"Look!" She gestures around the field. "There are so many happy people, it makes me happy too!"

"It will be difficult to impossible to keep that up from this high point."

"Indeed. Just think how these people will feel the first time brimoraks torch their camp in the night..."

"But it is at least perhaps useful to have the slack in morale."

"Indeed. Poor morale is highly detrimental to the performance of armies."

"Have anything planned for us this afternoon?"

"No, though I suppose if you're at loose ends there is no special reason I could not bring company to the meeting I've asked Captain Harmattan to arrange to introduce the planned disciplinary structure to the army command."

Tail-twitch.

"I'm not sure how helpful I'll be, but I'm happy to come along!"

"May I observe too, so as to document as much as possible about the crusade for potential inclusion in my encyclopedia?"

"I don't see why not. You should maybe also seek out Miss Dendiwhar, she's a historian. I don't know when he'll be able to get people together and want to talk to Ser Tirabade about one of his suggestions first, has anyone seen where she's gotten to... or Inquisitor Hawkblade would also be fine..."

"Ser Tirabade is currently speaking with Quartermaster Garms." He points.

"Thank you." He'll meander in that direction. He does not really need the Grace to do it, yay.

Here she is! She salutes. "Knight-Commander. How can I help you?"

That's going to take some getting used to. "I wanted a second opinion on an amendment Captain Harmattan wanted to make to the planned disciplinary structure -" Which he can explain.

She considers this.

"As context on how things are done in Mendev — the general assumption is that enforcing the law in anything resembling a just way requires using discretion about which charges to bring and how to sentence them. I think that makes it difficult for people to imagine the idea of enforcing things any other way without causing unnecessary harm. With that being said, this is sometimes used as an excuse to enforce the laws unevenly, whether by not bringing charges against someone to begin with, giving them a light sentence, or pardoning them or commuting their sentence after it's been handed down. If you're worried you might be tempted to do that, I would recommend establishing, in advance, any categories of offense where you're willing to flatly commit to a specific punishment regardless of other circumstances short of a Dominate, as well as designating a trustworthy representative to determine whether to lessen the sentence in cases where you have a preexisting relationship with the individuals involved."

"I don't actually think I will be very tempted to do this, but I'm concerned that having the power and then declining to use it has many of the drawbacks of both systems."

"Unfortunately, even if you do announce your intent to see every offense prosecuted and never pardon anyone, many people won't expect you to actually stick with it. ...I do think it's possible that, once people have seen a few cases where they would have expected you to pardon the culprit, they'll realize that they were wrong more quickly if you've stated a policy of never pardoning anyone rather than a policy of doing so only in cases that are truly exceptional. But I'm not confident it'll actually work out like that."

"So I am most likely stuck with these drawbacks anyway and may as well retain the flexibility in the event that something genuinely bizarre comes up?"

"That seems likely, yes, with the caveat that I personally have never tried to run anything in Mendev from the Lastwall handbook."

"Well, I've run something by the Lastwall handbook, but not in Mendev. - I was considering asking Inquisitor Hawkblade the same question, do you think he'd have a usefully different perspective?"

She nods. "He's had more formal catechism than I have, he might catch something I missed."

Is he obviously around?

He's currently speaking quietly with Hulrun.

Blai meanders that way.