Pilar : She steps past the confused doorman and surveys this pit-fighting ring.

Iarwain: It's a small pit-fighting ring, not very impressive.  With no fights in the Imperial Stadium, a slightly respectable crowd has gathered here anyways.

Currently there's cage walls up, about the ring, and some would-be gladiator is flailing around with a horned rabbit and not doing that great of a job at it.  The crowd is jeering and laughing at him.  Reading the crowd at Splendour 21 will give Pilar the impression that this is a warm-up for a real battle later:  The customers here look too old, too wealthy, and too interested, to be here just for horned rabbit fights.

There's a cloaked and hooded figure, taller than Pilar when she goes about the same way, sitting close by the ring.  Despite their front-row place, there's a wide space of empty chairs around them.

Pilar : Well, Pilar will obey her curse's suggestion and go sit down in the cheap, splintery chair next to the hooded figure, then.

???: "If you work for what passes for the Law, here, show me your token of authority."

"Otherwise, your death is your own."

Pilar : "You know, I don't think I actually have a token of authority, and should maybe ask for one at some point if I'm going to keep doing this.  But yes, I work for the government."

???: "Not the same as working for the Law."

"What do you seek?  I'd conclude whatever business this is before the fight after next begins."

Pilar : "My steps were guided here to seek one who understands how to hurt students in a way that makes them stronger rather than weaker."

???: "Oho?  It is the same with me.  I, too, am in this place to seek someone like that.  Do you know where I'd find them?"

Pilar : "I'd... rather thought I was looking for you."

???: "I am not very good at what I do, and could benefit from further instruction from someone who knew better."

"What god guided your steps here?"

Pilar : "Cayden Cailean."

???: "One of the three who cheated?  I wasn't even slightly expecting to hear that."

Pilar : "The three who cheated?"

???: "On the path to godhood.  Aroden, it seems clear, could have ascended long before, and only waited until He was best-placed for it and to become a more powerful god after.  Cayden Cailean, Norgorber, Iomedae?  They but crawled along behind Him, licking up His dropped crumbs of ascension."

Pilar : "What a wonderful turn of phrase.  Perhaps someday I'll have a chance to tell Cayden Cailean that to his face, ideally, right before I finish eating him.  Is it cheating if you ascend by eating another god who ascended by Starstone?"

???: "What an interesting question."

"Well, young lady, do tell me your tale.  Is it yourself who seeks a teacher of growth through pain?"

Pilar : "I... don't know.  I may be - past the point - where that teacher is, the next thing, that I need..."

"I have twenty students in need of such teaching.  Possibly myself too.  Our last teacher... left us."

???: "Twenty, hm?  I have not been impressed with the temper of Chelish folk, for a country supposedly ruled by and for Hell.  Twenty is enough that one survivor might prove to have some little talent, but my time is valuable and I will not do the winnowing.  Train harshly, and when only one of you yet remains alive, I may test them to see if they are worth a little teaching."

Pilar : "I have twenty students who can take what you have to teach them, and not break of it."

???: "You do not have the slightest notion of what you are saying."

Pilar : "I was led to them as I was led to you."

???: "I have many questions."

Pilar : "I have disappointingly few answers."

???: "You work for the government of Cheliax, you say.  In what capacity?"

Pilar : "I'm not really sure how to describe that... I could say, spy-taker, or hiring assistant, but that doesn't really cover what I do at all.  Conspirator, I'd maybe have said, before..."

"What sounds least false is to say that I'm a student of Law."

???: "Who commands you?"

Pilar : "The Grand High Priestess of Asmodeus, Aspexia Rugatonn."

???: "Directly?"

Pilar : "There's somebody else above me on the organizational chart, but I actually hired her a few hours ago and she is not the one in charge of this current operation..."

Pilar realizes, with a stab of disorientation that she'll deal with later, that she does not, really, have a well-defined place in Cheliax anymore, except that she still ultimately answers to Church and Crown.

???: "Your teacher left you, you say.  Who was that?  A cleric of Asmodeus?"

Pilar : "She was a - priest of Irori, without powers, as I understand it, for a time.  Lawful Evil, to be clear.  She renounced Irori, though, and then -"

"- had to go about other business."  Pilar remembers, barely in time, that Carissa Sevar's defection is a secret.

???: "Oh, she had come far enough to renounce Irori?  Tell her I congratulated her on that, do you see her again."

Pilar : "I - don't know if I will.  Congratulate her.  I will probably see her again, one way or another."

???: "Sometimes you must leave your students if you do wish them to prosper.  If she told you that you must now seek your own Way, I would not cooperate in your attempt to seek another teacher in her place."

Pilar : "I suppose it's been hinted to me that I'll need to seek my own Way.  But I'm very sure the twenty students need a teacher."

???: "You're not telling me the whole story."

Pilar : "I'm trying to figure out which parts to tell, especially when you haven't agreed to teach."

???: "If all your words were true, I'd fight gods did they stand in my way.  You seem to have no comprehension of what an impossible treasure twenty worthy students would be.  I wonder if any teacher in the history of Golarion has ever had such."

"Who was your teacher?  Name her to me; perhaps she is known to me, if she was also a priest of Irori and likewise Lawful Evil.  There are not that many of us."

Pilar : Oh.

That makes sense.

The Project just has to find another Lawful Evil cleric of Irori to take over Carissa Sevar's job.  Who says she was special?  Maybe it was just that Lawful Evil priests of Irori are rare in Cheliax, and really any of those will do, for that part of the Project.  Maybe you can get a better Irorian if they're of high circle.

There's something crushingly sad about the thought.  Pilar sets it aside.

And then there drops the other copper coin.

Lawful Evil Irori cleric in Egorian.  Pilar hasn't met them but she knows who that is.

"Sajvara."

???: "That's more clones of me than I was expecting to have to deal with today."

Pilar : "I - what?  No!  That wasn't our teacher, I just realized that you're -"

"What a holy mess."  (As a good Asmodean, Pilar of course uses 'holy' rather than 'unholy' as the swear word.)

???: "Enough of this.  Why do you not speak plainly?"

Pilar : "Too public of a place and my escort has run out of Silent Table."

???: "I have that spell myself."  She executes a few gestures, and then casts back her hood.

Sajvara: "Sajvara of Sald.  I do but go about this way to avoid needless trouble from those unused to my appearance, who imagine that I am unwelcome here rather than a guest of your government."

"Now identify yourself properly, girl."

Pilar : "Pilar Pineda, also known as the Cake Girl, of Project Lawful, of Cheliax, unwilling oracle of Cayden Cailean and faithful slave of Lord Asmodeus."

Sajvara: "Project Lawful was being taught by a priest of Irori this entire time?"

Pilar : "Carissa Sevar didn't know Irori had named her priest until very recently, but yes."

Sajvara: "You really have no idea what you're saying at all, do you."

Pilar : "Perhaps not.  I would be told."

Sajvara: "Do you claim it to be true, as her cult does claim in Vudra, that Carissa Sevar is Asmodeus's Chosen whom He is raising to the status of divinity, by which means Hell shall wield suffering as a tool to produce strength and growth rather than only terror and obedience?"

Pilar : What does she even say to that, now, after everything that's happened.  Her curse doesn't think it would be a good idea to lie to this woman.

"If anything even remotely in the vicinity of that were true, it would not be something I could comment on without seeking other authorization."

"Though, she wasn't teaching us to become gods, like Irorians are supposed to.  She was teaching us to be - better slaves of Asmodeus."

Sajvara: "That is a very strange thing for any cleric of Irori to try to do.  Also, I'm sure I recall somebody in this conversation earlier saying that she planned to become a god by consuming Cayden Cailean."

Pilar : "Any good slave of Asmodeus would do that if they could, in His service, and become a new Power of Hell to strengthen Him."

Sajvara: "Well, possibly if she was training that kind of good slave."

Pilar : "I mean, it wouldn't be 'corrigible' behavior unless I'd been ordered to do that by my superiors, but my superiors have in fact ordered me to consume Cayden Cailean if possible."

Possibly they're going to need to alternate teaching from Sajvara with teaching by a real priest of Asmodeus...

Curse of Laughter: Pilar's suppressed thought that she's carefully not thinking is correct!  It has to be Aspexia Rugatonn!  Nobody else will do!

Sajvara: "What is the goal of all this teaching, from the Chelish government's perspective?"

Pilar : To create Keepers of Asmodeus.  "That's... not something I should say to you without additional authorization, and agreements to keep things quiet..."

"Is it even possible for you to do this, when you're supposed to be arbitrating between the Chelish government and Keltham?"

Sajvara: "Do Keltham or Cheliax fear I may be prejudiced against them, which I would not be, they may go and send to Vudra again to seek a new arbitrator."

"Also, your question is insane, if I take all else you say at face value.  If I couldn't do it from my current position I'd obviously quit and Irori's highest would send somebody else to replace me.  Nobody in Vudra would expect a sixth-circle of Irori to pass up the prospect of twenty worthy students in order to go arbitrate some silly matter of a few million gold pieces."

"But what is it you'd have me train them to become, if not gods?"

Pilar : "The sort of slave of Asmodeus who learns everything that Irorians learn when they're planning to become gods, I guess."

Sajvara: "If Cayden Cailean has guided your steps to twenty who can bear my teaching, then I will teach them all that I can.  I warn you that, having so learned, they may no longer remain loyal to Cheliax, nor will it work you well to try to keep them as slaves."

Pilar : "There are some people who can become strong and wise and know themselves, and yet still know themselves to belong to Asmodeus and Hell.  Twenty of them, in fact."

Sajvara: "You don't include yourself?"

Pilar : "It remains to be seen."

Sajvara: "Irori, in guiding my steps here, did hint that there was one within this country who had somewhat to teach me upon matters of using suffering to produce growth.  Was it Carissa Sevar of whom He was hinting?"

Pilar : "Sevar might have had something to teach you, though she was just learning to do it at all, in a lot of ways..."

"No, it wouldn't have been that, because Sevar was inside the Ostenso nonintervention zone and no gods would've steered you in a way intended to make you meet her?"

"- I don't know if Irori actually did mean it this way, but the obvious thought to me is Abrogail Thrune, the Queen.  She's the one who made Sevar as strong as she was."

Sajvara: "Abrogail Thrune did not seem that interesting when I met her."

Pilar : WELP and that's now been reported to the Queen so WELP.

"Wasn't there supposed to be something happening in, a fight after a previous fight, at some point?"

Sajvara: "Oh, my daughter?  She did destroy a supposedly mighty warrior born of Cheliax some time ago; I'll get about to healing him, as I did promise him I'd do, once we've had our conversation."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "What you've done today for Project Lawful can only be called a miracle, Pilar.  I would feel better if it was our miracle, or if we'd bargained with a demon lord who'd demanded something as understandable as the livers of a thousand priests in exchange for it."

Pilar : She is kneeling, still, not wishing to rise, feeling wretched.  "As you say, Most High."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "And this matter that you say Snack Service confirmed, that I ought to teach our would-be ilani in person of Asmodeus's way and of corrigibility - what would it say, did I tell it I had many other demands on my time?"

Pilar : "Snack Service says that you already know what would be its answer, that you do not, in fact, have any better uses of your time than in helping to train these twenty to get as far as possible in becoming Keepers of Asmodeus, as quickly as possible."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Better by Asmodeus's lights, and Cayden Cailean's, one supposes."

Pilar : "It says yes."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "You seem distraught, Pilar, and I can no longer read your mind."

Pilar : "I do fear that what I am secretly doing, in strengthening Project Lawful, in arranging for its management and its teachers, is making sure that it can survive when Pilar Pineda disappears, one day."

"I - if you were really reading my mind - you'd see that I was afraid it will be, it's being set up to happen, as soon as I put on an artifact headband for the first time."

"If you order me never to, I never will."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "It is not one of the easiest calls I have made, in my life, but if Snack Service does tell you that it will serve Cayden Cailean and Asmodeus and Otolmens for you to put on the headband, I think, in the end, that you should.  We stand here after a series of disasters and yet, tracing all that Snack Service has done, running through it, I am forced to admit, though I hate it, that if not for Snack Service our position would be far worse.  Carissa Sevar has taken with her the fifteen Wishes intended in part to pay Keltham and that is an incredibly severe blow to us, perhaps a crippling one, and yet it could have been worse.  She could have left Hell with thirty Wishes and two crowns."

Pilar : "Permission to weep before you."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "Denied."

"Pilar, I tell you now something that I fear you are not ready to hear, but it should be said to you anyways."

"You can always just serve Asmodeus."

"Even if you can't be a good slave by it, you can just serve Asmodeus."

"Even if you don't want what will come of it, you can just serve Asmodeus."

"Even if there isn't any reason and it makes no sense for you given your own interests, you can just serve Asmodeus."

Pilar : "I hear."

"Could you read my mind, you would see that I feared you were telling me this now, because you feared that I might vanish, one night."

Aspexia Rugatonn: "If you can, Pilar, at least leave a note."

Pilar : The day after the new personnel are brought in, Pilar takes up her headband of Wisdom and augments Splendour, and then passes around her artifact headbands again, from one candidate to another.

Trying for that one day, with everything that is in her, to convey all that she understands of how to be a Keeper.

There are transcripts, of how Keltham tried to teach her and later classes to be Keepers, and they can and will read those later.  But there is something about having interacted with Keltham directly, to ask your own questions and hear his answers, that changes you differently from transcripts.  That's Pilar's only hypothesis, if not that it's mysterious extrauniversal radiation or that some critical information was carried in his tone of voice.  Whatever fragment she received, of that mysterious thing, she tries now to pass it onward as it was passed to her, by personal question and answer.

There was a vision, that Carissa Sevar had, of slaves who are not muddled - though without the 'Keepers-only' training that Pilar got, Sevar must have understood even less of what she was saying than Pilar heard.  That to Asmodeus, mortals are not bad slaves but quivering slimes that surge about in random directions, lunging after evanescent lures that Asmodeus himself can scarcely perceive.  How it must infuriate him!  How wretched!  This is what Hell tries to sear away from a mortal, and it's painful because the pain is deserved.

The true meaning of all Keltham's Law of probability, of decision theory, is that it's the key to becoming something that Asmodeus could even see, let alone approve.  Having your remaining errors and wretchedness make enough sense for Him to understand.

That they will afterwards be able to conquer Golarion and extend the Scientific Revolution further than Keltham himself ever dreamed, who clutches his weaknesses to himself like the rest of the cowardly ordinary dath ilani, is not coincidence, not a side effect.  Lawfulness and power are one; they are one in Asmodeus.

When her students say things that Pilar is certain are wrong, she hurts them or orders them hurt, pouring out onto them her fury with her own wretchedness, knowing that they hate themselves the way she hates herself and need to be likewise punished.  There is no superior here now to restrain Pilar, and Carissa Sevar's Way has failed in any case.  With her own spells Pilar does heal them after.  They accept it, her students, and many do look at her with eyes of worship.

Wearing artifact headbands wrought of Hell, bearing more potential than Pilar herself ever did and less tainted with Goodness, they seem to understand.  One by one they seem to understand and begin speaking wisdom of their own, new sense that Pilar herself has not said to them, but that she can tell for true.

Pilar : Pilar goes to sleep that night trying to hold on to the feeling of vicious triumph that she knows she ought to have.  It's hard; Pilar knows that, for all that this probably does benefit Asmodeus, it is obviously an approved step of Cayden Cailean's plan.

Pilar knows, Pilar does not fail to see, that she was teaching with the desperate urgency of one who does not know when she will disappear, but expects it will be very soon.

dath ilan: In her pseudo-Keeper training it was said to Pilar several times, and now Pilar has spent a day repeating it to her students:

When you know where you are going, when you see the direction you're trying not to look, you should just go ahead and think the thought instead of fighting it.  Maybe not believe it, just because you fought it before; but think it, at least.  Get it over with.  You're only delaying the pain.

It's not the mighty wisdom of a Keeper, for that Keltham never had at all, but only the imprecation given to a dath ilani child, practiced of a teenager.  They clutch their mortal weaknesses about themselves, the non-Keeper ordinary dath ilani; but they're not that weak, not as weak as Pilar.

Pilar : In the morning Pilar Pineda is gone, taking with her spellbook and her unspent wages and Snack Service's headbands.  No one in Security remembers seeing Pilar go, but that's entirely as expected.

The note Pilar leaves behind says that she asked Snack Service if there was anything left she needed to do, to ensure the Project served Asmodeus, and Snack Service said no, and then Pilar asked if it would better serve Asmodeus if she just got this over with, subjected herself to whatever Snack Service had planned for Pilar, and Snack Service said yes.

Curse of Laughter: On Pilar's bedroom desk rests another note written in Celestial, as Pilar herself could not read, with Attn: Aspexia Rugatonn eyes only in Infernal at the top:

Dear Aspexia:

Don't make any long-term teaching schedules for Asmodeus's Keepers, or try to corrupt them slowly.  Just teach them everything as fast as possible and trust to their readiness.  If you're doing it right they should all be chosen as Asmodeus's priests before three more days have passed.  Don't worry about hammering Good out of them, they're already selected to not have too much of that and Asmodeus isn't Good's opposite in the first place.  Just focus on teaching them Asmodeus's domains and above all His Law.

You don't have time for anything else.  They need to reach sufficient levels of His priesthood before Cheliax attacks Osirion.

-- In Asmodeus's interests,        Snack Service