"Well, I wasn't very sure."

Aaaand now he can ask Khemet for advice. :I do not want to lie to her about - what I asked Iomedae to recruit for - but I also do not want her to feel she is obligated to marry me! Can you help me think of a way to say it that leaves it up to her and what she wants?: 

Yeah, it's very tricky! I bet Iomedae's going to tell us that the straightforward approach wouldn't have worked but I don't know why not. She does seem to be, uh, gradually changing her mind about how bad to expect things to be.

You really like her.

:She is so impressive! - If not for my suspicion about Iomedae's motives I do not think I would be - thinking of her in that way - but I would most certainly want to recruit her for something. I hope to persuade her to stay even if she does not wish to marry me. But... I think she is someone I could come to love. Maybe: 

And next to where they're sitting in the conference room there is suddenly a shimmer of coalescing energies, with none of the precise tightly-wound complexity of human magic.

"How kind of you to join us, Iomedae. Care to reassure this wonderful young lady, after arranging for her to have such a fright?" 

It resolves into a human woman's form. Chelish. She and Carissa don't look that alike really but there's something in the eyes.

"What are you doing here?"

"This will save attention, compared to all of them going off to yell at me separately."

"I -" She hesitates. Iomedae nods and she continues. "I figured it was a - resource thing. You can only do so much, it's - inefficient - to spend a lot of it on managing my feelings - I wouldn't want you to -"

"I know." She is glowing with pride and also with the fact she is very magical.

"But don't you understand - if you're not going to show up for my feelings because there are more important things to do, then that's fine, I can work with that, gods don't show up for most peoples' feelings - but if you show up for my feelings if I'm scared and sad enough then - then the rest of the time it's not because there's more to do elsewhere it's because I'm not scared and sad enough - I can't work with that!"

She shakes her head and smiles at her very slightly. "I am not here for you, Carissa. You do not need me. These foolish men do. They are worried that they sought my help and - not only did they not get what they'd imagined, they got something from which they don't know how to reach what they imagined -"

" - oh, come on -

- what did you send me here for."

"Leareth asked me to find the best woman in Cheliax who might want to marry him."

"I am sorry! I - well, it was a rather effective - screening process, for that, but - I did not intend the part where we frightened you so badly." Leareth, who very rarely feels guilty about anything, feels slightly guilty about this.

"Obviously you are under no obligation to marry me just because Iomedae sent you here. - Though you would be quite good at it and - I do find you impressive and likeable..." He's not making this any better is he. 

Carissa is looking kind of wildly between him and Iomedae. 

"What ....would have happened if you'd just. Asked."

"You would have done a lot of research about me and him and eventually decided you trusted me that it was the right thing to do and then tried it and eventually with a lot of work you would have earned from him a quarter of the respect that you deserve, and believed yourself deserving of about a tenth of it, and it would have gone all right. 

I think. We don't have Foresight anymore."

"This way, he knows who you are, and you know who you are, and you will do a lot of research and decide you want this and it's very convenient how it's also the right thing to do, and it will go better than all right."

"I wasn't even very good at it!"

Iomedae just watches her, eyes shining.

"You snuck a cactus familiar past us and learned secrets that we only spoke of in shielded rooms with both of us using our magical senses on all of our surroundings. I am not sure if you realize how few people can say that. You did very well and I feel rather stupid, now - which, to be clear, causes me to like you more rather than less. You would have done even better with twenty more years of actual training at being a spy, of course, but - you were so clever and paranoid and..."

Possibly this is just going to put her off, he isn't sure anymore, he would be flattered if someone complimented his paranoia but he's not sure how people who aren't him or Aroden would feel about that.