"Those are serious charges, Prelate. Nonetheless, now that the city is safe, it seems warranted to give the matter more consideration than would previously have been possible."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

"Thank you, your majesty."

"Thank you, your majesty." Hopefully that's the right thing to say??? He is pretty sure it would not be helpful to start arguing with Hulrun in front of the queen.

"I don't mean to keep the rest of you from the festivities. Select, will you be free to speak to me in two hours?"

Does she mean him or Stasia obviously him, she has something to say to him apparently. "I will, your majesty."

"Very well. One of my guards will fetch you when it is time." She turns to Irabeth. "In the meantime, Commander, I'm afraid that I must pull you away from the celebration for a moment."

"Yes, your majesty," says Irabeth, in the tone of someone for whom this is a bit of a relief.

Mood.

The celebration keeps going after that, but enough people noticed the Queen revealing herself that the atmosphere is notably different. People don't seem scared of her, exactly, but they certainly seem less inclined to get drunk and more motivated to present themselves as competent and disciplined. (Not always in ways that are actually effective — the musicians seem to be focusing more on having perfect technique at the slight expense of emotional resonance.)

Around two hours later, someone in the uniform of the Queen's guards does indeed approach Blai. "Her Majesty will speak to you now. Follow me."

He follows. Casts a Guidance on the way.

The Queen has apparently placed her office in the same room of the inn that was previously in use for private conversations among the city's defenders, though she's rearranged the furniture a bit and apparently acquired some additional furniture not previously in this building. She is flanked by two visible guards. As Blai enters, she gestures at an empty chair.

"Welcome, Select. Please have a seat."

"Yes, your majesty." He sits.

"Select, I have a request of you. But first, I must ask how familiar you are with the strategic picture with respect to the Mendev's defenses against the Worldwound."

"...more than a layperson but my main Worldwound experience was elsewhere." He is so glad he practiced with Stasia first. This is sounding like it will have to be that kind of conversation.

She unfurls a map on the table, by far the most detailed one that Blai has ever seen, depicting Mendev, the Worldwound, and the area immediately around the other sides of the Wardstone line.

"Deskari's attack in Kenabres was one of a number of concerted assaults on the Wardstone line, primarily targeting Mendev's defenses. We believe your efforts to repel them have thrown their forces into temporary disarray, and we do not expect they will be able to mount a similar offensive immediately. But it is also clear that if they are given a year, or several years, to gather new forces, the consequences for Mendev and the world could be disastrous."

That's a lovely map. "Yes, your majesty."

"Still, the defeat of the demons in Kenabres and elsewhere has left us with an opportunity." She traces a line across the northeast corner of the Worldwound. "It will take them time to amass new forces capable of equaling ours. If we can take advantage of this to launch a new offensive and retake Drezen from the demons, we will be able to move the Wardstone line inwards, which will strengthen the line itself, enable us to spread our troops less thinly, and provide a foundation for further offensives against the forces of the Abyss."

Looking at the portion of the map that includes the Worldwound, Drezen does indeed appear to be well-positioned for this strategically; the Worldwound isn't a perfect square, and the corner jutting out near Drezen would be possible to simply cut off.

"The map supports the idea, your majesty, though I don't know the state of the forces in question."

She nods. "That brings me to my request. If Mendev is to launch a new crusade, it will need a Knight-Commander at its head who Mendev's people, and those who join us, can believe in. I have heard how the people of Kenabres speak of you, in the aftermath of the events at the Gray Garrison, and I believe you are capable of filling that role."

"Your majesty, I do not think I am suitable."

From the look on the Queen's face this is clearly not the answer she was expecting!

"You would not need to work alone, Select, nor to master the art of warfare against the demons within a month. You will have access to the best advisors and generals Mendev has to offer. What you can provide and they cannot is a rallying point, one that gives Mendev and its allies hope that this Crusade is winnable."

"- that is not my objection. I am an unsuitable rallying point. I am - here at all mysteriously, having insofar as I can tell been transported from an alternate timeline, and if that weren't bad enough I was for twenty years a cleric of Asmodeus."

"I... see. Is your concern here primarily strategic — do you expect that your, ah, unusual background will lead to specific negative outcomes — or does it arise from a more general belief that your history makes you intrinsically unsuited to such tasks?"

"I believe it will become public even if I refuse to answer any questions about where I am from, what I have done with my life, how I came by my military experience, or why I've never trained with a longsword, because, if nothing else, there is a man commanding Fort #11 with my exact name and face, who I was a year ago apart from minor differences in things like which archmages exist in the background of our respective lives. It will come out and people will not trust me. I will not say that I am as poor a pick as someone who was beholden to the demons themselves and only recently repented but I am a poor pick for the same reason."