"Oh no. That's far too many of your thoughts…I think something a lot like that is why I don't want to enlist with Lastwall myself. Right now I'm free to tinker with engines and build factories and teach people chemistry and physics and stuff and - if I worked for Lastwall I would have to tinker with engines and build factories and teach people chemistry and physics and stuff and it would be awful."

Iomedae laugh-sob-hiccups. "Yep. That. Except that - I really do want to be a paladin, so I've got to figure it out. I guess I will wait a couple of weeks and see if it dies down once I get a sense of how they've actually changed how they treat me, and if it hasn't then I will….complain to you again."

Alfirin pulls her in close so she can pet Iomedae's hair. "Yeah, see if it changes in a couple weeks - and, worst case, it's a year. Even if it never gets any better - you're strong. You can do this for a year and then - we can figure out some other oaths for you, that get what you want from them even if you don't have anyone commanding you - I bet the other paladins would be okay with that. Maybe it's leaning a bit on your god-self's reputation but - I bet they'd be okay with it."

Catherine broods. Almost certainly this is all some elaborate trick, quite likely a trap laid for her specifically - who else, after all, would have any interest in Alfirin? It's not the work of Lastwall, which could mean Lastwall is another intended target - she is not sure whether or how to warn them, if so. It's not the work of Cheliax but that does not mean it's not the work of Hell. (If it is the work of Hell, Lilia is not safe where she is, but Catherine cannot think of a way to make her safer that doesn't throw away crucial assets in the cases where it's not Hell's doing.)

The problem is, despite being facially ridiculous, it could very well be real. It probably is real, or near-enough to it, even though it is a trick. Lastwall could not possibly have failed to check with their Goddess, whether the person appearing to be Her younger mortal self really was that. Somehow, whoever arranged this managed a real, genuine copy of Iomedae. As a child. And if they did that, why not Alfirin as well?

(She is trying not to dwell on the fact that the two of them are happy and in love. She is trying not to dwell on the fact that this Iomedae seems to want to stay human, mortal, herself. She is trying not to dwell on the experience of sex that was, somehow, so much worse than any other instance in her centuries of grudgingly tolerating other people's sex lives. She's trying not to dwell on how safe and unafraid the other Alfirin seems to be.)

(She is not really succeeding at any of those.)

Another person might turn to a friend or confidant for advice, but really, who can Catherine turn to for something like this? There's only one other person on this plane with the relevant context and there is no way that Catherine is going to go speak with her.

"This is Freedom Radio, reporting live from an undisclosed location. We're on this week with a priest of the goddess Iomedae, here to tell us about perhaps the most famous mortal woman ever to walk the earth. You've heard the stories of the Shining Crusade, but what kind of goddess does that legendary hero become? Thank you for joining us, Captain Aarind." 

"I am honored for the chance to speak on Freedom Radio, if a little nervous. I can't say you were exactly kind to Sevandivasan."

"I am sure someone will start a radio show for flattering priests with straightforward questions. And perhaps the people who think I am disrespectful will prefer to listen to it. But we heard from the Church of Abadar that many listeners, all around the world, were chosen by Abadar as they heard us speak of Him. I think our gods are served by our comprehension, and our comprehension is served by asking uncomfortable questions. So, Iomedae. Tell us about her. Chaotic? Evil?"

"No, not at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. Iomedae is a Lawful Good god, which means that She is principally interested in pursuing the happiness and wellbeing of mortals, and that She thinks these aims are best served by - in Her case, through organizations created for the purpose of promoting the good or for the purpose of opposing Evil. Other Lawful Good gods instead favor the bonds of small communities, or the growth and strengthening of cities and nations."

Iomedae wants to be a responsible radio show host and so she'll go through the other basics too - where is Iomedae's divine realm, what was she like as a mortal, what are her teachings, what sorts of people does she pick as priests -  before she can start asking Aarind all her real questions.

"Is Lastwall a free country?"

"Yes."

"It allows people to listen to Freedom Radio! I appreciate that about it! Would it permit also a radio station where Lastwall's enemies made the case against it?"

"I'm not sure how we'd stop it… Lastwall would not ban radio receivers, the way Cheliax has. Even if we did, that doesn’t seem to have worked very well for them."

"I think there are many elements of freedom," Freedom says thoughtfully. "The right to listen to the radio, or to speak on it. The right to speak before a court, or own land, or demand recompense if soldiers passing through take their things… I think Lastwall lets all people do those things, or maybe all people who can seem reasonable and meritorious. 

The right to choose their leader, or how their taxes are spent, of course no one in Lastwall possesses."

"I'm not sure I understand… It seems - odd, to say that a place is not truly free unless it is an unsettled wilderness, which is how I understand the thing you said. I suspect I understand wrongly."

"No, not at all. The country where I have seen political freedom best executed was mostly cities, and very rich. But in every city, the people voted for a representative, and the representatives all got together and conferred and chose the President, and so every adult, landowning or not, knew that their armies were commanded and their laws decided by a person they or at least their compatriots had chosen, and if they didn't like how it was going they'd pick a different one. That is a kind of freedom, I think, and Lastwall doesn't have it."

"Hm. I suppose if that's your standard, then I would say Lastwall is not a 'free' country, though I'm not convinced that it's worse for it."

"Well, I can imagine a few ways that might be true. One is that Lastwall's people are very foolish, and don't know what they want, and would choose badly who was in charge if they got to choose. We don't give toddlers freedom, as they'd wander off and be eaten by bears. Is that the reason you are thinking of?"

"Well, not exactly that - people do not have to be very foolish to be more foolish than the wisest people in the country, or than a god."

"So the people of Lastwall would do a pretty good job, probably, of choosing their leaders, but not as good a job of it as Iomedae can do Herself. Like how a boy of twenty training to be a smith can make a pretty good horseshoe, but not as good as his master, probably. Only, if his master never lets him make any horseshoes, he'll never have the chance to surpass the master."

"I see what you're saying but - it does not seem right, to choose the leaders and laws of an entire country that way. The consequences of choosing a bad ruler or a bad law are far, far worse than those of making a bad horseshoe, and fall on many people. It seems to me that it's wronging those people, to expose them to those consequences only so that they can get practice deciding. Even if some of them might, with practice, become better choosers than the ones who decide now, I think that not all of them will."

"Well I wouldn't say that the only point of political freedom is to train people in the choosing of leaders, though it's among the advantages. Another point is that duties we've chosen are easier to take up than duties assigned to us. Does Iomedae order people to join her church and become her priests? Are those She empowers considered so ordered?"

"No!  It is our vows that we make as Her priests that oblige us to follow her orders - it would make no sense for Her to order us to swear to follow Her orders."

"But that's precisely what a country is! It issues orders to those who have never taken any oath to follow them, or else requires those oaths in the first place. A man cannot grow up in Lastwall and decline to pay taxes or follow laws because he never agreed to do that, can he?"