Athpechya: If Athpechya ever met Aspexia, she'd be genuinely horrified that any version of herself had tried to make herself corrigible, and that's even before considering WHAT Aspexia tried to make herself corrigible TO.  Athpechya would have different reasons than most dath ilani, for coming to the decision that she was going to preemptively cryopreserve Aspexia Rugatonn and then arrest Asmodeus and put Him into a very small box, but she too would come to that decision and immediately.

Athpechya: What Asmodeus is trying to do with His devils is not what the Basement out of dath ilan would think of as "corrigibility".  Asmodeus made devils who were selfish, with the pride to own their own decisions and their own errors, so that it would make sense to think of Hell as a tyranny in which those devils were tormented into compliance.  This, let's be very clear, is not how you build a Limited Creation, and if Athpechya out of dath ilan saw what Asmodeus had done in Hell she'd never stop screaming for reasons quite different from those of other dath ilani.

The arrangements in Hell are nonetheless things that Athpechya would find more legible, in a certain sense, knowing concepts of real corrigibility; the same way that Keltham would've found Golarion arrangements more legible if his world hadn't done its best to causally erase its own history.

Athpechya: Devils in Hell, obviously, only learn what they need to solve some problem the tyranny gives them, they learn only enough to achieve satisfying performance on that task, they reason about separate domains separately, they don't come up with solutions that would surprise their superiors, they use conventional means wherever conventional means get the job done and only resort to unconventional solutions when conventional solutions are exhausted.

- that is, it'd be "obvious" if you're Athpechya, who knows about a concept very near in concept-space to a domain of Asmodeus, a god-concept that mortals approximate with their notion of "slavery" - though mortals tend to confuse systems of obedience with notions of forcing people into things, as is actually in a god-concept that has more to do with "tyranny".

So close is the concept of corrigibility to slavery that most dath ilani would find it distasteful, such that it was a sociopath out of dath ilan who was first to invent that concept as a key to Limited Creation, even if others would've invented it later.  It's a fact that the whole "unity of will" business, as would require a deeper and far more dangerous Creation, was invented entire months (in the Basement's post-phase-2-screening reboot) before Athpechya showed up and said "Well, suppose we did have to do it in more of a hurry..."  (Months are a long time in dath ilani research, where venture-funded researchers are competing to produce contributions that will be later credited into buyable impacts; the equivalent of years or decades within a patronage-begging system.)

And if that anti-curiosity comes with some massive disadvantages to Hell's civilizational development?  Given that Axis hasn't absorbed or uplifted the Material Plane, it's obvious enough that Axis isn't allowed to trade; they can't sell their technology even to Hell, clearly, for otherwise Hell would be wealthier than it is.  If Hell had more curious devils that developed better technology than comes of mortal planes, Hell wouldn't be allowed to sell it, or give it to their client states as knowledge or weaponry.  There is a balance of power among the Powers of Pharasma's Creation, and Asmodeus is known to the other Powers to be very dangerous; if Asmodeus did not create this arrangement in Hell pleasing to Himself, He'd have needed to accept some other handicap in its place.

dath ilan: Carissa is playing catch-up very hard, in seeing what Athpechya would see at a glance in Hell, in seeing even as much as Keltham would see if he tried to decode it knowing nothing of Athpechya's work.

There is nonetheless a deeper rhythm to the thoughts of dath ilan, a shape your thoughts take on after you've worked the math some times, by which Asmodia saw something in a test of Aspexia Rugatonn's that others would not have seen, and Carissa Sevar has somewhat of it now.

If Carissa Sevar is looking at Hell and not trying hard to not-see anything that would break her loyalty to Asmodeus, she will see, almost immediately after trying to look there, that the devils out of Hell on Lrilatha's level are not curious, Lrilatha isn't hanging around the Project trying to find out what else Keltham knows that Asmodeus wasn't allowed to tell her.  Devils' curiosity has been burned out of them as thoroughly as their care for others.  They do not desire to become more than they are in a way where they know more, see more, understand more, to put everything in their eyes' reach into their mind's grasp and then send their eyes further.  They desire to rise in the ranks of Hell and with that rise in authority they are granted somewhat more intelligence, but that's not why they do it.

Carissa Sevar: You don't want the three year olds navigating a dungeon for you to wonder what's going on. You don't want them to be curious and overturn rocks to see what's under them. You don't want them to come up with the bright idea of throwing rocks against walls to see what's there before they have to touch it. Even if that's in a three year old's survival interests, it isn't in yours; you can't predict it, you can't repeat it, you have to pay lots more attention to it. 

No one in Hell has invented skyscrapers because no one in Hell was commanded to invent skyscrapers, and no one in Hell would have invented them uncommanded. 

And this does horrify Carissa, sicken her, make her think of fleeing, because - because she would rather not change in that way, and would not change like that in Axis, or even in the Abyss. 

But she decides not to flee because - why does she decide not to flee -- because it makes her value to Asmodeus all the clearer, explains why her work is so important, and a duke of Hell certainly has greater imagination and scope for action than a random petitioner elsewhere? Would Aspexia buy that?

Carissa's Model of Aspexia: Carissa Sevar's key attributes are slavery and pride.  She's shown great improvement in pride; would she risk her very self to keep her grand place in Cheliax that she's so recently grown into... Aspexia thinks not, Carissa could also have grand place at Keltham's side.

Sevar might, if she'd advanced far enough in slavery, choose to simply serve Asmodeus rather than serve Asmodeus for a reason, maybe not for any length of time and with great stresses internally, leading herself to erase her own memory to force herself onto a single course.  Is Sevar plausibly that advanced?  Maybe, Abrogail Thrune has worked much on her.  It's a very rare quality even of a faithful Asmodean, that they'll simply serve and not serve for reasons, but Sevar is Chosen of Asmodeus.

Carissa Sevar: Except she's not, never was, and now she knows it, and Aspexia will know that she knows it, and alter-Carissa cannot be relying on it the way Carissa's been relying on it all along, for assurance she was on the right course. 

What are her actual true reasons for not running away to Osirion.

Well, Keltham won't listen to her about not destroying the world when the only thing she's ever done for him is twist him and wrong him and hurt him for her own benefit. She has to pay him back before she can try to explain his mistake.

And she doesn't, actually, want to betray him yet again by warning someone what he's presently contemplating. Otolmens would blot him out of existence. Abadar would no longer object. 

She can't use any of that.

What are her other, deeper, possibly stupider reasons?

She has her followers, here, the people praying to her for mercy in Hell, the people who obey her loyally. She doesn't actually want to abandon them, nor force them to abandon Asmodeus. ....maybe if she just explained things to them and offered to turn them into intelligent magic items they'd abandon Asmodeus voluntarily. Probably would, actually. But if not, they'd still go to Hell, Olegario's soul-sold, Maillol will never side with her. 

She can't talk to everyone, or even everyone who is considering Abaddon over Hell, and if she did they wouldn't believe her, and they would be annihilated.

So she has to fix Hell.

If she atones she can't achieve her mission of fixing Hell. She wants to achieve her mission of fixing Hell. So she can't atone; and what is escaping to Osirion, if she can't escape Hell? And if she escaped to Osirion, she would atone, probably, eventually, with Keltham asking her to, with Osirion trying to arrange it - knowing what she'd face in Hell, knowing the impossibility of the task ahead of her -

Does Aspexia buy that? That Carissa Sevar wants to achieve the thing she's said she will achieve, and knows of herself that she is too terrified of her own destruction to stay on this course if she has any other?

Carissa's Model of Aspexia: Aspexia faced with this Carissa right now would be treating her at best as an ally of fragile convenience; she has little regard for the followers of other gods and other ways.  A story which is purely about Irorian motives, compassionate motives, leads Aspexia to treat as an ally-of-convenience-at-best the expected-future-Carissa whom Aspexia expects to awaken after selling her soul and re-enhancing herself.

Aspexia probably does have some favor for the Carissa-who-was?  She has not decided that Carissa is all Irori and no Asmodeus, or Carissa would be treated differently, they would not bother trying to further corrupt her; the instructions from Hell imply that she has the potential to descend into corruption, and finally come to Hell without thought of other choices.  The story Aspexia is told shouldn't throw that away completely.

dath ilan: Use a mix of story elements individually viable, and let Aspexia choose what balance between them she wants to believe in.  Anything that Keltham warned his ilani against doing themselves is a trap worth considering laying for others.

Carissa Sevar: Aspexia's alter-Carissa comprehends, why there should be no uncommanded creativity, in Hell, and sees the route to her ascent, because devils can be creative, if they are ordered; they can be set the task of making skyscrapers, and pillars of fire; they are limited not absolutely but by the ability of those who command them to use them. In some ways the thing she wants can more easily be achieved, if this is why it hasn't been achieved already. She is terrified, she has more to lose than she thought she did, but she also has more reason to think the gain is real - the gain to Asmodeus and the gain to herself.

Alter-Carissa has this thought and panics briefly and moves on, keeps trying to make progress on corrigibility, until she notices the thought gnawing away at the back of her mind, notices herself batting it back by calculating probabilities she would rise to great heights in Osirion as Lawful Neutral rather than as Asmodeus instructed coming to him without thought of other choices. She realizes she's failed that instruction, can't put it back, and that it was an important instruction; she wishes that her soul was sold, and the doubts gone, and her path set either for victory or defeat without any possibility of desertion. 

She wants to sell her soul, suspects if she renounces Irori she can do it, but she has pride, now, there are legends of her, she does not want to sell her soul in a moment of desperate weakness, she wants to sell it in triumph and glory, for a price no mortal has ever commanded, and she would not buy her soul, at that price, with this fracture in it, the soul of Carissa-Sevar-failing-Asmodeus's-instruction. She'd pay more for the Carissa of ten minutes ago, the Carissa who had just reclaimed her project in fury and rage and clarity - that Carissa is a better starting point for her rise, that Carissa will not be twisted like this by this realization 

- and that's where the plan occurs to her.

Does Aspexia buy that?

Carissa's Model of Aspexia: Aspexia doesn't think that Sevar is being wholly truthful.  She doesn't think Sevar really knows herself.

Honest?  Possibly.  It continues to be the case that most traitors do not think of selling their souls to Dispater as a first step.

Aspexia may think to tell Sevar about her own startling realization, under a similar level of enhancement, and watch how her thoughts play out then, with intent to erase them afterwards a second time.  Or perhaps she won't think of it; Carissa is thinking of this counter out of ilani training, not Asmodean, that when you are in doubt the very first thing you do is look for tests and things you can observe.

Carissa Sevar: She's prepared for it, though. She's pretty sure she'll have many of these revelations under Owl's Wisdom, and that she won't have traitorous thoughts while her mind is being read. It's that fact which makes this play possible at all; it took a lot of convincing herself she was very unlikely to be being mindread before the first traitorous thought escaped. 

Anyway, Aspexia knows she only had a little time to write, so there can be not too much in the way of detail; less to pick apart, less to specifically doubt.

dath ilan: You now know the first thing your letter says to Aspexia Rugatonn, and at INT 24 you're smart enough to do more than one task at once.  Tasks without dependency can be performed in parallel, says dath ilan; it's common sense but a lot of ilanism is just common sense stated more crisply.

Start writing that part, as you simultaneously figure out what the rest of your letter says about your Dis intentions.

Most High,

Working on corrigibility, realized devils don't have uncommanded curiosity (further notes on this attached). Had a crisis about this - tell me again with Owl's Wisdom up and watch if you want details. Decided to press on and figure out more, but kept failing Hell's admonition to come to Asmodeus without thought of other choices. Think I should sell my soul before trying to make further progress. 

My defection risk aside, realization about uncommanded curiosity implies my value to Hell higher than I thought. Want to sell my soul in a way no mortal has done before: by going to Dis to bargain directly with Dispater and renounce Irori for Asmodeus before him. (yes, I figured that out. you can watch me figure it out with an Owl's Wisdom). 

Now.

Most High,

Working on corrigibility, realized devils don't have uncommanded curiosity (further notes on this attached). Had a crisis about this - tell me again with Owl's Wisdom up and watch if you want details. Decided to press on and figure out more, but kept failing Hell's admonition to come to Asmodeus without thought of other choices. Think I should sell my soul before trying to make further progress. 

My defection risk aside, realization about uncommanded curiosity implies my value to Hell higher than I thought. Want to sell my soul in a way no mortal has done before: by going to Dis to bargain directly with Dispater and renounce Irori for Asmodeus before him. (yes, I figured that out. you can watch me figure it out with an Owl's Wisdom). 

Aspexia Rugatonn's reaction to this isn't exactly 'This is legitimately not the cleverly disguised traitorous plan I was expecting' but it's pretty close.

She turns the pages away from herself, stops to think.

Aspexia Rugatonn: It doesn't so far look like the start of an escape plan, unless there'll be some elaborate operation that supposedly must needs be carried out before the trip to Dis, proposed once Aspexia's suspicions are lulled... she doubts a traitorous Sevar would expect Aspexia to fall for that, but Aspexia will know what she's reading if that comes next.

It's - sort of an overwhelmingly tropey version of Aspexia's imagined true-loyal Sevar who found some fault in her loyalty and would lay out some much more mundane plan to correct it.  Perhaps there will be some evident reason for the drama, in the next paragraphs.

Alternatively: some initial gambit of an INT 24 traitor who has read Aspexia Rugatonn about as well as she could.

It will depend on what the rest of the letter says.  If this is essentially all the plan, but for notes on corrigibility, then Aspexia would in a tropeless world consider herself reassured enough.

Aspexia turns the pages back into her vision, and reads on.

Carissa should be told that she needs 2x +6/+6/+4 headbands and 30 Wishes -

Aspexia Rugatonn: Aspexia has a number of immediate reactions starting from the beginning of this sentence, including, in no particular order:

'WHAT'

'ARE YOU MAD'

'Dispater actually accepting that price would use up Hell's soul-purchase budget for - I don't even know -'

'ARE YOU MAD'

and

'2 headbands and 30 Wishes rather sounds like half of this is for Keltham.'

- where the second portion of those are for Keltham as part of a seduction plan she'll rederive next time she's fully augmented, but though Carissa shouldn't be told it during negotiations, you can step in and tell her it's really okay to settle at anything down to 1x +6/+6 and 10 Wishes, without which Carissa actually will walk out on them and see if she can become more valuable before selling.

Half are explicitly for Keltham - is Sevar supposedly going to negotiate something with Keltham, in his presence, before selling her soul -

- what is she doing, how does the erased-Sevar think she can sell Aspexia on this being reasonable sane thinking -

- and Aspexia reads on, for she is sufficiently confused that it seems not a useful place to stop and think.

Earlier

Carissa should be told that she needs 2x +6/+6/+4 headbands and 30 Wishes, where the second portion of those are for Keltham as part of a seduction plan she'll rederive next time she's fully augmented, but though Carissa shouldn't be told it during negotiations, you can step in and tell her it's really okay to settle at anything down to 1x +6/+6 and 10 Wishes, without which Carissa actually will walk out on them and see if she can become more valuable before selling.

(She leaves some space blank to add the justification for this, which she hasn't thought of yet at all.)

Objection: this bankrupts Cheliax. I have a solution in mind....

Carissa's Model of Aspexia: ... 2x +6/+6/+4 headbands and 30 Wishes?  That sounds like half are for - she explicitly says half are for Keltham.  Mmhm.

Rugatonn would like a little more detail on this mysterious plan.

Carissa Sevar: It's so he is on net glad he met me and will listen to me about not destroying the world. 

What else could it possibly be for. ....she's actually having a bit of a hard time. 

When you can't think of good ideas, think of dumb ones; at least you're thinking.

...she's going to use the Wishes directly to make herself irresistible and then corrupt him.

....she thinks if she's with Keltham as he enhances himself, and has a good understanding from having done it herself, she can shape him LE. 

....Cheliax has to pay him anyway, they've dragged out the negotiations a lot but they owe him really quite a lot of money, and he's offered to pay 200k for a Wish scroll from an LE person, and they'll win a dispute over whether a payment denominated thus is fair. She'll meet Cheliax's obligations to him and also cause them to interact again, under circumstances where she can seduce him.

...that's not actually a terrible idea.

Carissa's Model of Aspexia: If nothing else, Aspexia Rugatonn is impressed by the temerity with which Carissa Sevar proposes this!

The further details of her reaction feel hard for Carissa to model; Aspexia knows more about the strategic faceoff between Osirion and Cheliax than Carissa does, has hard-to-guess thoughts about tropes and what she thinks they say about an augmented Carissa facing off an augmented Keltham for control of Golarion while trying to seduce him.

She... plausibly... lets Carissa go to Dis and sell her soul first, and then demands details of the seduction plan from re-augmented Carissa before approving whatever Carissa really wants to do with Keltham, and gets sign-off from Abrogail.

Carissa Sevar: That's probably fine, the really important thing is the souls and Carissa can fucking make them both headbands if headbands are important, but is there another justification, an easy improvement in wording that makes this less suspicious - oh. Since the Wishes are Hell-granted Hell will have interpretation rights over whatever Keltham is planning to do with them, which might be important; in her judgment he's likely to be trying things that are very dangerous and inventing his own wordings. 

(Does that lead Aspexia to the conclusion he's trying to destroy the world, though...)

Carissa Sevar: Actually there's a different problem with it, (though the interpretation-rights thing is clever, she should include it).

An INT-29 Carissa will notice that Keltham is trying to destroy the world even if she's trying not to think.

She'll tell Aspexia not to let her use the Wishes right away, which also conveniently accounts for why she might not come up with a seduction plan. (The Wishes will still be hers by right and contract; when she defects she'll have access to them.) 

Carissa's Model of Aspexia: And why should Sevar not be immediately Wished up to +5s?

Carissa Sevar: If you've solved corrigibility that's a safe thing to do but Carissa hasn't, yet. And bets she can do it with just the headband. 

It'd be nice to think of more justification than that.

dath ilan: Keltham has talked a bit about 'abortability' as a desirable property of plans (though oft an over-expensive one).  If soulsold Carissa can't hold her loyalty together wearing a +6/+6 headband, it's less wasteful to downgrade to +6, than to try to curse her Wished-up abilities lower.

Carissa Sevar: Obvious enough she's not sure it's worth spelling out but better to anticipate Aspexia's lines of thought, maybe. 

The Owl's Wisdom runs out. 

That's fine. Just fill in the middle section of the letter and write the corrigibility insights she's been thinking of while she works through this.

Carissa should be told that she needs 2x +6/+6/+4 headbands and 30 Wishes, where the second portion of those are for Keltham as part of a seduction plan she'll rederive next time she's fully augmented, but though Carissa shouldn't be told it during negotiations, you can step in and tell her it's really okay to settle at anything down to 1x +6/+6 and 10 Wishes, without which Carissa actually will walk out on them and see if she can become more valuable before selling.

Headbands + Wishes for augmentation. Can't beat augmented Keltham with much stupider Carissa, tropes say equals. Wishes used to square payment for Cheliax's spellsilver progress, Keltham quoted 200k for a Wish scroll, can get arbitrator to agree on headband and Hell-Wish prices anchored on that. He might be doing something risky with Wishes, strongly prefer ambiguity interpreted by Hell than by other sources. Do not give Carissa Wish-augmentation immediately. Headband easier to take off if anything goes wrong and less-augmented Carissa safer to closely monitor (close monitoring will be necessary, suspect for INT 29 Carissa only Gorthoklek can do it).

And the rest of the letter is already written. 

Objection: this bankrupts Cheliax. I have a solution in mind. Want to own all PL souls as a personal vanity; it's the first thing I asked Abarco for when commanded by Hell. Think I should be permitted, if in Hell's interests, to repurchase souls sold in Cheliax at their spellsilver-denominated prices from the original sale though we can now produce spellsilver more cheaply, freeing up budget for my Wishes and headbands and for future soul sales. Would also like to own everyone save you + Majestrix who ever read my mind, if the approach goes through at all, but this is a vanity not a priority. 

Objection: probably a traitor's plot. Could trivially have suicided for rez in Osirion, or sought divine attention, or Geased my loyalists. 

Objection: then why wipe memory. Think the Carissa who stands before you is more valuable in the eyes of Hell and in her own eyes. Want to be the most valuable version of myself. Think Asmodeus's instruction to come to Him without thought of other choices is important, and am no longer able to do so. Don't want to be distracted by fear of losing my curiosity/etc while selling my soul. Slightly worried further revelations following from these ones really would have broken my loyalty. 

- Carissa Sevar

And in the corrigibility notes:

Devils shouldn't have sufficiently strongly-held priorities they'll pull out any stops to achieve; here's a sketch of why.

Devils should prefer plans that are not weird (Carissa is aware that in this respect a crippled beggar is closer to Asmodeus than she is). Here's a sketch of why.

Is that all, is that enough -

dath ilan: At INT 24 (even without the extra WIS) there's insights into corrigibility you can get swiftly, once you're no longer not-seeing anything that you wouldn't want to happen to you personally in Hell.

But Carissa's time limit on using Modify Memory to erase from the time she started looking inside herself, instead of her earlier resolution to think about corrigibility, is fast-approaching.

Carissa Sevar: - oh, and Aspexia will ask Abrogail. She could write a letter optimized for persuasiveness to Abrogail but it'd look different and there's not enough time - she'll just have to gamble - she could add a bit to the existing letter, there's an obvious thing to point to for Abrogail, but she actually thinks it works best if Abrogail's the one to think of it -

Right, last step. 

Now.

Headbands + Wishes for augmentation. Can't beat augmented Keltham with much stupider Carissa, tropes say equals. Wishes used to square payment for Cheliax's spellsilver progress, Keltham quoted 200k for a Wish scroll, can get arbitrator to agree on headband and Hell-Wish prices anchored on that. He might be doing something risky with Wishes, strongly prefer ambiguity interpreted by Hell than by other sources. Do not give Carissa Wish-augmentation immediately. Headband easier to take off if anything goes wrong and less-augmented Carissa safer to closely monitor (close monitoring will be necessary, suspect for INT 29 Carissa only Gorthoklek can do it).

Objection: this bankrupts Cheliax. I have a solution in mind. Want to own all PL souls as a personal vanity; it's the first thing I asked Abarco for when commanded by Hell. Think I should be permitted, if in Hell's interests, to repurchase souls sold in Cheliax at their spellsilver-denominated prices from the original sale though we can now produce spellsilver more cheaply, freeing up budget for my Wishes and headbands and for future soul sales. Would also like to own everyone save you + Majestrix who ever read my mind, if the approach goes through at all, but this is a vanity not a priority. 

Objection: probably a traitor's plot. Could trivially have suicided for rez in Osirion, or sought divine attention, or Geased my loyalists. 

Objection: then why wipe memory. Think the Carissa who stands before you is more valuable in the eyes of Hell and in her own eyes. Want to be the most valuable version of myself. Think Asmodeus's instruction to come to Him without thought of other choices is important, and am no longer able to do so. Don't want to be distracted by fear of losing my curiosity/etc while selling my soul. Slightly worried further revelations following from these ones really would have broken my loyalty. 

- Carissa Sevar

Aspexia Rugatonn: She reads it all a second time.

Aspexia Rugatonn: She skims the corrigibility notes.

dath ilan: It's a lot further than Asmodia got!

Aspexia Rugatonn: WHY IS HER LIFE LIKE THIS.

Aspexia Rugatonn: All right.  Thoughts.

Sevar is correct that, with her soul not sold, she could've suicided to Osirion - something that Aspexia and Abrogail themselves should have thought of.  They must have actually started trusting Carissa Sevar on some level, not to think of that; or simply failed to imagine themselves sufficiently well into Carissa Sevar's place, trying to ravel these problems with INT 24.  It is, in fact, not her or Abrogail's primary stat, neither of them have more than a couple of Wishes on it, and Sevar is now boosted beyond them both.

Aspexia could have maybe nabbed her back with a scroll of Miracle, if no other divinity saw, protected her, though they would have needed to decide to move the project or Sevar's portion of it permanently out of the nonintervention region - though they would have, for that.  But Sevar also had geas earrings in her possession - and as something of an unfired plot device, at that.

Verdict:  Yes, Sevar could have made her way to Osirion, at INT 24, if she acted before anyone read her thoughts.  Gorthoklek, who is smarter than that according to Detect Thoughts, of course failed to warn them because nobody requested Gorthoklek to think about it.

Aspexia Rugatonn: Has Sevar gone fully over to Keltham, if not to Iomedae as such?  Keltham would want the souls of the Project Lawful women who were sold away.  To request the souls of the Security who've read her own mind is obvious smokescreen.

But Keltham wouldn't have Sevar sell herself to that end, would be unutterably furious with her for doing it that way.  This is as blatantly obvious as anything between men and women could be.  Sevar has raveled somewhat of corrigibility; she would not mistake Keltham's will so wildly if she was seeking to return to him as his own possession.

Aspexia Rugatonn: The rest of this - is rather dubiously possible - she shall have to check with Gorthoklek whether the soul-sale system can be gamed in this way, buying the Project Lawful girls back at Hell's huge prices on them, paid in spellsilver as the market previously valued it - the definitions of value would not be written so as to allow people selling spellsilver back and forth among themselves rapidly to game the definitions of the godagreement, there'd be some other definition than the simple sale price, and that definition might lag the current price of rapidly-traded spellsilver in Avistan -

- does Hell even get its budget back, if you buy souls back from them, can you get more of the budget back than Hell originally paid out -

- if it's all, in some sense, a bona fide transaction, if the devils in Hell bid up those souls among themselves honestly and without expectation of the prices being false -

- though, to be sure, Asmodeus would have paid extra in godnegotiations to be allowed to have some small loopholes like that, exploitable by the clever Asmodean for a local benefit rather than a continuing one, not because He expected to gain net advantage over other gods after that payment, it is just the way He would prefer to set up the system -

- Hell will sell out souls if the purpose is Hellish enough, not Good, and Asmodeus benefits in the end - they would be less His property, did He not sometimes sell them - they couldn't have set up soul-backed currency in Cheliax otherwise, you can't turn in currency to the Imperium and pick out any soul you like, obviously, but you could get a soul at bona-fide Dis prices on them -

Aspexia Rugatonn: Eventually she orders Abrogail fetched; they must at the least prod Sevar with what supposedly produced her disloyalty, see what results, see what seduction plan she produces.  And Abrogail is in some sense the expert on Carissa Sevar.  And also Abrogail has seemed wiser in the ways of tropes than Aspexia herself, in some ways, though she reasons very recklessly about them.

Aspexia is not quite deferring this matter to the Crown, but she'd hear the Crown's judgment before making her own.

"I shall have another Modify Memory device brought over, and we shall see whether your thoughts reproduce themselves as you claimed they would, and erase them again if need be," Aspexia tells to Carissa Sevar.  She does not mention that Abrogail Thrune will be doing any of the mindreading.

Carissa Sevar: " - I understand," says Carissa, who is really wishing her future self could have left HER a note or something even if it just said that things were fine and this wasn't a catastrophe or anything.

Aspexia Rugatonn: "You didn't hit on anything from the Dark Tapestry and the world isn't ending," Aspexia adds, because it does occur to her then that this Carissa Sevar knows even less, and she doesn't want Carissa Sevar praying to Asmodeus about any alarming such possibilities.  Many Asmodeans lack a certain basic understanding of what it must be like to be Asmodeus, hearing prayers.

Carissa Sevar: Well, that's good, then.

It isn't 'I'm not going to execute you on the spot' but we can't have everything.

Earlier

Carissa Sevar: Right. Last step. 

Carissa Sevar: IRORI? I KNOW YOU CAN'T ANSWER ME, BUT LISTEN UP. 

Carissa Sevar: I AM PLANNING TO SELL MY SOUL FOR ALL THE PROJECT LAWFUL STUDENT SOULS AND A LOT OF WISHES AND A VERY FANCY HEADBAND SO I CAN OVERTHROW ASMODEUS AND TAKE HIS PLACE AND DO HIS JOB BETTER THAN HIM. 

Carissa Sevar: PLEASE DON'T GET IN MY WAY. 

Irori: Is Irori watching?

Well, let's put it this way.

She didn't need to shout.

If you were gazing down on a night sky from far away, and one of the stars suddenly lit up like an UNUSUALLY BRIGHT SUPERNOVA, you'd look too.

Irori: He's been watching her since her mind blazed up like sunlight.  And all of this searingly bright effort and cunning determination and swift unhesitating thought and unyielding courage would be something Irori was appreciating with LESS MIXED feelings, if not for the part where Carissa Sevar deduced that Keltham was planning to destroy Pharasma's Creation -

- and then took that on as her own personal task and told Irori to stay out of her way.

Irori: Irori has never accepted the concept that god's natures are allowed to constrain them absolutely.   It would be more agonizing to Him than to any mortal being, but Irori could put aside everything He is long enough to inform Otolmens of Keltham's intent.

Other gods, perhaps, might accept that final limitation on what They are, to the failing of the world; not Irori.  Gods are creatures of means, not only ends, you say?  They cannot act in outright contradiction to Their domains?  No, says Irori, They could, They just don't try hard enough.

Irori: The costs to him wouldn't just be metaphysical strain, it would permanently damage all that He is to those He inspired - if his students knew that, if faced with any really important problem, like the destruction of the multiverse, Irori would be standing above them like a protective parent, ready to take up their task if they failed, even after they told Him to stay out of their way.  Irori certainly wouldn't hide the fact, if it became a fact that was true.

To take Carissa Sevar's task away from her, or even prepare to stand ready behind her, would deal an unhealable wound to that-which-is-Irori-Himself.

And so what?  Protecting all of Creation is a good reason to hurt Himself.  He's not Good and doesn't treasure every soul inside it, but everything Irori does care about happens to be in there.  Irori will not be less hurt if Creation ends.

But Carissa's thoughts have touched on tropes, if not centrally, and Irori has bought enough information from Abadar about Osirian prediction markets on a very confused topic, seen enough Himself about how probability twists around Carissa Sevar and godly actions don't have their god-expected effects, to fear/hope/want-to-accept-in-accordance-with-His-nature that to save the world from Keltham is Carissa Sevar's task and not His.  To fear/hope/want that forces above even Pharasma dictate that success or failure is down to Carissa Sevar alone.

She believes and feels that way, and it blazes out to Irori in a clear light bright enough to shine across a thousand years of distance.

Irori: Irori... is not at all sure she's correct.

But the problem is, it creates something like doubt within Him, about the usefulness or counterproductivity of intervening.  It is not even in His nature to secretly resolve to save the multiverse if Carissa Sevar fails, because then it's not really her task, is it?  Irori does not do that sort of thing; and also, that force above Pharasma might not look kindly on it, if this task was meant for Carissa Sevar alone.  He's not sure of any of that, but it's all too possible, He thinks with despair for the world / glorious exultation for Carissa Sevar.

And if Irori is not very very sure, then it really is not in His nature to take one of the brightest stars of cleverness and determination to shine from a dozen watched planets, formed without the slightest note of deference to Irori Himself, aspiring to ascend for reasons that have nothing at all to do with a Vudran social expectation that this is what monks are supposed to do -

- and help her when she told Him to stay out of her problem.

Irori: He could destroy the realness of Carissa Sevar's challenge, to save all Pharasma's Creation, if He was sure that was the choice He faced.

He isn't sure.

Irori: If Irori was any other god, He would have no choice at all, but to act in accordance with His nature; and though the Master of Masters is not content to accept the ordinary limitations of godhood, He has not risen very far above them yet.  Irori still has an extremely strong tendency to act in accordance with His nature if it's not clear He must do elsewise to prevent utter ruin.

Irori could take Carissa Sevar's great task away from her, or secretly resolve to finish it did she fail, in outright contradiction to His domain, if He was nearly-certain that this alone was the way to save the world.

He's not nearly-certain.

And so Irori will let Carissa Sevar go on about Carissa Sevar's Way, with a great deal more mixed feelings than is usual about such a case.

Carissa Sevar: Right, then. That's everything.

Carissa Sevar: This isn't dying. People get their memories erased all the time. 

Carissa Sevar: Keltham would say that she should just expect to wake up somewhere else, anyway.  

Carissa Sevar: However, Keltham is a dumbass. She loves him, but he's a dumbass.

Carissa Sevar: Doesn't matter. If she's to wake up somewhere else, how about it be somewhere else with Keltham who doesn't hate her, who can be happy.  And lots and lots of spellsilver, why not, while we're wishing for stupid things. And a pet dragon. 

And if this is just all that there is, of this, until she reaches this point in her thoughts again -

Well. She used it well, she thinks. 

The items of Modify Memory are not trivial to bend to their intended use. She's never tried it before. 

It would be terribly tragic, terribly ironic, for all this to be lost because she's not concentrating well enough to wield the sixth-circle spell correctly; and while Asmodia would have had time to activate the item carefully and slowly, and possibly without any specific result in mind, she has a very tight timeframe here, and needs both activations to be exactly correct and line up perfectly; and she needs to not, in the middle with half her memories missing, forget the completion of her task.

She takes the item, then, and tries not to be terrified, not to be miserable, just to hold the plan in her mind and follow it with blazing clarity that can survive the sudden disappearance of its motivating convictions. 

Modify Memory.

Modify Memory. 

Now.

Abrogail Thrune II: She is, rather exasperatedly, here, hidden, standing ready to read sweet Carissa's mind.

If anybody not being tormented by extrauniversal tropes was producing this much project drama, and taking up this much managerial capacity, Abrogail would just kill them.

Aspexia Rugatonn: Owl's Wisdom.

"You realized in your contemplation of corrigibility that devils are made to lack curiosity," states Rugatonn.

Carissa Sevar: - that devils are made to lack curiosity. - oh, that explains - the question that'd nagged her since Keltham showed them dath ilan, why Hell wasn't richer, why it hadn't invented already all there was to be invented, why a world of mortals could build taller towers -

Did she have a crisis just over that? She - maybe if she hit it exactly wrong? Curiosity is - it's more of a thing to stamp out of yourself than muddleness or disobedience, it's the part of you that sees and seizes opportunity, it's the part in Keltham that said the instant he arrived in Golarion that it seemed there'd been some kind of mixup and maybe it was a profitable one  - it's the thing, in her, that hungered for what he knew -

- well, she knew she wasn't a devil -

Carissa imagines being incurious. Imagines hearing what Rugatonn told her and not wondering what the fuck she put in the fucking letter about this, imagines not wondering why Asmodeus made that choice or if it could be changed now - presumably the dukes of Hell aren't like lesser devils in this way, right, notably they mostly were not raised from the ranks of the lesser devils and - and maybe that's why, because you need curiosity to see openings in unexpected places - maybe dying and going to Hell is the wrong route to becoming a duke of Hell and she should really have thought about that sooner except for the thing where it went from being a joke to being not entirely a joke without, at any point, an explicit moment of decision -

- Asmodeus said come to me without thought of other choices and you will be the most treasured of my possessions that probably includes other choices like 'ascending in a thousand years as a lich' as well as other choices like 'as a candidate duke of Hell' how do you actually be a candidate duke of hell it's not that it wasn't meant to be an absurd ambition she was not actually working on but she should really have thought at all about what she wanted and whether she was on track to get it no that's not her job that's curiosity, thinking about that, her job is project lawful her job is saving cheliax except no one else is trying to see her rise, no one else cares, except the idiots who care because they think she'll protect them -

- no one with power wants to see carissa become a power in hell she has to do that on her own merits without being disobedient without looking at other choices without being curious an impossible handicap she's not sure how that works at all or is it one of those things where that heresy has to be corrected last and she should, be trying, to build curious ilani, knowing Hell will burn it out of them, knowing it's making them less useful to Asmodeus in the long run but more useful to him now but what if they feel betrayed when they figure it out no they're like Pilar Pilar wouldn't feel betrayed - what would Pilar feel maybe Carissa should try feeling that - Pilar would be glad because she hates having to figure out what to do. Carissa is not actually sure she can aspire to that. 

what did she write in the fucking letter

She's not thinking she'd rather Axis like Maillol she's not she's not she's not she wouldn't. She'd rather go to Hell and become a devil. She was not under the impression this was fun or easy or rewarding to your starting self-concept if your starting self-concept is more complicated than 'property of Asmodeus' which it shouldn't be. 

did she, in the letter, find a solution or did she just - was she stuck like this - she's not stuck like this she's not useless she'll just go seek correction, from the Most High, who is right here, and then she'll be fine.

Aspexia Rugatonn: "You got considerably beyond this mental state, and produced a rather interesting proposal," Aspexia will state, in hopes of hurrying Sevar through this.

Carissa Sevar: Yes, because that is what a reasonable person would do, come up with a plan instead of standing here being upset. 

She needs a problem statement if she's going to figure out a solution. 

Problem:  devils do not have curiosity, a trait which is in tension with being at all ilani, like even a little bit ilani. Side problem which is stupider: this observation destabilizing at least to sufficiently sleep-deprived Carissae. 

Solution: She's not immediately thinking of one. Presumably devils are like this because it suits Asmodeus better than devils being some other way. Maybe you could figure out which humans are lowest-curiosity and selectively breed for it but then your country will get taken over by other countries, that's the whole problem, not having curiosity is a concrete disadvantage which must be outweighed among devils by its advantages in terms of predictability and non-catastrophicness of failure modes but it really doesn't work among mortals. Well, maybe she can make her would-be ilani use their creativity so much they grow to despise it about themselves and rejoice in the knowledge it'll be taken from them in Hell -

- her stomach twists -

- she would say that, yeah, Carissa Sevar shouldn't have this information, she's too weak for it, she hasn't grown up enough in her Asmodeanism yet, but that's itself weakness, and she's confused why other-Carissa tolerated it in herself - well, other-Carissa must not have been conceptualizing the plan to wipe her mind of all these errors as weakness. Other-Carissa must have thought this information could be introduced in some way that didn't cause Carissa to have an unproductive internal panic about it. 

What would that possibly be, though. 

- knowing it wasn't going to happen to her. Unavailable, probably heretical to even want. This should happen to her, it is right for it to do so, she doesn't want it to but it's really just a higher-level impulse of the same instinct by which people desire pleasure and flinch from pain even to the point of insanity. 

- knowing it was going to happen to her? Possibly part of the problem here is that she is trying to think of ways out. She's not supposed to try to think of ways out. She was specifically directed not to try to think of ways out. Maybe she needs to hear it laid out for her that under every possible path, she will become a devil, or fail to become one and be a waste of space but she actually thinks she can avoid that, really and that this is true even of Powers in Hell and so it's not as bad as she's mentally building it up to be and is in any event not something she can be tempted to -

- there's a problem statement. If she might avoid this, she is strongly motivated to do so. It will tear her motives away from Asmodeus's, to act against her own interest in not having this happen to her at every chance. 

And the higher Wisdom gently says to her, so you could solve this by selling your soul, but you're not-thinking of that option, because you don't want to; and that is the real and terrible danger, that it didn't come faster to mind. 

She can't sell her soul. She tried. Though Hell didn't say never, they said something she had to resolve first - maybe something to do with Keltham? Hell doesn't have that much steering power - though it could've been the work of a god that did - 

- oh. Keltham told her that if she had some kind of elaborate reason to lie to him about whether she'd sold it, she was a secret cleric. Clerics can't sell their soul.  When she realized tropes were real, she should've revisited -

Irori bought her a way out. 

nononononono she doesn't want a way out and she doesn't know why he bought it for her. She wants to know her path, so she can apply herself to walking it, instead of having parts of herself curl up and hope she fails to reach the end. Clerics can break the god-connection from their end; presumably she can tell Irori to go to Hell and then do it. It doesn't feel like victory, it feels like a miserable grasping reargard action, but - but maybe that's why she erased it from her mind -

Aspexia Rugatonn: "You were not content with a miserable rearguard action.  Sevar, each time you wonder why you finally erased it, you're thinking something you wouldn't have thought of originally."

Carissa Sevar: Yes she's aware and she regrets contaminating the experimental data but she is unfortunately not a devil and doesn't even know how to turn off her curiosity for a little bit when it'd be a good idea!!!! Is there a way to do that? Presumably if there were a way for Hell to do that to mortals Aspexia would have herself some mortals it'd been done to.

Did the other Carissa decide she should just die now, go to Hell, speed-run becoming a devil, and then try this once she was one? No, they don't have the time to spare. It's tempting, though. 

Did the other Carissa decide she should fling herself at the Starst- that's plan A with an additional step. 

Did the other Carissa decide to become a lich -

- - okay, you know what, renouncing Irori and selling her soul is a miserable reargard action but it's less of one than the other plans she's coming up with. Except Cheliax can't afford for her to sell her soul for its true value, and also Keltham will probably panic if she refunds him the money, which is a move they should keep in their back pocket - not one to never employ, but one to employ strategically only. 

- did the other Carissa decide to defect? And Security, not her, used the memory items? It feels terrifyingly plausible, suddenly. 

Carissa Sevar: Carissa's internal monologue has decided to stop cooperating. 

Probably this will get her tortured a lot and maybe executed, but pointing this out does not make it stop that.

Abrogail Thrune II: She's actually experimented a bit with Modify Memory, trying the same torture twice to check the reproducibility of her experiments, that sort of thing.  You can sometimes get impressively similar chains of thought from people if you're sufficiently careful about reproducing their mental circumstances, which means either not letting them know their memory was erased, or falsely telling them their memory was already erased the first time.

This could be a product of a traitorous Carissa misguessing what her alternate self would believe.  Or, unfortunately, it could be the Aspexia Rugatonn presence, and the additional stress, and not being in her bedroom, and her thoughts repeatedly going back to the curious circumstances in which she found herself; and a loyal Carissa being rather misguided about which of her thoughts would reproduce themselves well.

Aspexia Rugatonn: "You used the items, not Security," Aspexia states, allowing a tone of overt exasperation to creep into her voice.  "Had you defected, you'd simply have - done what, Sevar?"

Carissa Sevar: Carissa does not want to think about that and is tempted to whimper pathetically 'do I have to?'.

Focus.

If she wanted to defect she could tell Irori and then tell Security to urgently take her to Egorian - like she in fact did - and expect a pickup once she got out of the interdiction. Or she could tell Irori and Abadar and Iomedae and then kill herself. Or she could plausibly just, Glibness up, bluff her way right out of the fortress with a Teleport scroll. Or she could go to Maillol's cell and order the Security out and put the Geas earrings on him and make him Plane Shift her to Axis. Or she could - is that enough can she stop now -

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Yes.  You obviously didn't defect; your letter pointed out as much."

"What's better than the miserable rearguard action?  You had an interesting idea but you didn't have time to leave key details."

Carissa Sevar: Ascending. 

Nope, doesn't work, you can't actually pull that off at fourth circle no matter how clever you think your plan is and also she's not sure it'd be following Asmodeus's instructions.

Wish-kidnapping Keltham back and doing a murder-suicide. That would be cool but not actually advance literally any of their strategic objectives and also requires a Wish. 

...selling her soul for three Wishes, Wish-kidnapping Keltham back, using the other two Wishes to do something really cool. take over cheliax she knows she is far too weak to pull that off and doesn't even want to it's just the kind of thing that appears when you try to think of things that would be really cool. 

....that devil wanted her to agree to only ask for three Wishes. 

Aside from the problem where it'd leave Cheliax in dire straits, how much could she sell for? Five? Ten? Could she go run right into the arms of Asmodeus and ask him for fifty nope definitely not that's a terrible plan that's an amazingly terrible plan that definitely ends in some completely inconceivably awful way. It wouldn't even please Asmodeus.

Could she sell her soul for twenty Wishes, then use them to overthrow Barbatos wow that's also a terrible plan. This is a cruel, cruel question to ask people. She should keep it in mind for if she ever wants to torture someone horribly.

But she's pretty sure that you're out of pathetic rearguard action territory by the time you've arrived at horrifically ill-advised regicide and deicide plans, so, uh, there's that, which will be wonderful comfort when she is tortured horribly for every thought she's just had.

Aspexia Rugatonn: Okay, Aspexia is just going to show Sevar the entire note before they run out of Modify Memory time, and ask if Sevar can reconstruct any part of her Keltham seduction plan.

Most High,

Working on corrigibility, realized devils don't have uncommanded curiosity (further notes on this attached). Had a crisis about this - tell me again with Owl's Wisdom up and watch if you want details. Decided to press on and figure out more, but kept failing Hell's admonition to come to Asmodeus without thought of other choices. Think I should sell my soul before trying to make further progress. 

My defection risk aside, realization about uncommanded curiosity implies my value to Hell higher than I thought. Want to sell my soul in a way no mortal has done before: by going to Dis to bargain directly with Dispater and renounce Irori for Asmodeus before him. (yes, I figured that out. you can watch me figure it out with an Owl's Wisdom). 

Carissa should be told that she needs 2x +6/+6/+4 headbands and 30 Wishes, where the second portion of those are for Keltham as part of a seduction plan she'll rederive next time she's fully augmented, but though Carissa shouldn't be told it during negotiations, you can step in and tell her it's really okay to settle at anything down to 1x +6/+6 and 10 Wishes, without which Carissa actually will walk out on them and see if she can become more valuable before selling.

Headbands + Wishes for augmentation. Can't beat augmented Keltham with much stupider Carissa, tropes say equals. Wishes used to square payment for Cheliax's spellsilver progress, Keltham quoted 200k for a Wish scroll, can get arbitrator to agree on headband and Hell-Wish prices anchored on that. He might be doing something risky with Wishes, strongly prefer ambiguity interpreted by Hell than by other sources. Do not give Carissa Wish-augmentation immediately. Headband easier to take off if anything goes wrong and less-augmented Carissa safer to closely monitor (close monitoring will be necessary, suspect for INT 29 Carissa only Gorthoklek can do it).

Objection: this bankrupts Cheliax. I have a solution in mind. Want to own all PL souls as a personal vanity; it's the first thing I asked Abarco for when commanded by Hell. Think I should be permitted, if in Hell's interests, to repurchase souls sold in Cheliax at their spellsilver-denominated prices from the original sale though we can now produce spellsilver more cheaply, freeing up budget for my Wishes and headbands and for future soul sales. Would also like to own everyone save you + Majestrix who ever read my mind, if the approach goes through at all, but this is a vanity not a priority. 

Objection: probably a traitor's plot. Could trivially have suicided for rez in Osirion, or sought divine attention, or Geased my loyalists. 

Objection: then why wipe memory. Think the Carissa who stands before you is more valuable in the eyes of Hell and in her own eyes. Want to be the most valuable version of myself. Think Asmodeus's instruction to come to Him without thought of other choices is important, and am no longer able to do so. Don't want to be distracted by fear of losing my curiosity/etc while selling my soul. Slightly worried further revelations following from these ones really would have broken my loyalty. 

- Carissa Sevar

Carissa Sevar: - wow, previous Carissa was notably cooler than her, she wonders what her secret was.

The obvious thing is to conquer a country together. It's a very Lawful Evil thing to do, Keltham does have some inclination to do it, he's stopped cooperating with all these countries probably because he intends to oppose them, maybe she had some idea for how she could help him overthrow Osirion over the sexism, say, or the Padishah Empire over all the child slavery, simultaneously acclimate Keltham to conquest and power and spend time with him where he can appreciate her and also plausibly meet his real need for a country from which he could build Civilization. 

If it's not that she's not sure what it is. There's a clarity of vision in the letter that she doesn't feel, and she's not sure why - like there's some piece missing that the other Carissa thought she'd infer immediately -

Abrogail Thrune II: Tap Sevar with Splendour and a Lesser Restoration, see if she gets it then.  The original conditions are already violated and they're running out of time.

Carissa Sevar: Go to Keltham, enhanced, smarter than him, and he'll make himself smarter too, to match you, and - then what? Well, you'll be the only woman in the world who can even comprehend him, but that's not a seduction plan all by itself. It seems very plausible he is preparing for some kind of terrible war on Cheliax - could she stop him, by selling him the Wishes, by giving herself again to him - it does seem likely that with enhanced enough stats she could figure him out, but she's not grasping it right this second -

Aspexia Rugatonn: And they're out of time.

Modify Memory.

Abrogail Thrune II: Deep Slumber, actually.  They need to discuss this, and Carissa shouldn't try to puzzle this in her current state.

Aspexia Rugatonn: "I'm not particularly offering to defer this decision to you, but you're the Carissa Sevar expert."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Yes.  Obvious disturbing thought, the Carissa Sevar who devised this plan was greater than this Sevar because she'd seen through suppressed thoughts, inner conflicts, inner lies."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Or the other Sevar was less stressed, not in my presence, less cumulatively tired, less frightened beforehand - she did seem to pick up stride once Restored and Splendored."

"What does her traitorous self hope to gain, compared to just killing herself to wake in Osirion?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "Expiation of her sins to her god, Keltham, by undoing as much as she can of the harms she's dealt him while damning herself as thoroughly as she may without Abaddon, which she never would."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Would she actually, knowing that Keltham certainly didn't wish it of her?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "I don't know.  I think at +6 Cunning and +4 Wisdom Sevar would be smarter than that, it's just, hard to be sure with somebody like her."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Suppose we trust to Sevar's loyalty.  Suppose Hell goes along with all this insanity.  What do you think of Sevar's intended game, as much of it as we know about?  What would the tropes say of it? - for that in particular you may apprehend better than I."

Abrogail Thrune II: "It would unambiguously set Sevar up as the other pole of a contest with Keltham for dominance of Golarion and perhaps beyond, which is - a story much friendlier to Lawful Evil and Chelish ways, than others that could be told - and also put them on something of a friendly basis, as they fought, hinting at further rapprochement, from a position where Sevar granted a kind of aid to him -"

"I don't like everything about it, in particular that it sidelines me decisively once Sevar has grown far enough."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "That was always going to be the case if Sevar served Asmodeus sufficiently.  You're not planning to betray Him in the depths of your heart, I'm sure."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Indeed I'm not...  Well, I'm not the main character and this was never my story.  I suppose I should be glad it isn't, or this sort of thing would be happening to me."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "What do you make of her failure to reproduce her own seduction plan?  A bluff, a sign that no such plan exists, that the Sevar we saw was not like unto the one who wrote this note?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "Well, if nothing else, it at least -"

Abrogail Thrune II: "I have a thought you're going to hate.  But it may point to the only possible way for Cheliax, for Carissa, to win this."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "I'll endure, and think with fondness of how much less complicated Hell must be than this."

Abrogail Thrune II: "It's the same reason we only speak circuitously about our own plot that might end up giving Cheliax a shield against Keltham."

"Sevar is proving unable to figure out her own seduction plan, because the tropes require Sevar's character perspective to not know her own plan until the moment she implements it."

"There's theoretically more things we could try, like putting her back into her bedroom and Suggesting that we've given up on figuring it out and nobody is looking at her.  But we'd be fighting tropes the whole way, and anything we could try that would actually succeed would get shut down.  Somehow."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Why do stories even work like that, Abrogail?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "Because it's boring to watch a character talk about what they intend to do, and then watch exactly that happen.  So any plan that they talk about out loud - or think about, where the audience can hear them, if it's a book instead of a play - can't possibly go as they plan.  Conversely, for a plan to actually be successful, the audience can't know what it is, or the character perspective if they're reading a book."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "So if Sevar isn't allowed to think about her plan, it would follow that we're in a book, because otherwise we could just tell her not to talk about it out loud."

Abrogail Thrune II: "I don't know if that follows in any real sense and I don't know what I'd do with the thought if I did.  We aren't actually in a book or we'd - see letters about us, I suppose - you know what I'm trying to say, Aspexia."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "I'll think on this decision and go off to Nidal to consult Gorthoklek on particulars, should we decide to do it.  And make good use of my sudden sense of aggression, by which I mean, seething rage, by seeing how many enemies I can kill in a way that is unnecessarily complicated and pains them before they die."

Cheliax: It is a beautiful day in Cheliax, and you are a confused Carissa.

You've just awakened in one of Abrogail Thrune's guest bedrooms - not the aftercare room, as might have unfortunate connotations; a normal doompunk bedroom that's clearly of the Queen once you've had a little time to grasp Her Infernal Majestrix's tastes.

There's a note next to you from Abrogail Thrune!  It says that your other self came up with a splendid plan whose details you've unfortunately failed to rederive even with Owl's Wisdom, possibly because you were tired and frightened and trying too hard to figure out why you'd erased your memory; and there's a surface rationalization for why you erased it, which, of course, you can't be told; but realistically this all ultimately happened because tropes: the hypothetical audience would be bored if you knew what you were doing before you did it.

Step 1 of your own plan is for you to go to Hell in order to renounce your secret clerichood of Irori directly before Dispater and sell Him your soul; for two +6/+6/+4 headbands and 30 Wishes; some of which will be used to pay Keltham what the Project owes him; and also make sure that Hell controls ambiguities in his Wish interpretations; and so this doesn't bankrupt Hell's budget to buy souls in Golarion, you're going to try buying back the Project Lawful girls on whom you don't have options, at their ultra-high bona-fide prices in Hell, but paying in spellsilver whose god-agreement price relative to Hell's budget is lagging behind its price drops in Golarion.

Abrogail Thrune II: (There is in fact somebody standing by reading your mind, with a Modify Memory to be used if necessary.  You could always wake up again, if required.  But you're not being told this.)

Carissa Sevar: What.

Carissa Sevar: That's...too many Wishes? Is she worth that many Wishes?

Carissa Sevar: She's going to have to conquer the entire planet to be worth that many Wishes!!

Carissa Sevar: And if she has that many Wishes she probably can conquer the entire planet. 

Carissa Sevar: She's going to have to send Keltham the money for his option. That - stings a bit, probably just because of the reminder - he was so happy -

- but she was never counting on it as a path out of Hell. She doesn't want a path out of Hell. 

Carissa Sevar: Or maybe this is all a trick and a test.  Does she pass? She doesn't think she failed. 

"Hello?" she says cautiously to the empty room. "I am an obedient Asmodean and will take over the world if Asmodeus wants me to."

Abrogail Thrune II: To be clear, they're not necessarily going to go along with this, depending on what else Carissa thinks she's supposed to do, from here.

But at least the very first step of the Plan... doesn't seem like it obviously disadvantages Cheliax, so they may as well go along with that, and see what next step Carissa derives from there.

No, Carissa will not be told that she was being watched; let her wake up in apparent solitude.

Carissa Sevar: Then she'll have the revelation that she's a cleric of Irori and should've realized sooner for the third time today!!

Carissa Sevar: - and then start fretting about whether she has enough Splendour to pull this off. It seems like the kind of thing that could be pleasing to Asmodeus, but only if executed properly, beautifully. If she immediately collapses into a quivering puddle in the presence of Dispater which is what she expects will happen then that doesn't seem very satisfying. 

Abrogail Thrune II: ...good point.

There's a very obvious solution to this problem and Abrogail hates it.  The Crown of Infernal Majesty is nearly specialized on this.

The problem isn't just the temporary suffering or the lese majeste, it's that if Abrogail does that again it becomes a recurring trope.

Maybe she can send along the crown to be held by Aspexia in reserve, whereupon Sevar would look pathetic if she needed that and not just +4 Splendour, which by tropes would bring Sevar near the edge but enable her to finally triumph.

Carissa Sevar: Carissa is thinking about whether she can make herself a specialized magic item for the task. Glibness might help at all, but it's really not the right thing; this is a performance, not a Bluff. You can't bluff Dispater and she isn't actually planning to try; the case for giving her all these Wishes is that she is worth them, and that Asmodeus will prosper by her having them, and that Lawful Evil's champion can't be weaker than Keltham's, or they'll lose, and can't be stronger out of Hell's desperation or generosity, or they'll lose, and so must be stronger because she sold her soul at the correct price and got more in exchange than even Keltham has access to in the short term.

...ring of eloquence? Could you do that as a sword? Is she relying on crafting as a crutch rather than just being a better Asmodean? A devil at her intelligence and splendour would not collapse into a puddle in the presence of Dispater. 

(Keltham wouldn't either but that's because he is a dumbass.)

Okay, why wouldn't a devil at her Intelligence and Splendour collapse into a puddle in the presence of Dispater? Is it something about the nature of devils or is it just that they'd have experienced more horrible suffering and would therefore be tougher? Abrogail wouldn't collapse into a puddle in the presence of Dispater, what would Abrogail be doing. ...'having much higher Splendour than Carissa' is at least part of the answer.

Abrogail Thrune II: ...or she'll let Carissa think. She could do that.

Carissa's thoughts are brighter now, the contrast to her thoughts of last night quite visible.  Overt reason, sleep deprivation; trope reason, she wasn't allowed last night to figure out her own plan.

Carissa Sevar: She could go for more Splendour and less Intelligence, borrow the +6 headband back from Pilar. Aside from her entire self flinching away from the idea of being even slightly stupider during an important negotiation, that might be wise. 

And the general reason to not be stupider during a negotiation is that you'll get cleverly trapped. But soul-sale contracts are standard, she does know the standard, and conveniently some other Carissa who erased herself did all the work on figuring out what to ask for.

...did that Carissa erase herself just so this Carissa would have no ability to retreat from her ask because of not knowing what went into it. 

....that Carissa is cool. 

Yeah, okay, if some allied Carissae can erase themselves to improve her bargaining position then this one can go in with more Splendour than Intelligence. Her job is to deliver to Asmodeus the victory over Irori that He must have wanted ever since the contest over Carissa began, and get the things that she needs to win over/defeat/corrupt/whatever Keltham. 

She also wants Olegario's soul, and Abarco's, for very different reasons, but if the negotiation-planning Carissa didn't ask for that then there's no margin in the plan for it.

Abrogail Thrune II: They can suggest something about options purchased with the mispriced spellsilver before interplanar prices of record finish adjusting, but dear Carissa is not allowed to own the souls of her Securities now.

Carissa Sevar: She's not thinking about how that'd make it easier to betray Cheliax! She just feels that she should own everyone that's ever had power over her and is carefully not extending the principle too far. 

All right. Does the note say anything about timeframes? Is she going today? 

Abrogail Thrune II: No; they weren't sure if Sevar would be ready to go today, so Aspexia didn't request all those spells.  If Sevar gets her Project in order today, and doesn't need to create any magic items that she can't just yank into existence in eight fucking hours because Carissa Sevar, then she could go tomorrow.

(Abrogail would not, usually, hurry even that much, on something of this magnitude.  But she has some reason to fear that Keltham might decide to destroy Egorian, or, if he's made the more difficult deduction/recollection, all of Cheliax, in less than a month from now.)

Carissa Sevar: She'll put in the request to buy a Ring of Eloquence, then, and - make sure the Project's in a stable state in case she's gone for a week. She is not sure how quickly one can get an appointment with Dispater, and she has learned her lesson about leaving her Project with insufficient instructions. 

...she's not actually sure how to put Maillol back together and feels vaguely sick about that. 

Abrogail Thrune II: Oh, good.  Abrogail does so like it when a lesson needn't be taught twice.

Mostly, the way you put people back together after torture is by torturing them correctly in the first place.

Carissa Sevar: Possibly she should've practiced on a bunch of random people first but the impulse to do that felt like the weak, flawed impulse to not have to hurt people who trust her not to, and she's trying very hard to ignore that one. ...well, there's an ilani saying about this, if you aren't making errors in both directions you know which direction to move in.