Haste is often overrated in such matters. Legate Angelus gets his orders and a teleport back to Westcrown, and takes the overland route from there through liberated Encarthan to Vellumis with his staff. They're too many to teleport directly, and if it takes a few more weeks that is a small price to pay for arriving with the full gravitas of an imperial legate. And it gives him a chance to survey the newly liberated regions.

When the procession arrives in the city, unannounced though certainly observed en route, he expects to be greeted promptly by the knight-commander. Perhaps by one of her ranking subordinates, if she is trying to signal indifference or a lack of concern for the results of the audit.

She got notice when they crossed the border. Some kind of imperial delegation. She expects catastrophe in Oppara the minute the Emperor dies, but he should have a good few decades remaining in him; when last they discussed it he observed that if he did die early she'd just have to get him back, and she really would. She doesn't really expect problems while the Emperor lives. It took a while but she has him persuaded, now, that Tar-Baphon is not just another of the many problems with which an empire is constantly assailed, that the gods consider it plausible this world will become a grave-state under his eternal dominion. 

Given that she's not really sure what the delegation is about. And she's very busy; they're fighting around Vauntil and around Ravengro, this season, and it's not to her advantage to have it predictable in which of those locations she can be found, much less to have it guessable when she sleeps or when she's tied up with politics. The Crusade's based out of Fort Lorrin, these days; it's the fortress Arazni secured in line with all the lessons of the first twenty years of the war, and further secured by a Miracle they called in during Erum-Hel's reign of terror. She visits Vellumis a few times a month for military tribunals and meetings with her civilian administrators. She commands her civilian administrators to greet the imperial delegation with grace and dignity and does not actually say 'and keep them out of my hair, ideally' but it's implicit.

The head of Iomedae's civilian administration in Vellumis is Charantis Tevin, a dwarf who did supply logistics for the Crusade until the winters started getting too cold for her bones. She's not from Taldor, though the humans who speak of it make it sound very grand, and she vaguely approves. She is aware in any event that they are very rich, and are bankrolling the war effort halfway to adequately. She absolutely considers it her business to make sure that no one bothers Iomedae about any question that can be solved without Iomedae, and she will head out to go meet the imperial delegation with that share of her staff that doesn't mind that it's sunny outside. 

...Are any of those staff human?

Sure, some of them!! Charantis Tevin believes in hiring the best person for the job and is only a completely reasonable amount biased in favor of dwarves because of the fact she knows their families and can be assured they won't steal from her.  The share present here are actually larger than the share in the office overall, the humans being disproportionately in favor of sunlight. 

They welcome the imperial delegation to Vellumis and inquire as to what brings it here. 

Legate Angelus has been appointed by the Grand Prince Kydonus, First Citizen and Emperor of all Taldor, August Protector of Civilization, Duke of Absalom, et cetera et cetera, to take heed of the progress of this crusade in reclaiming central Avistan for civilization and in bringing the treacherous necromancer Tar-Baphon to justice, and to ensure that it is appropriately resourced for this cause. Where is the Knight-Commander?

How eminently reasonable of the Grand Prince. Charantis does not say that it's more reasonable than he's reputed, because she has a modicum of common sense. The Knight-Commander is presumably at the front, but Charantis has instructions to be as helpful as she can to the imperial delegation, and perhaps to help them organize their questions for when the Knight-Commander is next in Vellumis. 

The delegates are...fairly numerous. The civilian administration in Vellumis can put them up, but it'll be many to a room; Vellumis is a fast-growing city, on terms with the local druids too fragile for lumber, and only gets Wall of Stones when Fort Lorrin doesn't need them. 

Ah, one of those generals. The legate does not comment; that would be both rude and unwise, and he endeavors to be neither.

"Is Vellumis the largest of the liberated cities north of Maltuna?"

"Caliphas is larger," says Charantis.

"Caliphas far predates Tar-Baphon and had endured a relatively short time under his rule, and it's part of Ustalav by treaty," says one of her assistants, who is from Taldor and has more of an idea of what people from Taldor might care about. "Vellumis is the largest of the new cities founded in the liberated territories, right now, though out of campaign season Fort Lorrin has more."

"And is the administration largely here, or in Caliphas, or at Fort Lorrin?" The answer will, of course, be informative as to Iomedae's prioritization and long-term ambitions.

"The civilian administration is here. We collect taxes, we're paying to build out the port and clear the farmland, we've built temple-complexes for the churches of Aroden and Abadar and are working on some others, we're going to have a diplomatic quarter for people like yourself. 

The military administration is run out of Fort Lorrin.

Nothing's in Caliphas, really, as if the war goes well that'll be Ustalav's."

"We will of course desire to tour Fort Lorrin in time, then, though we can certainly get started here after we have settled in. When may we expect Knight-Commander Iomedae or General Arnisant to be at liberty to leave the front?"

"Well, they don't tell us in advance, because if Tar-Baphon knows when they're out he'll make trouble and force them back. The Knight-Commander's usually here a few times a month." General Arnisant isn't usually here, though she supposes a delegation from Oppara's the sort of thing that'd do it. 

"I am sure both of them are very eager to speak to you," adds the assistant who is from Taldor, "and to show you what they have built here, but our enemy knows well that his only hope lies in striking while our great heroes are occupied, and has devoted himself greatly to learning when they are. They also don't sleep much."

Charantis has worked closely with Iomedae for long enough to find lying irksome. Of course they're not very eager to speak to the delegation; it'll be time consuming and useful only in that it'll persuade Oppara to continue paying for their own survival. She nods along anyway. "They don't generally let civilians near Fort Lorrin. As soon as you do that, there are a hundred ways for spies for Tar-Baphon to get in. It might be possible to make an exception, or you could do a tour by scry and have whatever else you're interested in brought here."

"I can see why that might be a concern, in a territory held by Tar-Baphon in living memory. Has the original civilian population fared well, or is it mostly new settlers and pensioned veterans?" Vellumis is a new city, but not one designated an imperial colony. It could just be that the Grand Prince is waiting for peacetime to make the designation, or it could be that Iomedae does not want a lot of colonists from the imperial heartland who are not used to obeying her orders.

"This territory was occupied by Tar-Baphon's orc forces out of Belkzen and then by the dead raised in the wake of their passing," says Charantis flatly. "I'm sure there are a couple of original civilian survivors somewhere."

Tragic, unsurprising, and thoroughly in the past. He nods. "Thank you. Perhaps we might be shown our accommodations? It has been a rather long journey from Westcrown."

She'd be delighted. They can be shown to the diplomatic quarter in progress, which is intended to be suitably impressive for any provincial capital, white stone and arches in the modern Chelish style, but which is unfinished. There are three rooms available in the one completed building, and four beds wedged into each of them. "Or I've got better if you can tolerate Torag's Forbiddance," says Charantis, who is close to certain that they cannot. 

He is an agent of the Grand Prince and of Law and Civilization, and not an agent of any church or god. It would be inappropriate for them to quarter on sacred ground, though he appreciates the spirit of hospitality in which the offer is made.

The Forbiddance would cook them. She smiles politely and wishes them restful sleep and tells the servants to be attentive, the Empire should see that Vellumis is well-managed. 

And then she goes back to her office; there's not less to do in the day because there are also delegations wandering around.

The forbiddance will most certainly not cook all of them, but it's best not to show that yet. If the corruption is hiding behind the churches, better to let it sit there thinking itself undetectable while the legation familiarizes itself with the more open parts of the crusade.

Iomedae's letter of charter for her crusade - and it's her crusade, unambiguously now - obliges her to set up governing authorities and bring civilization and the rule of law to the territory she has conquered. She has actually gone ahead and done this entirely with the Church of Aroden's money, not Kydonus's, as she would prefer that her territory not become the northernmost province of the Empire. Most people in Vellumis haven't thought very hard about how she means to bring that about; she's Iomedae. It'll happen because she wants it to happen. 

Vellumis has, then, Church-funded, all of the things a fledgling state will need, including an intelligence service and diplomats and courts and a port authority and an in-progress inquisition of the Church of Iomedae, undeterred by the lack of a goddess Iomedae.

This hadn't previously struck Charantis as an awkward situation but now she can see how it might be one.

They're not going to hide it though. She advises Kovets, the spymaster, that it might be good to have more of an idea of what the delegates are up to, and then sets all this aside and spends the rest of the day working on their planned priorities, which are land assignments and aqueducts and law enforcement.

Kovets also served with the Crusade before retiring. He is from Oppara originally and sees, uh, more cause for concern in this delegation than anyone else apparently did. He thinks that ideally he should've been informed two weeks ago so that by the time they arrived he already had the answers that everyone is shortly going to want. He is not a man prone to speaking loudly or passionately but he observes to Charantis that it must be a great strategic objective of the enemy to undermine Oppara's faith in the crusade.

And then he starts trying to figure out who this man is and who sent him and on what theory.

Oppara is laughably easy to spy on compared to Tar-Baphon. People have important conversations speaking aloud, sometimes outside Private Sanctums. It's rare for anyone to have permanent See Invisibility, and a Nondetection from a seventh circle caster using some prayer beads and a ley line is practically reliable at evading detection. The challenging bit is that it has to be done without Crusade resources and also without the Church of Aroden's, so he can't just have eight Greater Scries solve all his problems for him remotely. He can call in personal favors from some retired people, though.

Legate Angelus is a remarkably (in that people remark on it) honest man, though his continuous membership in the latter class is disputed. He's served three successive emperors, which suggest both an unusual degree of savvy and that he is much older than he appears. It was a pretty broad alliance of interests that pushed for him to be sent to Encarthan; Some want the Empire to be at peace, some want to reprioritize Imperial resources to other fronts, some want to embarrass the peace faction, the imperial navy wants to make a point about warships not actually being that expensive when compared to land campaigns. A handful of governors want to make sure Angelus is busy so that they'll be audited by more pliable legates. Really, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone of note in Oppara who doesn't think it's a great idea.

At least the Legate probably doesn't literally work for Tar-Baphon. Though there's no question who would be an enthusiastic backer of peace factions in Oppara. 

Are there people in Oppara idiotic enough to cheerfully accept a peace if Tar-Baphon offers it - 

- he doesn't need his spies to tell him that, actually. 

'Was this Kydonus's idea' is perhaps a more important question. He wouldn't be playing at 'force a peace', he's not one such idiot, but he might be playing at 'make it hard for Iomedae to pry Encarthan loose'. 

Does this legate have an observable alignment? Observable permanent spells up? 

The legate has a faint aura of Law and no permanent spells. He has some magic items - a belt for health and a headband for wisdom and splendour which are easy enough to identify, and some others that are less common - but no permanent spells.

Kovets will write a summary, mindful that the legate might arrange to somehow read it. He hasn't detected obvious evidence that the emissaries work for Tar-Baphon except of course indirectly, and he believes them to be accurately representing their orders from Oppara, and their purpose is presumably to check if the crusade is making effective use of Taldor's resources. 

And in the morning the servants will bring the delegation a humble frontier breakfast. If the auditors are checking whether they're spending money effectively it'd look pretty bad to obviously spend a lot of it on 'pampering auditors'. 

This is a little bit surprising - it's not that pampering auditors is a good way to show that you're being responsible with imperial funds, but it makes auditors happy, and with many legates, making them happy is a better way to get it reported that you're very financially responsible than actually being financially responsible. It's possible, of course, that they know this particular legate's reputation, and are confident that whatever corruption is present they can successfully hide behind the churches present. Some of his staff might complain, but it's not like they are eating worse than they were on the road.

(Though, since they might be here a while, some of the staff can make it known that they have a cook with them, and can feed themselves with access to the local quartermaster or general stores)

They can be directed to both. Vellumis has three general stores by now, though they don't stock a lot of luxuries. One of them has a deal with a crusade wizard for more luxuries in wintertime but obviously can't possibly bid for his seventh circle slots in-season, and one of them stocked cheap home-grown spices when Arazni was alive and is now selling down the last of that supply at prices that barely beat Teleporting them in. There's also a quartermaster who works on supply to the front but who will certainly tell the auditors that they don't look like the front and he accordingly can't offer them anything.

Well, they have a collection of dried herbs and spices and mostly just need meat and flour and butter and the like. Things that tend to be available even in far-flung provinces.

In the meantime, there's serious business to attend to. Is Legate Angelus correct in assuming that there's not much in the way of tax rolls available?

Hmmm? Charantis has the tax rolls, and some military-quality maps which have numbers corresponding to land parcels. She even has a spare copy the auditors can look over even though she wasn't expecting auditors. There's not much in the way of tax revenues, yet, but they know who they've granted land to and what they're supposed to be paying once the land is cleared and how much of a waiver they were granted last year. Lots of waivers were granted last year, generally for reasons like 'local druids hostile' and 'local wildlife hostile' and 'land still being cleared'. 

The taxes do not yet pay for Vellumis's civilian government. The Church of Aroden is covering the difference. 

Ah. That's faster than he'd expect, given how... unconsolidated... the region is. Is the front too busy to spare soldiers to deal with the druids and wildlife?

There were efforts well underway when Arazni died and then those people were called back to the front. The region is accordingly less consolidated than it was four years ago.

The Knight-Commander says that if the war is won it'll be a year's work, three at the worst, after.

The grand prince will be pleased to hear it, he's sure. What is the Crusade's understanding of the treaty with Ustalav? Is there a well-defined planned postwar border?

Path River. Can't miss it. The border with Belkzen on the other hands is entirely up in the air; they'll see how the war goes.

(Charantis's impression, which she's not going to say, is that the Knight-Commander thinks she doesn't have the capacity to administer Ustalav effectively, doesn't care for the Empire to have it given that, and was happy to agree to the restoration of its previous monarchy, though she made some pointed inquiries about getting Caliphas in particular and found it'd be expensive.)

That seems like a sensible border. What are the other terms of the treaty? Who, exactly, is this treaty with?

She does not actually know all that much about this - it's not a road or a sewer or a taxable plot of land - but she probably has a copy of the written agreement somewhere. It's with some Ustalavic nobility in exile and the church of Pharasma and possibly some other interested parties (with interests in the Empire not expanding that far north. She won't say that either). 

He reads the obvious into that. Iomedae is setting foreign policy for herself and making few to no claims outside of the Empire's traditional borders. She's allied with the dwarves and intends the restored monarchy of Ustalav to be indebted to her personally and may very well be planning to join the League for mutual defense the moment Tar-Baphon is back in the ground.

"I'd love to see it if there is a copy around."

You cannot accuse Charantis of not being organized. There's a copy of that treaty along with a copy of the crusade's charter and all other treaties to which it may conceivably be subject, the oaths of the paladin orders, the proceedings of its courts, etcetera. They're welcome to review it all. Iomedae says that recordkeeping is the means by which civilizations may transcend the capacities of mortals as individuals, that recordkeeping organizations are a close analogy to the processes of the gods themselves. 

That... is the first time anyone has tried that particular form of flattery. He's impressed. He smiles as if it got to him, and starts looking through those records.

The treaty with Ustalav cedes everything north of the Path river and recognizes the legitimacy of the Ustalavic monarchy and its contributions to civilization etcetera etcetera. The Crusade's charter has been renegotiated every five years. The early ones, from before Iomedae, are a standard charter for a war on one of Taldor's borders. The charters that name her Knight-Commander are not that. They oblige Iomedae most notably to return those magic items on loan to her at the end of the war, to spend the Empire's resources wisely towards victory over Tar-Baphon, and not to command the army or her Knights or any portion thereof anywhere in the Empire outside liberated Encarthan except by the Grand Prince's express permission. The Emperor can relieve her of command of the Crusade, if he wants, but not of the Knights of Ozem.

Her paladin order's oaths are - legalistic, and carefully specified, and specify that they can be altered only with the personally communicated approval of Aroden or another Lawful god which sponsors paladins of the order, which is odd both because 'the personally communicated approval of Aroden' isn't generally an available thing one plans around and because this order, like nearly all paladin orders, is not multiple-god. That's generally considered unwise for a paladin order; what if the gods disagreed?

Iomedae's oaths oblige her not to lie, and not to communicate deceptively even under a fairly expansive range of circumstances, with a lot of notes on how this works with the exigencies of war. 

The Shining Crusade has a short, clearly written, fairly exhaustive legal code that is on the merciful side but not outside reason. Liberated Encarthan is governed under a legal code derived from that rather than from the Imperial legal code. 

Mhm. Not too much surprising here. He takes notes even so, and will set one of his wizards to making copies.

...'Those magic items on loan to her.' Are they listed?

Extremely fancy headband that enhances all of cunning, wisdom and splendour; extremely fancy belt that enhances all of strength, speed and health. Banner of Victory. Also a holy avenger as a personal loan from the archduke of Menador in recognition of a favor Iomedae did him; that loan was negotiated separately but it's mentioned here just for completeness, as is the fact she has been loaned armor by the Dwarves.

Well. She's a paladin, which means she's going to give it back. Is she, uh, paying interest on any of these extremely valuable magic items the Empire has loaned her?

Well, several of them have acquired extraordinary new powers while she's been using them. Arazni added some features to the crown and to the banner, and the holy avenger is a major artifact now. Charantis isn't sure how to calculate the interest rate on 'turning your valuable sword into a major artifact', since it's not as if this is a service available for purchase. 

Hm. The agreement specifies the items as they were when they were loaned out; Does Charantis have details on the items as they are now?

...well, no, Iomedae doesn't go around disclosing the capabilities of her magic items. There is a war on. She could probably do a secret consultation with a priest of Abadar who could produce an appraisal.

He has one on staff, that shouldn't be a problem.

Huh, does he. (Charantis is mildly surprised. She had mostly assumed that this expedition was fishing for bribes or something.) That should do, then.

She asked Vigil last night about documentation on Crusade salaries and supply purchases and magical reagents budget and so on. That has the same problem as the magic items, only moreso; they don't want Tar-Baphon to know how many seventh circle wizards the Crusade employs. But probably something similar can be worked out, where the priest confirms that all the salaries are reasonable and goes into hiding for a while until what he knows is out of date.

Oh, this isn't his first army audit. He fully expects the reported salaries to be reasonable; If there's graft here, it'll be the number of soldiers not quite matching up to the number of salaries. He and his people will try to verify troop counts later.

Does he need anything else from her office at this time? They're quite busy. (She approves in principle of someone double checking their work but suspects it'll quickly get annoying in practice.)

No, not at the moment. He'll just take his copies of the documents and return to his residence. He appreciates the level of organization on this crusade, it makes his job a lot easier.

The Knight-Commander of the Shining Crusade finds the time that afternoon to drop by Vellumis. She'd have come sooner, if she could have - it shouldn't be urgent, of course, but as a practical matter they will take the delay as information about how deferentially inclined she is towards the Empire, and that's not lower stakes than the front. But Tar-Baphon, quite plausibly having seen the arriving bunch of emissaries - quite plausibly having arranged it - also picked this day to press them pretty hard on both fronts, and it's a long time before she is no longer quite as badly needed at the front.

She arrives in her dwarf-made armor and the stole Arazni made her and the shirt Arazni made her and the crown of Taldor and Heart's Edge and the chalice of Ozem, with a Greater Angelic Aspect up. For other people the spell lasts about twenty minutes at a go but she really likes having the wings and so for her it lasts all day. 

Charantis bows deeply. "Knight-Commander. - They're at the diplomatic residences. They seem all right. Kovets says no one's obviously working for the enemy."

Well, they wouldn't be obviously working for the enemy, would they.

"Did he say anything else." Is the Emperor playing this or just letting it play out.

"No."

"Well, let them know I'm here. Do you have anything for me in the meantime?"

She keeps a stack of things for if the Knight-Commander happens to have time. Mostly land grants to former soldiers and awkward legal cases the Knight-Commander tends to want to personally review. 

And someone can go trot over to the diplomatic residences to tell them that the Knight-Commander is available.

Excellent. He and a couple of secretaries will go to meet with her.

"Knight-Commander. Domnicus Angelus, I'm honored to make your acquaintance." He means it.

Iomedae is at this point honored to meet very few people and titles in Taldor don't particularly predict it, an inconvenient fact for her when doing diplomacy. She's found some workarounds. "Legate. I hope your journey here was pleasant and that you find Vellumis both comfortable and interesting. I leave the front less often than one might prefer, these days. How fares civilization?"

"It continues much as it has for both our lifetimes. The empire is a little richer than it was five years ago. There was some flooding in the heartland but the harvest came in better than expected, given that."

Iomedae does, actually, care about that, and suspects it's a point of common ground, but unfortunately it's also an easy thing to make protestations about caring about, and it's usually a bad strategy, with people from Oppara, to try the Crusade's own pattern of candid speech. "I'm glad," she says anyway. 

" - and the Empire wonders if its greatest endeavor is making wise use of its money? Or is there some other complication?"

"That is the principal matter, yes. There are some other concerns but ultimately they all come to 'is the empire paying more than this crusade is worth' or 'is the empire paying more than it needs to'."

Iomedae is a good judge of character and would ordinarily decide at this point that she liked the man but in Oppara one simply can't trust first impressions, at all, especially if they're positive.  It's the second most annoying thing about Oppara.

"A wise question to ask," she says wryly. "One that arguably some might've wanted to ask years ago. At some point I expect you'll find yourself wondering why they didn't.

I believe, of course - if you'll forgive me for speaking very plainly, as I've no other custom - that if the Shining Crusade is to lose then the Empire will be destroyed within a century. I believe this mostly because Aroden says it but also because I've fought the Tyrant long enough to understand him and long enough that I now only sometimes underestimate him. Very near to all the Empire's money that is sent to us is being spent on the war, and spent however we think will best win the war. Some is probably being spent otherwise, but not by my orders or with my knowledge or with anyone's expectation I'd countenance it, and I expect much less than you'd find misdirected from any other endeavor of this size. 

That's not the same question as whether the Empire could buy what it wants for less; we'd be likelier to lose, but perhaps still not all that likely, and differently indebted if we win, but maybe we look insufficiently indebted already. 

Given the stakes as I perceive them - I hope that you'll ask questions where you have them, and ask for whatever promises will leave you freest to do your work, and treat the question you've been assigned as one with fairly extraordinary import. My people have orders to assist you wherever it doesn't compromise military secrets." Which is an assurance no one would trust - whether there's corruption is arguably a military secret - but she in fact can't hand him a list of all her resources, when they've gone to such lengths to keep that from their enemy.

"I appreciate that immensely. I know military necessity may make some aspects of my task more difficult, and given that I am glad to otherwise have your full cooperation."

And now to see how much she means it. "When you say the empire could possibly buy what it wants here for less - is there a specific alternative you're envisioning?"

Well, that's a question with which one has to be excruciatingly careful. The appearance of relaxed candor, while in fact selecting her words with agonizing caution so none of them constitute treason in themselves, or an admission of it -

"The Grand Prince is a wise man and one of a very few who I think appreciates what is at stake here, and we've spent little time worrying he'll tire of this war, which he knows the world cannot afford for him to lose. We have spent more time fearing that he might die before the war is over, and be replaced by someone with less foresight and less context on this situation. That's an outcome Tar-Baphon has of course tried many times to bring about, and an outcome we - and Aroden, I strongly suspect - have been opposing. Nowhere do they pray more fervently for the health and long life of the Grand Prince than here. Without the long peace of his reign all may well have been lost long ago.

But after the first few times Tar-Baphon tried it we began to plan for the possibility he might succeed, and succeed thereby in turning Oppara against the war. A few years ago, it would've been a death sentence for this world. My plans for that situation read, at the time, 'go find Nex?'.

Now - we control more of Ustalav, we have an archmage again, we've taken out some of the enemy's most useful lieutenants. If we have less money, we raise the threshold for who we raise when they die on the field. You'll see in the budgets that's the big flexible expense, less of a hit to morale than cutting pay, and it has big effects in the long run but smaller effects in the short run. So we'd try to make it a short run. Reach Gallowspire this year, instead of next. We don't have a plan we are confident will succeed, but we have dozens that might. And we'd consult with Aroden and we'd consult with some other sources and we'd see if there are other powers in this world that might be tempted to step in particularly given Taldor's stepping out.

I like those other powers less, to be clear. I was born in the empire. I know of nothing else that has achieved what the empire has. It would be substantially in its service that I would turn to others to win the war, because Taldor won't survive my losing it. But the Shining Crusade has never been solely funded by Taldor and there are other parties with an interest in Avistan not being overrun by the undead, and gods who can confirm to them their empires would follow.

We'd keep fighting. We might win, and we wouldn't march on the Empire afterwards. I'm not in fact temperamentally much of a conquerer. Aroden who has fought these decades to position us to win this war has made His purposes clear to me, and they aren't for me to rule here afterwards. - I imagine He'd have picked a man, frankly, were those His intentions.

It'd be - the kind of geopolitical strategy I associate with hard-pressed but clever weaker kings, trading off credit for their achievements and surety in them and the appearance of great strength and inevitability for reliance on luck and on fate and on the competing interests of one's enemies. The Grand Prince need make no such compromises. I would like very much to hand him a victory which I believe will resound to Taldor's credit for a very long time, and be eventually understood as one of the Empire's greatest achievements. 

But should the war fall to the hands of fate, fate may be on our side. Aroden at least is. And I cannot deny that doing that would be much cheaper."

"Well, let us pray it does not come to that. The Empire is rich enough, if this crusade is buying safety for civilization from the depredations of Tar-Baphon I expect the Emperor will continue to be happy to pay for it."

"The Emperor has always struck me as a wise man and a sensible one, and as one who" is allowed to observe the Empire's weaknesses and is therefore capable of noticing Tar-Baphon could crush it "understands the situation here better than nearly anyone who hasn't seen it firsthand.

I have confidence that you'll find that the threat is legitimate and the Empire's resources efficiently directed towards combating it." Wildly less confidence that he'll say as much in Oppara, but so it goes.

And then there's the thing that there's absolutely no way to say without it coming across as a threat, though it isn't one. You might think saying 'I do not mean this as a threat' would work but it absolutely never does, in Oppara. 

"It seems likely to me that the enemy knows already of your presence here, and has his own aims. I imagine he'd be delighted were you to return with a critical report, but - also reasonably happy if you didn't return at all." She shrugs the angel wings, frustratedly. "Because everyone, including you, would presume that to be my fault. There is nothing I could learn about what you're returning to Oppara to report that would inspire me to assassinate you, and no one who works for me who'd imagine I would be served by that. But - be careful. More than you typically are; I expect your adversaries are usually wildly worse-resourced. Tar-Baphon probably knows every word spoken since you arrived here outside a Sanctum, and plausibly some spoken in one."

The odds are that he will in fact still just take this as a threat. Trying to communicate "you're likely to be assassinated, and I sure have incentive, but I'm not the person who is likely to do it" is impossible in the language and set of assumptions of Oppara; people learn to not believe anyone whose words dance like that.

She hates it.

"I... see. I will be careful, then.

I understand the need for keeping some information secret, but - what information can your people make available about Tar-Baphon's capabilities? Both for the purposes of assessing the crusade's need for resources and for ensuring my own safety."

"We've observed him to cast twelve ninth circle spells a day. He has spell resistance that only Arazni could ever penetrate. Anyone who is not immune to terror and who comes within thirty paces of him is paralyzed in terror, no documented exceptions again except Arazni. He controls tens of thousands of undead, directly, and is believed not to have a limit on how many can be under his immediate control, in defiance of how necromancy was previously understood to function. He has developed something that functions equivalently to the Clone spell for the undead and can restore his favored lieutenants which aren't themselves liches or vampires from destruction. He is in possession of dozens of minor artifacts and a few major ones, most of which we believe he created. Last time we killed him we got three ioun stones, a minor artifact that lets the bearer, if undead, transpose himself with other undead anywhere within a Fireball's range, and a greater metamagic rod that allowed him to bypass Death Ward. 

Personally notable among his lieutenants are Taldaris, Magallentis, and Quarnium Ix, eighth circle wizards or sorcerers and liches. Ix is also a sixth circle cleric and a Blood Lord of Geb.  Kritasheere is a ghoul, ninth circle high priest of Urgathoa, enchantment specialist, taken down and turned more of our people than anyone else routinely on the field. Kavasa's an incorporeal banshee sixth-circle song-sorcerer. Naraga and Istravek are undead ancient black dragons and Jolanara is a nightwing - a creature from the Shadow Plane about as dangerous as a dragon in its own right that travels accompanied by dozens to hundreds of hungry shadows. Malyas is a vampire lord and an antipaladin, sometimes accompanied by graveknights in his power, appointed by Tar-Baphon ruler of the vampires in Ustalav, of which there are hundreds. 

They don't all congregate for the same fights as they don't like each other and not all of them are under his direct power.

The list used to be much longer, we've been finding ways to put most of them down for good. We believe him to still have more than ten seventh circle spellcasters and more than forty at sixth. We believe Gallowspire to be held by tens of thousands of skeleton archers, thousands of shadows, and the great powers at need, with the lands around it infested with ghouls and ghosts and the sun permanently blocked. 

To destroy Arazni we believe he allied with Urgathoa. He used the specialized archmage Time Stop that lets the caster, take others along with it, opened a Gate behind her, and positioned Naraga, enhanced with dozens of spells some of which I've never seen before, to push her through it as the Time Stop expired. Urgathoa was then able to prevent her from escaping while he had the army he'd stationed there kill her inside the three moments it took us to Wish her out. Obviously we have contingencies against that now for our most essential people, but they're expensive ones."

Iomedae is aware that this summary, while probably instructive in some respects, is not particularly useful for 'how do I protect myself'. He can't. She's stationing her own security for him and it will still only stand up to a moderately spirited attempt.

"How many of those lieutenants you mentioned are under Tar-Baphon's direct power? And how loyal are the others, are they allies of convenience or genuinely loyal or somewhere in between?"

At least he isn't giving her a hard time over mentioning Taldaris. It's one of those things that is ambiguously legal in Oppara, admitting that he exists. 

"Hard to know for sure in many cases. The dragons are directly controlled. The vast hordes are directly controlled. The graveknights are directly controlled. Most of his commanders are either directly controlled or their phylacteries held hostage. Otherwise they'd be at each others' throats constantly. Jalamara's got a deal with him, plausibly a magically enforced one. - Ix is likely independent, doing this in exchange for help with his political interests in Geb. One assumes Tar-Baphon didn't have direct control of Malyas at the point where he appointed him lord of the vampires, or he wouldn't have needed to bother, and it's possible he still doesn't, though if I had to bet I bet there's something. Kritasheere's merely very firmly allied.

All of the people I mentioned have appeared on the battlefield or in raids working towards an objective of his this season or last; I didn't bother telling you about anyone who he doesn't control and who hasn't been seen for a few years. If you ask around whose his most frightening lieutenant is, people will mention Erum-Hel, but he wasn't under Tar-Baphon's direct control and hasn't been seen in six years and we believe we've successfully broken that alliance down."

"I'm glad to hear it. I am sure you are very busy and I don't have that many questions that require you personally, but before you go - Charantis suggested that you might be willing to speak with a priest of Abadar about the new capabilities of your magic items, is that so?"

Why would the auditor want her to do that? - well, the Emperor might be concerned about if the crown has appreciated in value. The rest mostly isn't his business. That would not be a well-advised response. 

"The Church of Abadar collaborates closely with us and has many ideals in common, and I'm willing to speak with someone sworn to confidentiality about the details of the changes made to those artifacts of the Empire which are in the use of the Crusade. I trust the Archbanker Tilbun, if that is suitable for you."

"I have an Abadaran on my staff and was hoping he would suffice, if only because it's logistically simpler. We could consult with the Archbanker instead, if you can provide transport to and from Absalom."

"I expect your priest is wholly worthy of my trust but I'd worry about his safety, if he knows things Tar-Baphon would dearly like to." Tilbun can defend himself, is surrounded by people who can also defend him, and also has some fairly outlandish insurance (which in fact commits Iomedae if able to retrieving his self and/or soul should anything happen to it. In exchange she gets a discount on services.) 

And of course all of this is an evaluation of whether she's spending the Empire's resources wisely, which makes responding to the expense report require some delicacy - "I'll ask my staff how much risk they imagine the appraisal could pose, and they can also inquire as to whether our standing agreement with the Archbanker covers this and once that's all been evaluated I can send you notice of how they advise we proceed."

Pleasantries pleasantries pleasantries and she can go back to the front. 

They put up a group telepathic bond before she went to Vellumis even though she'd be in a Sanctum for the meeting. 

How'd it go?

I am sure he was going to great lengths to make sure I couldn't answer that question.

Are we in rebellion.

No! Gods.

It's important to me not to do that to you.

A lot of things are important to Iomedae, and even she can't have all of them. He doesn't say this. 

He doesn't need to. 

He claimed that the Empire will likely want to fund the war so long as what we've represented about the threat Tar-Baphon poses is true. He had reasonable questions.

They want to appraise the artifacts.

Sounds like that involves letting people get a close look at the artifacts.

I proposed the Archbanker. But that'll be expensive and we're supposed to be demonstrating we're spending the Empire's money wisely, here. 

I can send an inquiry, Pereza says. 

Thank you, do that. 

And to Arnisant - To say I am indebted to the Empire would be to make a claim with a formal meaning not quite the ordinary one. I don't know if it'd be a true claim or a false one and intend to check when I'm a god. But I - know it to be true that it is by the Empire's honor and strength and determination that our victory may be possible, and that my life has been. It does cause me anguish, that I don't see a way to build the thing I think needs building in an ordinary imperial province. I wish that I were Aroden, and could raise the land for my political experiments out of the sea, but on the other hand that didn't work either. 

I pray for the health and long life of you and the Emperor both. But not for both of you to get so much of it that the inevitable conflict can no longer be dodged, he doesn't say, again because he does not need to.

Right. They should get back to killing things, then.

When legate Angelus makes it back to his quarters, he pauses, looks around, and sniffs. "These people are getting rich enough off the imperial purse, and this is where we've been put? I rather think we're being snubbed. Bardas, go make it clear that we're not going to be pushed around like that. To that dwarf, if you must, but try to see if you can find someone who'd understand that humans don't like being packed into tiny little cells - And check with the cook, first, see if he's been getting the same treatment with our provisions. I want a proper meal and a proper bedchamber tonight."

- the staffer is a retired officer who spent his whole life on the Crusade and looks simultaneously baffled and aggravated. " - well, I'm terribly sorry. I ...hope that can be addressed." A bit dubiously, though. "We're building a nice diplomatic quarters, but it's not complete yet. And I assure you there's no supply of nicer meat we're hiding. I'll tell Charantis that it's a concern but there's, you know, a war on, and very few features of the world with which we should be satisfied, and even fewer which it should presently be our highest priority to fix." He is of course quoting Iomedae. She gave a series of sermons on the topic a while back. If he had more diplomatic expertise he could probably guess that quoting Iomedae as scripture was unwise but he mostly handles land surveying.

That does not sound like his own words, he's quoting something - "What's that from?"

" - the Knight-Commander." He says this like it should be completely obvious to anyone with a mind and also probably the undead.

Oh, one of those generals.

"Oh, of course - in a speech, or was it written down?"

"In a series of sermons. It's all written down, do you want the records?" Maybe they'll read them and then understand the importance of prioritization and the true meaning of Law and then stop being imperials. (He doesn't know a ton about imperials, just that people who aren't one don't tend to like them, and then this conversation which is a bit illustrative as to why.)

"Oh, if there are spare copies, for sure."

"It's to be bound and distributed as a book. That's not done yet but I'm sure there's a spare copy."

And he'll go find it, and tell Charantis that the delegation has complaints about their accommodations.

      "I'll tell the Knight-Commander," she says, grudgingly. "You have to be very delicate with the delegates. Can't injure their pride by suggesting anything else is more important."

"Oh. I might have done that."

      "Oh. Well, don't."

"I don't see how it injures their pride to suggest that the world not ending is more important."

      "Don't ask me to explain humans to you," says Charantis.

Iomedae has a good comprehension of humans. 

We've got to get the delegates a mansion. Unless, of course, that's just an opportunity for them to declare the Empire's money spent frivolously - no, you know what, two can play that game.

About twenty minutes after Bardas gets back, Iomedaen sermons in tow, there'll be a handsome elderly man outside the diplomatic building, who knocks with a spell.

"What is your business?"

"I'm here about a request for improved accommodations."

"Ah. Of course. What is on offer?" If this is just some retired first-circle to prestidigitate things till they shine the Legate will have a quiet and polite fit.

 "I am a friend of the Knight-Commander, and retired a few years back. I live in Absalom, but the Knight-Commander asked as a personal favor that I come up here and do a mansion for you."

(Several points, Iomedae suspects, will be made. First, no, she's not spending Imperial money even slightly frivolously. Secondly, this is because she doesn't have to because she can call on extremely powerful wizards for personal favors anywhere on the planet on very short notice.)

The points are made. "I will inform the legate. I am sure here," he gestures between two of the existing real buildings "will do."

He gestures and speaks and puts up a shining extradimensional door, then smiles very blandly at whoever has assembled to witness this (and confirm that he didn't do it from a scroll, which is informative in the political game Iomedae is undoubtedly playing.)

Legate Angelus opens the door and pokes his head through for a moment. "Ah, much better." he says, "Please do convey my thanks to the knight-commander for her generosity."

He's slightly annoyed that they're not more impressed. This was very impressive, objectively. When one does mansions for the troops, they stomp their feet and cheer.  "Enjoy," he says, irritably, and Teleports out with a further flourish.

Everyone in the Shining Crusade who can do a Mage's Magnificent Mansion saw one of Arazni's before they could do it themselves. Arazni is not from Azlant or from Taldor, and was neither using Azlant's architectural style natively nor deliberately calling back to it nor building on a tradition of those things; some of her architecture could be identified as Xopatli, and some of it is probably inspired by those styles popular in the formerly-human-dominated parts of Nirvana, and some is just her own. 

Of course people adapted her style from there themselves, and generally in the Taldane direction. But it's still not an Imperial sort of mansion.

The mansion is taller than it is wide, with a spiral staircase down its centerline and no two rooms at the same height, each on a hallway curving off the staircase, staggered so from the ceiling they're all visible at once. The stone the floor is made of is thick with veins of gold and copper, and a reflecting pool at the far end of the entrance hall lights the whole thing with the light its borrowed from the ~sunbeams which reach the pool from the distant ceiling. The furnishings are all wood except that the gold and copper metal veins in the floor also wind through every furnishing on the ground floor. There are false windows, with thick and rich false curtains drawn across them. The Unseen Servants are in Iomedae's red and white. 

(This is not actually what Iomedae would have chosen, she'd have gone with the most blandly Opparan building imaginable, but she doesn't have an arbitrary number of retired seventh circle wizards she can call on for emergency favors.)

Bardas looks around the interior while lesser staff scurry about transferring all the audit's paper and equipment. "They're making a point"

"Do you think so? What point?"

"I'm sure. As to what point - Perhaps that they have a lot of barbarian support? Or maybe just flaunting the fact that they clearly don't consider themselves imperial subjects anymore..."

 "If they were inclined to flaunt that, they would have turned us away when we got here. Though - it could be both. This wizard is flaunting his independence, Iomedae is making a point about having access to wizards who aren't particularly attached to the empire. Fits with some things she said, in our meeting - they seem pretty convinced that the empire needs them, but they don't need us."

"Think they'll try something to get us out of the way?"

"They're not stupid. I'd be raised."

How much do you give away about the composition of your forces if you publish your pay scale and your overall monthly expenses by division?

A lot of people would say 'approximately nothing'. After all, the same monthly expenses could be the product of three eighth-circle spellcasters on contract or two seventh-circle on contract and two in uniform at seventh, or just of eight hundred men with no spellcasting power, and there's no way from merely the published numbers to guess which, so it's probably fine.

To be clear, Marit isn't sure it isn't fine. He just does not remotely trust the line of reasoning 'well, I can't think how I'd figure it out just from that, so it's probably fine'. In his experience people end up sort of mentally handicapping themselves, when they try to answer a question like that, asking 'why wouldn't I be able to figure out the answer' and coming up with all kinds of reasons instead of 'what other pieces of information which I might be separately able to learn would be necessary for me to figure out the answer' and therefore conveniently not noticing that the relevant other information is available, or at minimum that no one has been treating the other information as secret and so next month someone might make it available for some unrelated reason.

Marit has tried to teach a lot of people to notice this sort of thing, mostly without success. He has at least succeeded in teaching them that he'll yell at them if they share a lot of information because they couldn't think of a good reason not to, which is perhaps the most he can ask. He spends the rest of the day and the night combing with Pereza through the Shining Crusade's budgets trying to figure out what you'd need to know in order for these numbers to be useful to you. It's inferrable, probably, in which months they pay the High Priest of Pharasma, and approximately how their men are divided across the war's present fronts; it's probably not inferrable precisely how many seventh circle wizards they have, even less so if they report the numbers to the nearest thousand solidi.

Eventually he approves a plan where they'll report their pay schedule and the overall spending on salary, precisely, and salaries and expenses by division imprecisely, with assurances that the budgets across all divisions add up correctly while they may not within any individual division. He refuses to certify that this doesn't tell Tar-Baphon a lot of valuable information; he can't think how it would, but Tar-Baphon's smarter than him, isn't he. 

"Does it have fair character - do you think you're as likely to be high as to be low, in the overall estimate this produces -"

"- I wasn't trying for that and I'm not sure it would possess that character incidentally." That is, he wasn't trying to bias it, obviously, but he's not sure that if one doesn't try to bias one's estimates one should expect them to end up evenly spread across the truth. 

"How long would it take you to try for that, I'd rather documents try for that but not if it's going to be enormously more difficult -"

"I have no idea how to do it at all, sir. It's not as if we have a true answer I can reference against. If you'd asked at the start I'd have proposed we have an axiomite hover and object in the middle of the process. I'll certify that I'm aware of no corruption, that I was given and proceeded with no objectives other than providing information adequate for an audit without betraying information useful to our enemy, and that there are no respects in which I specifically anticipate an auditor would be mislead by the aggregate figures."

"Right. Attest to that, then, and we'll send it over."

A few things are unusual about the pay schedule of the Shining Crusade, aside from the numbers meticulously provided only in the aggregate, which does make them less useful to Tar-Baphon but also makes them dramatically more difficult to check against the actual number of troops in the field, and aside from the attached statement of intent from a minor Crusade commander with no position relevant to accounting or counterintelligence at all.

The first is just that these are eye-popping numbers. Taldor knew it was paying a great deal for the Shining Crusade, but so has been the Church of Aroden and the Church of Pharasma and the Church of Abadar and the sky-citadel of Kraggodan and some parties preferring to remain anonymous, and the result is by far the most powerful organized military force ever assembled, maybe excluding the one it's opposing. There is a dragon in the Crusade's employ and he's a minor note on page 5.

The second is that the Crusade is contracted with an archmage for nearly all of her high-level spells for 100 solidi a month plus expenses and captured magic items. Those captured magic items and expenses must really be something; you couldn't hire a self-respecting fifth-circle wizard for that. 

The listed salaries other than that are mostly reasonable, for however much that's worth. 

"As you command, sir."

And after giving Quintus his task, he's off to find that nice officer on Charantis' staff, who may actually be genuinely guileless, and complain to him about how the books they were given to audit weren't, in fact, accounting books. And also about how they have not been provided with a proper point-of-contact in the military administration.

"Well, they can hardly tell you precisely who's where, can they," says the man, baffled. "Do people whose books you're checking usually tell you that? I assume you're supposed to be talking to Pereza, the Crusade quartermaster, and he has some way of talking with his man at the port here, Tellaris, so I suppose I can introduce you to him. But I don't really know what you're expecting."

Oh no, that was probably impolitic.

"We have to follow procedure even in cases where there's observably no reason to" is in fact the correct tack with staff of the Shining Crusade; the man nods fervently. "Of course you do. I'll introduce you to Tellaris. This way."

Tellaris is another retired soldier, who overseas the Crusade's supplies on their meander north from Vellumis. He has a permanent Telepathic Bond with Pereza, this eventually turning out to be cheaper than running down crystal balls or having a significant delay in logistics conversations. He is from the Empire, though it's been a decade since he's been back. "What can I do for you?"

Tellaris blinks. "...sorry? Who'd you get them from?"

"Proximately from a courier, purportedly from a 'Commander Marit' with no explanation as to why this commander is the one providing these records."

Tellaris pauses a minute, checking something over the Telepathic Bond. 

"- right. Commander Marit handles Crusade logistics where there's security implications. He gave you correct numbers, just not detailed numbers, because from detailed numbers it's possible to learn who all we've got and where we have them."

      "They have a procedure that they need detailed numbers for," Charantis's man says helpfully.

"And you want to try to get them out of Commander Marit? Can't you just have the Knight-Commander's oath that she's seen the real numbers and there's no theft she can find?"

He sighs. "I'm afraid not. With all due respect to the Knight-Commander, half the point of an imperial audit like this is that finding theft and corruption is hard."

"Well, you're welcome to discuss it with Commander Marit, if you'd like, and maybe there's some way to get you the details you need without compromising the security of the Crusade."

"Thank you. How shall I find him?"

"I'll convey your request for an audience and he'll come by your offices when it's convenient."

"Are there a great many logistical matters with security implications keeping the man busy?" His tone says that there really oughtn't be.

"- the Crusade leadership doesn't advertise where they'll be and when, sir."

"- right, but they would not want to advertise when they're going to be away from their divisions, would they."

"...I see. I will report this to the Legate."

That sounds like a threat. Tellaris isn't sure what to do about it. Probably the usual way this is handled is with a polite lie that Commander Marit will be over once a Teleport is available, that being understood to be something that might take up to a day with no deliberate deprioritization. The problem is that Tellaris is magically and legally bound not to tell polite lies about Crusade logistics, and is also out of the habit. He didn't even think of the option until after the fact. 

"Of course," he says. "If there's anything else the Legate wants from the Crusade, he should let us know, so we can consolidate on the Teleports."

"We're also interested in speaking with the archmage and the dragon, and whatever representatives your other funders have here."

"I'll pass that along as well." He frowns slightly, trying to think who all that'd be. The Pharasmins, the Dwarves... 

The Pharasmins, the Dwarves, she should probably not personally show up as the Church of Aroden's relevant representative though it's obviously on her word and Commune confirmation that they're spending so much on it -

"Why do they want to talk to me?"

"They want to figure out if you're loyal to me or to the Crusade or to the Empire."

"Well, I'm just trying to do the right thing, wherever that takes me."

"That is among humans a rare motivation, much rarer than claims about it, and so humans tend not to believe claims about it, and will want to talk a lot so they can make their own determination about it. You don't have to, though it'd be helpful."

"I don't understand what it'd be helpful with."

"The less it looks like we're hiding things, the better, and the less it looks like people here will listen to the Empire if it orders us to do things, the less likely it is to issue such an order and be embarrassed, though it may also cut our funding."

"Well, I don't know anything about any of that, but I'll talk to them."

And he is in fact the first to drop by their mansion in Vellumis; Marit is sleeping, not that Marit has told anyone he's sleeping, and will be a few hours. 

"Ah. Erm. Come...in?" The dragon does not look like he'd fit through the door to the mansion. "Or should the Legate come out..."

He can shapeshift human temporarily to go through the door, though with an expression of great annoyance, and he'll dragon again on the other side though there's only space for him if he's rather curled up. 

The legate, hearing the noise, comes out of his office, bowing, and descends stairs until he's at Parnoneryx' head level.  "How may I be permitted to address you?"

Gosh! Parnoneryx decides immediately that he actually likes Taldans. "You address the noble dragon Parnoneryx, hero of the Shining Crusade."

"Oh noble Parnoneryx, may I know what brought this Crusade to your attention?"

Preening. "My travels took me to this continent, and I learned of the great battle between Iomedae and Tar-Baphon, and she invited me to join in it, and see them to the victory that has eluded them for so long."

"May your strength carry them to it - Do I understand truly, that you joined solely for the righteousness of the cause?"

"I can name no cause as noble, nor any need as great, and no material reward could equal the knowledge that I played some great part in their triumph."

"No material reward? I am astounded by your generosity, surely it has no equal in all the world."

He preens some more. "Sometimes I am the most suited to hold those treasures captured from our enemies, but I assure you, that is not the concern which moves me; I hold them only for the greater benefit of the world."

"I beseech you, noble Parnoneryx, tell me of some of your great deeds in this Crusade, and some of those treasures you hold for the good of the world."

He'd be delighted. He's in fact only been with the Crusade these last few years, and is mostly in its service as a dragon, which is to say he flies around heartening the men and eating their enemies. ('Terrorizing' is usually one of the most important capacities of a dragon, but against the undead it's less relevant.) He has a sizable protective escort - he's not so ancient a dragon as to be nigh-invincible on a battlefield like these battlefields -

For the good of the world he holds a lot of nice custom magic items seized off Tar-Baphon and his lieutenants. It's not outrageous pay, for a dragon's aid, but it's not especially stingy.

Domnicus thanks Parnoneryx for his condescension, and offers him a small parting gift of gold as proper tribute for such a majestic individual.

Parnoneryx is delighted and leaves to tell Iomedae that he doesn't see why she's so worried, the Taldans are a lovely and civilized people. 

"Bad people can also employ flattery, though I make no claim the auditor is a bad person."

"Why would an enemy of our cause give me a present?"

"It is probably the recommended dragon procedure, and in some cases prevents the departing diplomat getting eaten."

"I wouldn't eat someone because they were rude to me!"

"I know. I have great faith in you. But the ways that humans usually convey to one another that they need not be afraid in another's presence don't come naturally to dragons, making it hard for humans to tell which dragons will eat them. - Marit, there you are. Go entertain our auditors."

"They're lovely! They give excellent presents!"

"...yes, sir," he says tiredly, and Teleports to Vellumis, and goes looking for the diplomatic residence.

The diplomatic residence is this door here, between these two other buildings. Someone greets him. "Can I take your name to the Legate?"

"Commander Marit. The legate requested my presence this afternoon." Hopefully he's happy about all these Teleports being expended on keeping him happy. Unless he works for Tar-Baphon, in which case Marit mostly hopes that he doesn't think they're onto him.

"Of course, this way Commander."

"Ah, you must be Marit? Are you the one who authored these reports?"

They had his signature on them and a clarifying note from him and this is why he was asked to come talk to the auditors in the first place. He can respect asking whether he wrote them anyway. "Yes, I am."

"Do you already understand how this report makes fulfilling my directive from the Grand Prince incredibly difficult, or do I have to explain?"

That is a likely response both from a Legate working for Tar-Baphon and one working for the Grand Prince, unfortunately. "I imagine that without militarily critical details of the disposition of our forces it is difficult to confirm that we are not embezzling money. I have seen the figures from which I made the summary for you, do know the disposition of our forces, and am optimistic" only true because it's a very vague phrase "that we can find some way for you to verify those figures that your work requires, without sharing such where they could be learned by our enemies."

"You imagine correctly. As a matter of imperial policy I am not to make judgements about whether you or your commander are embezzling merely off of my assessment of your character. And of course, someone else could be embezzling without your knowledge, in which case it benefits us both for me to find it. I am glad that you think we can verify your figures without compromising your operations, do you have particular ideas for how that might be done?"

"I'm sure someone's stealing, I'd be shocked if it's at notable scale. Last case we caught was an officer who hadn't reported the deaths of eight soldiers, to pocket their paychecks, had the unit's logistics manager convinced this was normal, went on about two months before they were grouped with a second unit whose logistics officer immediately reported it. I propose that you pick one division you want to look at closely, check that the aggregate numbers we gave you for that division match its real numbers, and then we reshuffle the whole unit on the assumption you sold everything you learned straight to Tar-Baphon."

The legate's nostrils flare. "And why the hell would you assume that?" he spits out, "I am a representative of the Grand Prince, not some barbarian's puppet!"

Ah, all right, that was too candid. "With all due respect, legate, we presume anything studied by your team may reach our enemies for precisely the same reasons you assume we may be lying to your face and can beat a truth spell to do it. Neither of us could do our jobs if we assumed the best of people."

He opens his mouth as if to shout something else, then seems to catch himself. He takes a deep breath, then speaks more calmly. "I suppose I cannot hold that against you, in my place. Very well. I'll do your test."

...He may not be entirely mollified, though, because a moment later he adds, "But two divisions, and I'll expect the numbers right away, and I'll want to see them in camp where my people can count heads and speak with the officers."

It's going to be such a headache. "Yes, legate. Of course. Can you arrange your own teleports, if you want your people to visit them in camp, or should we plan to provide those? For how many?"

"You should provide them. For nine."

Well, the sooner they're appeased the sooner they'll go away. "Understood. Pick your divisions. I have the un-aggregated numbers with me."

"Fifth foot and second horse."

He has the real numbers on hand from the process they used to generate the nonspecific ones. He pulls them out of his bag, breaks the seal on them with a spoken password, hands them over. 

"Thank you. When will the teleports be available?"

"Tomorrow." That's three Teleports there and three back, a distinctly nontrivial expenditure that'll require delaying supply somewhere. "Either shortly before dawn, if there are no military emergencies overnight, or a few hours past it."

"Very well. I'll leave you to arrange that while my people look over these."

People don't directly die of six Teleports suddenly being needed for appeasing the Emperor. They probabilistically die, if Tar-Baphon thinks to exploit the situation, which he probably will. There's nothing to do about it but try to make it as few of them as possible. 

The Crusade's real numbers for the unit are consistent with the generalized numbers (though many other numbers would also be consistent; that's the point). The Crusade claims to have reasonable pay and alarmingly high losses and good recruitment aaaaand a lot of paladins donating their salary back to the Crusade for the good of the world.

"Photius can teleport. And you have the boots."

"Do you imagine I forgot? Don't be an idiot. Get back to checking those numbers."

Tar-Baphon presses them overnight.

In the morning there are three fifth circle wizards available to transport the auditors to the units they want to audit. 

The legate seems somewhat annoyed, having woken early and gotten his staff assembled early to catch a before-dawn teleport that in fact turned out to not be available until midmorning.

"Finally," he says, "No sense in wasting more time, we're all ready."

Then they will be on the front near Gallowspire. The land feels doomed; the sun isn't visible. Vultures circle, everything stinks of corpses, the usual. The Teleporters are to stand by, if they think they'll be done today.

...They'll probably be done today. They are efficient and do not want to stay here any longer than they have to.

Yes, enemy territory's notoriously unpleasant for the living. Arazni did a lot of remediation to make liberated Encarthan habitable. They'll wait.

The commander of the fifth foot division of the Shining Crusade is a Taldane nobleman and is nonetheless a little nonplussed by auditors poking around at the front lines. He clears out a room in the command Mansion for them; the weather will probably be hazardous to their health and the favorability of their report.

Angelus would be delighted to stay in the local command mansion and conduct interviews. He sends his staff out to count campfires and interview the soldiers, weather be damned.