"Explain what about it?"

"Well....most countries vary, but they're more or less the same sort of thing? They've got lots of people who are just trying to get by, and then some good ones and some terrible ones. But Cheliax was conquered in a terrible war by devil-worshippers, and Asmodeus directs it, and His aim is to damn everyone there, so He can have their souls when they die. So they make the children report each other for minor things, they punish them very harshly, they read their minds to make sure they're loyal enough to the state, they execute anyone who isn't, and that way they make everybody Evil. And they convince them that they deserve it. We are allied with them, at the Worldwound, to prevent demons destroying the world, but Hell is a menace to Good everywhere and it'd be very bad for them to learn of Ibyabek. They'd try to make it Evil."

"I don't think I know enough about devils," Kyeo remarks after a pause.

"Devils are lawful evil people. If you are lawful evil when you die, or if you're neutral evil and go to Hell, you become a minor devil, and the cruelest and most ruthless among them eventually become more powerful devils."

"I also don't know enough about - the law and evil and so on."

"Law is about adherence to a strict code of rules, usually for the sake of making it possible for people to rely on you or negotiate with you. Devils are lawful in the sense that their word is binding and when they make bargains they keep their end of them. Paladins are also lawful. We do not betray our word even when to do so would confer a substantial short-term advantage. Evil is - the ideology opposed to human lives being free and peaceful and happy, and to humans having the chance to trust in and love and honor one another. Most Evil beings are Evil simply out of being self-serving -- they hurt others because they do not care for those others to live - but Asmodeus specifically believes that people should not be free, and Rovagug specifically believes that no worlds with life on them should exist, so some of them are like that..."

"That's... not the kind of philosophy I'm accustomed to, but I suppose it makes sense for things to be different here."

"What philosophy are you accustomed to?"

"Ibyabekan philosophy is about cooperation under the authority of the state to make sure everyone is taken care of, and I've been glossing that as lawful good, but it's not specifically about promises or being lenient with children or about people pursuing individual preferences freely..."

" - well, Lastwall is Lawful Good, but we're also the only bastion of Good in northern Avistan, we're fighting wars and we need to win them, there are lots of situations where it's necessary to do what is best for the group and not whatever speaks to one's heart individually. A lot of this is about - the ideal state, what we want when the wars are all over; Evil thinks people are nothing in themselves, and Good thinks people are everything, in themselves. Does that - sound closer to right?"

"I'm not sure."

"If you'd like someone can read you different churches' accounts of Good and you can figure out which one is closest to the Ibyabek one."

"Maybe. Is this - a current priority, here -"

"Well, when we meet up with Ibyabek and ask about allying with them it'd be good to have an understanding of where they're coming from and what they'll care about most as allies."

"I'm not a diplomat, so you shouldn't put a lot of weight on my guesses."

"I understand. But you've done a good job of explaining it. And - I don't think it takes diplomats, or great carefulness, for people to learn from each other, and we have a lot we can learn from you."

Kyeo looks over at where the scry on his father is in progress.

The person conducting it is still waving their hands in the air, apparently deep in thought.

"We could take a break?" someone says.

"I'm trying to think what I'll say. It's been some time since we've spoken."

"Does someone have a spellglass on the scry -"

"Yeah," someone says, and produces a contraption made of two glass bowls with their narrow tips glued together, sand trickling from the top one into the bottom one. "We've still got about half the time."

Nod nod.

"Why don't we leave you be so you can think what to say - do you write? We can get you parchment and ink..."

"...I can write, yes."

"Good! Hoset -"

    "Mmhmm," says one of the other people, leaving. 

She stands up too. "Should we get you anything else?"

"I don't believe anything else is urgent."