Small nod.  "Osirion works very hard to get everyone to Axis, but- I think that's more Law as anything?  The soldiers all expect that normal human things trend towards Evil, but I doubt that can be so, everyone says their- former government was working even harder."

"I do expect normal human things can tend one way or the other, depending on what you're used to and what everyone else is doing."  There certainly seem to be many ways for societies to go wrong.  "It's just that... most of the time people settle on ways that tend toward Good, because that is the option that doesn't make everyone miserable and then send them to Hell."

"... Your men do not seem like they're all miserable.  Not that I can read them very well."

"Yes- nor can I often read them, but I'm improving.  Certainly none are all the time miserable.  But... I think it was not safe to seem so, or to seem, um, able to be hurt?"

"Oh.  Of course it wouldn't be."  Maybe he just shouldn't be assuming he has any idea what they're feeling at all...  But it sounds impossible to have any meaningful interactions that way, so maybe not.  Still, he should remember that he might be this oblivious about more than one thing.  This time he stays quiet for a while, trying to arrange it all usefully in his head.

"But... they care about you, and aren't trying very hard to hide it.  That at least seems like a good sign about something, doesn't it?"

"Well, they've been charged to keep me safe.  And I'm evidently valuable, just as the fort gates keep the demons out, it's not weakness to see them locked."  She's quietly glowing, though, her smile a bit impish but mostly genuinely fond and proud. 

"I do think they- take it seriously, to belong to Iomedae now.  They're- they're trying."

"Yes," to the first explanation, his smile reflecting some of her happiness.  That's a very good way for things to be.

And:  "...Belong to Iomedae?  That's not... ah... Why do they think that?"  Is it some horrifying Chelish thing?  He shouldn't say that.  It might well be better than some horrifying Chelish alternative, in any case.

"Oh, um- not truly, not as clerics do?  Just, the paladins won?"

"It wasn't... particularly the paladins, I don't think?..." 

It's not as if the Mendevian forts get very clear news, and he certainly doesn't know what the people of Cheliax are being told about whose they are, but this doesn't sound right.

"Well, mostly the archmages of course- and the High Inquisitor but Abadar's already got a country- and I think maybe Galt?  And Rahadoum but they haven't got any gods at all.  And I think the new Queen's not a paladin but people are saying mostly the remainder of the new government is?"

"Iomedae's already got a country too! And I doubt Rahadoum of all places would be happy to hand Her another one. The Reclamation, of course, and maybe Andoran, though it's not really paladins despite being governed by one..."

He knows so little about the broader political situation. He used to know these things, and disliked them, and suddenly realizes he might like them much better if they felt connected to anything that matters.

"I'd expect it to be mostly the archmages' decision, but... I'd be surprised if what they wanted was for the people of Cheliax to consider themselves Iomedae's. I'd be surprised if it was what She wanted, too, though... less so, maybe." 

If that's what's happening... Then he really should find out, and see where he might do more good. Though someone would've said, surely...  Or maybe not, with how everything is.

"Oh huh, Andoran is governed by a paladin?"  She barely catches herself from saying 'if that's so why hasn't he done anything about the pirates', it's probably super rude to call someplace else's government incompetent even if no one from there is listening. 

"I don't know there to've been any-"  she wrinkles her nose, heaves a frustrated sigh, tries to mime tacking something up on a wall- "...pamphlets but from the government?  About it?  But I mightn't know if there were, even if they made it up to the forts, the war's since a year....  Yet- surely She wants them to not any longer belong to the defeated One?"

"Proclamations?" for the missing word.

"Of course She wants that.  Everyone does.  But most countries don't belong to one god, and... I don't know if it's better that they don't, but it might be?  Most people I know don't think of themselves as belonging to a god unless they chose to, and that... seems better for them, than feeling like it's not their choice to make.  If they want to be Iomedae's, certainly they can, but... do they want to, or do they only feel like they must belong to Someone?"

"Proclamations," she repeats carefully.

"Hmm... I suppose so?  They don't talk about wanting one god or another, but of course not-  I never thought much about it when I was a child, but I suppose I shouldn't have said I belonged to Abadar?  It was my father making me attend services, though, not the government... I suppose he'd perhaps have said so, he's very devout, but the Sarenrites aren't any less Osirian..."

"Osirion sounds a strange place.  But, uh, why would they of course not talk about the different gods?"  He feels increasingly bad at knowing why Chelish people ever do anything, and increasingly like he would very much like to know.

Do Taldane fathers not make their children attend services- not the point.

"It... was illegal?  I doubt it still is, perhaps except the Evil ones, but they should scarcely trust it to be safe right away?"  

"...Ah."  Yes, he supposes that does follow, there are just... so many separate awful things to remember about Cheliax.  "I think Iomedae would want them to know that they can want one god or another, and if they don't know then someone should tell them.  But... I don't know who can tell them, if the government hasn't.  And the government probably has so many other things to deal with."

And he hasn't made sure the new Chelish government isn't doing some insane thing with worship requirements, so he can't swear to them it isn't, and he doesn't think his personal opinions will carry enough weight to matter.

Shrug and tiny nod.  "They haven't even picked a new flag yet."

"...I suppose I may make it more than it is?  Some of the men wished to know of acts of gratitude to Nethys, without I said it first."

A relieved smile. "Oh! That is definitely a good thing. I wonder if they would without the example of a cleric clearly allowed, but... they may just reasonably prefer the gods who have given them any help." 

And knowing that more than one is allowed is most of the important thing, he thinks, at least to start with.

"Oh yes, it was specifically because of Nethys helping, although really Eleven had already the commander, it's the other forts I've been most help to."  She fidgets a bit with the edge of her horse's blanket, then stops herself. 

"And how have the other forts been about it?"

She... makes a face.  "They've not asked, I've not offered.  I think it perhaps relevant that I came to them first as a foreign cleric, not a stranded adventurer?"

"...word did pass around finally that I was honest in offering discounts on spell swaps, I suppose that's a kind of service to Nethys.  Or anyway making it possible to happen."

"Those sound like deeply depressing places."  Well, and of course they would, it's Cheliax.  He doesn't know what he was expecting.  Though maybe it's different if you stay there instead of only visiting.  (Maybe it's worse if you stay there instead of only visiting, for that matter.) 

"I... do think you're probably right, that it matters that you came as... someone vulnerable, and there by accident, not someone who came on purpose to show them how to do things better.  Which is... unfortunately not advice anyone can follow on purpose, so I'm not sure where that leaves us."

"Mm.  You see why I stay, though, yes?"  So what if people think anyone sensible would leave the Wound as soon as they could, let alone the Chelish side.  No one's ever accused her of being sensible. 

"...it should be difficult to run a reading group at the other forts regardless, I might pass there perhaps four hours in a week.  I'm gone from Eleven more time than I'm there as is."

"Of course," at the first question, with the warm kind of smile you give someone doing exactly the same good thing you would do.

"A reading group?  Oh, because Nethys would approve?"

...she has a horrible squirming suspicion that came across way more Iomedaen than she meant it, but she can't quite think how to explain what she did mean.

"Yes- they said everyone's tested for wizardry in the schools, so I thought it unlikely to help trying to teach it myself.  Yet also He's the god of knowledge, so-  reading group."