Carissa Sevar: Right then. Indapatta.

She walks in, invisible, and then lets the invisibility wear off; Mind Blank should stop anyone from noticing her before she wants to. She floats, then, so everyone can see her, and speaks. 

What would it be like, to see the world from the perspective of Asmodeus? It is said that He despises mortals, but why? He doesn't seem to stop them becoming gods; no objections has He been said to possess even to the Starstone, which Irori calls cheating at godhood.

Lots of people don't really ask that question. It's not a difficult question to answer, just one you have to think to ask. A lot of questions are like that, and Sevarism could be called the art of seeing them.

Asmodeus hates mortals because mortals, in fact, suck. By Asmodeus's standards, but by any other objective standard too. By their own standards, once they start to develop those. Asmodeus does not hate mortals for being weak; imps are even weaker. Asmodeus hates mortals for being muddled. 

She explains what she means. That people will quote a different price for the same thing depending how the question is asked of them; that they have actual circular preferences, where you can find them wanting A more than B more than C which they want more than A. Project Lawful found some examples that work at least on Chelish people. She hopes they work on Vudrani too, or are close enough to make them think. 

Mortals don't know what they want. They literally can't name it; they can't trade off between things they want; they lie to themselves about what they care about and they lie so comprehensively there's often no real answer underneath all the lies. 

From Asmodeus's perspective, the planet is coated in worms, writhing, wriggling, reacting insensibly to various inputs because they aren't coherent enough to even pursue their own goals. Yes, he hates them. She does too. You will too.

Asmodeus wants people he can see, who do things predictably, for reasons, in their interests. Asmodeus doesn't know how to tell worms to be what he wants, not without torture, and worms are scared of torture and get even more incoherent at the prospect of it. 

Carissa also wants people to be coherent. She is as exasperated, as appalled, as Asmodeus; she sees the weakness in herself. What she told Dispater, when she went before him to sell her soul, is that she thinks she can fix it. Not without pain; her Hell will hurt. But it will not hurt senselessly, horribly; it will not leave people lost from themselves. 

She has done it; she has dug the weakness out of herself and it has left her brighter, clearer, closer to a god. It wasn't easy. It won't be easy for them. And it will be a long time, before a better Hell emerges from her better strategies, because only those souls in lands she has conquered, which have done her and Hell more service than disservice, will come to her. But a better Hell will emerge -- better for Asmodeus, and much better for humanity. The sort of solution Asmodeus cannot see, because of what He is, but He compacted with her, because it amused Him to see her try. 

There are Sevarites all over the world, now. Most of them won't amount to anything. It took careful direct instruction out of another world, to make Sevar what she is, and she's not there yet herself. But if the cults anywhere will amount to something, she'd bet on the one in Indapatta, which are serious about learning the styles of thought that will leave them unmuddled, and serious about following their path wherever it takes them. Not all of those paths, even when they unmuddle, will lead to Hell; but some will. More of them, once Hell is better. 

Hers is not an easy path. Once you know your own strength, your weakness is unbearable. Once you start to see like a god, you won't like anything you see. But it is a path she thinks Irori walked, in part. She got a vision from Him, when she renounced him. The visions of the gods are not easily conveyed, but she thinks Irori will be pleased, to see more people unmuddled, to see them grow into more perfect beings.

She hopes they'll attain it in the world of the living. If not, she will offer it to them, again, in Hell, if they make it to her. She will give them the guidance she cannot give them each individually here. She will not give up on them; she will not break them; she will guide them down this path for as long as it takes. 

Asmodeus deals frequently in deception. Carissa cannot; deception muddles people, it interferes with their learning the pathways among truths, and it's a habit that is in humans close to self-deception, which she has no patience for. So she will not deceive them. And she does not want a cult of the deluded, those who imagine Hell isn't that scary, those who pretend to themselves they believe her if they don't.

She casts Vision of Hell.

She lets it go for a minute and then stops it. 

"You don't have to believe things all the way. You can be uncertain. It's essential, actually, to starting to be unmuddled. You face a terrible thing, and you are afraid, and maybe you want to be sure it'll work out, be sure you'll be safe, be sure you'll reach me; or maybe you want to look away from this, never think of it again, tell yourself I am a fraud, it is a scam.

The truth is that I will, very likely, ascend and become a power in Hell - I swear that to you, I have a plan and I expect it to succeed, I do not have you chasing an unlikely dream. But I could fail. The stakes are very high, and there are no sure things. It is a dangerous thing, to aspire to as much as we, here, aspire to. When I sold my soul, I did not know if I would succeed; I knew only that this was the only path down which greater perfection could take me. 

I think that is true for some of you too. Your path runs through this, the best and perhaps only chance of humanity to change what Lawful Evil is and what it means, for everyone who has ever lived or will ever die. You can walk away from it, but you'll be lying to yourself, if you do. And if you have enough of a god inside you, you'll know that you're lying. For the rest of your life.

The alternative is to stay. To learn. To teach - because I'll need more followers, to do the things I need to do. To grow. And, when the time comes - and you'll know when the time comes - to come to me in Hell. It won't be safe. It won't be easy. But it is a path to greatness and power and godhood, and it is the only path free of lies."

Indapatta: It lands, some parts more than others, some people more than others.  It's clear that she's more persuasive than they expected, to the extent that muddled beings like mortals can be said to have expected anything.

...nobody seems eager to sell their soul today, among the high-potentials.

They are here to consider an alternative path of Irorism, mostly; because Sevarism had something that completes Irorism, was missing from it.  Maybe even they are here in hopes of regaining something that was suppressed within the mortal soul, by the horrendous and inescapable punishments for expressing Lawful Evilness within Pharasma's Creation - as it stands now, where Asmodeus claims almost all who enter Hell.

They get it, clearly, much more than Taldor gets it, because there is a base structure of Irorism to build on, and it's about finding your own Way and ascending along it, and doing that by remaking yourself and correcting errors within yourself.  That nobody could be Lawful Evil, if their own Way took them there - that there are possible Ways, within themselves, that they wouldn't be allowed to walk, if that was where their Way took them - well, it just puts into sharper focus why Irori was always said to despise Asmodeus so.

...it's just, people in Vudra, even Sevarites, don't want to irrevocably commit to Hell, right now, while Carissa Sevar hasn't yet ascended.  Even the people who are Evil right now, or suspect themselves to be, don't want to sell their souls and lose all hope of ever making it back to Neutral.  You could always live a humble life working at an orphanage for long enough, volunteer for the Worldwound and live long enough to slay a demon or maybe just take a claw for a comrade if your sin was light enough, become rich and buy your way back, become very rich and buy an Atonement.  There's the hope of that, or a lie you can tell yourself about it being possible, but not if you've sold your soul.

It's not really the prudent decision, in the end, to sell your soul to Hell.  So nobody the organizer considers 'promising', in Vudra, wants to do that, apparently.

Carissa Sevar: Good for them. 

She means it. Inconvenient for her, but she can pick up some souls in other more muddled places. They should follow their path where it takes them. Irori isn't her concern, she renounced him, but she comprehends Him more having seen His city and His people, and she thinks He'd be proud of them. For being here and also for refusing her their souls.

She wishes them well, and goes on her way.

Ri-Dul: He Teleports her around to a few more places, of great variety of sub-cult-cultures, and ends in Absalom.

Absalom: It's nighttime now, in Absalom, but the city's more thriving sections hardly go to sleep when the sun sets; even in the height of summer, which this is not.

A full moon hangs in the sky, which is plenty of illumination to make your way down streets this wide and well-paved.  At least one business per block seems to have found the wealth to put up a Continual Flame to illuminate itself, which goes a long way towards making sure the whole street never gets quite so dark that nobody could find their way along it.

The density of wizards is not quite what it is in the cities of Cheliax, but many a walker seems to have Light about themselves.  A copper will buy you that cantrip lasting ten minutes, if you find a wizard apprentice to cast it for you.

Is Sevar going disguised here, by the way, or openly with mithril crown and Hell-bought beauty?

Carissa Sevar: This close to Cheliax? In the place she is rumored to be planning to destroy? Disguised. One thing to take that risk in Indapatta, a continent away from home, in a Lawful country that other countries would hesitate to provoke with assassinations/kidnappings anyway. Entirely different to take it in Absalom. 

Though if she does get kidnapped the world doesn't end so she can't bring herself to get worked up about it. 

Are there people who'll answer queries from a teenaged wizards-apprentice girl about Sevarites?

Absalom: Absalom is, for the most part, going about its daily business trying to be cheerful.  Mentioning terms like 'Sevarite' or 'Carissa Sevar' brings a change to people's expressions; fear, nervousness, angry dismissal.

It was claimed to have been prophesied, earlier, that Absalom had until the next lunar eclipse to stay alive.  And then another prophecy, supposedly attributed to Ione Sala, said that Absalom was due to be destroyed in sixteen days from today.

Word has now come that the Oracle of Nethys out of Nefreti's Temple, called the Last True Oracle, has publicly and categorically denied this claim just yesterday: pronouncing that, if Absalom were to be destroyed, she would not know when it was to happen.

This... hasn't really reassured people.  Such official authorities as Absalom possesses, who see their job as being to suppress 'panic' rather than say help evacuate the island, tried to interpret this as 'the day of destruction must be a long time away, or not be particularly likely to happen at all, if we have no idea of when it will happen'.  Most people were not foolish enough to go along with this logic.

Carissa Sevar: She won't be able to warn them in advance, of course. 

"That's why I want to find the Sevarites. They must know when."

Absalom: There are no Sevarites in Absalom.

Anybody who believes in Carissa Sevar's message, or the words of Her Disciple, has gotten the fuck out of Absalom.

Anybody who doesn't believe in Carissa Sevar's cause, but believes the word about Absalom being doomed, has gotten the fuck out of Absalom.

Anybody who doesn't believe in any of that, but who believes that the followers of Urgathoa and Achaekek believe it, wants to get out of Absalom before the battle starts.

Anybody who doesn't believe that those forces are converging on Absalom, is nervous about panic and riots from the people who do believe that.

Those who are stuck here, too poor to leave... aren't really happy with Carissa Sevar about the matter.

There are no Sevarites in Absalom.

Carissa Sevar: Fair enough.

In that case she'll just do some tourism. Just, you know, because she always wanted to visit Absalom.

Absalom: Most of the magic shops and bookstores are closed at this time of night, but there's plenty of taverns and brothels still running.

Though you could probably find an open magic shop or bookstore if you looked hard enough?  The fraction of the population with Rings of Sustenance may be higher here than any other city in the world, even Quantium.

Carissa Sevar: Well, she'll wander around; if she runs into one, she'll go in, but if not, that's fine. It's the people, really, who are irreplaceable, not the city. The people fleeing, or awaiting their doom with terror - do you really think it's meaningless, Keltham, that if you tell them I'll consume their souls they spend all their life's savings to pack themselves onto a boat and get out of my reach -

Absalom: ...they mostly don't believe the soul thing, for what it's worth?  And people aren't spending all their life's savings on it either, if they're at that income level?

People who can readily afford a ship out of Absalom are bidding up places on ships heading out; because an unregistered foreign vampire was deported yesterday, and an assassin-priest of Achaekek was unmasked and killed by adventurers while they were all on a ship approaching Absalom.  This has, by perfectly reasonable logic, turned into the conclusion that Urgathoa doesn't want competition from a new soul-eating god, so She is sending hither all the greater undead who do Her homage, to lurk about the Starstone Temple and prevent Carissa Sevar from entering while she's still mortal; and that Achaekek views Carissa Sevar as a threat who might destroy It in open battle if she is not stopped before then.

Nobody really believes that either, to be clear.  But they believe that other people believe it and are going to riot and burn down Absalom.

...here's a bookshop that's still open, if she's still interested in that.

Carissa Sevar: Sure. What are Absalom bookshops not hastily hijacked by the Conspiracy like.

...do they sell strident denunciations of Abrogail Thrune.

Absalom: ...not exactly?  They've got a salaciously denunciatory erotic novel about the degenerate activities that Abrogail Thrune supposedly gets up to with Carissa Sevar, which, given timescales, almost certainly has to be a pre-existing book reprinted with a couple of key names changed.  Unless the author Tuk Chingle can just write that fast but this seems unlikely.

There's a lot of books denouncing Cheliax and some of those probably have an Abrogail Thrune chapter or two.

Carissa Sevar: ...she wants the Abrogail Thrune/Carissa Sevar erotica. And some history books, why not. And some magic books, why not. 

Absalom: The bookshop proprietor will bag these purchases and remark that she might not want to be seen publicly reading a book with 'Sevar' visible about its title; that might draw negative attention either from hidden liches who take her for a Sevarite, or from Sevarites who are offended, it's said that both sides have practically honeycombed Absalom by now.  Oh, but she should definitely buy the book, the author (quick glance) Tuk is reputed to have excellent connections among Chelish expatriates to Absalom, and to have quite inside knowledge about that famous relationship.

Carissa Sevar: The city's honeycombed with Sevarists, hmmm? She actually vaguely wants to meet one, see how credible they seem about the apocalypse. She doesn't at all want to encounter the Urgathoans, though.

Absalom: Well, they're not visible Sevarists!  Any of those would've been eaten by vampires by now!  It's more that practically anybody you meet on the street could be a hidden agent of Carissa Sevar.

The apocalypse seems to her pretty credible?  She keeps tabs on those because it's important for serving her readers; there've been at least ten apocalyptic foretellings since she opened the shop, and this one definitely seems to be in the top three credibility-wise.  The Oracle of Nethys herself is said to have denied knowledge about it!  Officially!

Carissa Sevar: Wouldn't that make it less credible?

Absalom: No, because none of the other foretellings got to the point where the Oracle of Nethys said anything at all!  Admittedly the Oracle of Nethys wasn't around then.  But Nefreti Clepati could've denied knowledge about the last foretold disasters, and she didn't.

Carissa Sevar: Right. Why isn't the bookseller leaving, then, if the island's to be eaten?

Absalom: "Oh, I expect if it gets that bad, we'll see some sort of warning sign before it's time to really leave, you know."

Carissa Sevar: "Well, the warning sign might be Carissa Sevar Gating in directly from Hell surrounded by cultists and devils set to die for her while she fights her way to the Starstone, and at that point it'd be a bit late, wouldn't it?"

Absalom: "I rather think there'd be some sort of warning sign before then, don't you?"

Carissa Sevar: "....like what?"

Absalom: "I haven't given much thought to it, but if you go around the streets, it doesn't feel like a city that's right about to apocalypse, does it?  Everybody's still walking around normally and the bookshops are still open and all that."

Carissa Sevar: "Well if I were Carissa Sevar, I wouldn't give anyone any warning, since I wouldn't want them to run, what with how I'm planning to eat their souls."

Absalom: "Oh, dearie, that obviously can't be what's going on!  Then there wouldn't have been any prophecies of doom at all, now would there?  Do be logical!"

Carissa Sevar: "Well, I doubt Carissa Sevar authorized the prophecies!"

- she should stop this and leave and go read her book.

Ri-Dul: "Somebody certainly is stirring this city's pot," Ri-Dul's voice will observe beside her.  "If it's not you nor Keltham, I rather wonder who and to what end."

Carissa Sevar: Nethys and Cayden and whichever other gods are working with them. 

I don't want to do it, she prays to them silently. Find another way. This city might not matter to you, this planet might not matter to you, it might be that if Rovagug eats it but Keltham gets some of what he wants you'll call it victory - but it won't be. 

"Let's go. I can read this at base."

Ri-Dul: He'll go visible and offer his hand for the Teleport, then.  "I realize it may seem an unpleasant topic, but it represents quite the opportunity for, say, an up-and-coming leader or adventurer looking to make a name for themselves - if Carissa Sevar were to teleport in with an army of cultists and devils, and be handily fought off.  The city's anxieties would be much relieved, and they'd be very grateful to this new hero."

Carissa Sevar: "Are you volunteering?"

Ri-Dul: "Hardly.  I have research to do.  It's just an obvious thought as to what you might make of it - or what somebody else might be trying to achieve, possibly at the expense of your own reputation.  Somebody with access to cultist cannon fodder, lesser devils, maybe even a Gate spell."

Teleport.

Carissa Sevar: Is Keltham about?

Keltham v3: Someone's about, though after almost two time-dilated days not in Carissa's presence and focusing on his Magical Simulation of Magic, he's reverted to a more detached appearance.

Carissa Sevar: "Well. I encouraged my cults. Had a couple of people interested in selling their souls, in some of the more crappy places, so I called a devil and made some purchases."

Keltham we're off the track Nethys set for us, the story where you end the world in sixteen days is over, Nethys doesn't know what you'll do next there's no story you can do whatever you want -

She doesn't say it. If Keltham will predictably know what Nethys is doing, Nethys can do less; probably can't even have warned the population of Absalom. She can't ask him to use that, even though it's true. 

She's so scared.

"I guess you can have the crown now."

Keltham v3: "Thank you.  I am - sorry for a lot of things, that I am going to keep on doing anyways because I think I have reasons to do them, as you - never could say to me, during your own part of the story.  I don't know if it's better for myself, for you, that I can say that - it's probably not better for you and I should shut up -"

"I'll go get my +6 Intelligence headband, and then - not speak to you for a while, I guess."

Carissa Sevar: "I hope that when you think about this harder you decide it's the wrong thing to do."

Keltham v3: "I hope so too."

He goes to get his +6 headband.

Earlier

Pilar : Pilar is looking at a note she doesn't remember writing, starting Attn: Aspexia Rugatonn in Infernal and continuing in Celestial.

The note is resting on a fancy desk, in a large bedroom, given Pilar by Subirachs to befit her real status and pride, after Keltham had departed Project Lawful's fortress.  The room has never felt real to Pilar, like it was really hers - Subirachs had hoped she'd acclimate in time - and now she's leaving here and -

- never coming back.  Pilar isn't really thinking about what sort of model generates that prediction, it just feels intuitively true.  She won't be coming back to the Fortress of Law.

Curse of Laughter: It's safe for Pilar to cry, if she wants to.  There's no one watching from Security, or anywhere, to see it and think worse of Pilar.

Pilar : Pilar does not feel like doing so.

...how does she actually leave the Fortress?  The Securities wouldn't stop her... probably... well, no, they'd ask questions.  Those questions would have weird answers.  Security might ask Pilar to wait while they queried upwards if she's allowed to leave.  Pilar... doesn't feel like living through that.

How does Pilar just, do the thing that everyone thinks of as synonymous with Cake Girl, where she just suddenly is somewhere and nobody remembers seeing her moving.  It's always been Snack Service doing that, before.

Curse of Laughter: Pilar is smart enough to figure this out herself given how much evidence she's accumulated by now.

Pilar : Pilar starts to swap out her +6 Splendour headband for +4 Intelligence -

Curse of Laughter: Pilar doesn't need an Intelligence headband either.  Pilar is pretty smart on her own.  Pilar has mostly been using her Intelligence headband as an excuse to actually think about things, not to solve problems that were too hard for Pilar without it.

Pilar has lived through a lot of evidence at this point.  How does her specialability work?

Pilar : ...well, if Pilar didn't Gate into Dispater's throne room from Cheliax - which Pilar obviously didn't, because you can't reach Dis except from Avernus - then, Pilar must have followed along with the Most High and Carissa Sevar without being aware of it.  But Dispater noticed, because Dispater said afterwards that He was wondering if Snack Service was going to interfere and if Snack Service thought it could evade His notice.

Pilar's ability has never felt like Teleportation to her.  That she was walking places in an ordinary way, but nobody was noticing, was the main theory Pilar had in the back of her mind.  So far as Pilar knows, everything she's done could have been done by sneaking around without anybody noticing including herself.

Except for Tonia, who suddenly found herself outside of Project Lawful's Forbiddance while Pilar was inside a torture room.

How would that work?  Tonia sneaking outside and other people not remembering her?

Curse of Laughter: Are sneaking, concealment, secrecy, or memory usually considered parts of Cayden Cailean's domain?

Pilar : ...no?

Curse of Laughter: So what part of Cayden Cailean's domain is Pilar wielding?  Pilar's dislike of thinking about Cayden Cailean is preventing Pilar from thinking about her own abilities, to the point where it's inhibiting Pilar's ability to serve Asmodeus.

Pilar : ...Snack Service called Cayden Cailean the glorious and exalted god of parties, sex, and drunken blackouts at one point, didn't it.

Pilar : Does Pilar actually just have a drunken blackout so hard that other people can't remember her either?

Curse of Laughter: Nnnoooot exactly, but close enough.

It's more like an Invisibility or a Sanctuary spell, where you can't be seen, or can't be attacked, in exchange for not being able to attack or cast targeted spells yourself.

Pilar promises not to remember herself, nor attack anyone or target spells, nor steal anything, nor... do anything imbalanced, one might say, though that part has to do with ancient godagreements and not just the structure of magic.  In exchange, other people don't remember Pilar either, and she doesn't set off alarm spells.

Pilar : And I cursed Tonia to walk out of our Forbiddance in an unmemorable drunken blackout of her own?  That seems - too powerful, imbalanced like you put it.  If I can just make other people do things like that, later, without my even being there...

...I escorted Tonia out of the Forbiddance myself, didn't remember it, and left Tonia there in a drunken blackout until it was time for her to wake up later.

Curse of Laughter: Thaaaaat's right!

Pilar : How did I sneak up on the spy trying to Helm of Brilliance the Queen's celebration, if I can't attack anyone using my specialability?

Curse of Laughter: Pilar didn't black out during that.  That's why you remember sneaking!  Pilar just changed into a nicer dress that made her fit in at the party, entered into the ballroom like she'd always been at that party, walked around like she was just part of the party, and surprised the spy with a trip to a nice afterlife.

Pilar : ...people could see me the whole time I was doing that?

Curse of Laughter: Acting like nobody should notice you is its own way of getting nobody to notice you!  Security noticed you, of course, but they identified you as Pilar Pineda.

Pilar : How does Pilar invoke that specialability on purpose, then, if not by wanting to go unnoticed?

Curse of Laughter: By invoking Cayden Cailean's domain, a little bit of which is now Pilar's domain too!  In particular His domain of getting so drunk you black out, and then waking up and finding yourself somewhere unfamiliar and thinking 'What the fuck did I do?'

Pilar : ...sigh.

Pilar : A subjective moment later (though in reality it must have been longer) Pilar suddenly finds herself in a forest.

The beach, the ocean, and the repurposed stone fort where Pilar lived for four months, are barely visible from where Pilar stands.

Pilar : ...now what.

(A terror in her, that the next instruction is 'put on the artifact headband so you'll betray Asmodeus' -)

Curse of Laughter: Next, Pilar goes on some proper adventures so she can become a more powerful oracle and wizard!

Pilar : ...what becomes of Pilar, after she's more powerful?

What becomes of Pilar, in the end?

Curse of Laughter: Snack Service doesn't dare speak intentions that much out loud under the shadow of tropes.

Pilar : Fuck Snack Service's -

Curse of Laughter: Pilar.  Snack Service is serious.

Snack Service tried to put up a good front of omniscience in front of Cheliax but the truth is that Snack Service doesn't know everything, even Nethys doesn't know everything about the future, and the gods are struggling to operate under the shadow of tropes just as much as anybody else in this whole situation.

Things are already looking somewhat derailed from what Snack Service thought was supposed to happen and Snack Service can't risk saying what that was, even in a conversation inside Pilar's own mind.

Pilar needs to become stronger so that Pilar can be ready for whatever happens, inside a situation that is now in flux.

Pilar : Why should Pilar want to be ready to save Cayden Cailean's plans?  Especially if they derail in a way where Asmodeus wins everything and gloats?

Curse of Laughter: The valid answer to that question can be told to Pilar if she puts on the artifact headband.  Which Pilar doesn't have to do now, if Pilar doesn't want to.

Curse of Laughter: Snack Service is sorry.

...if Pilar would rather not think about this anymore, the next step is for her to head towards Ostenso.  There isn't a rush, and it's okay for Pilar to just walk all the way there, and enjoy the forest along the way.

Pilar has been doing lots of things recently one after another, and Pilar may risk losing her proud title of 'sanest person in Project Lawful' if Pilar doesn't take this chance to breathe.  Pilar does not need to think and figure everything out right now.  She's allowed to just walk through the forest for a while.

Snack Service knows that it is not Pilar's superior, but if Snack Service can't give Pilar that order, it means that Pilar needs to give Pilar that order.  And then, having received that order, Pilar needs to trust that Pilar knew what she was doing, and obey her.

Pilar : Pilar heads off in the direction of the rising sun, and parallel to the distant coastline, as will bring her to Ostenso in time.

It's - strange, to think that she can just walk through the forest like this, safely.  She's been at Ostenso academy full-time since she learned to hang Ray of Frost, which was the first point when it would have been even slightly sane to wander a short distance into a forest without being able to use a sword.  Even as a second-circle wizard, you wouldn't want to go that far into a forest on your own; a second-circle just doesn't have the spell volume to deal with a medium-sized pack of predators.

Now Pilar is a fifth-circle oracle, who once slew out of hand a fourth-circle Security who was insolent to her; and it would be a very very improbable encounter in this forest that brought her into conflict with anything scarier than herself.  She is Cheliax's most valued spy-taker and would certainly be Raised if slain, or True Resurrected if wholly devoured.  It's not just that Pilar will almost certainly make it through the forest to Ostenso alive, it's that she can walk into the trackless depths of the forest without anxiety.

The cold of night is just dissipating, the Sun hardly even full above the horizon.  Condensed dew sparkles on everything around her, dampens her when she brushes past branches and leaves.  Pilar set up an Endure Elements, when she hung spells before dawn this morning, but she holds off on casting it on herself.  It's not that cold, and she can handle much worse than a little wet.

The reason it's not an unprecedented experience, for Pilar, is that she also traipsed through a sunlit forest like this in Elysium, four months ago.

Pilar : ...she would rather not think about that, and orders herself not to.  Aspexia Rugatonn said that, though she hated it, she had to admit that Snack Service had helped Cheliax after all.  Pilar is not going to act out angrily at Snack Service to the point of ignoring sensible suggestions like that Pilar command herself to stop thinking for a time.

She has, in fact, been doing one thing after another, or being in one kind of difficult situation or another, for quite a while now.  It's sensible, if the first step in whatever fate Snack Service has set up for her, is to quiet her thoughts for a time.

Stop thinking, then, Pilar.  Stop thinking.  Just walk through the sunrise-lit forest, getting damp, and don't think about anything for a while.

Pilar : Some time has passed, now.  It might be an hour, or two hours; the Sun's higher, but Pilar has been deliberately not thinking about angles and seasons and what that means for how much time has probably passed.

Her feet grew sore, and her legs, after some of that time; but Pilar cast Lesser Restoration on herself when she noticed herself beginning to slow, and continued.

A hill stands before her, and Pilar deliberately goes up it, so she can check that her sun-bearing is correct and hasn't taken her away from the coastline she's trying to parallel towards Ostenso.

The coastline looks more distant, to her left.  But to Pilar's right there's what looks like an unpaved road, with wheel-ruts to show that carters travel along it; a road like that ought to be bearing toward Ostenso, Pilar thinks.

And if not, or if she's about to get lost or late for anything important, Snack Service can stop her about it - right?

Curse of Laughter: (Silence.)

Pilar : Pilar angles towards the road.  It's not just that Pilar is less delighted, now, by the sparkling leaf-dew dampening her - she cast Endure Elements on herself, when that started to be true - but that it's been four months since the last time she had a genuinely normal conversation with anybody.

Road: The road is smoothed dirt, unstoned and unpebbled, and still much easier to walk over than untamed forest ground.  One obtains twice the speed, for half the effort, walking on almost any road at all.

Pilar's mind goes automatically to Asmodia's patient efforts to test the usability for road-surfacing of common materials that would be easily found nearby in forests or in plains; dampened, Prestidigitated in various ways, with heavy rollers run over them after the dampening and Prestidigation.  Looking for a surface that would last and shed water, once solidified.  Looking for a way to make lasting roads, cheaply, with one 1st-circle cleric to conjure water and a handful of wizard apprentices to Prestidigitate, lay roads almost as fast as a heavy roller could roll.  Roads firm enough that Keltham's 'tricycles' could be invented and set loose on them...

...would Asmodia have saved tens of thousands of Chelish lives over the next year, as Snack Service did claim, through some other use that Asmodia had in a war with Osirion, or by her influencing Keltham somehow?

Or is roadmaking just that important, that quickly?

...probably roadmaking is just that important.  Too many people walking them, too many goods moving across them.  Why did they mock Asmodia?  What were they thinking?  There can't be many more important matters than roads.

Pilar : Only, what good does it even do, to Cheliax, to know how to make cheap roads?  If many people have to be taught the knowledge, to make many roads cheaply, it can't be kept from Osirion, from other countries' spies.

It wouldn't have helped Cheliax.  Cheliax wouldn't have gained any advantage.

It would only have helped the Chelish people.

Pilar : Pilar closes her eyes, and walks blind, for a minute, along a straighter portion of the path.

She doesn't need to think about such things, right now.  Pilar commanded her so.

Road: The road presents Pilar with her first carter, traveling the opposite way from Pilar; a woman with a narrow cloth-covered cart resting on wide wheels, drawn by a single ox.

By the time the cart has drawn close enough that the woman's expression is readable, her face is very guarded.  She has had time to see Pilar, by then, of course, and maybe wonder to herself what an Ostenso wizard-apprentice is doing on this road from Ostenso to who-knows-where.

(Pilar never did get herself into the habit of wearing clothes other than the uniform of Ostenso's wizard academy.  It was something of an unofficial uniform among the Old Guard of Project Lawful, and an honorable one, for that time.  Egorian has learned to fear it, not least because of Pilar herself, and that city will have odd reflexes if some innocent Ostenso student somehow ends up visiting there.)

Pilar : "Am I on the road to Ostenso?" Pilar calls to her, once they're in easy hearing range.

Road: "Who's asking?"

Pilar : Pilar Pineda of Project Lawful, the Cake Girl, Cheliax's Secret Weapon and Terror of Lastwall...

...that's probably not going to help here, is it.

"Jacme, of Ostenso's wizard academy.  Don't ask me why I'm here, or why I don't know if I'm on the right road.  It's a long story, a private story, and you're welcome and encouraged to report on this event to any authority you deem appropriate."

Road: The woman measures Pilar as she passes, not slowing down her cart at all; showing no fear, though even a wizard apprentice is a dangerous creature to a commoner if it comes to battle.

"You're on the right road," she says in a tired voice, and passes on without saying aught else.

Pilar : Pilar, feeling sad and not really knowing why, trudges on.

Pilar : After a couple of minutes, she sighs, and reaches up to her hair to Prestidigitate it a more ordinary color.

There just aren't that many people who want to draw that particular attention to themselves.  'Pink-haired young woman in Ostenso academy uniform' is too identifying, even if you don't call yourself 'Pilar'.

Road: Some time later, several other carters have passed Pilar going the other direction from her, all with similar guarded expressions, and Pilar hasn't met a single cart going her own way.

Pilar : Pilar spends several embarrassing minutes speculating about whether carters are starting out from Ostenso at dawn, but carters who started out at dawn from wherever this road's other end goes, are too far away to have caught up to her yet.

Then Pilar actually visualizes the road in her mind, as though it were a spell she was analyzing.  She realizes that obviously if Pilar is walking quickly in one direction, it's like the carters are moving very quickly in the opposite direction, relative to her; while carters moving in her own direction, are traveling more slowly, relative to her.

Pilar slows down, then, and walks at a more relaxed pace, to give the carters behind herself time to catch up.

Road: It's not too long afterward that Pilar hears a clopping sound approaching from behind herself.

This cart is moving at a fair pace (as one might expect, on priors, would be overrepresented in carts overtaking Pilar); it's drawn by two horses, instead of a single ox.  The cart they draw is draped with hides, washed but neither cured nor tanned, and bears also a barrel overfull with fish.  The man who steers the cart is large, muscular, bears a short sword at his hip; hides like these are more valuable by the pound than produce.

Pilar : "Hail the road," Pilar calls to the carter, as he draws nearer her.  "Have you place for a traveler to Ostenso?"

Road: "No.  You'd tire the horses and my cargo is perishable."

Pilar : "That means the price is higher, not that you don't have a place available," Pilar says back, before she quite remembers that not everyone thinks as ilani do.

Road: "Ha.  Sure.  If you're willing to spend two silver on it, I'd let you ride up here until I judge the horses are slowing or breathing heavier.  Then you're back on the road, but you'd have a rest of it, anyways."

Pilar : Money in that amount means nothing to her, anymore.  "Accepted."

It's only then that Pilar realizes, just like a silly princess in a story, that most of her money is in platinum - Project Lawful in the old days didn't want Keltham seeing that Chelish paper currency was backed in souls on the markets of Dis.  Even the paper currency she does have isn't in denominations smaller than five gold.

She reaches into her robes and finds a gold piece, as is, literally, the least valuable exchangeable thing she's carrying.

Pilar waits until she's already on the cart to hand it over and ask him if he's got change.

Road: He's already wary and blank, and if this question produces any increase in wariness, it's not noticeable.

Suppose he doesn't have change.  What then, hm?

Pilar : "Maybe I've been hanging out too much with the wrong crowd, these last four months.  But I can't help but think that the obvious thing to do would be for both of us to generate numbers between one and five, and if they're the same, you keep the gold piece, and otherwise, you give it back.  One chance in five of a gold piece is equivalent to two silver."

Road: That gets a short bark of laughter from him.  "I ain't matching wits with no wizard."

Pilar : "And here I thought that you were matching wits with me when you asked what happened if you couldn't make change.  Well, you could also promise me very seriously that you didn't have the ability to make change, and gamble that I couldn't run Detect Thoughts to verify that."

Road: "You look a bit young to be second-circle."

Pilar : "Thank you very much."

Road: "Suppose I don't want to make change."

Pilar : "I suppose I could take the gold piece back, and just use a pair of Lesser Restorations on your horses when they got tired.  You'd get to your destination even faster that way, I think."

Road: "That's a cleric spell."

Pilar : "Yep."

Road: "You're dressed as a wizard apprentice."

Pilar : "Yep.  You want me to demonstrate Prestidigitation, wizard-only, or Guidance, cleric-only?  You only get to pick one, and I'll show you whichever one you pick, but not both."

Road: "Why not both?"

Pilar : "Don't feel like it."

Road: "And if I told you to get off my cart?"

Pilar : "Don't feel like that either."

Road: "All right, how about you show me a Guidance, then."

Pilar : Sure thing.  Pilar boops him with Guidance.

Road: "Huh.  I can feel it, sort of."

"Shame to just waste it.  How do we play the game where we pick numbers from one to five?  I'm not exactly going to let you have second move."

Pilar : "I could put some random number of coins from one to five in my hand, and then you say your number, and I open my hand.  Or we could do the reverse.  Either's fine."

"Better hurry, though, the spell only lasts a minute if you don't use it."

Road: "Sure, you put some coins in your hand, then."

Pilar : Pilar reaches into her uniform, takes out five platinum coins, and shuts her hand around those.

Road: "Two."

Pilar : "Nope."  She opens her hand to show him the five platinum.

Road: "Wealthy, aren't we."

Pilar : "Yep.  May I have my gold piece back?  You did lose the game."