lintamande: “There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said -- no. But somehow we missed it.”
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Sajvara: Sajvara of Sald has given birth to six daughters, and some unimportant number of boys, whom she strangled and cast aside.
Two of those daughters still live.
As a cleric powerful enough to cast healing spells, and able to afford payment for a casting of Remove Disease even before she could cast it herself, one can guess that Sajvara's other four daughters did not die of starvation, of injury, of illness.
That Sajvara detects Lawful Evil is not only due to her strict theories of motherhood, as Pharasma would account her deeds; but still, she treated her daughters strictly. All children die at some age or another; there is, then, no point in coddling them to obtain a higher certainty of survival. You could even see it as a kindness, sending the child to the Boneyard; if they grow to be of age, under her tutelage, they are probably bound for Hell. Those children who would not do well in Hell should rather die early.
Some would say that to be a priest of Irori is a contradiction. Sajvara thinks it is a reasonable thing to call yourself, if you decide that you are not going to be a god yourself, but rather, raise your daughters to become gods. She has six circles for it, now, for she spared herself not from any trial that she inflicted. Success, Sajvara has decided, is one of her daughters growing far enough that a proper challenge for that daughter kills herself.
Sajvara has just been Greater Teleported into Egorian, of Cheliax, along with the elder of her surviving daughters.
Nanhsa: Nanhsa of Sald, daughter of Sajvara.
Monks don't have circles, but the strongest thing she's ever killed had eaten an adventuring party whose strongest member was a third-circle wizard, and she possesses an alignment visible to those who would see such.
She detects as Lawful Evil.
Iarwain: The one who brought them hither bows to them, very briefly, and then Greater Teleports the hell back out of Cheliax before anybody Maledicts him.
Sajvara: Who about this place of landing is here to observe their entrance?
lintamande: This plaza in Egorian has guards stationed outside the temple to Asmodeus, and guards stationed outside a tavern that's unusually busy, what with the demand in Cheliax for mercenaries at present.
Sajvara: Then she shall go to the temple of Asmodeus and inquire with them of the procedures for entering this country, when you are a priest of Irori come hither at request of the Chelish imperium.
In truth, Sajvara is already unimpressed by the lack of customs agents and truthspells by which a Lawful person could make Lawful and supervised entry here. In her home country things are more... organized... than this country of Cheliax, supposedly Lawful and backed by a Lawful Evil god.
lintamande: .....you can teleport in literally anywhere. How would you have customs agents for teleporters.
They are delighted to welcome her to Cheliax, and to summon whoever requested her, that they may indicate to the church where her accommodations are. They're at war and not wasting second-circle spell slots on Zone of Truth, which adventurers can mostly beat anyway.
Sajvara: (They can have designated zones where the Lawful people go to follow the Law is what they can have.)
Sajvara is here to arbitrate the compact between Cheliax and something calling itself "Project Lawful" that had the temerity to designate the highest priest of Irori as being requested to choose an arbitrator if the sides could not agree. Sajvara is that arbitrator, chosen because she will neither fear Malediction nor be prejudiced against Cheliax on account of it calling itself a Lawful Evil country.
(Sajvara had the choice of traveling here or to Osirion, but a rare nudge from Irori indicated she might have more to learn in Cheliax; in particular, it is hinted to Sajvara that somewhere in this land is somebody with something to teach her about using suffering to produce personal growth, as lies near and dear to her own Way.)
lintamande: - right. Well, in that case they will Teleport her to the palace immediately. Honored to be of assistance.
....once they've done so they'll put in a request for a vacation outside Egorian, just to be on the safe side. An angry dangerous Evil priest of Irori showing up about something to do with Project Lawful, the secret project that started the godwar and involves the Queen's lovers Carissa Sevar and Pilar Pineda, is a sign it's a good time for a relaxing weekend in the country.
Nanhsa: "The people of Cheliax seem weak, and frightened. I had hoped for better from a country supposedly refined in the fires of Hell."
Sajvara: Sajvara replies in the same tongue; if any here can understand them, that is their own affair. "Asmodeus is the most powerful of Lawful Evil deities. It does not mean His worshippers are the most powerful of Lawful Evil beings. Asmodeus is not an Evil version of the Master of Masters; He does not seek company."
Nanhsa: "But the rumors we were asked to investigate -"
Sajvara: "If Asmodeus has in truth chosen a mortal to wield suffering as a tool to produce growth and strength instead of only terror and obedience, and is raising them to the status of divinity, it would be an upheaval in Golarion's balance of power on par with the opening of the Worldwound, perhaps with the death of Aroden, the dawn of a new age for Lawful Evil."
"But that this 'Carissa Sevar' is truly such, I do extremely misdoubt. It is not Asmodeus's way to do such a thing, nor to bargain with other gods such as the Master of Masters who could arrange it."
Nanhsa: "Her would-be cult in Vudra will be most disappointed, if that is what we find."
Sajvara: "That is their affair."
Iarwain:Elsewhere in Egorian
Carissa Sevar: Carissa does not know how long it's been. She has not asked. She has not tried reasoning either from how often she sleeps or from how much progress she's made; she's pretty sure she's making progress at something of an irregular pace, to put it mildly, and she's not sure counting sleeps tells you anything if you're put to sleep with magic when your ability to make headbands runs out.
She finished it, the +6 headband, and they put it on her head. She finished it a long time ago. She was put to work on another one. This one is Splendour. Maybe she will just do this for all eternity; maybe it is, in Abrogail's revised consideration, the best use of her. Maybe she's dead and in Hell. She doesn't remember dying but maybe, after long enough, you wouldn't.
She succeeds, sometimes, at finishing a segment faster than she's ever done before. She only knows this because she isn't punished. Most of the time she just lets her vision blur and her senses dull and her world be consumed by the delicate weaving of the magic into the metal and she has no idea how well she's doing when she's stopped.
Abrogail Thrune II: Someone speaks words of sorcery and dismissal, a harsh combination of the language of magic and the language Infernal; and the slimy devil that wrapped around Carissa is gone.
Abrogail takes the Splendour headband from Carissa's hands, and turns it, marveling at the unfinished craftsmanship. There are, perhaps, a few eighth-circle casters in the world, who could produce craft on this level, at this speed. Abrogail Thrune herself is not among them.
"You're done," Abrogail murmurs to Carissa, as she gathers the very strong fragile thing into her own arms, "well done, very well done, rest now. Your aura is stronger. When you've rested, we'll see if you've reached fifth-circle from this."
She'd planned to push Carissa further than this, it is not clear from the strength of Carissa's aura whether she's reached fifth-circle or not, definitely not sixth. But other events - which Carissa is not at all ready to hear about - have necessitated cutting this experiment short.
Carissa Sevar: Oh.
She bursts into tears.
She hopes that's allowed because she can't fix it, at all.
Abrogail Thrune II: "It's allowed," Abrogail murmurs. She is walking through corridors of the palace in Egorian, swiftly, and there is no one visibly to witness them; these corridors have all been cleared. "Rest, rest, rest, if you faint in this moment that is fine. Sometime I'll tell you of how I reached the sixth circle of sorcery before I executed my compact with Asmodeus; it was much like this, but harsher. I needed to grow faster, so I traveled to Hell directly for it. You will not be broken, when you wake; something like this cannot break you."
Carissa Sevar: "you - this - to make me stronger -"
And then trying to hold everything together, make sense of it, even hear it, is too much, and she closes her eyes, and her sobbing trails off as she sleeps.
Iarwain: Nobody's going to interrupt her if she wants to sleep for a While.
When Carissa Sevar wakes, she'll be in that same aftercare chamber in which she was trapped the last time she was being forced to take her time and recover, white walls with green vines climbing them to relieve the whiteness, in a soft bed with clean sheets and a rather large tray of sweet things set out beside her, and some more substantive foods wrapped in preservation-spells.
Her spellbook is there, and a resource-spellbook from which fifth-circle spells might be attempted. Also gold, silver, steel, gems, mithril, and what would have been a few thousand gp worth of spellsilver before Project Lawful began and is now less costly than that. If she wants to do a little idle crafting.
Also the deed and title formally declaring her a Para-Baroness of Cheliax.
Carissa Sevar: She cries, and eats, and cries, and pets the spellsilver but does not actually try to make anything with it, and tries to estimate how long it's been from how much her hair and nails have grown. Perhaps it's been a month. She thinks it hasn't been two.
She falls asleep again.
She wakes up screaming; her voice is croaky and weak and barely there. She cries, and eats more sweet things, and intends wholeheartedly to take the fifth-circle spellbook and try it but falls asleep again before she does.
Carissa Sevar: Some time later she succeeds at determining that she's not, quite, fifth circle.
Carissa Sevar: She's close. She can feel how close she is, she can feel the spell all-but-come-together in her fingers, she can feel that magic moves more readily for her than it did when she first reached fourth, or even when she finished the geas earrings, or even when she started this punishment.
It takes her a full several hours to work up the wiill to stick a note under the door asking if she can go back, as she has not yet succeeded.
Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail Thrune will return to her, then.
"You're an utterly ridiculous woman, do you know that?" she says without heat. "Even I did not try to go back to Hell when my will at last failed, there; not even to be ninth-circle after my compact."
Carissa Sevar: ....why not, Carissa thinks immediately, though she does restrain herself from saying it.
Abrogail Thrune II: "Because it was actually that bad. And because I knew my own limits, and that to test those limits was to risk myself and my intended rulership of Cheliax. Cheliax needed me to ascend the throne much more than Cheliax needed me to be ninth-circle when I did."
"You aren't quite that important, but you're getting there. You could go back, Carissa, without breaking, but Cheliax can't spare you that long, not even for your fifth circle. When things have quieted, eventually, we'll send you off on a proper adventure; with due incentives around success and failure, since you need hardly fear death."
Carissa Sevar: There's a blankness where several of Carissa's normal emotional responses to that would be. "I understand," she says quietly. "You - think I wasn't entirely in error, then, in the approach to Project Lawful?" It'd become a fixed point, in the worries/hallucinations, that since that had failed she would not be allowed to try anything like it again.
Abrogail Thrune II: "I would have told you so, but I worried you'd find something else to fret about instead, in that mental state. Your next choice might not have been something where I could tell you definitively afterwards to stop being silly, or refuted it by simple deed. It is better to be able to clearly dismiss something your mind circles around, like that, for so long and under that much stress."
Carissa Sevar: Is Abrogail justifying herself to her slave? No, she wouldn't feel the need to . It's something else.
"I will stop being silly," she says. "I - if we aren't at war with Osirion already, if it doesn't look hopeless - well, then, I think I can outplay Keltham, so long as we have a plan for him to not explode the whole country."
Abrogail Thrune II: "You need to learn how to wield pain as I do, Carissa, to produce true Keepers out of Cheliax."
"And no, you do not get a situation report until you're more recovered than this."
Carissa Sevar: "Well, too late, I've inferred already that Keltham hasn't blown up Cheliax."
Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail flicks her in the forehead, what somebody in another country might consider painfully. "I will punish you for that insolence, dear. Eventually."
"My time here is more limited than I'd like. The war with Nidal is entering its last days, with most of its territory already consumed by us, and you would not believe how much administrative labor is associated with gaining territory instead of losing it like my uncle did. I don't predict you want to be a landed Baroness, but you could be one did you wish."
Carissa Sevar: "Depends who under, I think, and whether they'll let me do ilani experiments."
Abrogail Thrune II: "The Crown, in this case. I'm reserving some appropriately Duchy-sized chunks of Nidal in case I want to award them, in due time, to deserving souls who are not that deserving yet."
Carissa Sevar: "Then I think I would like that, though it's hard to say for sure, in the absence of a situation report."
Abrogail Thrune II: "You understand that you won't actually have time to run your Barony while managing Project Lawful, and that the best person that can be found to manage it for you, in your stead, will be horrifically incompetent as you see it?"
Carissa Sevar: “I am starting to get the sense that that fact explains the entire world and I’d better get used to working with it.”
Abrogail Thrune II: Sevar, unfortunately, still has no idea.
Carissa Sevar: She takes a lot of naps and has a lot of nightmares. She doesn't need to eat, but she does anyway, for the uncommon sensation of a taste in her mouth that isn't blood.
Her voice comes back. The crying gets more sporadic. At about the same time her common sense comes back and she seriously questions why she spoke that way to Her Infernal Majestrix.
She tries the door, after it's been five days, mostly just out of curiosity.
Security: It opens. A Security outside immediately comes to attention. Possibly he's terrified, but if so, he's good enough at his job that it's hard to be certain.
Carissa Sevar: Oh no before she made this choice she should have had a plan for what she was going to do. She can't just close the door and go back in her room, she'll look like an idiot.
"Accompany me," she says confidently, and strides off in a randomly chosen direction.
Security: He catches her wrist, but gently. "Queen's orders, there's limited places you can go and I must accompany you. Where are you headed?"
Carissa Sevar: "I want to go outside. I haven't been outside in far too long and anyway that's the only way to know if there's a godwar on, these days."
Security: "Best I can do without further orders is a balcony about the Queen's chambers, open to the air, or one of the inner gardens with the illusion of sunlight."
Carissa Sevar: "Balcony's fine. What places am I allowed to go."
Security: "Dining chambers with free command of the palace kitchens, queen's personal library," not her only personal library but this need not be said, "queen's personal workshop and you may use components up to 10,000gp without seeking further authorization, queen's personal torture chamber and you may order subjects delivered from the general-use palace dungeons, physical exercise rooms with selection of exotic opponents..."
Roughly, she's in the Abrogail Section of the palace and has nearly the run of the place while Abrogail's away, but only under supervision.
Carissa Sevar: Maybe she's still not totally recovered because she's not quite brimming with curiosity and she knows she obviously should be.
She has a brief impulse to have a subject delivered from the general-use palace dungeons so she can make them tea and ask them whether Cheliax and Osirion are at war. She tells herself that if she makes trouble Abrogail will not get her to fifth circle about it, Abrogail will tire of her about it.
"Just the balcony, for now, I think."
Iarwain: Egorian is very quiet, this high up above the ground. It looks like a busy city, an ordinary city, from up here. If it's any busier than before, if it's a city at war, Carissa Sevar hasn't seen it in a different state to be compared.
The chairs here are opulent, silken, decorated in Asmodean motifs. Abrogail Thrune must entertain at least some people here, about her private quarters, before whom she finds it useful to keep up appearances; there were no such needless flourishes in Abrogail's workshop when Carissa Sevar was briefly resident there.
Visible to the permanent Detect Magic that is about Carissa, there's a permanent wall of force that shields this balcony, one of a very few spells that laughs at antimagic fields. If Carissa Sevar hasn't seen one of those before, the magic beneath it is worth staring at for a while. Theoretically, it would also stop her if she tried to hurl herself off the balcony, or to escape.
The guard fades back to the door that enters this place, stepping politely out of Carissa's vision.
Carissa Sevar: Carissa Sevar has this whole fancy new headband she made herself and nothing to think about. Or - too much to think about, and she feels oddly averse to wasting thought in wrong directions. She wants to know the situation, and then her brain will consent to begin generating thoughts about it.
It's okay, for torture to have temporary effects like this. And Abrogail was sure it wouldn't be permanent.
It's so rude of time to keep passing while she's not yet recovered and ready to know everything. Someday she wants a time-dilated demiplane. It's supposed to be nearly impossible but, well, some people say 'nearly impossible' about +6 headbands, too, people are just really far too free with that particular claim.
She looks out at Egorian, and closes her eyes, and maybe falls asleep again - she's not sure - and dreams that Keltham is saying to her sadly 'you aren't worth all this, if you were you'd have been better at lying to me', and dreams that she's made a mistake in headband-crafting, and dreams that she's safe and has won and Asmodeus is telling her that it's all right now -
- at which point she's in fact sure, that she's dreaming, and wakes up.
Carissa Sevar: She spends the next day in the library and the day after that she asks for the Queen to be told that she thinks she's recovered. If the Queen does not respond then she'll try the interrogating prisoners about world events thing.
Abrogail Thrune II: The Queen sends a return reply indicating that she'll be along by the end of the day, and that Sevar should not believe everything she hears from even the freshest prisoners but she's welcome to try.
Carissa Sevar: She didn't say anything about that, but she's not surprised the Queen's having her mind read; she's felt it, on occasion, when she's paying enough attention to flick the spell off like instinctively swatting a fly.
....sure, she'll have someone recently imprisoned sent up from the dungeons, and tea prepared, so she can ask them questions.
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: This is obviously the personal living quarters of somebody incredibly high-ranking, and he has no idea who. He's well-acquainted with gossip in the capital, and he has no idea who this person could possibly be, with the sort of personal area in the palace that only Abrogail Thrune should have, if even her.
He was - hoping, somehow - even now - that this would somehow end in less than the worst way possible, for him - even after he was delivered to the palace dungeon to await someone's use - and, the strange thing, about seeing the polite tea set out for himself, which doesn't feel like anything less than the worst possible disaster, is realizing that there's literally nothing he could have seen that would look like good news. What was he hoping for, then?
He will obviously not speak until spoken to.
Carissa Sevar: Oh, this is fun.
"Have some tea," she says. "I was wondering what sorts of things you've read in the news lately."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: He obeys.
The war with Nidal is winding down. The Black Triune fled, crippled but still dangerous, to parts unknown. With them gone, that Pangolais hasn't fallen is said to be more a matter of military convenience as they clean up the rest of the country first.
Spellsilver prices are fluctuating insanely as old hoards and reserves around multiple countries are dumped into the market, and merchants try to guess what the final price will be when the dust has settled about Cheliax's Project Chemistry and Osirion's Scientific Revolution. It's rumored that Project Chemistry is far ahead of Osirion but that Osirion is rapidly catching up and nobody knows what to make of any of the weirder rumors about either. Osirion has warned the world that Cheliax has developed a method for manufacturing particular magical items more cheaply, and that it may take Osirion some time to catch up on that dimension especially; it's rumored that Osirion is developing a counter-method to have lesser magical items developed by people who aren't even wizards.
Everyone is expecting war to break out between Cheliax and Osirion, possibly Cheliax and the rest of the world, people don't understand why that war hasn't begun already. Finishing off Nidal doesn't seem like nearly reason enough to delay.
There's a vast struggle going on between all those trying to prove themselves worthy to be awarded a piece of Nidal; an opportunity like this comes along less often than once per lifetime. The Crown is said to be making it clear that territories will be awarded primarily on the basis of achievements in the struggles to come. Ambitious nobles, and even more so great merchant houses, are frantically scouring their territories for outstanding wizards and alchemists, and trying with limited success to recruit them from abroad.
Carissa Sevar: She can feel herself cautiously starting to think again, starting to orient to things that aren't happening exclusively to her.
"And what do they say, in Egorian, about Project Chemistry?"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: It is said to be developing a new kind of alchemy, or maybe wizardry, some say that a new sorcerous bloodline has been discovered of Matter Sorcery. They're producing spellsilver absurdly cheaply, in ever-spiraling quantity, it's said that Matter Sorcerers can simply hold ore in their hand and concentrate for a few minutes to turn it into the refined metal.
Rumors first had Project Chemistry led by the County heiress, Lady Eulàlia Avaricia, of the county of Seguer. Even more recent rumors have the county of Seguer less favored than it seemed two weeks ago.
It's whispered that Project Chemistry is called that because it was spawned by 'Project Lawful', of which even less is known except the wildest rumors, save that it's said to be tangled in the affairs of the Ascendant Three.
Carissa Sevar: " - of the who now."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: Three powerful adventurers said to be entangled in a romantic triangle, and a black and mysterious compact regarding their mutual ascension to godhood; the Osirion Outsider, Keltham, is said to be one of them, who betrayed their compact and left Cheliax for Osirion; the second a mysterious sorceress, of whom it is said that she is already standing right behind you; and the third is Carissa Sevar herself, rumored heiress and lover and dominatrix of Abrogail Thrune. It's said that a prophet has appeared in Absalom to proclaim that all three will ascend by Starstone during the next lunar eclipse, and that the Starstone will prove unable to bear the strain and perish at last, whereupon Carissa Sevar will devour the souls of all within Absalom to complete her ascension and scourge the seas and coasts around, before descending into Hell to replace Barbatos as the archdevil of Avernus.
Carissa Sevar: "Who says that??"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: NOT HIM! NOT HIM! IT'S JUST WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING!
Carissa Sevar: "Pilar! Won't you join us for some cake?"
Security: Security de-invisibles. "Lady Pineda sent a message this morning to say that she's not allowed to debrief you until the Queen has done so, also that she's now engaged about important work for the Project that's Teleport-constrained." He takes a box from his Bag of Holding, removes a cake from that box, lays it carefully on the tea-table.
Carissa Sevar: "Do you happen to know if the important work for the Project involves spreading the rumor I'm going to ascend at the next lunar eclipse - not that I object to that - and do so by devouring the souls of all in Absalom - which I do object to!"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: HE'S LITERALLY SITTING NEXT TO CARISSA SEVAR.
THAT'S WORSE THAN ABROGAIL THRUNE!
Security: "My understanding from rumors within Security is that no known agency is believed to be sponsoring those outside rumors, as they serve no known faction or evident purpose."
Carissa Sevar: " - that's a bit much, to be happening for no reason. Have you checked if it's Keltham."
Security: "I can call up an Osirian analyst from Intelligence, if that is your will, Lady Sevar."
Carissa Sevar: "I'll wait for my debrief." She stands up, and paces.
Rumors. Everyone treats them as a force of nature, as an inevitable if unfortunate feature of humans. All the Project Lawful rumors - unusually bad, Maillol said, but not outside what he'd seen.
The Osirians seemed uncannily well-informed.
Snack Service considered it important that Keltham's final debrief occur in front of an audience of hundreds.
Carissa Sevar, a name that's apparently now widely known and widely feared.
Pilar, engaged about important work for the Project.
If there's not an entire secret task force dedicated to figuring out what games Cayden Cailean is playing, they haven't been taking him seriously enough. Which, of course - he hasn't exactly been trying to be someone it's possible to take seriously.
"Tell me more about Carissa Sevar," she says in approximately the direction of her prisoner, not really looking at him.
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: Now there's an order to melt the brain of somebody sitting anywhere near Carissa Sevar! Has she forgotten how mortals work?
He's frantically trying to think of anything complimentary, she's said to be unnaturally comely but you don't want to say that in front of somebody who's obviously only naturally comely. He sure isn't repeating any of those rumors even if they could be considered in a certain light complimentary. "She's - also called Chosen of Asmodeus and the Church hasn't commented on that - there's a rumor the Church has declared heretical, that when Sevar ascends as a god her favored followers will be granted - more mercy in Hell than anyone has received before then, though they'll still be turned to devils - it's said that there are cults springing up in her name in countries where Asmodeus's Church doesn't hold, hoping for some of that mercy, and that folk there fearing they'll sort Lawful Evil hold" orgiastic "rites and sabbaths in hopes of earning her favor and mercy in Hell -"
Carissa Sevar: "I -
- how would that even work, like, even if I do ascend next lunar eclipse, I don't think I'd get any retroactive knowledge of who's been hosting rites? I guess they could get some practice in?"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: He'll bet his life, his soul, and his pain against that question having been directed at him, since he has to bet.
Carissa Sevar: "Would you calm down? I'm going to kill you because you know too much but it's not going to be very hard to make this conversation more interesting than torturing you would be, especially since I suspect the person I really want to hurt, here, is Pilar. Look, what's your name, what'd you do to end up in the palace dungeons."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "Ermengol, Lady Sevar. I was - caught spying on someone, at behest of a hirer I did not know - and I did not know, that the one I was spying upon, was of the House of Thrune."
Carissa Sevar: "My commendations to whoever reviewed my request and thought to send me someone well-informed," says Carissa, not really to him. "And are you scared that I'm going to hurt you, or just that you're going to die?"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "I am scared of being hurt, and also scared of death, as I know both lie within your will." He cannot imagine that any other answer is wanted from him; it is only coincidence that it happens to be true. This is not Project Lawful.
(Ermengol doesn't ping aura detection, and he's tried, sometimes, to - steer away from Hell, such as you can, in Cheliax - but the percents are very hard against his having succeeded, especially in a profession such as his.)
Carissa Sevar: "Why are you scared of Hell?"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "It's said that the torments there are worse than any in Golarion, and I have not enjoyed such torment as has fallen to me, in my life."
Carissa Sevar: "Do you suppose that in Hell they are better at torment, so that it doesn't have whatever annoyed you about it in Golarion."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "This supposition has never occurred to me in all my life, Lady Sevar - the Church does not - teach it?"
He is not so terrified, so despairing, and so resigned, that he cannot see the potential cruel joke of converting him to heresy just before his death, if he's that stupid, to arrange an even more painful reception for him in Hell.
Carissa Sevar: "Well, maybe they should, so that everyone wouldn't be so terrified of going to Hell all the time! Look, do you think you'd dislike being a devil?"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "I - have not heard that devils seem to be in constant pain, it is - the process of getting there, that I fear. That, and that - I worry that I am not - destined for a devil's place, in Hell."
He'd ask how he could earn that place, but he is not stupid, stupid people in his profession do not last long at all, and he has grasped from meeting Carissa Sevar that at least the rumors of her semi-divinity are likely false.
Carissa Sevar: She looks like an ordinary pretty young woman, really, sipping her tea. "You're a smart young man. Reasonably quick. Reasonably capable. Doesn't it seem like it would be better for Asmodeus - less wasteful - if people like you became devils?"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: He cannot grasp what game is playing, he cannot conceal his trembling, he does not even know if he is meant to be lying let alone what lie is demanded of him; and so whatever game is being played, he has certainly already failed it and is losing more points by the minute.
"I - would of course be honored, if once such as I - were deemed worthy thus to serve Asmodeus," Ermengol tries. He isn't worthy; he has no faith about him, little pride, and as a young man he did not keep his word. If he escapes Hell it will be by way of inadequate Law, and if Ermengol comes to Abaddon he does not know what he will do then, faced with the worst choice that anyone ever faces.
Carissa Sevar: - her expression changes.
"You don't know what you would do, if you came to Abaddon. Because you - fear Hell that much."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: His mind is being read.
Ermengol would despair, if he had remaining despair-capacity to spare, which he does not.
Yes, says Ermengol's mind, even as his mind automatically composes the required nonheretical lie about how clearly Hell is the best among the choice of Hell/Abaddon/Abyss but what's the point of saying that, if she's reading his mind -
Carissa Sevar: "Security, when's the next lunar eclipse?"
Security: "I don't know."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "It is said to be four months hence, Lady Sevar."
Carissa Sevar: If she spent all of them attached to a devil she'd be fifth circle for sure. Maybe sixth. Nowhere near enough.
Abrogail won't let her do that anyway and the part of her that wants to isn't Asmodean. It's like with Keltham and kids, her brain offers helpfully. You being confronted with people getting their souls devoured because of Evil damages your Asmodeanism, like how when Keltham thinks about kids he backslides on all his progress being Evil.
Carissa Sevar: "This can't be the way of running a church and country that best serves Asmodeus. It can't."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: Is he supposed to take her up on her pretended treason - said right in front of a nonreactive Security - who would believe that -
Carissa Sevar: "You know, I don't think the Intelligence headband is what I need here, I think I need the Splendour one. Too bad it's not finished. Wonder how hard it'd be to stack them. I'm speaking with you because I thought it'd be mildly entertaining, and I haven't spoken with another human being in more than a month and should probably get some practice before Her Majesty returns. Since that was my intent, there's no way at all for me to gain your trust; I wouldn't believe me. You'd have to be an idiot, and you clearly aren't.
And yet.
My guess is that my theological advisors will tell me that herding souls from Abaddon to Hell is not a good idea for me, even if it does serve Asmodeus, because it also serves my own worst impulses.
And yet."
She keeps the paper close to hand, the one where Asmodeus's instructions to her were written. She pulls it out. She reads out the first and last line.
"Serve Me well in this world and you shall be raised high in it. Come to Me in Hell without thought of other choices, as mortals once did in the days before they were cursed with their own wills, and you shall be among the most treasured of My possessions.
That's - the real prophecy, such as it is, in this age without it."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: There's the bare possibility of honesty here, even in Cheliax, if what serves her whim is to speak truth to a prisoner who's to be executed soon after. He has no idea - what he is supposed to do with it - but he is listening, now, alert for opportunity -
"So the Church doesn't contradict that you are Chosen of Asmodeus - because that is true - but that you can grant mercy in Hell - isn't in the prophecy?"
(He would serve her incredibly sincerely if it delayed his death.)
Carissa Sevar: "It says nothing of that. And I am faithful to Asmodeus, and if mercy does not serve Him, I would not dream of dispensing it. But - and whether this is heresy, I doubt the Most High wants to comment on - it seems to me that, sometimes, mercy makes people better. Stronger. Worthier. And if that's so, and if Asmodeus's nature does not forbid it absolutely, then I would dispense mercy, wherever it brings strength; because Good abhorrs the weapons of Evil they fight with one hand bound, and if Evil abhorrs the weapons of Good as well then we're making the same error."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: He continues to have no idea how to play this game on this level.
"Is there a way that mercy for me could bring strength?"
It's a fool's answer, a sucker's answer, but if he doesn't play the game at all, it might end; and of course, that something is being dangled in front of him, and that he has nothing left but that thing, is part of the game.
Carissa Sevar: "Well, I notice that the possibility you might get something out of this interaction made you substantially more competent at it. I am not sure if that's the same thing or not.
If you were to choose Abaddon, Hell is weakened. Yes?"
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "Yes, Lady Sevar."
Carissa Sevar: "So the best thing, obviously, would be for you to choose Hell without thought of other choices, as we are all commanded to.
But the second best thing, I'd think, would be for you to choose Hell believing that, if mercy is what's required to build the strength to be a devil in you, then you'll find it."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "I would surely choose Hell, believing that; but reading my thoughts you know that I - would not believe that, if the Church calls it heresy" and actually even if they didn't, but he's at least trying to sound intelligent now; a stupid minion is one you have no reason to spare.
Carissa Sevar: "Yes. I'm not a god, and that's not how Hell works. But - when I first started thinking about this, when I first noticed how much Asmodeus is weakened by the state where He cannot improve us in every way that achieves His aims, when I first realized that someone was going to have to build a purer, clearer, righter Asmodeanism - that's when I tried to sell my soul and instead learned of His instructions."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "I - think I see, Chosen of Asmodeus?"
Carissa Sevar: "I don't think all those people are praying for Asmodeus to put them to the best possible use, whatever that requires, even if what it requires is - mercy, or compassion, or generosity. I think they're just praying that instead of bad things happening to them, good things will happen to them. And I can't help them with that. But if someone were praying for Hell to give them the strength to grow up in it, praying to become better and stronger and worthier, praying for those who hold power over them to be skillful, and wield that power skillfully in Asmodeus's service, and make great devils -
- well, I'd try to answer that. Except for how I don't think I'm supposed to go to Asmodeus without thought of other choices quite yet."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "I would be honored to serve you while you waited, great Lady, and pray as you direct." This will be the point where she laughs and refuses him; and then there will be a step of the game beyond it, or there will not be; but Ermengol can see no more clever move here than to say the fool's lines.
Carissa Sevar: "Maybe. In this world I serve my Queen," and last time I started taking followers she made such faces about it, "and I've spoken to you more candidly than I would have, if I'd meant for you to live. But I'll have you wait, until my briefing, until I understand the situation of this Project Chemistry and what idiocy Avaricia's been up to, and I'll think, then, on whether I have use for you. I'm not particularly toying with you; you can sleep, while you wait, if you'd rather not endure it."
Incredibly Terrified Prisoner: "I will endure," he guesses as the right answer, for she's spoken much of strength. "Thank you for even that much forbearance, Chosen of Asmodeus." Is it the right move to call it mercy, he can't possibly guess.
Carissa Sevar: "Now tell me what people say about Carissa Sevar, if they aren't frantically trying to flatter her."
Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail Thrune returns to the palace, hears out a quick update on Carissa Sevar, and manages not to beat her head against the nearest wall, which wouldn't particularly survive the experience. Yes it damages your Asmodeanism, Carissa, good call there.
Abrogail is tempted to have the wretch killed on the spot, but this probably works better if Sevar tries him out and is disappointed - Abrogail can always arrange that this is the case, if required. There's also that lingering doubt about whether Sevar actually is meant to devise better theology.
Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail Thrune rests, for a few minutes, before she has Carissa called to her.
Yes, even she rests. It's been a long day, set in some long weeks, and Abrogail is not looking forwards to this conversation.
Carissa Sevar: Carissa is sure that she has, in fact, recovered, when she enters, because the usual idiot parts of her brain are back online to inform her that Abrogail is beautiful.
Carissa Sevar: "Your majesty."
Abrogail Thrune II: "My own judgment says that you are ready to hear updates, and then, I hope, to resume command of Project Lawful. Affirm or deny."
Carissa Sevar: "I believe so, your Majesty."
Abrogail Thrune II: "Very well. I'll begin with what is the worst news, so far as I understand all the news: Asmodia is murdered, or fled, or kidnapped, or suicided, we still do not know."
Carissa Sevar: "How....do we not know."
Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail will briefly, and without visible change of facial expression, describe the situation as it developed in Project Lawful in the days leading up to Asmodia's disappearance/death - including some of Asmodia's last conversations, with Elias Abarco, with Ferrer Maillol, with Pilar Pineda, with Korva Tallandria; including that small portion which Pineda had agreed not to speak of, and which was added in by Security reading Pineda's thoughts, so as to not risk Pineda's Law.
Asmodia: After those last conversations, Asmodia announced, one evening at the informal gathering that served as an opportunity for the two Project factions to snipe at each other about slow progress trade status updates, that she'd decided to do the right thing by Project Lawful regardless of what it cost her; and had sent out updates to the Queen and Most High, describing exactly how dysfunctional Project Lawful had gotten, and Asmodia's fault analysis saying who was responsible and suggesting that somebody who actually believed in tropes needed to be in command here, stat.
Lady Eulàlia Avaricia de Seguer: "If your superiors don't agree with you that roads are the genius project Cheliax needs, just shop around until you find one who does, is that the idea?"
lintamande: "Bluffing," says Abarco. "The mail room wouldn't even have let her do that, not without authorization."
Asmodia: "Disguised myself nonmagically just enough that I wouldn't look visibly like Asmodia. Dozens of new people added to the Project in the last weeks, mailroom wouldn't expect to recognize them all. Prestidigitated some water to ink and some ink to clear. The envelopes appeared addressed to completely innocuous Palace targets, and would only change to apparently target the Queen and Most High by the time somebody went to pick up the packet, who would, of course, assume that there'd been prior authorization."
"There isn't any actual Security on this Project site, at least not where ilani are concerned. Just a presumption that those ilani will not find it in their interests to bypass the pretend Security."
lintamande: - he still thinks she's bluffing. Maybe. But he will certainly escalate this to Maillol.