"You will forsake us in this dark time?" Viscenti put in.
"The day is dark, I do not doubt," Braumin added. "But who are we if we allow our mortal fears to defeat our principles? Who are we if we choose the comfort of the flesh over the serenity of the soul? We know what has happened here. We see the injustice clearly."
"And you resist that injustice," Jilseponie remarked.
"As should you. Are you not the same Jilseponie who stood fast beside Elbryan against the direst of odds? Are you not the same Jilseponie who would have given her life before denouncing her principles in the face of the demon-possessed Markwart?"
Jilseponie gave Bishop Braumin a pleading look, as desperate an expression as the man had ever seen, as she answered, "He is my son."
"Then we cannot win!" Viscenti lamented, and he turned away, throwing up his hands in despair.
"You cannot win in any case," Jilseponie said to him. "Not here, not now.
You have seen my strength with the gemstones, and believe that such power would bolster enough to resist. But I have seen Aydrian's strength, and it is greater still! He will knock down the gates of Palmaris if they are closed before him."
"Then all hail King Aydrian!" Master Viscenti dramatically cried, swinging about to face the woman. "And all hail Father Abbot De'Unnero! Damn the traditions of Church and State alike! Damn the - "
"There is a third course open to you," Jilseponie said to Braumin.
The bishop glanced at Viscenti, who quieted at once, and both turned to Jilseponie, eager for her counsel.
"Defy Aydrian with a soft wall of resistance," Jilseponie explained.
"Make a stand here if you must, but do not include all of your resources in that stand. Allow your line to bend, all the way to Vanguard."
Bishop Braumin looked even more intrigued.
"Only the unified opposition of the folk of Honce-the-Bear holds any hope of defeating Aydrian now," Jilseponie went on. "He holds the Kingsmen army of Ursal at his disposal, the Allheart Knights among them, and many thousands more in reserve, gathered from the lands about Entel. The people do not know enough to deny his claim as their king, particularly when that claim is made at the end of an Allheart lance. Such a common denial of Aydrian, if it is to grow, cannot begin until Prince Midalis publicly makes his claim to the throne."
It all made sense, of course, except... "You ask me to surrender the city," Braumin remarked.
"I ask you to save the garrison for Prince Midalis," Jilseponie corrected. "For he will need every ally he can find before this is ended."
"You will go to him?"
Jilseponie stepped back and offered no reply, for in truth, she hadn't thought that far ahead. A moment later, she just shook her head. "I'm going home," she said softly. "At this time, I need to go home."
Master Viscenti started to argue that course, but the perceptive Braumin understood clearly that nothing more could be said here, and so he held up his hand to silence Viscenti. He reached out and took Jilseponie by the shoulders, looking her right in the eye.
"Forgive my... forgive our callousness," he said softly. "You have been through so very much. You owe the people of Honce-the-Bear nothing, my friend. Go home and heal, Jilseponie."
"Bishop!" Viscenti started to say, but again Braumin stopped him with an upraised hand. He walked away from Jilseponie then, moving quickly to his desk, and from the top drawer, he produced a small pouch.
"Take these with you," he offered, handing the bag of gemstones to Jilseponie. She motioned as if to resist taking them, but Braumin only pushed them toward her more forcefully. "Use them as you see fit, or use them not at all. But you must have them." He looked deeply into her eyes, the caring look of a dear friend, and nodded. "Just in case."
Jilseponie took the pouch, and the two monks moved for the door.
"A soft wall of resistance?" Bishop Braumin asked.
Jilseponie merely shrugged and walked out of the room and the abbey, the two monks in tow.
"It is my fervent hope that you will find your heart and your strength and join us in this battle," Bishop Braumin said to her. "We have fought so hard to win the Abellican Church to Avelyn's vision, to bring the common man more fully into our protective fold. Marcalo De'Unnero would destroy all that we have accomplished in short order, I am sure."