"Being a soldier is dangerous and Ibyabek has an excellent military force."

"Does it? How would you know?"

"I was in it! Whatever your complaints about the state of my knowledge about paper mills I went through training and served on a ship. We have to police a three dimensional border against smugglers and spies from a planetful of hostile people right in our own system, and we do it."

"And how do you measure being good at it, in volume of smuggled goods impounded? Number of spies arrested? Do you have a comparison?"

"If our army weren't good Outer Sohaibek could have conquered us during one of the times we were more openly at daggers drawn!"

"Is that an objective of theirs? Are offensive and defensive wars about equally difficult to fight? Is that about your army or more about- in Golarion it often matters almost as much which side has a single powerful wizard, I don't know if there's anything analogous..."

"- we do have melters, but..."

"Melters?"

"There used to be three settled planets in the system, but Old Sohaibek was melted in the original war."

"Gods."

Kyeo is not sure how to respond to that.

He's not looking at Kyeo. He's kind of looking at Isavel, who looks very neutral. "Are they working something out?" he asks.

           "I think there's something ready. For if Asmodeus finds out, or for if, say, Lamashtu does and then we have to tell Asmodeus."

He nods.

"What is it that's ready?"

"An agreement to make sure none of those can be made or used here," Isavel says. "Among all the gods who want the world to keep existing, which is most of them."

"It's only most of them?"

"There are a lot of gods and some of them have very unpredictable or complicated interests. But it's most of them."

"Well, I'm... glad there is a plan not to let any of the remainder get a melter."

"Sorry for getting distracted," he says to Kyeo. "I don't know if that line of discussion was productive anyway, though..."

"I thought we were here to talk about whether Carissa's getting married."

"Mmm. Is that what you want?" he asks Carissa. 

"Honestly sir I want to make magic items for a living and not tell Asmodeus anything and not be a prisoner anymore. But I - understand that you aren't going to let me do that.

I'm - not sure I'm eligible to get married, by Osirian standards."

"Anyone is eligible to get married if they can find someone who wants to marry them and it's a complicated case but you're a very talented woman, and I think there are some people who'd see that as a positive thing worth overlooking other things."

"Do they say in other places that being quick runs in the blood or do they only say that in Cheliax, sir."

"That is also how we understand it in Osirion. So, see, you have a lot going for you. How old are you."