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An adventuring party recruited from Osirion teleports into Azir on the 8th of Desnus. Rahadoum's recruiting contact in Osirion wrote ahead to note they were expected. Couple of guys he's known a long time - a wizard, a ranger - and a new guy, sorcerer, probably to replace the cleric they usually travel with. They spend two days in Azir getting oriented and head out to the front. The ranger wears an unusually high quality amulet of Nondetection; the sorcerer wears a headband for intelligence, which is a bit unusual as sorcerers usually don't need it to cast, but some variants do; they are otherwise unremarkable. Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, no reading, which could mean neutral or 'hiding it'. They work quickly and effectively, manage resources reasonably well, get recommended to higher-ups for a closer look on that account.
Carissa mostly looks overwhelmed. She looks helplessly at Iomedae. "He's not up to anything awful that will destroy Cheliax?"
"Or anywhere else or anything else? That shouldn't be destroyed, I mean."
"Little one, I'm not a genie you are trying to get a Wish out of, I'm not going to leave anything out that you'd want to know. He has a long and complicated history and he is as worthy of you as anyone can be, and you'll be safer with him than anywhere else, and it will be good for the world, and maybe for the whole universe."
"I don't think it would be good for your ability to run a country if there were this much drama all the time.
But if it was going to be good for your ability to run a country, then, yes, it would be."
"...didn't come here for me, the hell you didn't, you haven't even talked to anyone else -"
"You would have derived all of this eventually, once you had the missing piece. I spared them a great deal more agonizing about how to give it to you without giving you the impression that it was about as voluntary as it would have been under the old regime."
"I do not have any kind of personal relationship with him because he's not ready to try to be a good person yet. He'll get there.
- no, I can't do this for you, because your problem with your wives is that you're not capable of attraction to women," she adds to the pharaoh of Osirion.
Leareth reaches under the conference table to squeeze Khemet's hand. :I am sorry this is so awkward:
He looks at Iomedae. "And - while I somewhat regret causing Carissa so much stress, she does not deserve that, I - suppose you did fulfill my request as specified, and - I owe you some thanks for that."
And to Carissa: "I think you have more than proven yourself to me, at this point, and it is on me to prove my own character to you. I am not sure of how best to do that, but will listen to any idea you have. And, of course, you ought take as much time as you wish. If you want to go away and potentially come back at a later point once you have had time to think, that is fine; if you would like to work in a more important position than laundry wizard, I would be delighted."
"I'm kind of curious what the not-from-a-seven-year-old account of what happened in Velgarth is but - doesn't have to be now.
Maybe want to go to Vigil. And to the Worldwound. I, uh, have a character reference for you from Iomedae so I just need one for Her. - also I don't know what your expectations are but I'm not even distantly nobility and I've dated before but not seriously and one would be debating definitions of virginity and I'm not any good at foreign languages and if I hate being pregnant I'll only do it twice."
"...Noted. Thank you for explaining. None of those seem like issues to me at all."
He is weirdly delighted about Carissa wanting to seek out a character reference on Iomedae, a Lawful Good god, it's so - careful, wanting to have calibrated trust in the agents around her, he appreciates it and he appreciates her and aaaaaaah how is he supposed to think about the fact that a god thinks she would make a good wife for him.
Iomedae looks pleased with Herself. "If you want to yell at me you will have to do it now," She says to Aroden, "I don't mean to stay longer."
"Honestly I think that your cleric covered most of it. And I suspect Leareth has learned his lesson about making less than fully specified requests of you, which is that you will fulfill them beautifully and also - not in the way he necessarily expected. If Carissa," he glances over at her, eyebrows slightly raised, "is satisfied that you have been chided enough, I think I am done."
Carissa now looks slightly embarrassed. "I do - appreciate it. Uh. If you're right."
"If I had needed you to overthrow the government of Cheliax I would've helped, little one. You successfully demonstrated some holes in Palace security which I am sure they'll now patch and you learned some magic and you proved some things.
- it doesn't feel like winning because almost all the work is still ahead, and looks different than you expected. But that's how winning almost always works."