(Keltham is adorable.)

(Carissa lights her own hand on fire about this thought since other people seem to be kind of negligent on that.)

She so does not have time for this.

"As Sevar interprets her situation," Isidre says seriously, "if she tried to leave you, and you wanted to keep her anyways, you could tell the government of Cheliax that you wanted to keep and have power over Carissa Sevar, as a condition of your continued cooperation with us.  And then, she thinks, we'd give her to you, to keep you happy."

"This fact is important to her sexuality, it very nearly is her sexuality, and you need to understand that and not blunder into acts or words which cut against it."

Keltham's thoughts show concealed shock and horror, this is exactly the fear he had when Carissa started saying she was giving herself to him, that she wanted something strange that she wasn't saying and that Keltham would prove unable to give her.

He does a pretty good job of controlling his own expression for a Chelish two-year-old.  "Are you saying - are you implying - that I'm with her under false premises?"

What a beautiful opening.  "You're with her under true premises.  She's exactly correct.  I'm not necessarily saying that to encourage you to mistreat her.  But you need to understand, Keltham, there are no sane countries on the face of Golarion that would not do the equivalent of handing over Carissa Sevar to you, or worse, if that was the price of banishing plagues from our cities and growing enough wheat for one farmer to feed two others and closing the Worldwound and offering refuge to women in Osirion who want to leave their husbands and someday, yes, matching the accomplishments and wisdom of dath ilan.  Or, perhaps, the price of what those other countries would ask from you, instead of that.  Giving one woman to you who would not enjoy being so given, would not be something that pleases the modern Chelish government or the Church of Asmodeus that we work with, but we would weigh the price if we did not, and conclude that it was far more than worth it."

"So Carissa Sevar is, in fact, under your de facto power, exactly where she wants to be and needs to be.  The possible problems I foresee, stem from you failing to understand that this is what she needs, this is what she wants, this is how her sexuality works, and that your de facto power to do anything you want with Sevar is part though of course not all of why she started being attracted to you in the first place.  It is in the interest of Cheliax for obvious reasons that you continue to be happy with Carissa, fond of her home country of Cheliax, energized and productive for your project, and not distracted by being heartbroken after what happened when you were always careful to emphasize to Carissa how much she was free to go at any time if she didn't want to stay."

"I... need to think about this," Keltham says.

"I shall wait."

Question 1:  Are they being honest with him, or not?

Subquestion 1.1:  What motive do they have to lie?  How do they gain from tricking him into doing something terrible to Sevar?  It's not like they could threaten him with the revelation of that to Governance, even if they mistakenly think he'd respond to a threat like that.

...and now the tree isn't branching further.  Keltham is having more trouble than usual thinking about this.  Part of himself is recoiling in horror and it's not because the situation being described sounds awful for Carissa, it's because something about it seems terrible and threatening for him.

Is it that he distrusts himself with power?

Is it that he's afraid of pressuring himself into doing something to Carissa that he didn't really want to do, even if she turns out to want it?

Is it that the ENTIRE FUCKING SITUATION IS MANDATORILY ILLEGIBLE WITH NO CAREFULLY OPTIMIZED MESHING GENDERTROPES AND NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO NEGOTIATE ANYTHING IN PLAIN BASELINE?

"How do you know the contents of Carissa's mind in such detail?"

She's picked up, now, on some of the rhythm of Keltham's internal thoughts, has noticed a notion of, what does it predict, did it come true, much plainer in his Baseline thoughts to himself than in Taldane speech to others.

"I know masochists - or rather, 'submissives', which is the more precise term for the relevant part of what Carissa is, correlated with masochism but not identical to it.  I read reports on Sevar and yourself.  I guessed what would happen or rather had probably already happened.  And then I had Security ask Sevar if she had, by any chance, tried to tell you, possibly several times, that you could do anything you want to her - including killing her, if she thought you were ready to hear that part - and she confirmed that it was so.  It is a very mundane form of pattern-seeing that rests on having seen many such relationships play out, rather than on coming here from another world; but it is not, I think, less reliable for that.  To be clear, I am not saying every submissive is like this, but Sevar is, and I can recognize that."

"There are, I suppose, other possible interpretations of why a submissive would give herself entirely to a man, whom she somehow happens to be very attracted to, who coincidentally happens to have de facto absolute-power over her.  But given that Sevar has in any case told you to do anything you want with her, I don't see why you would be worried that I am, say, trying to lure you into doing too much to her, more than she wants, which is itself a rather odd thing for me to try to accomplish."

"The part where her new dominant, that's what you are, does not understand that he has de facto absolute-power over her, where he does not understand that this fact is itself something that she needs in the foundation of her sexuality, seems like something of a Fireball trap waiting to go off in somebody's face.  I am trying to defuse it."

"And the reason that you, and not her, are saying these things to me?"

"First of all, that is itself something you do not make a submissive do, especially one like Sevar.  You don't make her spell out exactly what you could do to take her, in a way that makes it clear you haven't thought of that yourself and would never think of that yourself.  That makes it feel fake to her, like the whole thing is pretend."

"Second of all, I am under the perhaps mistaken impression that she tried to lead you to those answers and you did not listen, perhaps because she was too close to your own age and not wearing a sufficiently impressive-looking intelligence headband."

Keltham tries to think about this.  His mind feels tired.  A dath ilani remains able to complete their thoughts except when under the effect of relatively significant drugs or maybe if they're in the middle of falling asleep, but right now, what his mind patterns are mainly saying is 'Come back to this later and slower.'

"Do you have a recommended course of action for me that's different from what I was doing already," Keltham says.  Part of him suggests that their provided course of action will look a lot like chaining up Carissa and actually raping her a lot and ignoring her (countermanded, if she was still obeying) requests to be let out, he doesn't know why Cheliax would do that but it's what it feels like they're trying to get him to do.

Oh, so he's not a complete fool then, in the sense that there may be a nonfool trapped inside there somewhere.  You should trust your instincts more, Civilized boy.

That business with ordering Carissa never to verbally request that he stop was really quite clever of him, now that his thoughts have run over it; Abrogail can't immediately see a way out of that as a checkmate against the way they were planning to lure him into Evil.  Carissa should've looked sad and told him that an order like that would take the fun out for her, found some excuse to turn him down; as the Keltham expert it was her job to realize what he was really doing there, even if Abrogail didn't realize from the transcript.  If Sevar is worried she's not being punished enough, she can repent her failures there.

"I think, first and foremost, that you should not press yourself too hard or make yourself unhappy by going too far too early, even if that's what Sevar wants," Isidre says, making a sudden change of plans.  "This is an Evil country, not a Good one, and among the foundational reasons for that is that Good people all trying to help each other instead of themselves seem to inevitably end up sad and unhappy at the end of it.  You have a Civilization to build here, Keltham, your role in life is not actually to make Sevar happy.  She is responsible for her own life's happiness, as you are for yours."

"With that said, if you yourself, for your own sake and not hers, decided one day to demand that the government of Cheliax give you absolute-power over her and order our Security to put her forcibly into her chains any time she didn't want to go, Carissa Sevar herself would be very, very happy about that.  But I will quite understand if you do not wish to essay that until you are confident of your ability to discern that happiness for yourself."

"And.  There are other women in Cheliax if Sevar's happiest outcome is not what you want.  You are not obliged to give literally the first girl in this world that you talked to everything that she wants from life, at your own expense.  That is what it means to be Evil rather than Good."

"A further warning.  Sevar is not the most extreme case of what she is.  Pilar Pineda is more submissive than Sevar, substantially more masochistic than Sevar, and would, in a way very strange to you, feel raped if you made her have a careful conversation about sex instead of just forcibly throwing her onto a bed.  My considered opinion is that if you are struggling and flailing with Sevar you are absolutely certainly not ready for Pineda."

Okay, Carissa likes this person, that was the correct thing to tell Keltham there. 

Awww.  Now Abrogail wants to keep the Isidre identity and develop her and let Isidre get closer to Sevar and see if she can get to the point of actual fucking before she drops the guise in the middle.

...but can't possibly actually do that in real life due to being Queen of Cheliax and, yes, busier than that.

Oh, so it's a theorem he's not ready for Pilar, is it?  Keltham's brain automatically tries to generate counterexamples to this totally obviously not-absolute-certainty which Golarion's very smart people seem to foolishly believe; and gets as far as suggesting the visibly non-impossible world where Keltham's own sadistic instincts would kick in and they'd have great sex and it would be fine; before the rest of Keltham's brain tells that subthread to shut up.  One must distinguish the possible from the probable, and what a local un-Lawful very smart person says is absolutely certain may, nonetheless, be a better bet than not-that.

"I believe I understand, but I should take time to mull it over," Keltham says.

"Please do," Isidre says.  "I do have a pending and somewhat awkward further topic, but it seems wise to let this one sink in first."

Keltham starts to reach for one of the snacks, catches himself, and tries a Detect Poison first, now that he has that cantrip.

(Nothing shows up, but then, it's not like he's tried with a known poison to check that the cantrip is working.)

Isidre smiles slightly.  "They do check the food before they serve it to me, you know, let alone to you."

"Why trust what you can verify," Keltham says unapologetically, and eats a snack.

...actually, why did he use Detect Poison, this time, when he didn't think to try it in the dining hall before?

Are his instincts trying to tell him something?  Keltham now wishes he hadn't eaten that snack; but he's at least not going to eat any more.

His brain, still running in the background and creative as ever, suggests that, if this is an eroLARP-ish context and therefore Keltham has a dreadful buried urge to rape somebody which Pilar matches, he could in fact run three Augury spells before trying that, to check what the consequences would be.  Obviously after having first done a bunch more work to verify that the Augury uses his own utility function or a sufficiently aligned neighboring one.

Keltham tells that thread to shut up.  He's starting to doubt this whole eroLARP business if it implies that he would enjoy that.  Anyways the concept of a 'rape fetish' in the sense of 'wanting unwanted sex' is literally paradoxical and the term presumably means something else.

Keltham thinks in such a fascinating way.  Actually, there's something about it that reminds Abrogail of herself contrasted to the way that most people who are not Abrogail don't seem to usually try to be clever, possibly because they expect they'll be punished for trying.  Keltham is all about the cleverness, not in the false artificial way that Abrogail associates with people who are not Abrogail, but in a genuine way that permeates all his thoughts.  He is constantly thinking of ways to make his day even more fun, one might say, if not in quite the same way as herself.

They're also going to have to prevent Keltham from finding out the False Future spell exists.  Can they do something clever with that, with giving him false answers to Auguries?  The trouble is, if you have sufficiently good cause to think you're helping somebody, it may not count as Evil.  Even if Pharasma counts it, it may not help in the sense that it fails to corrupt Keltham in the required way.

"You say," Keltham says, after some further contemplation and letting things sink in, "that you'd give Carissa to me even if she didn't want to go, because the other lives at stake in Cheliax outweighed her life.  Then you do not seem to feel yourself forbidden to do that sort of thing, to override the," deontology meant to be reliable without having to think about it a lot and forcing everyone else to think about it a lot, "rules and protections and guardrails around one life, when many other lives are at stake.  Then inquiring minds might want to know if you would not also, in the event I stopped cooperating with Cheliax, decide to try to keep me here anyways, with so many lives at stake.  If we hadn't made and then formalized an agreement saying otherwise, that is."

And perhaps even if they had made that agreement, because somebody breaking an oath and going to Abaddon over it is maybe still worth it for them.