Kaldalis felt a bit foolish for thinking he was going to get away with this. Once the three of them were in manacles, Kaldalis, Balrim, and Myrin were taken to the guard camp parked on top of the raid entrance. His expectation had been that the Contender might station a handful of guards overseen by one priest here. After all, if anyone was here, it meant they got past the very dense line of patrols to break out into the forbidden territory.

Instead, it was more like a war camp. They weren’t just here to stand guard; they were here to stay. About two dozen tents were surrounded by a crude wooden barricade. The dungeon entrance was a yawning hole in the ground, and these guards had posted up all around it, forming a near-impenetrable perimeter.

It seemed an absurd expenditure of resources, but Kaldalis had to acknowledge that this was the Contender’s M.O. at this point. He was able, willing, and allowed to just throw seemingly infinite resources at becoming a giant contrived inconvenience.

“So, I’m hoping we can have a reasonable discussion about this,” Kaldalis ventured when they were shoved to their knees on the ground near to the raid entrance, with the scrawny priest scowling down at them. “I know someone said something about having our heads on spikes, but obviously we’re not at that point. No harm, no foul, right?”

The priest slowly reached up and rubbed his jaw, where Kaldalis had punched him.

“Okay, maybe a little harm,” Kaldalis said, amending his statement. “But I am sorry about that. It honestly seemed like the only option. You can take a revenge shot at me if you like. I’ll even hold still for it.”

“Enough,” the priest snapped. Again, Kaldalis was slightly stunned by the discrepancy between his tiny appearance and his large voice. “We’ve been told to expect you, Kaldalis. The Contender and Jetmorpan both warned me that I would see you sooner or later.” He turned, and started to pace up and down the line of them, turning around when he walked past Balrim, and then turning back when he got to Myrin. “I thought they were playing a joke on me. A little gag. What sort of lunatic would try and break the Contender’s decree? What sort of irresponsible ne’er-do-well would cast aside respect for the law and the church and common sense, and come all the way out here?”

He turned on his heel sharply, leaning down to glare at the kneeling Kaldalis. “And yet here you are. In defiance of every single rational thought. Here you are.”

“I don’t suppose you’d believe that I was sent to test the security of your perimeter, would you?” Kaldalis offered.

“No, no,” Myrin said quickly, “you should tell him we’ve been lost in the jungle for two weeks. That’s why they said to look out for us. We’ve been missing this whole time.”

“Could you two knock it off?” Balrim snapped. “You’re gonna get us decapitated. I don’t want to get decapitated! My gramma always said I’d lose my head if I didn’t hold on to it with both hands.” He leaned over and elbowed Kaldalis in the shoulder. “This is your fault. I gotta tell her she was right, and it’s your fault.”

Kaldalis’s first instinct was to be angry at them for being silly at a time like this, but he was reasonably sure that none of their actions were going to change what was coming. If the Contender’s orders were to execute trespassers, then it was going to happen. But if the Contender’s orders were to send them back to Baimer to be imprisoned, that was going to happen. It seemed unlikely that taking the matter seriously could change that.

What could change that, though, was the priest, if he could be talked into going against whatever the Contender had ordered. Though he had displayed staggeringly little patience thus far, he seemed almost amused by their antics now. Kaldalis hoped that maybe they could come to an understanding. His mind flashed back to his earlier thoughts about the priests on the patrols. If this man had ambition to match his lung capacity, this was the man to talk to about how much he might not agree with the Contender’s distribution of resources.

“I was told to expect you,” the priest said at last, “and I was told what was to be done with you when you arrived.” He let that hang in the air for a long moment. “I’m afraid even if you could convince me of extenuating circumstances, my orders will not be changed.”

“Maybe we could talk some more,” Kaldalis ventured hopefully. “I’m sure we could reach an understanding.”

“There’s nothing you could say that changes my orders,” the priest said confidently. “Unless you’ve got the Contender in your pocket and you tell me he’s going to say something different.”

“Let’s start simple, then,” Kaldalis said. “What’s your name? And how do you feel about being out here? I’m sure this isn’t how you thought this trip would go for you, right?”

“Brother Gnider,” the man said, with a slight arch of his eyebrow. “And my expectations do not inform my orders any more than my wishes inform my meals.”

“I just mean that I’m sure you have bigger aspirations than overseeing guard duty around a big hole in the dirt,” Kaldalis continued. He shrugged his shoulders the best he could. “I’m sure The Contender is misusing your potential here, right?”

“Yeah,” Myrin cut in. “Are you feeling at all degraded or oppressed?”

“I bet they don’t even have dental,” Balrim added.

“If you’re not happy to be here, you have the power to change that,” Kaldalis pressed, ignoring their antics. “Your fellows are none too happy with tromping through the jungle all day, either. You can all come together and demand-”

“Enough of that,” Brother Gnider snapped. The amusement was back on his face, but it was clear he wasn’t going to be swayed by Kaldalis’s argument. “I was also told to expect you to speak in nonsense and riddles to try and weasel your way out of the consequences of your actions. That won’t change my orders, either.”

“But listen to what he’s saying,” Balrim pressed. “You’re allowed to listen to him, aren’t you? Your orders aren’t to ignore the nonsense, right?”

“I was very clearly informed,” the priest said with a smirk, “that it would be nonsense. No matter how reasonable it sounded, you lot would say anything to avoid what the Contender owes you.”

“I can be very sensible.” Kaldalis said each word carefully, with a pause between them. “Can’t we just have a civil conversation?”

“No,” the priest snapped, crossing his arms. “The time for conversation has passed. Instead, the time for consequences has only begun.”

“Listen,” Balrim said quickly. “I don’t know him. I’m not with him. We’re in this purely separately. Whatever consequences you have for him, that’s got nothing to do with me.”

“Or her,” Kaldalis said, nodding his head towards Myrin. “Leave them out of this, okay? This is between me and the Contender, right? You don’t have their names. You don’t have their descriptions. You’ll let them go, right?”

The priest arched an eyebrow. Kaldalis could practically read the word “doubt” across the furrowed lines on his forehead.

“Come on, man,” Kaldalis pleaded, “play ball with me here. You got me fair and square, but I don’t have to sit here and make it easy for you. Let my friends go and I don’t have to show you how much harder this could be.”

“There will be no ‘playing ball,’” the priest said. “You can’t buy their freedom with cooperation, you can only buy more punishment with resistance. I have you in custody. I will continue to have you in custody. Your punishment will be carried out very soon, and the only thing that you can change is whether or not I send two men to drag you to it, or four men to carry you.”

“So help me, Kal,” Balrim grumbled. “If I get decapitated I’m gonna haunt your ass for the entire time that I’m dead.”

“Oh yeah, thirty minutes with a ghost lizard,” Kaldalis muttered back. “That’s definitely gonna be the worst thing that happens to me today.”

“Fucking stop it you guys,” Myrin said, stifling a giggle. “This is serious. I’m gonna literally laugh my head off.”

“You are not going to be decapitated,” the priest said with a heavy sigh. “Execution is only called for against those who break through our line and get into the dungeon. As long as you haven’t set foot within, you get to keep your heads on your shoulders.”

“Fuck me running,” Kaldalis said, sagging with relief. “I wish I’d known that. I’d have popped Jump and left Balrim behind if I knew he was going to be fine.”

“What?” Balrim demanded. “You were-”

“Enough of this!” the priest roared. His amusement seemed to have run out, and now the anger was back. “You will not be executed, but your punishment will not be a laughing matter!” He gestured to the guards, and six of them stepped forward, hauling the trio to their feet.

“Hey, easy,” Myrin snapped at the guards. “These legs don’t go that high.”

“By the orders of the Contender himself, with agreement from Jetmorpan, leader of the Kayore Council, you three are hereby exiled from Kayore and the surrounding region,” the priest said. “If you are found to have set foot on Zaran soil in the Huajia region again, you will be formally arrested and sent to Baimer to stand trial for crimes against the Expedition.”

Kaldalis’s eyebrows shot up.

He suddenly very much regretted a lot of his actions.

Kaldalis wouldn’t be given another chance to destabilize the Contender’s hold from here, Balrim and Myrin wouldn’t be allowed to explore the wilderness for Martok like they wanted, and if they tried to sneak around their exile, the punishment was probably the worst thing Kaldalis could think of.

But they weren’t being arrested now.

They weren’t being sent back to Baimer now.

And they weren’t being brutally executed.

This was unexpectedly damaging to his plans, unexpectedly frightening by its enforcement, and - most worryingly of all - unexpectedly fair.

Kaldalis considered for a moment that tangling with the Contender might be a fight far above his capacity to handle.

“Can we, uh,” Kaldalis said, “can we circle back to the unionization thing? I feel like we blitzed over that without a real discussion, and I think-”

“Get them out of my sight,” the priest snapped to the guards. “And don’t come back here until you’ve all watched their boat leave with your own eyes.”