"I hate Chaotic Good," Aspexia Rugatonn says, her voice sounding reflective and her face as impassive as always.  She looks up from the papers in her hand, having just finished reviewing a transcript of Pilar's report on her involuntary tour of Elysium.  "I hate, hate, hate Chaotic Good.  If hatred were diamonds I could take my hatred of Chaotic Good and cast Miracle with it and have enough left over for a thousand Resurrections.  I would, personally, rather go to Abaddon than Elysium."

Pilar Pineda swallows.  "Grand High Priestess - is this one permitted to ask -"

      "Just speak your thoughts, Pineda.  I can hear them anyways."

"I was confused by the Chaotic Good outsider's claim that it served Asmodeus's interests for Cayden Cailean to do what He did to me.  I wonder if - if you think they're telling the truth, that I am not meant to be - harmful to our Lord -"

      "You don't conclude that I believe they were telling the truth, from the fact that you're still alive?"

No because the Grand High Priestess could be unsure and wanting to keep her options open, or because she could have some cunning counterplot of her own to whatever it is that Cayden Cailean is trying to do -

      "You are correct that I'm unsure," the Grand High Priestess answers her unspoken thought.  "But while Chaotic Good is not Lawful Good, under those circumstances and speaking to someone like you, it is unfortunately plausible that they would tell the truth."

Unfortunately? Pilar thinks, putting on hold her own relief if she really isn't being used against Asmodeus.

      "Yes, because now we are confused, as they no doubt intended, and our lives have become more complicated.  I rather doubt that, whatever larger plot is in play, that larger plot is meant to conduce to Asmodeus's interests.  If their plot is to destroy all Cheliax and then you are meant to prevent a new Worldwound from opening amid the ruins, that is not, on the whole, good news.  Though yes, even in that case, we would prefer there not be another Worldwound, so if some such apparent duty falls to you, perform it unless directed otherwise.  It is the job of such as myself to counterplot against Cayden Cailean's larger plan, not you."

Pilar nods her head.  She understands, or thinks she does.

      "This leaves us with the question of your behavior and performance during your trip to Elysium."  The Grand High Priestess regards Pilar more sternly, now.

Pilar isn't nearly as frightened as she should be, she knows, even though that's a bad thought.  She turned down Elysium for Asmodeus, and even if it's a wrong thought to think, still, that probably counts for something.

      "Oh, I see," says the Grand High Priestess of Asmodeus, her face impassive.  "You believe that you performed adequately?"

Is she still supposed to answer in words at all?  Probably, unless she's told not to, she's been asked a direct question.  "No mortal performs to Asmodeus's standards," Pilar answers.  "And all imperfections are worthy of punishment, if the slave is even worth that much time."  Pilar can't quite stop herself from thinking that, imperfect and flawed slave of Asmodeus as she may be, she's probably due for quite a lot less punishment than others would be in her position.  This thought is itself, of course, worthy of punishment.

      The face of the Grand High Priestess remains impassive.  "Do you know how specifically, you fell short?"

Pilar knows some parts that are obvious even to her.  "I was unable to justify myself clearly, when the Elysians asked me why I didn't want to stay - if I had been more trained in theology, I would have been able to -"

      "Chaotic Good outsiders cannot be persuaded into our Lord's embrace, and to justify yourself to them or argue with them, even taking our Lord's position, does not serve His interests in any way.  That you answered the Elysians at all is your failure, not that you answered incorrectly."

Pilar feels stupid.  "I understand."

      "What else?"

"The Elysians told me that if I stayed in Elysium, I would never again have to cast torture spells on children with no other uses in order to prove my loyalty, which they somehow knew I hadn't liked doing in the academy.  I could feel myself swaying to that, and when I felt that, I knew that after I came back, I would have to be retrained to do it better and without any hesitation.  For only a moment, then, I was tempted to stay."

      "Pity," says the Grand High Priestess.  "That significantly decreases your future usefulness.  I will make a note in your file that you are not to be tasked with such work unless there is strong reason."

Pilar doesn't know how to respond to that in words, at first, for being so surprised.  She would expect to be punished for her reluctance and corrected; for her to be exempted from unpleasant work instead is something that could be mistaken for mercy, and it is impossible that Aspexia Rugatonn would reason so.

      "There will be plenty of time to train out every last one of your flaws after you are received in Hell," the Grand High Priestess answers the unspoken thought.  "Meanwhile, in this world, your proven loyalty is potentially useful.  If that is a weak and vulnerable point in you, I will not have it strained without good cause and bring into question whether your loyalty remains as it was.  The more so, if the Elysians could potentially have planned to lure us into doing exactly that, after first giving us apparent reason to trust you."

Again Pilar feels stupid, but this is only natural when somebody who is not Aspexia Rugatonn is talking to somebody who is Aspexia Rugatonn.  The Elysians made her scared of something that, it turned out, was not in Asmodeus's interests to do to her.

      "What else?" says the Grand High Priestess.

Pilar swallows.  This part is worthy of severe punishment.  "I had the thought several times that - when they showed me Hell, and what that's like for people who aren't me - that, even if I didn't want to be in Elysium - maybe it would be better - if the people who wanted to be in Hell could be in Hell and the people who wanted to be in Elysium could be in Elysium."

      "You are correct, that is a thought worthy of severe punishment."

Pilar bows her head.

      "You may find it useful to contemplate, however, that the present nature of things is temporary.  In due time, everyone will go to Hell, and everyone will want to go to Hell."

That does make Pilar feel better, though she's surprised that she's getting any consolation at all when the thought is incorrect in the first place.

      "Because if you are so flawed as to have that thought, there is no point in allowing that thought even greater power over you by failing to consider what weighs against it on its own terms," answers the Grand High Priestess.  "Now, Pineda, answer me this.  Why am I the one consoling on you on this, instead of you taking these issues to someone in the priesthood or simply Security, whose time is far less valuable than mine?"

That's a good question and Pilar is unable to stop herself from thinking that maybe it's because, having proven her loyalty, she's now that valuable - no, that wouldn't make sense, it's Chaotic Good outsider exposure which only the Grand High Priestess is most competent to correct if it introduced any problems -

      "Wrong.  According to Security's initial interview with you, you thought of asking them for correction, but you had the thought that, if the Elysians were telling you the truth, maybe the Security officer was also somebody who'd take the chance to stay in Elysium if they believed they had that chance.  You were afraid that, if that was true, being corrected by Security would mean replacing your more correct thoughts with their less correct thoughts."

Pilar did also think (not that this defends her or lessens anything) that she didn't distrust them in general, it wasn't that she distrusted Security about Security, it was just, on the particular issue of being tempted to stay in Elysium, thinking incorrect thoughts when you're in Elysium, she couldn't trust them about that -

      "So the leader of Asmodeus's Church in Golarion had to personally take her valuable time to correct you, because, now, you would not have trusted almost anyone else.  Now that Chaotic Good outsiders have whispered to you that you are more truly loyal to Asmodeus and more correct in your thinking and more trustworthy than the senior wizards in security."

"Yes," Pilar whispers, feeling miserable.  The Elysians got to her after all.

      "Unfortunately, the Elysians told you the truth.  This being the case, your concern was simply correct.  Nearly all wizards in Security and indeed even most priests of Asmodeus have not proven themselves able to meet the test of true loyalty that you passed.  They are not authorized to correct your thoughts about Elysium or who is most loyal to Asmodeus.  Only myself or those I designate are authorized to so correct you."

      "That said, to state your self-humbling thought more precisely, great loyalty is often not the quality most critical to a commander.  One usually wishes for great competence foremost, accompanied by whatever level of loyalty seems adequate and with some safety margin.  If on some rare occasion the quality we needed in a commander was the greatest possible loyalty, and this was more important than your lack of experience and knowledge and power and your many other failings, perhaps then you would be placed in command.  Nor should you mistake the possibility that your superiors are less loyal than you, for your own certain knowledge of that fact.  Understand?"

"Yes," Pilar answers.

      "Good.  After this, you will report to the temple torture chamber and assign yourself whatever degree of punishment you feel is appropriate for your failures in Elysium."

To say that Pilar is surprised would be an understatement indeed.  She will obey, of course, but - she doesn't understand, is this a test, to see if she'll assign herself too little punishment, or if she'll assign herself extra to prove her loyalty -

      "You are done with tests of that kind," the Grand High Priestess answers.  "You have passed the strongest version of that test which anyone could face.  You know your own history in more detail than I do, my time is valuable, and I cannot be bothered to interview you on specifics and evaluate them.  You do it.  Just assign yourself whatever tortures seem standard and appropriate for your failures.  If you desire any more punishment than that for reasons of faith, do it on your own recognizance."

Because you are trusted, now.

No, Pilar must only be imagining that this could be the subtext, here, she is not - not that worthy, she is only a second-circle wizard -

Pilar rises and turns to go.

      "Pilar," Aspexia Rugatonn says, before Pilar has reached the door.  Her voice is, if not gentle, unusually not-harsh.  "Pride is one of our Lord's domains.  As you should not be mistaken about who is above you, you should also not be mistaken about who is lower.  Speak to me the thought you are not letting yourself think."

Pilar turns back.

She takes a deep breath.

"Grand High Priestess," Pilar says, "if you had to lead an army of adventurers into Elysium, and anyone who followed you would have a choice to stay in Elysium, how many - how many could you find to take with you?"

      "Eleven."

Eleven!? Pilar thinks in dismay and even horror, though she does not, of course, question the Grand High Priestess out loud.  Eleven, in all of Cheliax?

      "Oh, I am sure there are many more than eleven in Cheliax who would make the choice you did to leave Elysium behind.  Our service to our Lord would be pathetic indeed, if all the Church's work in Cheliax these last eighty years had produced no more than eleven souls truly loyal to Him.  The trouble is, you see, Pilar, that Asmodeans do lie to themselves, about what choice they would make there, and though this lie is also pleasing to our Lord, it is still, in the end, a lie.  They would not know their disloyalty even to themselves, and Detect Thoughts would not suffice to root them out.  The Chaotic Good outsider who spoke to you was also truthful about that aspect of things."

      "We punish people whose disloyalty rises to the level of thoughts that we can see, that they can know to themselves; and while that does to some extent serve to train away disloyal thinking, sometimes it only trains away the visibility.  In Cheliax, where they know their thoughts will be read again in time, that serves well enough; when there is a certainty of Hell in time, it serves well enough.  Faced with Elysium, those thoughts might suddenly resurface."

      "There are many more in Cheliax who would refuse Elysium, of that I am sure.  There are eleven of whom I know.  Eleven of whom I am certain."

      "Well.  Twelve, now."

Pilar Pineda feels prouder in that moment than she has in her entire life.

      "There is no reward for a job well done in Cheliax," says Aspexia Rugatonn.  "Only a diminishing of punishments for failure.  This does not mean that a job done well never benefits you, Pilar.  Only that, if so, the benefit is incidental to how it serves our Lord's interests.  You have proven yourself as few of our Lord's followers ever prove themselves, and if you were not already assigned to one of the most important projects in Cheliax, you soon would be."

      "Go with Asmodeus, Pilar Pineda.  You have done as well as mortals ever do."

"Thank you!  You've been so super helpful to me, actually, do you want a cookie?"

...

Pilar turns and hurls the sourceless cookie at the wall as hard as she can.  Under other circumstances she would scream.  This was literally the finest moment she will ever have in her life, and Cayden fucking Cailean just ruined it for her.

      "Only if you let Him ruin it," Aspexia Rugatonn says, though the harshness is back in her voice.  "I genuinely hope we can find something to do about your problem."

Pilar departs.  She is reminded of the fact that Aspexia Rugatonn's time is indeed valuable, and how much of it just got spent on her, when she sees the line of important people who were waiting outside for her to finish.

The next person in that line, robed as a third-circle priest, darts inside and slams two pieces of paper on Rugatonn's desk and begins some rapid hushed report without waiting for the door to shut.  The door hasn't closed and sealed away the sounds within, in fact, when Pilar on her way out hears the Grand High Priestess's voice rising to almost a shriek, "He what?"

Somebody is about to have a very bad day, and Pilar is glad it's not her.

She skips her way along towards the temple's torture chamber, for almost ten full steps, before she realizes that she is fucking skipping through the halls and manages to fucking stop it.

At first it's not obvious to the remaining student body of the Secret Project what exactly they're supposed to do with themselves; Carissa's orders, when she briefly walked past them while retrieving her possessions to leave with Keltham for the imperial palace, were 'learn about Taldor'. But it doesn't take them all that long to find their feet; obviously no one's going to come walk them through everything like they're children. 

Security has swept the villa for things left behind by Kuthites, found a couple of old chambers that were perfectly sealed up with old skeletons inside, which isn't very interesting, and reorganized all the bedrooms so as to make the place defensible if the project returns here, though it might not. There are devils openly patrolling the grounds, now, each of them bound within their ten-foot circles (it's the cheapest way to get devils). They can't fight much like that, obviously, but they'll notice it. And unlike human security they don't complain about the by-now-fairly-torrential rain. 

And the whole mess is a good excuse to completely reformulate the library to be in line with the project. Paxti requests permission to go with Security to Absalom book-shopping, and when that doesn't work Yaisa tries seducing Elias for the same privilege (he sleeps with her but does not take her to Absalom, which is a valuable life lesson). But there's sorting through all the existing books for consistency with the new paradigm, and making fun of the old Taldane romance novels, and while Security's using all their Teleports for war-related travel they do go out to Ostenso's bookshops and find some books published in Taldor or in pre-Hell Cheliax they can work with. 

By the afternoon of the day after the attack this effort is in full swing; they have books in piles on the floor, and are reading through them and chattering about them and sorting them and Mending them as needed. They have a plan for if Keltham shows up unexpectedly, they're going to claim there was water damage to the books, since a bunch of windows broke in the fight and it's been raining so hard since then. (So that this isn't a lie, they're causing some water damage to the books.)

Ione wakes up with her head feeling like a watermelon that has fallen off a four-story building.  And had its watermelon soul go to watermelon Abaddon and be hunted down by things that eat watermelon souls, things with white eyes and bony hands.

Everything seems dreamlike and her thoughts are like she's halfway through falling asleep, thoughts that don't follow from other thoughts, and therefore she needs to say, as her first words when she wakes:

"Stop damaging books takaral!  This is a library takaral!"

"- turn every laundry wizard into somebody who can apply one-week male contraception, if that plan works.  And the first thing we need to get started on that is a couple of hundred mice.  Well, no, the first thing we need to get started is... a few gallons of vinegar - good, that translated - and whatever you've got that makes vinegar foam up when you add it to vinegar.  But that might not work unless either you or I can get a magnet field stabilized."

Carissa isn't sure this is Cheliax's most important priority at all but it's - surprisingly nice, actually, just collaborating on a research project instead of trying to seduce Keltham into evil. "Summoned mice or real mice - actually, usually wizards use summoned mice for experiments but here in a Forbiddance it'll be less complicated to get real ones. What things have magnetic fields, it might be easier to manipulate one that already exists and it'd give me a feel for what I'm manipulating -"

"Well, magnets, most obviously, but if you hand me any piece of metal that could be magnetized, like iron or steel, I can use Prestidigitation to induce a magnet field in that, and then maybe you can see if that's just as easy for you or if it's somehow taking advantage of my knowledge of the Law of magnets.  Prestidigitation can't produce acids, according to you, but according to my best guess as to what Prestidigitation does, it should definitely be able to shift acidity, and that may have to do with my knowledge of what acidity is rather than it being a mystical property of liquids to destroy things."

"And definitely real mice, unless summoned mice can get pregnant, the whole point is to see what works to stop mouse pregnancies.  We'll also need an expert on mouse anatomy to help me trace out where the mouse analogue to the human male epididymis is, and now that I think about it, that could easily require the ability - make images bigger, so you can examine them better.  And also for mice we need to focus down the Prestidigitation even smaller than it would have to go in humans, which brings up the question of how good magic is at focusing forces down to tiny targets - including via spellsilver-stabilized magic items if that helps."

"Most of the time whether you can do detail work or not is just a matter of talent, the limit you run into is your own ability to manipulate the magic rather than anything inherent about its behavior at small scales. I don't know if that would be true if you were doing something wildly outside the range of things people try to do but mouse surgery is in the range of things people try to do, I'd expect. We have invented the microscope. Summoned animals aren't around long enough to get pregnant.

What....is acidity."

"It's what lemons, vinegar, and stronger liquids that can dissolve metal if you know those, all have in common, and presumably it's what the Acid Splash cantrip - well, fakes, or so I'd guess.  Describing it in terms of underlying Law would be a detour, but also it's bad news if we have to take that detour because that makes it much harder to teach laundry wizards to do it."

She knew that and wanted the underlying Law but she doesn't argue. "I wouldn't expect that - I don't have to know what chocolate underlyingly is in order to make Prestidigitation taste like it. Iron, steel, magnet, mice, vinegar, things that bubble mixed with vinegar, just checking, am I interfacing with Acquisitions for you because it takes time or because you expect some weird cultural misunderstanding or because you don't like it or because it didn't occur to you you can interface with them yourself -"

"Marta was, I think, if I'm not misidentifying the pieces, lying in two separate and importantly distinct places in one of the hallways.  I'm not sure if she's considered high-priority for resurrection.  Not really sure of who Acquisitions is right now, or if there is one before the project has some sort of official restart point."

"But actually it's more that - we don't just need the mice, we need a place to keep mice for a few weeks while we watch them to see if they're pregnant, and I don't know what that lab equipment looks like in Golarion.  I can go to Acquisitions myself if I know who that is, I guess, but then it feels like I might accidentally get, like, just two hundred mice in a giant bag.  I sometimes get the impression that people here, who are not you, may not really expect my plans to make sense; or, rather, they're not surprised if it only makes sense to me and not to them.  Which is how you end up with a giant bag of mice and no mouse food.  So, my theory is that first I explain to you what I need and what it's for, and you ask me questions until you're confident you've understood, and then you actually say it to Acquisitions."

"At one point I asked Security, look, this is really important, I haven't got any training in it, do we want to now that we're convinced it's for real replace us with a real research team, and he said, uh, they'd showed the transcripts of the lectures to other people but it doesn't seem to produce the same result. The - expecting that your plans make actual Lawful sense and I can figure out why too." 

"If it was that easy the Watchers wouldn't have made us play elaborate games and figure things out on our own, would they, when they could've just put us somewhere sunny and let us read books about other people figuring things out."

"That's why I'm worried about Asmodia trying to catch up after being gone for a week.  I'm worried it won't be as easy as her just reading the transcripts."

"Oh, actually, though - before we move forwards on this, I should write a note to Lrilatha asking her if she thinks it's actually a good idea for laundry wizards to be able to apply male birth control, that's something that affects heritage optimization over all of Golarion.  Have you got writing stuff in your hammerspace by any chance?"

"Yes, that's a good thing to ask her - if it causes birth rates to crash among all the smart people and all the people living in areas that've managed to make magic accessible and cheap -" She fishes out a pen and paper. "She's probably incredibly busy, what with the war, so I'd just write a short note and indicate what you'll do if you don't hear back -"

"Does it cost her nothing to read Baseline, or should I write in Taldane?"

"She probably has permanent Tongues, it's only as expensive as a good headband, but I don't specifically know for sure she has it."

Keltham writes down in Taldane:

From: Keltham

Hypothetical project transforming:
input: 1 cast Prestidigitation -> output: male sterility lasting ~1 week
Unsure if expected good/bad effects on Cheliax/Golarion
Example obvious goods:
- Contraception available not just to wizards, so not relatively selecting against wizards as much
- Regions able to deliberately enter equilibrium of having more resources per child, not more children than resources, leading to possibly higher Intelligence per child
- Regions more able to employ conscious heritage-optimization over themselves, fewer accidental children, more deliberate ones
Example obvious bad:
- Possible relative birth rate crash among whoever can afford Prestidigitation / live in a city

Good idea to proceed?  y/n
Value to Cheliax if successful?   #
Person to ask instead of you?

He then folds it and writes on the outside -

"What was her job title again?"

After being answered:

Viewable only by:  Contessa Lrilatha

Shortly after, there's a knock at the door. 

"Enter," calls Keltham, unaware of any update this might be producing in Carissa.

It's the Imperial envoy who brought them to the palace, and a serious-looking, dignified, middle-aged noblewoman behind him. 

"Announcing the Paracountess Isidre Astrid Asgavan Thrune, here to see Keltham," the envoy says.

"If you have a moment, that is," Isidre Thrune says pleasantly, then looks more serious.  "Or realistically, more like half an hour.  Is this a good time?"

Does lots of names indicate importance?  Keltham remembers mention of very powerful wizards having unreasonably long names.  Oh, and that sure is a big fancy-looking headband she's wearing.

"Works for me if it works for Carissa."

"I am afraid I was hoping to speak to you alone," Isidre Thrune says, half-inclining her head in an apologetic gesture.

Keltham feels vaguely like he's supposed to check with Carissa about this but has managed to pick up the rhyme if not the reason of some Chelish interactions, and does have the ill-formed sense, now, that he's not supposed to ask Carissa's okay to say yes to this.

"All right," Keltham says.

Then he runs a quick Detect Magic to see if he spots anything weird about the envoy, for that small further chunk of probability in case this is a Kuthite plot.  Okay, Keltham thinks that looks like the Arcane Mark of the person who ran a bunch of spells on him last night.

Carissa curties and steps back. 

(From Maillol's reaction she was not expecting they'd be able to get the eighth circle wizard needed for this conversation in today; she's pleasantly surprised.)

The envoy accepts a note for Lrilatha from Keltham.

Isidre Thrune escorts Keltham to a nearby interview room, sumptuously appointed (but not in doompunk), with no external windows.  They will be seated across from one another in luxurious padded chairs (still monstrosities of ergonomics by dath ilani standards), between them an intricately carved round table bearing a variety of exotic snacks and fluted beverages.