Hmmmmm.

"Can paladins of Iomedae do that?"

Fazil comes over to study it. 

" - I mean, no? Presumably there's a nuance we're missing. I don't think they can make pacts with fiends at all."

"I guess it's hard to tell from just the picture."

There's laughter behind them.

She spins around and looks.

She looks, too. Without as much spinning.

It's a devil. Twelve feet tall, graceful, bat-wings extending almost the whole span of the library. "Hel-lo," she says when they turn around. "Fancy seeing you here!"

       Hagan draws his bow. Fazil shakes his head, just slightly. 

"That's right, let's be friendly. We're all on the same side here, after all."

She pulls Verita closer, ready to stop her from speaking, if needed, and doesn't say anything.

"Are we," says Fazil. 

         "Hell holds in contempt Rovagug and his followers, and glory in seeing their endeavors doomed."

"Why are you here."

          She nods at Korva. "I was invited."

"- liar," says Fazil.

         "You have the spell prepared. Discern Lies. Go right ahead -"

" - all right," he says.

Then several things happen at once. Fazil casts a spell. The devil lunges. Mahdi takes off flying and casts two spells at once, flying out of his hands in a way that anyone who's seen wizards before knows they ordinarily cannot do. Hagan shoots a series of silver arrows, impossibly many, far more than he had in the quiver a second ago.

She holds Verita back, and winces, and does not pray, because this is not a situation in which it will do anyone any good.

She's staring at the devil, transfixed.

This fight is a lot less trivial. Everyone including the devil is moving too fast to properly track them; Mahdi, unable to fly because the ceiling is too low, instead teleports around the room as a bolt of lightning when the fighting gets too close to him. Blood and less identifiable substances splatter the floor. As they're closing in the devil flaps its wings, frantically, which makes the room flicker black and sends Mahdi and Hagan flying. Hagan gets up. Mahdi doesn't. The devil collapses at last beneath a barrage of golden glowing light. 

Fazil taps Mahdi. He stirs. 

" - is it dead - "

Fazil nods, wearily. "We're going to need - a better solution, if we're going to have the two of you close to hand - that shouldn't have been difficult -"

"He means he can't use spells that target evil creatures," he says, looking at Korva. He's bleeding.

She looks down.

"It also means we have to interrupt every area-effect spell that more than stings or it'll kill them both," says Fazil, not looking at her. 

Mahdi stands up. "Did you tell Hell we'd be here?"

"No. Not that I imagine it needs much help."

Mahdi looks at Fazil. 

"Tomorrow," Fazil says, "I want to save my remaining spells until we're out of here. - we're leaving. We got what we came here for."

She lets Verita go and follows.

The passage they entered through is blocked by debris, now. They venture off down a different hallway instead. It has a smoking, recently-destroyed altar; there's no signs of anyone still in the room. 

The ground shifts suddenly and the hallway cracks and tilts, like a drawbridge. Fazil grabs Verita.

She yelps and clings.

She falls and drops her bag and ends up stuck in the other half of the hallway, separated from Verita and the other casters.

"Three fine!" Fazil calls faintly from somewhere where he is no longer visible.

"Two fine," Hagan calls back. His injury has opened up again and left a streak of blood on the floor but perhaps 'fine' encompasses minor details like that.

He looks down at the ground, at Korva's bag. 

He picks up the Asmodean Disciplines. 

He hurls it into the abyss where the hallway used to be. There's a satisfying thump.

"Why don't you pick a different fucking god, all right?"

She trembles a little. Then she glares.

"Why, because you said to?"