"If Lastwall has anything to say to me they can write a letter like everyone else, they don't need to get in spellcasting range."

Does Cam have any new mail?

Not yet. 

"I think you should think about this situation from Lastwall's perspective, here," says Felandriel Morgethai. "They have an ally - Cam - who could conceivably solve all of their problems, prevent the torture of millions or possibly billions of people, end hunger and disease, make the world into a paradise, who wants to do that, and who is unable to do that. A fairly likely outcome, from here, is that someone murders you or successfully traps Cam, and they lose - all of that."

"Now, the only reason the possibility of all that Good is even on the table is because you noticed what was at stake and immediately fled Cheliax and made yourself a party to the Worldwound treaty. That was genuinely the best move you could possibly have made, and brought this situation from one that was probably catastrophic for everyone except to Cheliax to one that has wildly more upside and less downside. I am grateful to you. I am not a signatory to the Worldwound treaty, but among the reasons I didn't Dominate you the second you arrived here is that you, in fact, on very little notice, decided to close the Worldwound, and I'm not, actually, comfortable enslaving someone who is from a very impoverished starting point working to make the world better because there's a lot of important making-the-world-better they're neglecting. 

The other, possibly more ultimately controlling reason, is that it's true that if you give up on working on the Worldwound Cheliax will be able to retrieve and kill you, and so we'd probably get one day of having Cam, and while he could do a lot in one day my own impulses are in fact to play for getting something much much better than that."

"I'm all in favor of ending hunger and disease and making the world into a paradise and so on."

"Oh good, I love ending hunger and disease and making worlds into paradise. I will be much better at it if we can both of us hear and take advice from someone who isn't - in the habit of believing things because evil propagandists decided it served their obscure goals. Somebody who is not backing geopolitical aims that involve folks being turned into quivering flesh cubes. I'm not really picky! The Abadarans seem cool! We can talk to a paladin instead of the spymaster! If you have a safe way to talk to Razmir he's Lawful Evil if that's important to you! Cheliax actually seems almost uniquely bad in this department."

" - well, I'm happy to talk to Abadarans."

"I suspect at some point Lastwall is going to force the question. I suppose you could let Cam talk to them but not yourself attend."

So he can conspire with them against me, she doesn't complain plaintively, because that'd be childish. 

" - fine. I'll draw up terms for confidentially meeting with Lastwall, and with the Abadarans, pursuant to my work on fixing the Worldwound which I am actively engaged in. 

I do appreciate the not Dominating me. I considered it reasonably likely you would. Just - not quite as likely as anyone else."

"And I appreciate immensely that you want to make the world into a paradise and so on, and will try to keep you alive for that work. 

You could give Lastwall diamonds they can employ only for retaliating against whoever murdered you, if murdered. That might deter Cheliax or Razmir or various other interested parties from trying."

"I'll think about it."

Telescope. Boom. "I will not be able to hit the Worldwound from the moon when the moon is not up as seen from the Worldwound. Is this a problem or do we count as long as it's just that?"

"We can spend our time on - figuring out what the logistics of actually fixing the Worldwound look like, I would not expect we have to be actively engaged in exploding it. Though this is a good question to ask Lastwall and also the Abadarans. Can I have some paper and ink, for proposed terms for talks?"

"If you refresh my budget for those, I don't know how close I am to running it down."

"You can make one more sheet of paper and sufficient ink to cover it." 

Sigh. Ink, paper.

"Do you have any questions for me, while she writes up terms?" asks Morgethai of Cam.

"I sort of suspect you know more about what I need to know than I do."

"Cheliax is run by the forces of Hell and everyone in it is mindread and loyalty-tested and punished into not deviating too much, if you hadn't already gathered that. Cheliax is gradually losing territory, but there were, yesterday, no immediate prospects of toppling it. In your space shuttle, you're approximately unreachable except to people who can cast ninth circle spells, which are myself, Razmir, Nefreti Clepati, Areelu Vorlesh, the High Priestess of Asmodeus Aspexia Rugatonn, the Archbanker of Abadar Kalit Merin, the Great Inaris Jerveel, priestess of Gorum,  High Priestess of Urgathoa Thulraga, Godspeaker Raviyah al-Khurrat, King of Vyre Delaraius Solzakarr, the First Lady of Laws, Neferpatra Ahnkamen, and the high priestess of Gozreh Meandri Hembor.

And some names that appear only in legends but might show up if sufficiently interesting things are happening -- Arazni, Baba Yaga, Nex, Geb, Hao Jin. This is - the kind of thing those beings might in fact show up for, this is very much unprecedented."

....that is more people than Carissa had imagined could get to them here!

Cam writes down all these names for the peanut gallery to research. "And presumably outright divine intervention? What do we need to worry about from these parties?"

"The obvious thing to want to do is trap you both somewhere while various parties determine what your deal is and how they can exploit it. Cheliax and some other parties have an easier job because they just want Carissa dead. Many people might want to hold Carissa hostage for your only acting in ways they approve of in the Material. 

Gods, if they choose to intervene directly, will probably do so to send you home because they're sensitive about this planet, it has Rovagug trapped in it."

"Oh. Would it make more sense for us to go to another planet? Less, uh, conflict of interest between the two of us on the geopolitics."

"Do you ...have one in mind?"