Elsewhere, Malduoni is fretting. 

This is probably not how he would describe it himself, but it's what Parmida would say. He's made all the preparations that can be done quietly and in secret and without actually having a date set for the move on Cheliax. From here, his main army can be ready to move in two days, though of course it'll take longer to actually get them all to Cheliax. His various auxiliary plans are also one order away from being in motion. 

He doesn't know how long the Andalites and Yeerks will need to come to an agreement, and it seems optimal to have at most one complicated and delicate operation going on at once, so he waits. And frets. 

And in the middle of the night the next day, though not at a moment when he is actually asleep, there's a tug that is instantly identifiable if you know enough about magic as the use of a Wish to relocate people against their will - it works across planes, used like that, there's a known safe wording -

- and at the same time Parmida's ring of Status notifies him that it's been taken off, or destroyed, or suppressed with Dispel Magic or an Antimagic Field.

This is not a good sign at all. 

Malduoni works and sleeps with his Bag of Holding within reach all the time, now, ready to go on a second's notice if something goes wrong, and this isn't what he expected to go wrong - the house in Absalom is very well protected - but it's demonstrably happening. 

He's already halfway to casting a Teleport - does Zahra's Ring of Status think that she's still in Absalom - 

Yes. Which is separately weird, she's supposed to Teleport to him if anything happens.

Additional weirdness is also not a good sign right now! Though it hasn't been long and he's faster at reacting and casting spells than she is. 

Malduoni is mostly not worried that walking into any fight will be more than he can handle, though. He has Wish-grade diamonds on him as well but Zahra won't be able to tell it's him trying to kidnap her that way versus whoever just tried and failed. (Almost certainly Asmodeus, but that question can wait a few seconds.) 

He casts a Quickened Teleport to the front doorstep of the house in Absalom -

The Teleport fails. It's Greater Teleport so it fails gently, just drops him right where he left. 

Malduoni has a strong suspicion about what spell is causing this effect. Which means, fortunately, that he can guess at its range. 

Also the fact that he's going to find a lot of collateral damage sitting around. 

He casts another Teleport, this time to a block away, and spends about a second scanning the area with all of his permanent magic senses before running - not quite sprinting, his knees won't take it anymore - in the direction of his wife and daughter's house. 

The spell Forbiddance has been used to block teleportation and dimensional transit into and out of the house and surrounding area. Also the house has been broken into and there's soldiers streaming in.

(Also, whatever tried to Wish-transport him tries again.)

They do not succeed. 

He casts Dispel Magic on the Forbiddance and then he can attempt to Dimension Door into the house ahead of the soldiers, it did have protections against Teleports including from him but rather a lot of protective spells must have been breached in order to break in at all. 

The protective spells seem to indeed no longer be up. There's someone in Zahra's bedroom in a Prismatic Sphere. It's almost certainly Zahra, who would've had a scroll of it.

Before any of the soldiers can react to his appearance, Malduoni's hand is sliding back out from his Bag of Holding. The smaller bag he pulls out has ten Symbols of Death and normally he would spend five seconds estimating and counting out the required number but he doesn't feel like wasting time here and he does feel like overkill is VERY CORRECT.

Add on a couple of Symbols of Pain, which he does bother to count individually, it'll be the first time in a while that he's tortured anyone and he would really prefer if, oh, Symbols of Unconsciousness, but in fact these are the only incapacitating Symbol with an effect that can't be resisted. 

All of them go on the floor at his feet and he activates them with a whispered word. 

This kills all but one of the people breaking into his house, and that one collapses in agony.

Zahra is unaffected; you can make people immune to your Symbols, and he did this, and also she's in a Prismatic Sphere.

That person is no longer in any shape to resist Malduoni's spells or fight back, and he kills them very easily, it's safer and also better than leaving them to be tortured for the next ninety minutes. 

He would like his daughter to no longer be in the house! Asmodeus - he's more sure of that identification, now, all the soldiers he laid eyes on read Lawful Evil - is going to keep trying at least a few more times to grab them. There are a couple of places he can think of where Zahra will be safe, or at least much safer, and they should get to one of those places as soon as possible. 

Unfortunately: she is in a Prismatic Sphere! He can't get in. She could in theory walk out, but she can't see out either and so has no way of knowing that he's here and leaving it is now safer than staying. She's going to do the very sensible thing and stay put. 

There's a protocol for this exact situation, since 'cast a Prismatic Sphere and wait' is one of the backup options if they're in trouble and Teleport is blocked. He has a Rod of Cancellation which can take down the Prismatic Sphere, and now that everyone nearby is dead it's not very dangerous. Just terrifying for Zahra.

He prepares himself to cast another Teleport immediately once he reaches her. And then cancels the Prismatic Sphere. 

Zahra is terrified. Mom's gone, she says through the Telepathic Bond once the Prismatic Sphere is down.. (Her ring of Status also starts working once the Prismatic Sphere is down.) I don't know what happened.

I know.

Malduoni says nothing else, just takes a step forward and seizes her hand and Teleports them both. He's - not exactly at his most reassuring, right now. In fact, he's nearer his most terrifying. 

They land right outside the Dome, in Sothis.

Malduoni's eyes scan for the nearest guard. "We are under attack from Hell, we need entry now, you can truth spell me -"

- they're really confused! They will - fetch someone higher up very promptly!

He casts a couple of spells to help Zahra resist any further attempts at Wish-kidnappings to Hell, and then takes out a diamond concentrates hard, and - tries to transport Parmida back to right here.

This does not work.

He wasn't really expecting it to. He holds his daughter's hand tightly, his eyes continuing to scan their surroundings for threats as they wait. 

At some point they seem to stop trying to Wish-kidnap them to Hell. At some point shortly after that they're escorted into the Dome by a very confused cleric. 

"What - is going on -"

Malduoni relaxes but not by much. He introduces himself as Malduoni, elected leader of Rahadoum, and then describes, tersely, the attempted transport that he resisted, the scene he found at his wife and daughter's house in Absalom, and the fact that the Dome is the only place in the material plane that he knows is magically secure against the kidnapping method. 

"Some of the matters here are very sensitive," he says tightly. "I need to speak to the pharaoh, and to the aliens here for negotiations mediated by Abadar."

Probably this is horrifyingly against protocol but he is not, currently, inclined to care. 

They'll, uh, escalate that again. Zahra is still clinging to him. 

He is feeling very very impatient, but making more demands isn't going to speed anything up here. He puts his arm around Zahra, protectively, which does quite a lot to mitigate the scariness of his cold vigilant expression. 

They wait. 

Someone can show them in to see the pharaoh about a minute later. Security looks miserable about this. 

The pharaoh looks like someone who is both very good at not looking overawed and not very accustomed to feeling it but who got a lot of interesting information in the last two minutes. He gestures wordlessly at his demiplane full of Andalites.

He hesitates very briefly, then releases Zahra, telling her you can come if you want but I expect to be very busy, and steps through, eyes scanning the group of them.

"I need your help," he says while still trying to figure out which of them is in charge here. "I assume you know of Hell and of Asmodeus?" 

<Yes> one of them says immediately. <Your evil god who tortures and enslaves people.>