Abrogail Thrune II: "Reeeeaaaallllyyyy?"

Carissa Sevar: " - nope, it was totally sincere. If he'd been for real, I'd have fled the country this very minute. I'd have come back afterwards, probably, but you dragged me to this party and deserve to have to execute some Security about my escape from it, if I really did see an opening."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Dear.  Need I remind you that we're fighting somebody who's actually aware of us, now, and very nearly as clever as you?  This could've been a layered plan by Keltham.  When you think you've deceived somebody else is a very important time to worry about whether they've deceived you."

Carissa Sevar: "It did occur to me, your Majesty, that this might be a plan by Keltham, and it seemed to me that in that case I ought to let it succeed. I know you didn't want me running off with him before, but that was before I was soulsold and had compacted with Asmodeus to own the souls of - oh, I think Aspexia wanted me to not bandy that part around publicly - anyway, I got a very good deal, and no longer fear that Keltham could talk me Lawful Neutral, and it seems entirely possible that my unknown plan to seduce him starts with his rescuing me."

Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail sends out an emergency order through Telepathic Bond, receives an acknowledgment, coldly says "Fail your Will saves and I'll see if I can save your lives," and Deep Slumbers all four of the other people present.

"That's the death, or indefinite statueing and loss to Cheliax at the cost of two sixth-level spell slots each, of anyone here whose memories we can't successfully erase with one sixth-level Modify Memory.  I am taking the cost of it out of your pay."

Carissa Sevar: She didn't, actually, say the part that's the important secret. 

"Your majesty."

Abrogail Thrune II: "You still don't understand what just happened.  I am going to have words with Aspexia about this."

She takes Carissa's arm, steers her away from where the fallen Securities and informants will be saved, if that's possible, or statued if they cannot be, or executed if their lives aren't deemed worth it.

"Tell me of this compact with Asmodeus," Abrogail demands once they're away and a silence is about them.  She looks scary by the standards of anything in Golarion, now, if perhaps not Hell.

Carissa Sevar: "Do you, Carissa Sevar, conquer territories or hearts in Hell's name, be you fairly judged by Hell's Prince to be the most prime mover in such conquests, such unsold and unclericed souls from those lands and peoples as enter into Hell calling your name, in death as they called it in life and did you and Hell more service than disservice, shall pass into your custody or the custody of those in Hell you name your slaves or allies; and when you have conquered three-quarters of Avistan all such souls out of Avistan shall be yours as well; when three-quarters of Golarion is yours, all such souls out of Golarion; when three-quarters of this plane is yours, all such souls out of this plane; when three-quarters of Pharasma's Creation is yours, all such souls out of Creation; while Hell's dominions of those lands and peoples last; and all this be annulled should you fail finally after death in being acknowledged by Hell as a Hellish Power, or should the yield in strength and wealth from those souls granted you be less than He accounts as ordinary from His subservient Powers of Hell; or should the Prince of Hell fairly judge you to have entered His despite in death or life," she recites from memory.

She stared at the precise wording for a long time not long ago. 

Abrogail Thrune II: Unholy fucking Pharasma.

"You received - nothing else directly from Him?  No circles of wizardry, no rights of command over deviltry, no artifacts -"

Carissa Sevar: "The rest from Dispater."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Was this compact your idea or His?"

Carissa Sevar: "Mine."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Then He is probably, probably going along with it only as speculation, humoring you perhaps, as it costs Him no investment if you cannot do it, and He gains much if you do.  But Asmodeus does not humor many supplicants personally, Carissa Sevar.  I suppose that Aspexia was so horrified by the potential implications of the compact's contents, did they become known, that she forgot to mention to you the implications of the compact itself."

"There are probably some number of old ninth-circles, ancient dragons, beings of the underground and its layered vaults, who've executed a compact with Asmodeus Himself.  Of those mortals walking Golarion I do know of only two such.  They are you and I."

Carissa Sevar: "Your majesty, you know I don't want your job and couldn't do it."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Does everybody else in Cheliax know that?  Believe that?"

"Do you realize how dangerous it is to have an obvious successor?  Anybody who'd rather you sit on the throne than I, might try for a soul-trap, and rely on you reluctantly taking the job after none of the Thrunes succeeded in executing their own compact with Asmodeus."

Carissa Sevar: " - no, your Majesty, I hadn't thought of that." But probably half the people in this room would have; it was available to think, just down a path she's not used to thinking down.

Abrogail Thrune II: "I accept some part of this blame, for dragging you here exhausted from Dis, and Aspexia must accept some portion of it, for she should've made it clear to you at once if she is not playing her own fucking games -"

"What else happened in Hell, can you summarize it all to me?"

Carissa Sevar: "Dispater was amused, as I assume I'd calculated He would be. He was entertaining offering me the thirty Wishes and two headbands, for the girls except Peranza and Asmodia, who he claimed Hell has, and who he accused me rightly of not wanting broken forever. He offered me one headband and fifteen Wishes, to throw the two of them in and make it so they've been in safety in the gardens of Erecura. I refused, obviously. Snack Service showed up and said that the half-deal served Asmodeus better than the first one, at which point Dispater refused me the first one. I thought about what else I could ask, in light of how he'd been apparently willing to go for the thirty Wishes before Cayden intervened, and asked that the devils at the gates of Abaddon tell people they could go to Carissa Sevar, and that I get anyone who accepted, if I succeeded at becoming a Power in Hell. Dispater said He couldn't do that, because of the incentive against Law, but would compact with Asmodeus on my behalf for souls that cry my name in lands I conquer.

He did that and returned with a response.  He presented the compact for one 6/6/4, 15 Wishes offered through three round-way Gates, Permanent Tongues and Arcane Sight to me, I made some revisions, I renounced Irori and got a vision from Him, I signed. Snack Service bargained with Dispater, after that, I don't know what for except apparently both the timing of my return to Golarion, and the fleshshaping, were part of it.

I repurchased the souls of everyone on Project Lawful and arranged cheap options on Security and Maillol, exercisable only with your approval and Aspexia's. Dispater says Peranza and Asmodia have always been in the Gardens. Everyone else who I claim is going to be nonconsciously petrified until it becomes obvious I'm not in fact going to turn into a Power in Hell capable of using them. - oh, and Dispater declared me his favored possession so that none in Dis or Avernus will impede me."

Abrogail Thrune II: "No obvious explosive runes there, but I'll need to review all of this in much more detail after this party is over.  I'll tell Aspexia that I require of her that report, if she was there for all of it..."

Abrogail Thrune sighs, leans against one wall, and hits her head against it hard enough to crack the stone.  Not so hard a Mending wouldn't do, or Make Whole at worst.

"As regards the timing of your return from Dis.  There was a plot to detonate a Helm of Brilliance in the ballroom, at least, I assume that's what the plot was.  Pilar shut it down by slaying the spy.  No cake, just death.  Pilar said she could do that because her friend was at the party and having fun."

Carissa Sevar: "She said that in Hell, too. That she can use her pseudoprophecy powers for her friends. I am very worried Cayden's pushing her to break with us but I don't see anything obvious to do about it."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Has she shown any signs of - disloyalty, slippage?  Overt or subtle?"

Carissa Sevar: "Nothing I'm sure is that? In Dis, she - seemed slightly bothered, I guess, But I would've been too, six months ago."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Well, that's either dreadful foreshadowing, or it's somebody being slightly bothered inside of Hell, as I hear sometimes happens.  I'm going to check with Aspexia if she considers herself to be monitoring Pilar's character arc, and if she's not or doesn't have the time then I'm going to assign you to the task."

"And do you know what we're going to do now, Carissa, after all this upset?"

Carissa Sevar: "Go have more fun?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "Don't steal my thunder.  You're supposed to say 'What?' and not skip to the punchline, it lacks drama."

"As I was going to say dramatically:"

"We're going to go back to the party to celebrate Cheliax's conquest of Nidal, and also, as they'll be told by the end, your sale personally of your soul to Dispater, and as they are not to know for a time, your compact directly with Asmodeus Himself.  We'll go back to the party, and celebrate all of these things, as we were before this complication happened."

"I decided when I threw this celebration that if I was tempting tropes by daring to celebrate anything, then so be it; and if by inviting you I was calling their attentions directly on us all, so be it; and that if, by my telling you that you might have me after or be had by me, I was tempting some romantic complication to occur in our lives immediately after, so fucking be it.  I'll not live the rest of my life cowering from all fun, for fear of plot complications, for fear of humorous or tragic comeuppance if I'm ever seen by the story to be enjoying myself or celebrating anything."

"We're going back to the party, and we're having fun."

" - I was going to say.  But now, I suppose, it falls flat, and the tropes take us all."

Carissa Sevar: "I wouldn't say it fell flat, your majesty. Whatever I am, it's what you made me, and so I suppose it's not very surprising that I'm having the time of my life."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Did you find anyone worthy of our mutual attentions, yet?  We'll need a victim, if you're not just to be mine own."

Carissa Sevar: "You trick them too often. They all suspect something. There's probably something among the men who were looking at me like they're not used to pretty things they can't touch, but I have yet to conduct an extensive survey."

Abrogail Thrune II: "I want to say that they ought to have courage and storm ahead, but I must admit that I am in fact laying a trap and maybe not an especially subtle one... I am a little tired myself too, to be honest."

"You're allowed to go hunting, you know.  Find one you'd enjoy hurting or want me to hurt, lure them into some arguable sin against you or I."

Carissa Sevar: "You command and I obey, your Majesty."

Abrogail Thrune II: "I'll not escort you back.  We can't be seen returning together, after all."

"Also, be it clear that, if we're interrupted before we can conclude this tryst, I'm declaring right now in front of any possible audiences or readerships in the Dark Tapestry or beyond that the event was overly predictable and the writers are hacks."

Abrogail lays a brief kiss upon Carissa's lips, and goes back to the victory celebration.

Carissa Sevar: And Abrogail's lover will go a-hunting! She'll get herself some more to drink, and drink rather more than is a good idea, and wander towards the men whose gaze she was flinching from earlier, out of old-Carissa habits of avoiding people like that, stories that start that way. 

She's untouchable. It's safe. She can wander right in, drunk, while powerful Chelish nobles eye her hungrily, and she is the dangerous one. 

It feels like there's some important insight about Asmodeanism, here. 

She is so very interested in hearing about all of these peoples' gossip. 

???: He'll make his move when Abrogail's beautiful, harmless-looking, slightly-drunk nameless possession is listening wide-eyed to some skeptical wary Chelish noble's account of what she might have to fear at Egorian's court, if she dares to get herself more involved there.

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "You know, the one you really ought to be worried about in the Palace, I'd say, is Carissa Sevar."

Carissa Sevar: - he knows. He has to know, he's met her, she doesn't look that different. 

So he's playing a game too. You know, fair enough. 

Carissa Sevar: "You think Carissa Sevar would be jealous?"

Chelish Noble: "I hadn't heard myself that Carissa Sevar was the jealous type.  Rumor certainly doesn't proclaim her to be monogamous."

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "Well, she's more dangerous than she looks, is the thing.  I was among the first to see Carissa Sevar after she came into Cheliax, do you know?  When I was but about my own business eating dinner, I saw her.  Most of the fools in the palace refectory did laugh at rumors and make a show of paying her no heed, or pretended to mettle by demanding of her to know which rumors were true; I was one of few there with the sense to keep well out of her way.  Many of those faces I never saw in the Palace again."

Carissa Sevar: "What does she look like? - just, you know, so one might be especially cautious not to give offense."

Chelish Noble: "It's said that her beauty falls barely short of Abrogail Thrune's, and that only because she doesn't wish to give the Queen offense.  It's said that she bears a crown forged in Hell, only barely less mighty than the Crown of Infernal Majesty and that only because she doesn't wish to give offense."

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "And she's a brunette, long hair, about yea high," holding out his hand to what happens to be Carissa's exact height.  "You'd know her on seeing her, I'm pretty sure.  She's not the sort who could walk into a gathering like this one without every single eye turning in her direction."

Carissa Sevar: "I am grateful for the warning. I have no desire to make enemies in Egorian. ....really I'd much sooner be stowed away on some country estate but Her Majesty does like her games."

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "Unfortunately whether or not you are Carissa Sevar's enemy is entirely her choice, and not yours at all."

Carissa Sevar: "How do you all bear it? Going around being terrified all the time? Worrying about Her Majesty and - Carissa Sevar, and - that's the cake girl over there, isn't it, the one that killed someone to stop a spy plot -"

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "Being a Thrune helps a lot.  I'd say that I highly recommend it, if not for the incredible implied treason."

Chelish Noble: "That was the CAKE GIRL?  I thought she gave people CAKE not DEATH."

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "Well, sometimes Project Lawful girls just get mysteriously upgraded.  It happens."

Carissa Sevar: "Is it so mysterious? I imagine they were generously rewarded for giving the Crown Nidal."

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "And the cake girl was rewarded by being upgraded to the cake-or-death girl?"

Carissa Sevar: "Well, how else would getting promoted on Project Lawful work?"

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "To this stunning logic I have no rejoinder."

Chelish Noble: "I've heard rumor that Carissa Sevar hasn't been seen in Cheliax for a month, for whatever that's worth."

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "I don't know that I'd feel so reassured, actually.  She's probably being upgraded.  - to what, I admit I have no idea."

Carissa Sevar: "Maybe tending to her cult in the Padishah Empire. - don't ask me why she has a cult in the Padishah Empire, I just know it's sizable."

Chelish Noble: "I do know, but the Church has proclaimed it grave heresy to repeat even as rumor."

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "This sounds worrying," says Alexite Thrune, who is, in case anybody's lost track of this important fact, visibly a priest of Asmodeus.  "Should I be worried?"

Chelish Noble: "Yes, but it's not my place to speak of it."

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "I grant you leave to speak of it," Alexite says to Carissa Sevar.  "If it pleases you."

Carissa Sevar: "I suppose it would have to be the rumors that those who follow Carissa Sevar will come into her keeping when they die and go to Hell, and that she has mercy for the souls under her care. Which is nonsense, I must say, from everything else you've said of her. Carissa Sevar can't be a merciful person; no Power in Hell could be. And I can't imagine her admiring those who delude themselves and believe things just because it's comforting. If one wanted to be useful to Carissa Sevar in Hell - well, this is a party, no time for speaking of such things. 

I have heard it said of her, that she dislikes it immensely that Hell's souls are lost to Abaddon, and that she has hopes her cult might guide those souls back to Asmodeus where they belong. But that's hardly unique to her! Abaddon is horrid."

Chelish Noble: "I hadn't heard the Abaddon part.  Lady Sevar wouldn't much like the plans of the Mayor of Senara, then, would she?"

Alexite Gellius Rutilus Thrune: "Conveniently the Most High Aspexia Rugatonn has also been spotted at this gathering, so how about I go find her and ask her about this incredibly dangerous heresy?  By your leave, Lady."

Carissa Sevar: She waves him off cheerfully and turns to the other noble. "I'm not familiar with the name, but do tell. The more people Carissa Sevar dislikes the less likely she is to take some issue with me."

Mayor of Senara: "- sad, pathetic, and dare I say non-Asmodean.  I rule a town half of whose inhabitants are descended of devils in some way, nigh a quarter are outright tieflings, and they don't sufficiently fear Hell.  Asmodeus's embrace should be a privilege for them, one they have to earn by good behavior, I say!  And you, you sad fragile thing of the Queen's, how dare you tell me otherwise?  Do you think being buried a statue is the worst that can happen to you when the Queen tires of you?  Be grateful she'll show you even that much mercy!  You could be sent down to Hell for a stay, brought back when you're fully broken, and plane-shifted to Abaddon then."

Carissa Sevar: "Well, you know what I think of you? I think that everyone here is some kind of sick, twisted, parody-Evil, somehow neither in Asmodeus's image nor in their own, and you're the worst of it. You thought about what the most vaguely horrible thing you could do was, and it's not even Lawful Evil, it's just bad, when you should be grateful to have a population that knows their place and is glad to go and find it.

You have a rare gift, if you really do have a population of people who don't much fear Hell, and you are wasting Asmodeus's resources, if you Maledict even a single one of them to Abaddon. If I ran this country it'd be outright illegal. If Hell thinks they don't deserve to be in Hell it can destroy them itself."

Mayor of Senara: "If you ran this country, you traitorous wretch?  And heretical besides, for the purpose of Hell is to be feared, to strike dread into the hearts of traitors as they contemplate the slightest act of disobedience knowing that any such will condemn them to eternity as suffering blobs of meat!  If they can't manage to fear that, Asmodeus has no use for their defective minds, and Hell is better off spared the effort of trying to process them."

Carissa Sevar: "The purpose of Hell is not any attitude mortals have about it! Have you - even asked the Church if they want you maledicting people to Abaddon?? I am pretty sure Asmodeus can manage to scare them if he wants them scared!"

Mayor of Senara: "The priest of my town understands the importance of keeping order, and that the degenerating conditions in my city born of insufficient terror have left me no choice but to find something they'll fear more than Hell.  It's his fault in the first place, really, for failing to convince the souls in his keeping that they'll become lemures for disobeying their superiors, namely me.  But once the fools see the worst dissenters being put to Abaddon, they'll fall in line."

Carissa Sevar: "It sounds to me like you're incompetent, flailing around to blame anyone but yourself, and picked a particularly odious problem-solving approach which won't even solve your problem which no one is calling you on because, oooh, we're evil here, no one's allowed to point out when anyone else's evil is stupid."

Mayor of Senara: "And you've heaped enough insult on me, future statue.  So here's how it's going to be.  I have no idea of your real relationship to Her Infernal Majestrix, and no intent to offer her any insult.  I certainly won't suggest to her that her ending for you be anything but what satisfies her the most."

"But I'll inquire of Her Infernal Majestrix of your family, your friends if you've none of those, anyone you might care for.  You seem like the Good-hearted sort to have many like that."

"And then I'll pay of my own expense to have them brought to Senara, invent some crimes, and offer up their souls to Ahriman."

"You're pretty, though.  So does her Infernal Majestrix consent you may beg leave to serve me of a night, and if I'm satisfied you've shown full repentance I'll spare any two family or friends of your own choice."

"This is the price of insolence in Cheliax."

Carissa Sevar: "I didn't - intend any insult -"

Mayor of Senara: "You were warned, you kept at it, and your repentance comes too late to spare more than two of your treasured souls at best."

"- it does give me a fine idea about destroying the souls of offenders' families as well.  Hm hm.  You'd best be about before you give me any more ideas, really."

Carissa Sevar: "They didn't do anything to you! They're good Asmodeans!"

Mayor of Senara: "Yes, and this is Asmodeanism.  The cruelty is the point, you sad, sad thing."

Carissa Sevar: The girl races across the ballroom towards the Queen.

Mayor of Senara: He'll watch from a distance, not feeling very nervous - he has carefully not transgressed the bounds of courtesy to Her Infernal Majestrix whatever the girl's true nature, even if she's some manner of bait or trap, he has offered no treason and no heresy.  The nameless pet is evidently a natural beauty and somebody like that is not likely to be a Chelish power in her own right, lightning doesn't strike twice.

He cannot, of course, overhear the Queen's conversation, but the condescending pat that the Queen gives to the pretty girl's head is plain enough.

Carissa Sevar: And then she'll trot back, with the Queen with her.

Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail Thrune looks distantly bored, as is a common appearance with her.

Carissa Sevar: "If it's your will, your Majesty, tell him he can't Maledict my entire family to Abaddon - that's not Asmodean!"

Abrogail Thrune II: "I'm Cheliax's Crown, not its Church, my beauty.  You'd want to make that demand of Aspexia Rugatonn, and she's a deal harder to seduce."  Abrogail chuckles, briefly.

Carissa Sevar: " - he asked, your Majesty, if you'd permit me to - spend an evening with him -"

Abrogail Thrune II: "In exchange for not Maledicting your family to Abaddon?"

Mayor of Senara: The Mayor kneels, formality does not call for it here but he does it voluntarily.  "In exchange for not Maledicting two of them, of her choice.  Obviously I'd offer no such compact if it did not please your great Majesty, to whom I mean no disrespect; your overt manner this day was that you meant this thing to suffer.  Be that not your true plan, I offer no dissent.  She has offered me insult, treason, and heresy, on the surface of things; this, on the surface of things, would be my reply."

Abrogail Thrune II: "Ah, yes.  She's offered me insult, treason, and heresy too.  One of her more attractive features when it came to bedding her, really."

"You have my leave to spend a night with this one, beauty mine.  Your choice, of course."

Carissa Sevar: "Is it - he said - 'your manner was that you meant this thing to suffer'-"

Abrogail Thrune II: "You look a little tired, my dear.  Shall we dance, and then perhaps close out your part of this evening, and send you to my bedchambers to await me?  I'll be along after I've had the time to hear out a few reports, and you look like you could use a rest before the night's rigors."

Carissa Sevar: "As you wish, your Majesty."

Abrogail Thrune II: She'll firmly pull Carissa off to the ballroom floor, and have a Security unobtrusively tap Carissa with Cat's Grace before she tries to dance.  "You're drunk and tired and having some trouble playing your part consistently even with glibness up," Abrogail murmurs to her by Message.  "That wasn't nearly a voice of horrified realization and resignation."

Carissa Sevar: "I don't understand why you want to draw it out, your Majesty. I found who I want, what's the wait?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "We need to teach you how to play with your food properly.  I suppose teaching you how to eat at all ought to come first, and maybe try when you're less of an adorable ball of exhaustion."

"Be it clear, I did instruct you to relax and have some fun, but, don't try any social maneuvers while drunk when you're not so instructed, Carissa.  I can choose myself to forgive your sloppiness, it doesn't mean that you weren't sloppy."

Carissa Sevar: "I understand, your Majesty. I am not, actually, under the impression I know this game well enough to not immediately make a mess of it, if I were trying to play for real. ....do you actually want me to learn. In your place I'd be pleased about having some insurance against troublesome Carissae."

Abrogail Thrune II: There's a lot of things Abrogail Thrune could say here, would've said here, in some less hazardous neighboring universe in which there weren't tropes pressing down about her, where she had nothing to fear but causality.  She never wanted to die of old age on her throne, for that would mean she'd played her game too conservatively and lost out on most of the possible fun.

"I think I don't want you to learn now because you don't have time," she settles on.

"I've said what was needful, now put those thoughts aside and dance with me.  Savor the moment, the impending reveal, the last moments of the game before it ends.  Your enemies think all is going well for them, and that was always your plan, and their pride goes before this fall."

Carissa Sevar: "As you command, your Majesty." 

Abrogail Thrune II: "I won't hurry too fast about those reports, so you've the time to close your eyes for a nap after this, if not a sleep.  And when the night's second part begins, I'll show you how to take apart a man to his core, if you mean to put him back together afterwards having learned his lesson and mostly intact.  And do a few other things, too, of course.  Are you the sort who'll enjoy him watching you in pleasure while he suffers?"

Carissa Sevar: "I have no idea, your Majesty. Maybe. He did ask for a night with me, and I wouldn't want to not deliver what was promised."

Abrogail Thrune II: "We'll see how it goes."

"What did you think of Cheliax's nobility?  I'm not going to be surprised or insulted if they fell short of your standards."

Carissa Sevar: "They - aren't aspiring to my standards? The thing they're aspiring to seems messy, to me, and incoherent, but - I assume getting people to embrace Lawful Evil as part of their identities and motivations at all is hard enough, and it's too hard for some reason to make them embrace some version of it which is less petty and performative?"

Abrogail Thrune II: "Petty and performative.  Yes.  There's a possible whole person who acts like the Mayor of Senara acts, out of a kind of pride and grandeur in being the worst person possible, more Neutral Evil than Lawful Evil, but whole.  There's a version of him who makes a threat like that because he takes an artistic pride in destroying somebody as absolutely as possible.  He's neither of those people, though, just grabbing at any thought of Evil that passes in his mind, the moment it passes his mind, even if the thoughts don't fit together."

"I won't say that the state of the nobility isn't my fault, or even that it wasn't my choice, but it was my choice out of a serve-yourself shit buffet.  With the triumph of Nidal's conquest, the external threat from Osirion, our internal explosion of spellsilver, I have the political momentum now to do some things I couldn't before.  Like issuing them with Intelligence headbands, and forcing them to actually wear the cursed things, if they can't otherwise keep up with changing times.  Wisdom would be better yet, but I dare not."

Carissa Sevar: "...that's what I told the Mayor, actually, that he wasn't Evil either in service of Asmodeus or himself, that it was pathetic. No one in Hell is trying to prove how Evil they are. I think you can't risk Wisdom headbands yet but maybe once I have something to offer them that isn't heresy and that people don't notice is made of sand if they think about it too hard."

Abrogail Thrune II: Again Abrogail Thrune speaks none of her thoughts, about what she prays to be the trope-foreshadowed destiny of a compact that Asmodeus Himself might have thought was only humoring this woman: whether Carissa will become someday an Empress who judges Abrogail's suitability as Queen, or become Lord Ruler of Golarion, or leave Golarion with an army to conquer some other place for Hell.  And whether come that day she'd have Abrogail with her as advisor, or leave Abrogail behind as regent, or have long since ceased to think of an obsoleted and discarded administrator of the Chelish region.

Abrogail says none of it, for if she says it, it's less likely to happen; there's all too many twists the tropes could play on them, if Abrogail speaks it aloud, and makes it an expectation that must be subverted.  And to say any such thing would also push Carissa's pride far far ahead of what her present position justifies.  Carissa herself, no doubt, is carefully not thinking any such thing; and that makes it Abrogail's place to read ahead in the story and think those thoughts for her.

Abrogail dances her evening's first and last dance with Carissa, and keeps her thoughts to herself while the music plays.

Carissa Sevar: She's not a particularly good dancer, but with Cat's Grace up and the Queen leading her she can play her part. 

As for thoughts on the evening, those will have to wait until it's over. She's drunk, and tired. 

Abrogail Thrune II: When the dance ends, Abrogail sends a silent command to her mages, and magical silence is laid upon the ballroom and all its levels.  It lasts 10 rounds, long enough that anyone can and should make their way to a balcony to hear the announcement that's obviously forthcoming.

- though, looking down, the Queen still stands in the dancefloor's center, with a fragile-looking beauty held in her embrace.

It's a gentle, intimate stance, and anyone who sees Abrogail Thrune like that will guess correctly that someone is about to suffer in an artistic fashion.

The other dancers draw even further back, amid the silence, to create a suitable stage for whatever comes.

Magical silence ends, and the Queen speaks into the waiting hush that remains.  "How did you find the party, my dear?  I hope it was not too tiring?"

Carissa Sevar: "It was delightful, your Majesty."

Abrogail Thrune II: "I do apologize for springing it on you, after such a long day and exhausting endeavor.  Very rude of Nidal to pick just then to end the war."

"How went your trip to the big city?"

Carissa Sevar: "As I'd hoped, and then some. I did some shopping, witnessed some marvels, toured a palace that - if you'll forgive me - surpassed yours..."

Iarwain: There's a barely-audible whooshing sound: half a ballroom drawing in shocked breaths simultaneously, but saying nothing.

Some of the other half are starting to catch on.

Abrogail Thrune II: "Did you find the buyer you sought, for your own wares?"

Carissa Sevar: "Without difficulty! - you should have seen the rug in His waiting room. I could've stared at it for a thousand years and not wholly comprehended it, and rather hoped He'd have me wait at least a few days so I could try."

Mayor of Senara: He hears the god-pronouns and his heart, already chilling, freezes over.

Abrogail Thrune II: "Well done.  Lord Dispater does not treat with many."

"I hope it was worth all the waiting.  That fine headband - was it that which you received in exchange?  It's a mighty price, for a soul."

Carissa Sevar: She permits it to assume its proper form, now. 6/6/4. Less than the Crown of Infernal Majesty, but not by very much. "What, this? It was part of our agreement. ....not a large part. Substantially less than half."

Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail releases her further from her half-embrace, turns her gently to show her the whole ballroom, or rather, show the whole ballroom to her.  One first introduces the lower-ranked person to the higher, in etiquette.

"Lady Carissa Sevar, commander of Project Lawful, who is now fully and irrevocably of the Infernal Empire..."

"I present to you the assembled nobility of Cheliax."

"Nobles of Cheliax, Carissa Sevar."

"Now go catch some sleep, dear."

Carissa Sevar: She would really like to Teleport out, but tragically the whole palace is Forbiddanced. (Also she hasn't actually hit fifth circle yet but in the haze of the last few days that's started to feel like more of a trifling inconvenience that'll fall at her feet sooner or later). Instead, she inclines her head to the Queen, takes in the faces of the crowd, and then walks out. 

They get out of her way. 

Abrogail Thrune II: "And the victim of this evening's entertainment is... the Mayor of Senara, who did attempt to extort one night's dalliance from Carissa Sevar, and, alas for him, succeeded.  Console him all your best."

Carissa Sevar: When Carissa wakes she's in one of Abrogail's suite of lovely non-doompunk bedrooms, again, and Abrogail is asleep beside her. 

A second after that, while she's still trying to blink the image in front of her into coherence, someone tries to read her mind. 

She lets them. It is almost certainly a condition of having nice things, such as waking up next to a beautifully asleep and vulnerable Abrogail, that Abrogail's security can see at all times she continues to have no intentions of committing regicide.

She lets the stupid part of her brain that says she will not overthrow Abrogail because of how Abrogail is SO PRETTY THE PRETTIEST be a little louder than usual, in case it is helpful towards that end. 

Carissa Sevar: It feels like she's grown so much she barely fits into this body; it helps, when she looks in the mirror, that the body is almost wholly unfamiliar. She is soul-sold, now, and compacted with Asmodeus shoothopefullyAbrogail'ssecurityisallowedtoknowaboutthat, and nearly as enhanced as magic can make a person, and she went to a party full of Chelish nobles and had a lovely time and picked out the worst person there and hurt him and enjoyed it. 

Asmodeus may or may not have had any genuine prediction in mind, about her, when He instructed her to deliver Him victory in His contest with Irori, but He was, in fact, right, that she is someone who wants things she can only have in Hell, that she is His, that no mercy from some other god could make her otherwise.

Carissa Sevar: She has - to put it mildly - somewhat mixed feelings about Asmodeanism, the ideology, but it's relatively clear what her path is from here to change that. Once she's conquered most of the world then those souls in it which choose her get her, and whether the Church likes it or not by that point she'll be aggressively publicizing what it means to choose her. 

Carissa Sevar: She sits down, then, and tries to rederive the Keltham seduction plan, and doesn't come up with anything, and is troubled by this but only slightly. It seems nearly impossible, that greater-Carissa's intent in building lesser-Carissa into this was traitorous. And, well, if it was, she can simply not defect; that's within her power. 

Carissa Sevar: When Abrogail wakes she is wholly lost in stubbornly trying to hang a fifth circle spell. 

Abrogail Thrune II: Abrogail Thrune comes awake, notices that there's somebody in bed with her who isn't powerful enough to be a direct threat, and in sheer reflex before her brain is even awake enough to remember who's there, stretches in a languorous and sensual fashion.

It only takes a few seconds to remember who and why, but she's already taken the correct action on reflex.

Carissa Sevar: ....Carissa successfully distracted!

Abrogail Thrune II: Well then she'll arise out of the bed and begin to clothe herself in the fresh clothes that shall have been laid out for her there, making a needlessly artistic production out of that.

Simultaneously, Abrogail Thrune silently requests an update on any overnight disasters through one of her permanent Telepathic Bonds.

Detect Thoughts, Greater Magic Aura to disguise it, it's almost a single action to her, but with true arcane sight Carissa is still liable to notice the act before the disguise completes.

How is her further-improved creation doing, this morning?

Carissa Sevar: Well right now she's just thinking about how Abrogail is very pretty, the prettiest.... if Keltham is getting accurate intel about Cheliax he could probably trigger that contract provision, by now. Maybe that was her Keltham-seduction plan. 

"I think I came back from Hell fifth-circle. I'm not sure, won't be until I get the spell hung, but - it feels easier, it feels like the magic's moving more naturally -"

Abrogail Thrune II: Well, maybe Carissa could pass a truth-spell about that if she's deluding herself hard enough.  Abrogail obviously doesn't say it; it seems a good delusion for Carissa to have temporarily.

"So much good news; it makes one to fear the tropes, if nothing at all has gone wrong," Abrogail states.  "Why, who knows what doom you'll find when you return to the Project? - I sent Pilar back ahead of you, obviously."