Asmodia: "I see.  That sounds like it requires a longer and more visible absence of myself from Project Lawful than I'd hoped for."

"Possibilities and costs around sealed written message to him marked his-eyes-only, with only your name on it in capacity as comms officer, minimum awareness of that event, sealed reply addressed to yourself and returned to me?"

lintamande: "I consider it very unlikely that someone loyal to us would read that; there exists the possibility it would be intercepted; the person who Teleported and delivered the message would be aware of a message from me to the target but probably not expect your involvement."

Asmodia: "Acceptable risk.  Writing materials for the message, please, and somewhere secure to write it.  Expected time to Gorthoklek?"

lintamande: "I can send someone with the message as soon as you write it, and wouldn't expect them to take more than ten minutes to deliver it unless there's some unexpected mess at the front."

Asmodia: "Hm.  Additional time cost and privacy gain if it only goes the next time a Teleport to Egorian would otherwise be expected?"

lintamande: "It'd be less interesting and less likely to be intercepted. Next expected Teleport would be...this evening, probably, to deliver daily reports by hand. If Gorthoklek is there to receive it, there might be a return reply immediately, otherwise I would expect a reply tomorrow morning or at latest evening."

Asmodia: The tricky part is not knowing what resources, such as Teleports, she is allowed to expend in the name of keeping her seal secret.

She thinks that so long as the message is on the way, she can probably manage.

"That seems better.  I have family members in the process of being relocated by Security," since maybe somebody interesting will try to kidnap them, "and I believe that should serve as a good cover for you to notify me that a message is waiting for me, when a return message arrives.  Affirm or deny."

lintamande: "Affirm." Why is he taking orders from her? Well, if he wasn't supposed to do that, she'll presumably be in more trouble than he will.

Asmodia: "Are there any obvious flaws to you in this arrangement?  Do not assume that I am fully familiar with all the details of these workings; if I was, I wouldn't have needed to ask this much."

Something about the way she's phrasing that feels like dath ilani influence... well, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

lintamande: "I don't see obvious flaws or risks other than the ones I have mentioned."

Asmodia: "Very well."

Asmodia writes a message to Gorthoklek.

Due to her mortal imperfection, the Project Lawful girl whom Gorthoklek should recently have been told about as having returned with a secret, has not been able to conceal all signs of having a secret from people who could potentially inquire into it, including particularly the project leader.

This Project Lawful girl now requests an authorization from Gorthoklek she can show to such people telling them to not inquire further and not talk about her or about the existence of that instruction, with literally anyone; and an authorization she can show to somebody to instruct them to not further propagate any information that she has leaked or will leak; and/or such other authorizations as Gorthoklek may deem good for her to have.

She doesn't sign it, folds it into a blank-looking rectangle of paper, and hands it to the cleric.  "Seal as appropriate.  Please make sure the person doing the Teleport understands that a new rumor about Project Lawful sending secret messages to Gorthoklek is not an outcome that would be desirable.  To Gorthoklek."

lintamande: "....I will make that understood."

It is starting to make slightly more sense why someone bothered to tell him that you cannot escape this assignment by suicide.

Asmodia: "Good.  If you meet me under other circumstances I'm no different from any other Project Lawful girl.  We're done."

Asmodia turns around and walks out of the office.

She's got to hold it together at least until she reaches her bedroom, but, weirdly enough, she feels like she probably can.

Carissa Sevar: "Security should leave," Carissa says to the High Priestess once they're outside the Forbiddance. "The conversation might touch on topics they're not cleared for."

Security doesn't object to this order but doesn't leave either; you're not supposed to leave someone alone once they've been told they're selling their soul, which is....apparently what's going on here?

Jacint Subirachs: "Do it."

Carissa Sevar: Right, then. Selling her soul. She feels quite different than she did three days ago when she was last going to sell her soul. Not less scared, but - 

- she's going to serve Asmodeus well. And she's not scared of random devils; they're nothing next to her, after all.

Jacint Subirachs: Planar Ally is one of the spells Subirachs keeps prepped daily; there are many emergencies that could potentially require a devil's aid.

1250gp offerings, 10 minute casting time.

Carissa Sevar: Rumor has it that Project Lawful girls' souls are selling for exorbitant prices, in the markets of Dis. She'd be proud of that, but maybe only a tiny chance of successfully turning them into dath ilani is enough to justify the absurd prices; it's not a bet on her competence at the task ahead of her, just yet another indication of the stakes. 

It does mean she should be able to get a devil on board with this deal even though it's not as good a deal for them as usual, though. 

She's not actually sure what the fair price of a Chelish soul is, now that she thinks about it. Arguably it's not much, since they'll almost definitely go to Hell anyway. Though that's less true of the Project Lawful girls, who other gods keep stealing. How expensive is the cheapest way to corrupt souls to Evil, how much is a soul worth to Asmodeus in the sense of how much it costs him to get one? It might vary a lot by the soul. 

What would happen if you demanded a Wish? 

What would happen if you were Carissa Sevar, the name known to every contract devil who deals with Cheliax, and you demanded a Wish and Arcane Sight and a hundred pounds of spellsilver just for the rights to your soul if Keltham chooses not to exercise his option.

Probably the answer is that you'd get laughed at and then tortured but she almost wants to try it just to see. 

Jacint Subirachs: She means to name the mightiest contract devil whose name she knows, one to whom other devils answer; the thought has occurred to Subirachs as well that Carissa Sevar is perhaps worth more than ordinary souls in their Lord's sight.  It is not clear that Hell's profit should be protected at the expense of Sevar's pride.  On the other hand, if that thought hasn't occurred to Sevar herself, she may deserve no better.  But she will at least bring forth a devil worthy of negotiation.

"Glosialabolas, come forth and bargain."  So speaks the High Priestess of Asmodeus, Jacint Subirachs.

Glosialabolas: He doesn't trouble with ceremony until he knows this is even worth his time.  Anybody worth his time to bargain with won't be impressed by a little extra fire on arrival.  He's also busy and trying to impress mortals is mostly beneath him.

"Who has the temerity and why should I bother?" he says, not troubling himself to add any threats.

Carissa Sevar: "I am Carissa Sevar." She doesn't bother explaining; he ought to know, or at least she intends to give the impression he ought to know. "There is a mortal who desires to possess an option on my soul, sold otherwise to Hell, and if you are permitted to bargain for my soul at all you will have it until or unless he claims that option. Are you so permitted?"

Glosialabolas: Glosialabolas thinks the Infernal equivalent of "HOLY SHIT".

He knows by now, of course, as does most of Dis, that Carissa Sevar already got her first reply, the one telling her not to sell her soul that day, which has invited a lot of speculation about possible other days.  It's obvious that she would be the prize to own if you could.  But they haven't received any clarification from their superiors about whether -

Glosialabolas: Is she an unfinished cleric?

Glosialabolas: Is she an unfinished cleric of Irori?

Glosialabolas: ...and yet apparently, as seen from other spiritual angles, she looks more truly pledged to Asmodeus than most soul-sellers usually arrive to him, and is sincere in her intent to bargain?

Glosialabolas: What was that about a mortal wanting an option on her soul?

Glosialabolas: First things first.  "Then you may, possibly, be worth my time.  What price would you seek for yourself?"

If she doesn't know, if he can get an agreement from her on that point before he returns to Hell to see if this can be authorized -

Carissa Sevar: "I am not sure there is a soul alive of higher value to Hell, and if there is, it is the mortal I am in the middle of delivering to Asmodeus and who wants the option on my soul, which, if he exercises it, will bring him to Our Lord.

I propose an equal split of the gains from this trade, and will reject lesser splits with a probability corresponding to how disproportionately they reserve the gains for you, such that you can't actually do better by pretending to underrate me, but we'll still work something out with high probability if we honestly disagree, paid in Wishes and spellsilver above and beyond the ordinary payment of permanent Arcane Sight. ...and permanent Tongues."

Glosialabolas: ...first of all, mortals aren't supposed to know about any of that, however garbled and incomplete it sounds, and second, if they stumble over a piece of it, you're supposed to shut them down hard and refuse to bargain for their soul and ideally let them get executed by Cheliax.

Carissa Sevar will not be executed if he refuses her; so much seems obvious from the lack of others present to watch her, saving one Priestess who is looking more at him than at her.

But if he's reading Carissa Sevar right, she doesn't know.  Or she doesn't know numbers.

They wouldn't have summoned him to negotiate if they had even a beginning guess at Carissa Sevar's worth; he's not a Count of Hell.

"That is not the way of Hell," he rumbles.  "Asmodeus is not Abadar, little mortal, no matter what company you have been keeping of late.  You can try to hold what secrets you like, and Hell will keep its own, and whoever is closer to Asmodeus in wit and ways is the one to win the compact.  Name to me the price you seek for yourself."

Carissa Sevar: Of course. 

She's tempted to say 'there has to be some devil that will accept that the price of bargaining with me includes this; get me that one'. But there doesn't have to be any such devil. To be a devil is to be perfected, at least along that angle, and apparently perfected in Lawful Evil you don't have any interest in that. Like how Contessa Lrilatha hates Keltham's good faith clause.

But she wasn't refused outright, despite offering something objectively worth much less than a normal contract. 

"Then," she says, "speaking informally to establish the terms for a contract not yet written, for three Wishes, and ten pounds of spellsilver, and permanent Arcane Sight and permanent Tongues, I offer my soul, subject to the option for a mortal to claim it which was previously discussed."

Glosialabolas: Glosialabolas thinks the equivalent of "Heck yes, fucking score" in Infernal.  It's a large chunk of her (current) likely fair price, but nowhere close to all of it.  And while he can't deliver three Wishes, he can sell his choice of which devil he'll bring back to compact with Carissa Sevar.

"Hmpfh.  I would have to bring forth a superior devil to make such a bargain, if they proved willing to make it at all, at some trouble to myself for one not receiving your soul in the end.  Nor has it been made known to Dis whether you are this day permitted to sell your soul, and the question might need to be referred far up the hierarchy, which is no trivial hazard of time and pride for myself to undergo."

"This mortal claim.  Say more of it."

Jacint Subirachs: He didn't just turn her down.  Carissa Sevar asked for three Wishes and the contract devil did not laugh.

Maybe all that talk about 'Chosen of Asmodeus' was not so much flattery as Jacint thought.

Carissa Sevar: She is having the same realization. Maybe she should've asked for more, but. What does Hell believe, such that they'd even contemplate -

"Hell keeps its secrets, and I'll keep mine. The option should grant the mortal the real right to, at any time, exercise the option and make my soul his own, his right acknowledged by all of Hell the same as the right of any great contract devil to the souls they have contracted for and purchased. It is acceptable for the exercise to involve the payment of some fixed compensation to the soul's previous owner. No commitments need be made about the soul's state, beyond that it'll be extant, and its owner while the option has not been exercised will not compact to destroy it."

Is she sneaking that last bit in out of self-interest rather than because Keltham would even think to specify it, yes she is, though she's not entirely conscious of this even as she does it.

Glosialabolas: A fixed compensation!  The prices are still fluctuating in the markets of Dis, and even demanding thrice the original payment would not suffice to protect the asset if it increases still further.

But that, he can hardly say to Carissa Sevar; some other excuse must be found to reject the term.

"The mortal is not here, party to this contract though you seemingly intend him to be.  Are you hiding things from him, I wonder?  And if so, I wonder, do you wish him to see a compact plainly mentioning some exercise price substantially greater than three Wishes and ten pounds of spellsilver?  For we are not in the habit of reselling at no gain."

He can't just suggest a term about market prices though, or a price reflecting lost gains to the devil who must sell; that will make it too obvious what's really going on.

Carissa Sevar: "The exercise price should be denominated in Chelish currency, so he doesn't get distracted trying to figure out where he can get Wishes. The amount won't give him pause."

Glosialabolas: "Hoh?  Even if we demand from him what is denominated as ten million gold in the true wealth of Cheliax?  He is so naive?"

Carissa Sevar: "It doesn't serve Asmodeus for the price to be so high he can't exercise it and turn Evil, so I can't let you peg it at that. Five hundred thousand would cover the Wishes and the spellsilver and a generous profit, and there are considerable benefits from having owned me even for a time, if I spend any of it dead so you can learn them."

Glosialabolas: "Not the way of Hell bargaining for a soul, Carissa Sevar."

"But... perhaps the way of Hell seeking to corrupt another soul even more valuable to our Lord, if he is as you say."

Devils do serve the interests of Asmodeus; it is the way that they have been remade.

"I must consult with my superiors upon all this matter, and return to you.  I will write you the compact to take to the mortal; it will be well for him to sign, or so it would seem, even if we are not yet permitted to bargain with you or your price finds no takers.  Have you thoughts upon wise and cunning terms therein?"

Carissa Sevar: "The aim is not to conceal things from him that require great intelligence or paranoia to notice; he has both, and we don't wish him to train either. The aim is to state in plain language the Evil he is eager to arrange for himself to do, stated so plainly that it does not occur to him it describes anything that ought to trouble him. Risks to his rights or his bank account he'll be looking for; risks to his Goodness he won't. He has claimed me as his possession in this life, and if he seeks to exercise the option it'd be for the same reason; because it inspires envy in him, to know that a part of what I am - a small part, he believes - is given forever to another, that they will have rights over me that mustn't shock his conscience but that can be permitted to stir his jealousy. 

I'll need to review it. People not accustomed to dealing with him make mistakes."

Glosialabolas: "The thought occurs to me that you might, perhaps, wish to sell him that option upon yourself.  It will not suffice to damn him, but it will be a start."

"The thought occurs to me that you might wish to make the option annullable by your returning of that payment to him, if he has not already exercised it.  While I do not know all your plans, I know that mortals often change them.  Perhaps you will find yourself plotting to execute a different compact with him in the future."

Carissa Sevar: Keltham will be comfortable with that; Carissa is surprised that Hell recommends it. "I will bear that in mind." Actually, 'I asked the devil and he said he'd ask other devils for takers on the general contract, but said I should sell you, not give you, your option' will make Keltham feel positively about devils. 

Glosialabolas: He is not unmindful of Sevar's advantage over this mortal, if she serves Hell's interest more, and the terms he suggested are advantageous ones to her in future negotiations.  He will take what he can from Sevar for Hell; taking from her to advantage a non-Evil mortal is another matter.

"If you can seduce him to unmake and re-sign a different compact every three moons, on some excuse and tale of Hell's changing conditions, that will suffice to damn him before nine seasons pass - if he otherwise acts not for Good or Evil.  Remember me well in your reports, if it proves so."

Glosialabolas sets forth to design a compact so simple that it almost pains him.  Almost.  The devils of contracts do understand the concept of not overcomplicating and calling attention to a sting that requires neither attention nor complication.  At the core of all of this is that the mortal is suspicious of prices, rights, terms, conditions, but not that the very act of what he is doing is great Evil.

When he is done, Glosialabolas presents a compact to Carissa Sevar for an option upon her soul.

Carissa Sevar: She doesn't say thank you, because that would be ridiculous. She reads through it, suggests a few small revisions to make it more like Lrilatha when she's trying to impress Keltham with the clarity and trustworthiness of her contract-writing, hands it back. Doesn't say anything aloud about it; devils are sensitive about being obliged to write honest contracts.

Glosialabolas: Who writes like that!?

Glosialabolas grumbles, but makes her suggested revisions; it's clear that Sevar knows too much about contracts, as she knows too much of other things.

Carissa Sevar: "He'll ask, also, whether as I was taught I demanded reassurance that the terms of the contract conceal, to your knowledge, no clever traps and no terms with unexpected negative consequences for those who sign it. I think the unexpected negative consequence is not in the terms, and for precisely that reason will escape his notice, and if that's so I would convey your assurance of it."

Glosialabolas: "...it would do grave damage to the interests of Hell if it ever became believed that devils, asked such a thing, would not simply and absolutely refuse to bargain."

"Perhaps you know more of our Lord's workings here than I.  But can you truly assure me that this mortal's soul is worth the risk to Hell's reputation?"

Carissa Sevar: "He has already secured such bargains, from devils apprised of his full nature and of as much as we understand of Asmodeus's direction."

Glosialabolas: By her soul's tilt she is being honest.  Glosialabolas thinks the equivalent of "Okay then, but still, the HECK?" in Infernal.

He amends another term or two and hands back the compact again.  "Tell the mortal that Glosialabolas, who made this compact, guaranteed this:  The deed that results from this contract's signing and its execution, will be as I expect that he will expect.  As for the consequences of the deed itself, time will show it."

Carissa Sevar: "I will tell him so. May your other errand from me go as smoothly." That's probably pushing it, framing checking whether he can buy her soul as her errand she requested of him, but you have to push until you get a 'no' and she's very aware she hasn't, yet, gotten a 'no'.

Glosialabolas: Why yes, it is pushing it.

"Do not presume to rise above your given station.  You are not as yet the least of devils, whatever your soul's price to those who are."

"In three hours' time as it passes in Golarion, I will return to this place, perhaps in company if your price finds a taker or a bargainer, and if our Lord's will is in accordance this day.  Be there or be bereft."

Glosialabolas turns then at an angle, to return to Hell.  He has a most urgent plea for clarification to file, to his master and his master's masters.

Also, is he supposed to actually tell anyone in Golarion about the unfinished cleric thing.

Carissa Sevar: "- right," says Carissa to the High Priestess. "Well. I'm inspired by Hell's apparent estimate of the value of our work. I guess I had better go talk to Keltham, then."

Jacint Subirachs: "Your will, Chosen of Asmodeus."  It sounds exactly as sincere as before; the one who says it was not previously a poor faker.

Subirachs has an urgent report to make to the Grand High Priestess's secretary regarding what Carissa Sevar's price is not obviously not, and also report the promise Subirachs made to Keltham regarding a test to run on Sevar if her soul cannot be sold for any reason.

Carissa Sevar: Carissa walks sedately and responsibly with her contract until she's nearly at Keltham's room, and then skips gleefully; she feels gleeful and she can't think of any reason to hide it with Keltham! Three Wishes!! Enough spellsilver for every project she can conceive of!!!! 

Knock knock.

Keltham: Keltham is reading a book of cleric spells that has finally been returned to Ostenso's wizard academy, according to Ione, who has been diligently checking at least once per day.

This is some pretty strange stuff, frankly.

Answer answer.

Carissa Sevar: "Hey! I have a contract with an option on my soul for you. Though, uh, the devil who wrote it for me said that I should not give you the option for free. Just as I wouldn't sell my soul for free, right - the consideration lends it dignity - this isn't an offer I make you expecting nothing in return but to see what becomes of me, it's a deal."

Keltham: "Hell is so functional compared to Golarion.  May I have a look?  And are the rest of your arrangements settled pending this?"

Carissa Sevar: "Here you go." Contract. "And no, the appointment where I settle the Hell side of it is in three hours. The devil I got would've been perfectly adequate if I were a fourth-circle caster at the Worldwound looking to make arrangements as a magic item enchanter when she died, but now I'm way more valuable and will actually need a higher-seniority devil who's authorized to make more expensive kinds of deals. Which in hindsight makes sense - being on Project Lawful made the other girls as valuable as a wizard a decade older and more experienced and powerful than them, so it makes me very valuable. Though the option decreases the value considerably, which I guess you can compensate me for."

Keltham: "Oh, and how would I go about doing that?"

Carissa Sevar: "Awkwardly, I feel like you've already asserted that if we're still together when we've built Civilization I will get mountains of spellsilver to play with. But maybe one of the mountains of spellsilver can be mine by right rather than a probable present."

Keltham: "Not to be too unromantic but I can't actually promise you that until I know what spellsilver is fundamentally and if that quantity even exists in Golarion."

"But, if I just take that as indicating the general spirit of what's going on, then sure."

Keltham: Keltham reads the contract.

The option itself costs 500gp for him to purchase, and wants him to pay 500,000gp if at some future point he'd like to own Carissa's soul.

This does not particularly square with the amount Keltham is expecting that Carissa is getting in exchange for her soul today, going on some past prices he's been quoted.

Keltham: "Wait, I'm supposed to pay 500,000 gold pieces for you?  I bet the devil who's buying you today isn't paying anything remotely like that.  Are you conniving with this devil to make a profit off me here?  Who says you're even worth that?"

Keltham tries to say this sternly.  How's Carissa's Sense Motive doing against Keltham's Bluff?

Carissa Sevar: Keltham is adorable and up to bluffing about as well as a Chelish ten year old. "No one in all the land would say I'm worth that. It is a truly ridiculous amount of money that even Abrogail couldn't pay."

Keltham: "So if I can't make an insane amount of money or I'm not willing to pay this insane price for you, I don't get to be together with you into the Future, hm?"

"And here I was wondering if Cheliax just didn't understand romance at all."

Carissa Sevar: "Well, you know, if nothing else I aspire to be a quick learner."

Keltham: Part of him wants to optimize the part where, apparently, whatever devil signs this contract just gets all that money, but eh.  It's just 500,000gp at some point into the far future of their relationship.

"Well, think no less of me if I don't sign your very romantic contract upon the spot.  I do need to check the terms.  I don't suppose you asked the devil about unexpected unpleasantness?  Should've actually asked explicitly for you to do that."

Carissa Sevar: "I did, I asked if any of the terms would have unexpected unpleasant effects, and he said, 'Tell the mortal that Glosialabolas, who made this compact, guaranteed this:  The deed that results from this contract's signing and its execution, will be as I expect that he will expect.  As for the consequences of the deed itself, time will show it.'"

Keltham: "Are all devils so... Taldane doesn't have the Baseline word.  The thing that pronouncement has in common with saying 'Those above all mortals now battle.'"

Carissa Sevar: "I haven't exactly met tons of devils but in stories, yes, they all are, even moreso more powerful ones."

Keltham: "Well, they do them, I guess."

Keltham reads the contract, carefully; he has not actually heard a Lawful being pronounce it safe, only heard Carissa say that this was told to her.

...It would be legit pretty hard for this contract to hurt Keltham, though, there just aren't any sentences that talk about Keltham needing to do anything.

Except for the section that says the option can be voided if Carissa returns the 500gp to him before it can be exercised.  But even that section is just talking about something that happens to the contract, not something that happens to Keltham.

It would be an entirely unacceptable clause for a regular financial contract.  If the option goes up in price, the option purchase just gets reversed at the other party's will??  Part of Keltham's brain is repeatedly pointing at this and trying to yell about it what a bad deal it is.

The larger Keltham understands the message of the term perfectly well:  Sure, you can have her Future, if and only if she still wants you.

"Be it clear that I know perfectly well that it was the devil, rather than you, who suggested to you, or more accurately, told you, to include the term of this option where you can give me back the price I paid in order to nullify the option," Keltham says aloud.  "And then argued with you about it.  And finally told you that he wasn't executing the compact unless that term was in it exactly the way he put it down."

Carissa Sevar: " - I didn't argue for very long! Devils don't give bad advice. But yes, I didn't want - I'm not trying to give myself an escape route."

Keltham: "It's not an escape route for you.  It's an escape route for a different person named Carissa Sevar who might exist in fifty years.  Mortals probably look pretty changeable from a devil's perspective.  You can't expect them to know that all time-slices of you will be as one person in this, even if that's how the future plays out."

Keltham will ask for a lot of detailed explanations of a lot of detailed terms.

And then measure out 500gp of value, mostly in platinum in this case, from that small hoard he now has.

(It's actually a bit painful!  His legible asset balance just went down by a factor of 6!  It would be less painful if he had knowable repeatable ways of earning more!  But considering that he got this money by renting out Carissa, his brain rather needs to shut up about his legible asset balance.  The remaining 100gp is, in fact, exactly that amount he demanded and was paid for going through the etiquette lessons.)

He offers the money to Carissa.

Just in case he wants to spend forever together with her, at some future point.

Carissa Sevar: She takes it. Takes a deep breath. Puts it in her Bag of Holding.

Signs the contract. 

Keltham: Keltham signs.

(Having your alignment shift 12% of the way towards Lawful Evil doesn't feel like anything in particular.)

Carissa Sevar: It actually feels kind of stupid, that this shifts Keltham's alignment. Not that she didn't already believe that the system was kind of stupid, but - they haven't made ...any progress, really.... on corrupting Keltham in the sense that matters, in the sense of making him someone who thinks like Asmodeus and will thrive in Hell. He still wants her to be happy, he's still pleased about the escape route, he's still-

Lawful Neutral. The kind of agent he wants to be negotiating with is in Axis. 

There is, Carissa realizes as she beams at him, possibly nothing she can do about that. It might be that she can only make him Pharasmin-Evil and not make him Asmodean-Evil and - it feels like a situation where accomplishing part of her objectives is worse than accomplishing none of them, a truly Asmodean Keltham would be an asset beyond imagining but one still Lawful Neutral in his heart -

- she cuts off that line of reasoning. She'll just have to persuade him of all Asmodeanism. 

Keltham: ...but Keltham's smile fades, before too long, as he remembers a thought, which is all too often a hazard to the people of dath ilan.

"Snuggles after you actually successfully make afterlife arrangements," Keltham says.  "I'm feeling too worried, deep down, until that part actually happens."

The possibility that Carissa has a hidden Zon-Kuthon cleric alternate personality is a bit of a moodkiller.  His life would be so much easier if all of these increasingly conjunctively chained thoughts were ones he could just categorize as Statistically Unlikely Awfulness and move on.

Carissa Sevar: " - okay. Should I go, then? Leave you your books? Send you Meritxell?"

Keltham: Actually, dramatic-irony-wise, wouldn't signing a happy and beautifully symbolic contract like this make it a great time for something terrible to happen to Carissa just before her actual afterlife arrangements got made?  There's hardly any author in dath ilan who would, if planning to have Carissa kidnapped in the next few hours, not have this beautiful emotional options contract get signed first.  Only a Genre Savvy character's explicit awareness of the trope could possibly prevent that, because the author really can't do that so freely if the protagonist is a normal dath ilani and able to notice, and even then the protagonist would need to -

"On due reflection, I think the level of 'trope' alarm this entire situation is generating is sufficient that I literally don't want to let you out of my sight until the devil gets back," Keltham states.  "I may entertain arguments that you be allowed to use the bathroom."

Carissa Sevar: "You're very concerning sometimes, you know that?" She sits down in one of his fancy chairs. "Also fair warning, if we'd been dating for a week longer I'd make you enforce that."

Keltham: "I'd say that, once I understand Golarion better and have lived here longer, I'll maybe know better what can't happen.  But I also remind you that your new standard of improbability needs to be, 'Is that less likely than a godwar starting' or 'Is that less likely than Cayden Cailean volunteering snacks catering for our project' because that is where you live now."

"...Enforce it how, pray tell?"

Carissa Sevar: "Well, I say, 'oh? make me' and then you figure out the 'how'. ....to be clear I won't, actually, do that about an actual safety request even if it doesn't make sense to me."

Keltham: "Wrong time to ask me to figure that out, but we can put a pin in it for later."

Keltham: Keltham does have a book of cleric spells to finish reading, and many Additional Questions to ask about it.

Ruby Prince Khemet III: A roaring sound like the ocean has overtaken Sothis and is racing at top speed towards his eardrums in particular, and a sense of heat like he's tripped face-first into the Sun -

"We are occupied elsewhere," the pharaoh tells this petitioner, already unable to hear his voice, "and will speak to you later. Dismissed."

Abadar: The cleric in Cheliax has just exchanged 500 gold pieces for an option exercisable for 500,000gp for the soul of one Carissa Sevar.

Assistance in generating theories of why.

Ruby Prince Khemet III: ......you can buy options on souls? I didn't know you could buy options on souls!! 

He doesn't expect a response on that; Abadar doesn't usually communicate with things that parse as words at all, and he suspects that it only happened this time because the words were in the contract.

Possibilities: 

- the cleric wants to rescue the girl from Hell and can't afford it yet but expects he'll be able to someday?

- the cleric has been very much misled about any of what souls are, what contracts are, what gold pieces are, what options are, or who Carissa Sevar is

- the contract is meant to communicate with Us, because the cleric knows that when people formalize their intent and their preferences so, it's much clearer to You, and is asking You to protect Carissa Sevar. Who is she.

Abadar: A potential trade partner of Irori's! (There's an additional nuance there but it doesn't make it across the translation barrier; it's something like 'unfinished'.)

Ruby Prince Khemet III: ....well that rules out the first theory! Leaves the second one very much intact, though, and the third.

Can we talk to her?

Abadar: No. 

Ruby Prince Khemet III: Interdiction, right. 

Is she the cake girl.

Abadar: ???????????????

Ruby Prince Khemet III: ??????????????? right back at you!!!!!!!!

Abadar: That's about as well as talking to mortals ever goes. He'll leave before he causes permanent brain damage. 

Aspexia Rugatonn: When Sevar and Subirachs reconvene to see if Sevar's soul will be salable, the Grand High Priestess of Asmodeus is also there.

There are many reasons for this, but mainly, because it is now also her duty to deal with 'tropes', as it is her duty to deal with gods.  The degree to which Keltham has guessed that something might go wrong with this sale, which is far more probable than Keltham has any just reason to believe, is sufficient for Aspexia to consider what it is she must now do if a 'trope' is controlling this situation fully.

And if clarification from Hell is forthcoming, let her perhaps be present to hear it in person and even ask a question or two.  Such as - if the Grand High Priestess of Asmodeus in Golarion is permitted to know as much - why exactly is Sevar's soul so valuable?

Jacint Subirachs: There is not much here for her to do with the Grand High Priestess so close by.

Carissa Sevar: "Grand High Priestess," says Carissa, and takes out the contract which she and Keltham signed. "I represented it to Keltham that I'm going to get permanent Arcane Sight and have the rest paid out in spellsilver; he won't know how much spellsilver it ought to be and I think with assistance I could cast a Permanent Detect Magic instead to imitate. If I'm unable to sell my soul. Obviously I hope I'll just be able to sell my soul."

Aspexia Rugatonn: Aspexia has generated some such possibilities herself.  "I have made some such advance arrangements should they be needed; Keltham will not expect you to tarry long here, and he may ask to see any such ability proven given all his suspicions."

"Another option in that same case is to claim that there is to be more payment later, with their ownership of your soul's indenture to be revoked if they cannot complete that payment within the year, but your afterlife arrangements are in place right now and safe."

"- I admit, I am somewhat concerned now about the consequences of what lies this lie must then imply.  Will Keltham ask to speak with you, perhaps, see you scryed, if you are dead and not yet raised, expecting to see you comfortably in some safe Hell?  There is much that can be done with illusion, and yet, I worry.  Keltham is a little to us like a god is to a mortal, or sometimes a mortal to a god, in that it is hard for us to think of all the thoughts that he may think."

Carissa Sevar: "Yes. I would almost advocate for being truthful with him, except that his theory is that if I'm unable to sell my soul it's because I'm a secret cleric of Zon-Kuthon, which does not seem useful for any of our goals and which we're sure is not what's going on here, whatever is."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "I will perform that check on you at once, if you prove unable to sell your soul, as it was represented to Keltham that we would."

Glosialabolas: He's back, alone, and frowning.

"Who are you?" he demands at once of the new, somewhat respectably high-level cleric of Asmodeus, who has presumed to intrude upon his bargaining.

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Grand High Priestess of Asmodeus in Golarion, Aspexia Rugatonn.  I may, perhaps, have additional questions for you, depending on what eventuates now."

Carissa Sevar: He doesn't have another devil with him. Carissa feels - probably more disappointed than anyone has ever felt about not getting to sell their soul. She wanted her Wishes and her spellsilver and her Arcane Sight and her Tongues and her - not having to worry quite so much about being a heretic -

Glosialabolas: "Are you under the impression that your mortal rank among mortals entitles you to the deference of a greater devil?"

Aspexia Rugatonn: "I am under the impression that I do our Lord's work, serve our Lord's interests, and you will answer my questions in the service of our Lord's interests unless you have good reason to believe that Asmodeus desires me not to know a thing.  Conduct your business, devil of contracts, my time is also valuable."

Glosialabolas: Without another word, Glosialabolas turns to Carissa Sevar.  "It seems your soul may not yet be sold to us.  It is, it seems, a good sign that you came to us more eagerly, this time, than upon your last.  But there is yet some - affirmation, renunciation, that must be completed by someone, or with someone, and it is not of you alone, nor of Asmodeus alone, before Asmodeus gives you His leave.  Our Lord is eager to have you; that much is clear."

There is an obvious guess here, but he is forbidden to tell Carissa Sevar if she does not know.

Carissa Sevar: "There's a - god agreement of some kind, isn't there, and I triggered it. Are you allowed to tell me who."

Glosialabolas: "I cannot even tell you if your guess is true."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Tell me, alone or in company, as you prefer, why Sevar's soul has so much value that three Wishes would be something Hell would even consider."

Glosialabolas: "Carissa Sevar.  Will you agree to seek me as your agent for compacting in the future, if in return I agree to do my best to see that you then receive the price you named today and not one grain of spellsilver less, even if I must go seeking among every devil of Dis?"

Carissa Sevar: "Perhaps, by the time Asmodeus permits me to sell my soul, my estimation of my worth to Hell will have grown, and I will not settle for this price. No."

Glosialabolas: Then if he is to profit nothing from all this, let the next devil after him profit little more.  He cannot tell Carissa Sevar outright; for of which things are forbidden to speak and to who, it is also forbidden to speak.  But at suitable levels of abstraction over the secrets of secrets, it becomes permissible to hint.

"To answer your question fully is something that is forbidden," he tells then the importunate priestess.  "But Carissa Sevar and her ilk, it is speculated by some in Dis, might prove apt at training petitioners or even devils."

To answer more than one such question is below the pride of Hell even for a priestess bent on their Lord's work, and so Glosialabolas now turns and turns again and departs Golarion empty-handed.  At best there may come some future apportion of favor for the contract he wrote for Carissa Sevar and her mortal, if that seed ever bears its own fruit.

Carissa Sevar: "Dis thinks we might do it," she whispers, very quietly, watching him go. 

Might transform how devils are taught, figure out how to do it faster, make them better - make Law something they can wield like dath ilan can - or even better -

Yes, Asmodeus would pay three Wishes for that. He ought to pay a hundred Wishes for that, really, though she shouldn't get all of them to herself. 

Aspexia Rugatonn: "I will now examine you immediately as Keltham was promised, Sevar.  Stand fast."

The examination is much faster when the Grand High Priestess does it, than when Carissa last went through this process, but it is still not instant.  She feels like some part of her is being poked, and maybe even this time like she can feel herself shrinking away.

Carissa Sevar: She's not very worried she's become a secret cleric in the last day and a half, but she obediently holds still. 

Aspexia Rugatonn: There are two people in all of mortal Golarion who might reason along the pathway that Aspexia Rugatonn now reasons, and one of them has been in Golarion less than a week.

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Done.  The results are as expected.  Should the question arise you may tell Keltham that you are no hidden cleric; though, if we are to pretend your soul has been sold this day, he should have no further reason to keep asking.  For what it's worth, even taking into account all 'tropes', I do at this point truly disbelieve as strongly as any mortal may disbelieve in anything that there is any part of you which is a cleric of Zon-Kuthon."

"You may come with me momentarily, Sevar, to engage in such petty and expensive manipulations as are needed to give Permanent Detect Magic to one still of fourth-circle."

"Subirachs, a word before then."

Carissa Sevar: Hidden clerics are practically unheard of so this is incredibly unsurprising, though Carissa notes the wording very carefully so she can convey it to Keltham later.

Jacint Subirachs: Subirachs follows Rugatonn a sidestep, to be surrounded a moment later by silence and mist.

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Subirachs.  You failed the last time I tested you in matters such as these.  And yet, as I have not failed to notice, you still aspire to the position of Most High."

"Answer me this riddle if you'd be considered again as a candidate for my crown.  You have been told such as we know of 'tropes'.  What should I have done if my examination had shown Sevar to be an unfinished cleric of a Lawful Neutral god?"

Jacint Subirachs: Subirachs does not, of course, panic.  There is nothing particularly heretical about maneuvering early to be considered as a possible next Grand High Priestess if anything should happen to the current one; she has in fact not done the slightest thing to undermine Aspexia Rugatonn or bring her any danger.

"We should certainly not inform Keltham," Subirachs states.  "He would then come to believe that 'tropes' govern."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "A Chelish child could guess at such concealments.  And Sevar?"

Jacint Subirachs: The obvious answer is to have Sevar renounce her unwanted clerical allegiance - if Rugatonn's examination had really shown that just now, then Carissa would almost surely be unaware of it in truth, as Keltham predicted.

If the obvious answer and obvious reason were the true one, Aspexia Rugatonn would not have laid this down as a challenge to touch her crown.

"May be subject to unknown god-agreements which we should not so lightly trespass upon in our Lord's name," Subirachs states.  "One also observes that Sevar is less than perfectly disentangled from Keltham, and that, if she herself knows that 'tropes' govern her, she may not be able to conceal her newfound belief from Keltham."

Aspexia Rugatonn: Aspexia slaps her hard across the face, more of a rebuke than a punishment.  "You are aping my ways and comprehending none of them.  If you cannot surpass the test, know your place and say so.  You are not ready to lay eyes upon my crown, Subirachs, and at this rate you never will be."

Jacint Subirachs: There isn't actually anyone worthy of Rugatonn's crown except Rugatonn, and if something happens to her, the Church will need a Grand High Priestess anyways.  Subirachs keeps this thought to herself; she doubts Rugatonn wishes to be reminded of it.

"The true answer, Most High?"

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Keltham told us over and over, that if Carissa was somehow a hidden cleric, all tests would not avail to detect her whatever was tried."

"Keltham just now wondered if some strange pathway might somehow lead to Sevar not truly selling her soul, while appearing to have sold her soul, and then also evading the test then applied to her; he demanded it occur immediately afterwards."

"Do you now see what one should do, and why, upon detecting Sevar as the hidden cleric of a Lawful Neutral god?"

Jacint Subirachs: She considers it.

"I do not, Most High," she answers frankly this time.

Aspexia Rugatonn: "A disappointment like so many others."

"Consider this.  Who is not allowed, by the 'trope', to detect Carissa Sevar by any test, if she is a hidden cleric?  Somebody on Golarion knows; a god at least knows.  The 'trope' does not prevent the fact from being known to anyone.  If there is a conspiracy in Cheliax to hide the fact from Keltham, does this violate the 'trope' because the conspiracy knows it?  My understanding of 'tropes' suggests no."

"Then upon detecting Carissa Sevar as the cleric of a Lawful Neutral god, although it might indeed be very much in our own interests, in that case, to have Sevar renounce that link somehow formed, and make new sale of her soul if that was the obstacle, we cannot tell her.  Do you understand?  If we now tell Sevar or Keltham, we would not have been able to perform the test successfully in the first place; just as the test performed on Sevar last time, when she would have been told, did not then detect her.  Keltham would not have arrived in this plane, perhaps the entirety of this reality would have failed to ever exist, if that event could have any other outcome from Sevar's and Keltham's perspective."

"Oh, and in case you had still failed to comprehend as much, Carissa Sevar is in fact the unfinished cleric of a Lawful Neutral god, very likely Irori."

Jacint Subirachs: "What am I to do, Most High?  I fear these 'tropes' are beyond me."