sword alone.

It is no less Good to raise virtuous children, to care for the sick, to provide for widows and orphans, to guide those who have strayed back to the path of Goodness...

...There once was a wicked lord, cruel to his slaves and his servants, lazy in his duties, who spent every night with a new woman and never spared even a single copper piece for the poor or the sick. One day a priestess of the Dawnflower was passing through his lands. She had heard of his wickedness and feared greatly for his soul, and so she sought an audience with him. "You will be damned," she told him, "if you continue as you are. But it is not too late, so long as you live and breathe. Repent of your Evil ways and turn your soul towards the light, and you may still have paradise."

The lord was cheered by his words, for he feared damnation, but he did not want to give up his wicked ways. "If it is not too late, so long as I live," he thought, "then I will simply continue as I am, and repent later."

He was still quite young, and he had always been blessed with good health. A better man might have feared death at the hands of a deadly beast or a demon, but he simply shirked his duties even further, intending to repent of this too. Yet one day, as he was riding back to his manor, his horse was startled by a snake and threw him from its back. He was dashed against the ground, and in an instant he was dead.

It is a foolish thing to persevere in Evil, no matter how sincerely you intend to one day repent. For though any living soul can still atone for its misdeeds, none of us can know when Pharasma will claim us...

...But even if there is no priest to tend to the sick, there is still much you can do for their sake. Keep the room clean and the air fresh, ensure they have sunlight during the day, do not disturb their sleep during the night, provide them with clean water and enough to eat, and there is a good chance they will return to health. If it is feasible, the sick ought to be kept separate from one another, for I have seen many cases when someone was halfway recovered, only to deteriorate when they are joined by another patient... 

...Consider the case of a man who, twenty years earlier, committed a heinous murder and managed to conceal his guilt. When his acts are finally discovered, he is dragged before a magistrate and confesses to his crimes, leaving nothing in doubt but his sentence. The law in this country permits mercy, but does not oblige it, leaving the sentence to the magistrate's discretion. Imagine, now, that you are the man's dearest friend, one who cares for him despite his crime, and who wishes to sway the magistrate's heart towards leniency. But in this courtroom, you may speak nothing but the truth, and so you cannot fabricate virtues your friend does not have. What would you wish to be able to say?

In one world, you say that the man has done many great deeds since the murder. It was he who drove away the wolves that threatened your village, or he who carried your sister's injured son back to the priest for healing, or he who repaired the walls that protect your village. He is a murderer, yes, but he has saved the lives of your neighbors a dozen times over. If he is put to death for crimes of decades past, many will be imperiled by it.

In another world, your friend is no extraordinary hero, but his whole heart has long since been filled with grief and sorrow at his terrible crime, and he has sought to make amends for it. He has ensured that his victim's widow and children are provided for; he has prayed for his victim's soul; it was he, in the end, who brought his crime to light. He has made his peace with the victim's family, and they now stand by your side. Though he knows he can never undo the wrong he has done, he swears he will never repeat it, and in the twenty years since he has never lifted a finger to hurt another.

In still another world, your friend is an ordinary man who has lived an ordinary life. You may tell the magistrate that he regrets his crime, but you cannot tell him that he truly feels the weight of what he has done. You may tell the magistrate that he has done no further wrong to the victim's family, but you cannot tell him that he has eased the burden he placed upon them. You may tell the magistrate that he has done nothing quite so serious, but you cannot tell him he has hurt no one since. 

In a final world, you stand by his side and ask for mercy, but can make no argument to justify it, for in the twenty years since, your friend has done a great many more wicked deeds, and will not even pledge not to repeat them. No matter how dearly you might care for him, no matter how intensely you might wish he could be saved, you cannot conjure arguments from nothing.

When the magistrate hears these cases, which men will he show mercy to, and which will he condemn?

So it is when we face our final judgment before that magistrate who controls our final fate, with the Dawnflower's servants at our side as our advocates. Every man falls short of perfect Goodness, but none need be damned for it. If you have truly cast aside the Evils you have done in the past and sought to make them right, your sins will not weigh on you at judgment, even if they are far greater than you could ever hope to make up for. But it is not enough that you simply have not repeated them, if you do not regret them. It is not enough to truly regret them, if you have not lifted a finger to repair them. But if you turn towards the sun's light and reach for it with both your hands, you will have Paradise, however dark your past.

...I know that some of you who have come here today may have given yourself over in service to the demons. In their service you may have betrayed your friends, your allies, your home; you may have stolen; you may even have killed. You may look at the wrongs you have done and think there is no other possible fate for you but the Abyss.

But there is.

You don't have to be damned. I don't want you to be damned. Sarenrae doesn't want you to be damned. If you remember nothing else I have said today, remember this: it is not too late for you to return to the light...

He doesn't think he really cares for analogizing Pharasma, who sends people to Hell for eternity when Nirvana is begging to have them, with a magistrate hearing a murderer's case, who has much more limited tools to carry out his much more comprehensible mandate, but the rest of it is interesting.

Has Thall escaped? Is Seelah back yet?

Thall is teaching a River Kingdoms drinking song to some people standing around the bar.

Seelah is back! She's speaking with a group of three people, Curl and two humans that Blai hasn't specifically been introduced to.

"Ser," he says, approaching during a break in the conversation, "you've been issued a new sword." Here is the new sword.

She takes it and tests the weight in her hands.

"Thank you! Anything I should know about what it does?"

"It belonged to a Ser Yaniel, I was told, it's called Radiance, and Nenio said that while it's presently only slightly magic it should take further enchantment particularly well."

She gives him a wide-eyed look. "This was Yaniel's sword? That's incredible."

"Who?" says the human woman she was talking to.

"She was one of the great heroes of the early crusades. People say that when Drezen fell, she gave her life to hold off the demons long enough that a few people could escape, and long enough that one of her companions could get off a Sending to warn the rest of Mendev."

"I expect you will bear it as well."

"It's an honor, sir."

The woman she was talking to laughs nervously. "Just don't be in a hurry to get yourself killed, okay?"

"Believe me, I'm in no rush to get to Heaven. But if fighting the demons was safe, we'd have won the war by now."

Nod.

 "There's no point in you coming to Mendev to fight if you're not willing to risk your life, Jannah," says the human man she was talking to in a tone of disapproval.

"O-of course not! Just, well, you know what they say about paladins..."

Blai does not feel the need to be further involved in this conversation and has probably heard an almost completely disjoint set of things that they say about paladins. Any chance it's time to go cast his Mark of Justice or anything?

Yes, now should be good. Who's he bringing with him?

...maybe Nenio wants to watch? And he has to bring Thall. Also he will need specs on implementing the spell but presumably someone on the premises can give those. He doesn't feel the need to maintain the party to walk across town in the present state of the town.