Great.  Keltham didn't realize he was giving that away based on duration - should've realized, some spells he was reading had similar timing-by-caster-circle - but too late.  "Over soon enough, then."

This next part is embarrassing.  But if anybody catches you covering up an embarrassing mistake, that's much more undignified.  And if you do it by violating something you were deontologically obligated to do, that is a lot more serious.  So it doesn't particularly occur to Keltham not to do what he does next.  He owes somebody a favor, and so he must -

"Also, and I'm sorry about this, your names all sound unhelpfully similar in my native language, there's two of them per person, and you don't wear convenient labels stating them so - can somebody else say what's her name, again?  So I know who it is I owe a favor?"

"That's Tonia Barrero," someone else says. "Should we, uh, wear labels with our names on them, we can -"

Tonia Barrero.  Tonia Barrero.  Tonia Barrero.

"Yes, please, actually.  It'll speed up my ability to, uh, recognize you individually.  So long as we're throwing around truth spells and clearing the air, you all - from my perspective - have a lot of collisions inside the same corner of the appearance volume.  I expect if there were dath ilani here, a lot of them would look to you like they were the same person as me, because the facial recognition area of your brain wouldn't be trained to distinguish over the variances there?  And on that embarrassing note, I think my next step is to sign a preliminary agreement on disclosure of basic info, before I can come back here and disclose some basic info to y'all."

The girls seem mostly nonfazed by this and carefully tear paper out of their notebooks to pin to their uniform lapels. 

"Tian people all look the same to Avistani people," Meritxell Narbona says. "But if you say that to them they'll say, what, he's obviously from a completely different country -"

Tonia Barrero sits down in a way that is only a little bit like collapsing to the ground. 

Carissa is pretty sure that the team of people who finagled that Truth-Spell sequence are decompressing right now and unlikely to be giving her advice, which is inconvenient, because this seems like a situation where some advice would come in handy.

That looked like Abadar's symbol. She has seen it at the Worldwound, His clerics use it as a spellcasting focus.

Abadar is Lawful Neutral. Which fits, Keltham thinks he's Chaotic Evil but he's really not very evil except by comparison to his society which sounds unbearably Good and he's really not Chaotic except by comparison with - with Lawful outsiders that don't have free will. 

Abadar and Asmodeus get along. They have similar goals, insofar as humans can understand god-goals. They want civilization, they want cities, they want agreements and they want those agreements enforced. This should be good news, except - if Abadar was reasonably pleased with how things were proceeding, he would not have dropped four cleric circles on Keltham. That's a thing you do if you might want to fight your way out. Maybe Abadar's offended that they're lying to Keltham? In which case, wow, they just dug that hole really really deep, there's no credible way to not lie to Keltham at this point - her fault, she's the one who initially decided to elide everything that usually makes foreigners look pityingly at you, and she's not sure she can explain that decision and presumably everyone important didn't just go "oh, we'll follow Carissa's lead" but maybe she constrained their options -

- she's scared -

- well. Not saying anything about the symbol is not the thing a cooperative Carissa would do in this situation but it's not incontrovertible evidence of hiding something, Abadar has lots of symbols and it's not like she's been to one of His churches. - though also she won't be able to explain why she obviously hasn't been to one of his churches, she has a feeling Keltham will disapprove of gods that ban the worship of other gods, on the same sort of utterly bizarre grounds that he disapproves of ...she's tempted to gloss it as 'people in authority acting in their self-interest' but is entirely sure he'd object to that characterization -

"We should look up the symbol," she says as a middle ground. "I could swear I've seen it somewhere before."

Keltham looks away from Tonia Barrero - he'll think later about likelihood ratios for whether that's an appropriate amount of stress for somebody to display while under truthspell by an alien you're not planning to betray, that also would've been a nice thing to decide in advance instead of in hindsight but oh well - to Carissa.  "Yeah, let's - get somebody on that, I guess?  Also Carissa - if you're the right person to ask this - how do we go set in motion the thing where I meet a proper government authority and sign a baseline contract governing credit for the disclosure of ideas too basic to be proprietary?  No point in wasting time about that part, and until it's done, all I can do is read books, or I guess maybe try studying wizard magic earlier in the day rather than later."

"I'll check on that," she says. "I suspect they're here and just waiting for you to want them." And she turns around and walks out like she knows where she's going, because presumably security will intercept her soon enough.

They do. 

"He wants to sign a -"

       "We heard."

"Do you know what god that might be?" Obviously they do, but even here where he can't plausibly hear them it's smarter to say it this way.

       "We're looking into it." 

So no decision yet on what to tell him. "Do you need my help?"

        "I don't think so. Why don't you walk Contessa Lrilatha in."

Fuck fuck fuck fuck that's the devil provided personally by Asmodeus to the Queen as an advisor why is Carissa here she is so much likelier to die horribly than she was three days ago and she did not evaluate her escape options at all, she was thinking about how to make it work rather than whether there was still an opening to stay clear of it, and now there isn't. "I'd be delighted," she says immediately.

While waiting for Carissa to come back, Keltham tries to dismiss his own truth spell, if that's a thing he can do.  He tries not to give any outward sign; maybe if they cast an illusion, but the real truth-compulsion is a kind of spell he can dispel at will, the hypothetical illusion-casters won't know to remove their illusion.

The spell does not seem to vanish.

Another datapoint to check later.

...what did he think of that whole affair?  Is it likely that they had an illusion spell, plus whatever it takes to defeat Greater Detect Magic, ready and prepped by some wizard hiding behind the library walls or out of phase with the material world?  Just in case the alien suddenly turned into at least a second-circle cleric who had both a truth spell and Greater Detect Magic, which is apparently itself not a thing that happens very often?

Definitely Governance in dath ilan is competent enough to have prepared for everything they can possibly prepare for, if for some reason they need to do something of the sort.  But Golarion does not have their shit together the way that dath ilan does... and if intelligence around here caps out at Keltham's level... would Keltham have managed to prepare against every contingency like that?  Maybe.  And intelligence headbands are a thing too, supposedly.

Like a lot of other things, it's hard for him to guess, but at least it's evidence.

He does have a certain intuitive sense that - somebody actually under a truth spell - should have stumbled over herself a little more than Tonia did, occasionally getting blocked on bad phrasings or whatever?  After he started asking real questions, she didn't sound quite the same as when he was asking the test questions.  But that is also something he can check by truthspelling himself later.  And the trouble is if you go looking for enough tiny signs like that, you will eventually find some, whether they exist or not.

Contessa Llilratha is a stunningly beautiful woman with sharp cheekbones and a twelve foot wingspan. The wings are feathered and black. Even without them she'd look a little inhuman. She says nothing to Carissa, which in Carissa's opinion is the best thing that has happened to her all day, and proceeds to the library to meet Keltham. Even folded, the wings make it impossible to walk abreast with her in these hallways; Carissa walks behind.

They enter the library. 

"You said you wished to negotiate a contract with the Executive collective of Cheliax regarding formal and informal rights of information and its dissemination.  I am Contessa Lliratha, advisor from Hell to the Chief Executive of Cheliax, and my signature is binding upon the Executive collective of Cheliax." Contessa Lliratha says in Baseline.

(Carissa casts an extremely discreet Tongues of her own so she can follow what's going on.)

Okay whoa they do not go out of their way to avoid sexual superstimuli around here, because that is the hottest humanoid Keltham has seen ever.  She's dressed in what he guesses to be the local equivalent of body armor, and makes it look better than would be legal in most cities outside of a Shop of Ill-Advised Consumer Goods.  There's something about her that makes the armor look more dangerous than dath ilani actresses in movies have ever managed to do with their own body armor, as seen by him across a screen.  Keltham has never realized before that he would like to add that to his list of positive mate qualities.

(Keltham is not even remotely considering hitting on her; she's busy, and Keltham hasn't proven himself anywhere near that far and knows it.  She might also not be of a species that can mate with his, come to think.)

Keltham tilts his head in a brief but formal dath ilani gesture of acknowledgment, such as would be appropriate for a medium-size business owner greeting a Legislator.  Markers in Baseline say that 'Contessa' is her title, not her name, but he has no idea what that title means; it didn't translate.  "I'll endeavor to waste your time as little as possible, and apologize in advance for those inevitable wastes of time that will occur anyways due to my profound ignorance of this world and uncalibration over how cautious I need to be.  I observe that your physiology is outside of what I know as the human range-of-observed-variation; if your cognitive-psychology is correspondingly outside the human range-of-observed-variation, is there anything I should know about that to make this conversation proceed quickly and effectively?"

Being able to speak Baseline again is a relief; he can say what he actually means, and not have that come out in enormous long sentences full of enormous words.

"I am a devil; unlike humans devils are uniformly Lawful Evil and do not tend to possess internal contradicting impulses. Devils possess a correspondingly better understanding of Law but it is reported your society has gone unprecedentedly far in inculcating that in mortals anyway. Do you prefer these negotiations happen unobserved, or that witnesses commit to not sharing their contents?"

Keltham restrains himself from asking how Golarion manages to be this messed up if there is anyone sane around; she's a busy woman.  "I would wish the outputs of the negotiation to be witnessed in their translation.  If these negotiations are to be carried out in Baseline, it makes no obvious difference to me whether incomprehensible words are witnessed or not.  You may optimize this for your own convenience, or for the benefit of, or protection of, those who would otherwise witness it."

"Your security has translation magic readily available to them and by default would observe you."

"I again have no objection."  Keltham isn't even sure why she feels the need to clarify this point... well, there's one possible hypothesis?  "I do not intend to conduct myself in any fashion I would not wish known widely and written in history."

She smiles very slightly. "My understanding is that you possess information - on, among other things, teaching mortals Lawfulness - and that you wish to negotiate terms under which it will be disseminated within Golarion, subject to whatever restrictions are necessary to protect peoples' safety here?"

Keltham starts dumping his local utility function, step one of expeditious negotiations.  "It seems to me in my ignorance that this world is faced with a problem, the Worldwound, which requires of it a superior level of collective competence, on pain of its possible destruction.  I have information that will perhaps be helpful for this; should I succeed in conveying such, I wish to capture for myself some small but fair fraction of those gains.  I may, then, sell some of my information, of that type which would soon be profitable to its possessor, and perhaps sell it excludably to that possessor alone for as long as it takes to be rediscovered elsewhere."

"But of the types of information I have in my possession, it seems to me that there is much information which would and should end up disseminated beyond Cheliax even in the short term, having the character of truly basic knowledge that is the foundation of too much else and too much further research, as may need to happen in other places for the Worldwound to be expeditiously defeated.  Nor is it likely in the long run that this world shall converge to an equilibrium in which Cheliax alone knows the more advanced equivalents of basic math.  Nor is it particularly appealing to me that many people of Golarion in the long run should end up ignorant, even if I gained twice as much money thereby; if I am at all useful and I capture the smallest fraction of the resulting gains, I expect to saturate my uses for money, and so the remainder of my utility is in my concern for the aesthetics of my deeds.  Even if Asmodeus deemed it in his interests that Chelish alone know the ways of Law-aspiring thought, a hundred and forty-four years hence, it is not yet obvious to me that this is my own interest in the affair.  Then much of the information I have, forming the foundation of that which I wish to sell, is that which should be disseminated; and though it not be sold exclusively, I would yet wish the credit to myself, and to my world which taught me, for the sharing of that knowledge and the benefits it brings.  Such gratuities as might be legally due to it, would be due to myself, with middleman's fees to Cheliax only for that part which Cheliax actually played; and such informal gratitude as might be due, would be known to be credited to Keltham of dath ilan, and to Cheliax accurately for whichever role it actually played in conveying that information further."

"And yet it has been observed to me by Carissa Sevar that I am ignorant of this world and may not understand the consequences of sharing such information.  Nor have I the experience to negotiate a lasting contract with confidence.  As a hedge against both this folly of mine, and the imperfect overlap of our interests, I had thought to suggest a baseline contract establishing a point of departure and next-best alternative to renegotiated agreement, under which information I share freely with Cheliax must be made available to those factions which presently contribute to the fight at the Worldwound, after a period of one month, known to have come from Keltham of dath ilan with the help of Cheliax; unless that contract is renegotiated before then; with exceptions for such information as may be designated infohazardous by a majority vote of whichever Worldwound-fighting deities, known to be able to speak on the subject, may make their opnions known on that subject.  And then if that turns out to be stupid and you can make me see it's stupid, it could be renegotiated before the month was up.  This would not be the only contract that needed signing, but it would let me get started on teaching the basic structure of reality and the way of Law-aspiring thought, while I gained the knowledge and confidence to sign other contracts."

"I suspect the aesthetically satisfying way of doing this in your world would not be aesthetically satisfying in ours, either in implementation or in results. 

Cheliax lets people in. If they hear we are doing something better than what everyone else is doing, and they come here, or go to a church of Asmodeus somewhere else, and they say they want to come here, or want to learn these things, we would not hesitate to teach them.

There are a dozen things that I can think of offhand that could go wrong with telling those nations at the Worldwound whatever your procedures are, but to name two representative ones, there are organizations at the Worldwound that do not make and will not keep commitments. There are also organizations that will try but not be very good at it. There isn't a meaningful difference between 'the organizations at the Worldwound get it' and everyone getting it, except in who is getting a head start. 

Taldor mostly sends criminals to the Worldwound, to be rid of them, and I think some people there are there for taking part in an effort to overthrow the government of Taldor, and it seems likely that if they were more capable and possessed with a valuable resource they could trade onward there would be a war.

Aside from that, it's a fine set of people to get a head start if we want to give it to everyone at all, which I am uncertain of. The society you describe is different from ours, in many ways, and it seems possible that the ideas you are describing do not work as the foundation for a society of humans without some other behind the scenes implementation, screening or emergency-response we don't have.

Asmodeus thinks Cheliax should chance it. But if Cheliax chances it and then it's a terrible idea, Chelish provinces will break off to be independent, or Chelish people will leave for somewhere else. If you do this everywhere, there won't be a somewhere else."

...This is exactly how Keltham expects a Very Serious Person to talk.  It stands in extremely sharp contrast to the gibberish written in the library books.  It's making Keltham wonder whether this is sheer convergent evolution of agents who think more sanely - or if somebody is precogging him, or reading his mind, or if something smarter than human looked at transcripts of everything he's said and deduced what sort of arguments he would respond to.

Also, why must everything in Golarion be such a mess why why why.

Okay.  Do they have obvious incentives?  Yes.  They have obvious incentives coming out of their ass.  They probably do not think Keltham is not supposed to notice this.  Lrilatha has met smart people ever and possibly met Asmodeus.

Is Keltham going to ignore reasonable depictions of potential catastrophe because they could be incentivized lies?  Realistically, no.  That would be wantonly stupid in possible worlds that are way too large to act wantonly stupid inside them.

"Suppose I put to you as an alternative suggestion that Lawful factions at the Worldwound receive such information, and may of course restrict its use while testing is underway in Cheliax, should they themselves deem that wise."

"Is this the kind of information that could plausibly leak through carelessness, or forgetfulness of the exact terms under which it was shared, or intoxicated pillow talk, or would it be impossible to share unwisely with someone who plausibly should not be an early recipient without soberly and deliberately deciding it was a good idea to teach them?"

"I do not understand your people and their prior knowledge base well enough to guess what is memetically contagious over a significant fraction of the population.  I would not have thought the basic concepts difficult, and yet the process by which they were imbued in me does in retrospect involve training from earliest childhood.  That training being absent here, the inspiration of Law is also absent to a degree that baffled and shocked me.  Perhaps Law is not so contagious, even if what I try to teach for redistribution is only the most basic elements of Law-aspiring thinking for human beings and the most simple features of reality.  It is hard for me to see the pathway by which people becoming saner would leave them worse off - as you may or may not already know, the Law itself proclaims that should not happen among agents already Law-abiding - but Golarion is - still very baffling to me.  I had not thought to share dangerous information, I was not in my own society one of those who held dangerous information in their keeping.  But if what is not dangerous to us, is dangerous to you - I don't know.  I haven't considered good concrete examples.  Do you have one in mind?"

"The information in combination with a particular set of values persuades most people to immediately commit suicide and mortals get aggressively selected for inability to understand Law. - it seems possible to me that this has already happened or something adjacent is an operative constraint on our mortal population in some form. The information in combination with a particular set of values persuades some people that the universe ought to be destroyed and they should aid Rovagug in escaping, or otherwise try to bring about its destruction ...people do decide that and try that sometimes and, obviously, always fail, but until a century ago the gods had Foresight and so there was not even the chance they would succeed. Now the gods don't have Foresight and it is required that the cultists not be competent."