"Hold still," Maillol says, and delivers three hard, carefully measured punches into the pit of Sevar's stomach.

"You just lost some of the respect I was gaining for you, Sevar," he says when he's done.  "Any spite you hold for him is something you can work on while you're not doing something I told you to do.  Elias, if she acts unprofessional or like she's not taking the exercise seriously, punish her no less than Asmodeus's Law calls for.  Punish her any more and I expect Hell will have something to say about that too, in due time.  Now take this somewhere else."  Maillol has infinity plus one paperworks to file.

Some parlors have been repurposed into common rooms.

"Keltham learns about malediction."

"In general there are spells for changing your alignment to what you want it to be before you die, called Atonement, but they're expensive and really hard to access, so Asmodeus made a Asmodeus-specific one that's cheaper."

"Oh, so it only gets used on people who want to go to Hell?"

"Why in the world would you try to use it on someone who wanted to go somewhere else?? There'd be an enormous god-diplomatic-incident about it, I'd expect!"

"Keltham learns that the girls aren't getting paid."

" - are they not? Fucking pay the girls, we aren't telling any lies that we don't need to."

        Slap. "Not an excuse."

"That's bizarre and I'll go ask site leadership what went wrong immediately."

       "Keltham learns that the girls were drafted."

"When you enlist in the Chelish military you promise to go where you're needed. That is how every military in the world functions; do dath ilan militaries not require such oaths?"

        "Keltham learns that you're getting sex training."

"....well obviously I'm getting sex training, he's had it and I'd like to keep up! Also I figured I should see a professional about my relaxation problem."

         "Keltham learns primary worship of other gods is illegal."

"Primary worship means, like, breaking other local law specifically on the command of foreign gods; it's mentioned as separately illegal from the breaking other local law because most of the general rules about criminal conspiracies don't apply very neatly to criminal conspiracies where you never interact with your co-conspirators and don't know anything about what exactly they're trying to achieve. Obviously if you're not breaking any laws in the first place then what would it even mean to make it illegal to worship a god."

        "Keltham learns Cheliax executes people for lèse-majesté."

"I've never heard of that actually happening. It's a thing people say about kings they dislike and probably at some point in history was true of some of them but Abrogail Thrune's not a thin-skinned maniac whose brain stopped fully functioning thirty years ago, like a lot of kings are, and most king-related abuses are those kings."

       "Keltham learns that the girls sold their souls."

"Most people make arrangements before they die, with a devil who has a specialty they're interested in or who lives in the plane of Hell they want to live in or whatever. The alternative is getting thrown into general processing, which can be slow, when a lot of people die at once, and it can be expensive and take a long time to get somewhere right for you. The girls hadn't yet because they're so young but now they're at elevated risk of death and also have highly secret information so I'm not surprised they made arrangements."

        "Keltham learns that that vision was of Asmodean Hell."

"- Keltham we've got to get out of here - Security'll have scrolls of Teleport on them and I know how to read one, do you have something from your god that'll take someone on Security down if we take them by surprise -"

"I assume there's a plan, from there."

"Well, not yet, but hopefully there will be by the time it's relevant, if it is. - does Security carry scrolls of Teleport, if not I'm not sure how we can make our implausible escape."

        "Sometimes, but we're in a Forbiddance."

"I do have a plan for that, I'm going to fly out with him clinging to me, both invisible, and then cast the Teleport from midair. Luckily no one will see us."

      "That's a lot of thought to have put into your romantic escape with Keltham."

"Look, if you think I'm a traitor it doesn't make any sense to mildly chide me about it, and if you don't then it doesn't make any sense to mildly chide me for looking it."

       "I think you're enough of a chameleon to be a traitor if the circumstances presented themselves. - Keltham finds out you tortured some orphans to death for practice."

"I absolutely have not done that!"

       "Keltham finds out most people don't want to go to Hell."

"Good is popular because they run soup kitchens and orphanages and so on. People think of them as the people who helped them when they needed it. So they want to be Good, but that doesn't actually get you Good, it's not Good itself, it's just vague identification."

       "Keltham finds out you reported people to the authorities for disloyal thoughts."

"Some demons at the Worldwound can fuck with your mind. We have a monitoring system set up to catch anyone who gets infected before they slit all their bunkmates' throats in the night and eat their eyeballs, yes, that has happened, yes, I've reported people for further monitoring who I thought had thought-patterns that might point them that way."

Carissa loves her job. 

Ione doesn't mind this part of her job at all!  In accordance with the general instruction to tell no lies that Security explained to her - apparently Carissa Sevar is running this show now which ??? but fine - Ione is actually remembering and writing her own descriptions, without secretly grabbing the cleric spellbook and cheating.  Though that makes some sense, even; if Ione's descriptions looked too much like the book descriptions, after the book gets 'returned to the library', Keltham might notice.

An hour isn't really much time to write down that many cleric spells and one-sentence descriptions, but here's what Ione's got!

Cantrips / Orisons:

Create Water  --  Creates 2 gallons/level of pure water.
Detect Magic  --  Detects spells and magic items within 60 ft.
Detect Poison  --  Detects poison in one creature or object.
Guidance  --  Touched creature gains +1 on one attack roll, saving throw, or skill check.
Light  --  Object shines like a torch.
Mending  --  Makes minor repairs on an object.
Purify Food and Drink  --  Purifies 1 cu. ft./level of food or water.
Read Magic  --  Read scrolls and spellbooks.
Resistance  --  Touched creature gains +1 on saving throws.
Spark  --  Ignites flammable objects.
Stabilize  --  Cause a dying creature to stabilize.

1st circle:

Air Bubble  --  Creates a small pocket of air around your head or an object. 
Ant Haul  --  Triples carrying capacity of a creature. 
Bane  --  Enemies take –1 on attack rolls and saves against fear. 
Barbed Chains  --  Hellish chains attack and cause a target to become shaken. 
Bless  --  Allies gain +1 on attack rolls and saves against fear. 
Bless Water  --  Makes holy water. 
Cause Fear  --  One creature of 5 HD or less flees for 1d4 rounds. 
Command  --  One subject obeys selected command for 1 round. 
Compel Hostility  --  Compels opponents to attack you instead of your allies. 
Comprehend Languages  --  You understand all spoken and written languages. 
Cure Light Wounds  --  Cures 1d8 damage + 1/level (max +5). 
Curse Water  --  Makes unholy water. 
Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law   --  Reveals creatures, spells, or objects of selected alignment. 
Detect Charm   --  Detect strength and location of charms, compulsions, and possession auras on creatures in the area. 
Detect Life   --  Determine whether a creature is alive or dead.
Detect Demon   --  You sense the presence of a specific kind of evil—that of demons, their servants, and the Abyss. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject. 
Detect Undead   --  Reveals undead within 60 ft. 
Diagnose Disease   --  Detect and identify diseases. 
Doom   --  One subject takes –2 on attack rolls, damage rolls, saves, and checks. 
Endure Elements   --  Exist comfortably in hot or cold regions. 
Hide from Undead  --  Undead can’t perceive one subject/level. 
Infernal Healing  --  Touch a creature with devils blood, giving it fast healing 1. 
Inflict Light Wounds  --  Touch deals 1d8 damage +1/level (max +5). 
Keltham's Truth Spell  --  One touched target can only speak truth.  2 min / caster circle.
Lighten Object  --  Halve the weight of one object for 1 min/level. Size of the object is limited to 1 cubic foot per level. 
Magic Weapon  --  Weapon gains +1 bonus. 
Moment of Greatness  --  Doubles a morale bonus. 
Murderous Command  --  Target is compelled to kill its ally. 
Obscure Poison  --  Make it harder to detect a poison or a venomous creature. 
Obscuring Mist  --  Fog surrounds you. 
Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law  --  +2 to AC and saves, plus additional protection against selected alignment. 
Read Weather  --  Precisely forecast natural weather phenomenon that will occur in your area over the next 48 hours. 
Recharge Innate Magic  --  Regain one use of all 0 and 1st-level spell-like abilities of a racial trait. 
Remove Fear  --  Suppresses fear or gives +4 on saves against fear for one subject + one per four levels. 
Remove Sickness  --  Suppress disease, nausea, and the sickened condition. 
Rite of Bodily Purity  --  You energize your body’s immune system, improving your ability to resist toxins and ailments. 
Sanctuary  --  Opponents can’t attack you, and you can’t attack. 
Shadow Trap  --  You pin the target’s shadow to its current location, causing the target to become entangled and preventing it from moving farther than 5 feet from its original position, as if anchored to the terrain. 
Shield of Faith  --  Aura grants +2 or higher deflection bonus. 
Summon Monster I   --  Summons extraplanar creature to fight for you. 
Touch of Blindness  --  A touch from your hand, which is engulfed in darkness, disrupts a creature’s vision by coating its eyes in supernatural darkness. 

Ione already suspects some of the edits they'll want from her.

2nd circle:

Abeyance  --  You suppress the effects of a curse on a creature.
Aid  --   +1 on attack rolls and saves against fear, 1d8 temporary hp +1/level (max +10).
Alchemical Tinkering  --   Perform one of a limited number of possible alchemical transformations.  
Align Weapon  --   Weapon becomes good, evil, lawful, or chaotic. 
Ancestral Communion   --  You contact your ancestors to bolster your own knowledge. 
Animate Dead, Lesser  --   Create one skeleton or zombie. 
Arrow of Law  --   Harm and possibly daze chaotic creatures. 
Augury  --  Learns whether an action will have good or bad consequences over the next half-hour. 
Bear’s Endurance  --   Subject gains +4 to Con for 1 min./level. 
Bestow Weapon Proficiency  --   Grant a creature proficiency in a single weapon for short period of time. 
Blood Blaze  --   Aura that makes injured creatures spray burning blood. 
Book Ward  --   As protection from energy, except lasting 1 day/level instead of 10 minutes per level and that the spell only protects against acid and fire damage (and while energy protection remains, the item is also completely waterproof). 
Bull’s Strength  --   Subject gains +4 to Str for 1 min./level. 
Calm Emotions  --   Calms creatures, negating emotion effects. 
Conditional Favor   --  Provide another spell whose effects reverse if the target breaks a restriction. 
Consecrate  --  Fills area with positive energy, weakening undead. 
Cure Moderate Wounds  --   Cures 2d8 damage + 1/level (max +10). 
Curse Terrain, Lesser  --  Curse an area with three mild hazards. 
Darkness   --  20-ft. radius of supernatural shadow. 
Death Knell  --   Kills dying creature; you gain 1d8 temporary hp, +2 to Str, and +1 caster level. 
Delay Disease  --  Gain immunity to disease for 24h. 
Delay Pain  --   Ignore pain for 1 hour/level. 
Delay Poison  --   Stops poison from harming target for 1 hour/level. 
Desecrate  --  Fills area with negative energy, making undead stronger. 
Detect Magic, Greater  --   As detect magic, but learn more information. 
Dread Bolt  --   Harm and possibly sicken good creatures. 
Dress Corpse   --  Doctor the evidence on a corpse. 
Eagle’s Splendor  --   Subject gains +4 to Cha for 1 min./level. 
Early Judgement  --   Show creatures a glimpse of their judgement in the afterlife. This fascinates good, confuses neutral, and shakes evil creatures. 
Effortless Armor  --   Armor you wear no longer slows your speed. 
Enthrall  --   Captivates all within 100 ft. + 10 ft./level. 
Find Traps  --   Notice traps as a rogue does. 
Flotsam Vessel   --  Creates a sturdy raft and oars from driftwood, reeds, and other river detritus. 
Gentle Repose  --   Preserves one corpse.
Grace  --   Movement doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity.
Hold Person  --   Paralyzes one humanoid for 1 round/level.
Inflict Moderate Wounds  --   Touch attack, 2d8 damage + 1/level (max +10).
Ironskin  --  Your skin hardens and takes on the color and texture of rough iron.
Lay of the Land  --   In a flash of recognition, you learn about the geography of your surroundings within a radius of 1 mile per 2 caster levels (minimum 1 mile). This instant familiarity grants you an insight bonus equal to your caster level (maximum +5) on Knowledge (geography) checks and Survival checks to avoid getting lost so long as you remain in the affected area.
Make Whole  --   Repairs an object.
Marching Chant   --  Allies can hustle without penalty while you sing or chant.
Masterwork Transformation  --  Make a normal item into a masterwork one.
Muffle Sound  --   Allies gain a bonus on Stealth checks but risk verbal spell failure.
Owl’s Wisdom  --   Subject gains +4 to Wis for 1 min./level.
Pilfering Hand   --  You may seize an object or manipulate it from afar.
Remove Paralysis  --   Frees creatures from paralysis or slow effect.
Resist Energy  --   Ignores 10 (or more) points of damage/attack from specified energy type.
Restoration, Lesser  --   Dispels magical ability penalty or repairs 1d4 ability damage.
Sense Fear   --  Perceive nearby creatures that are experiencing fear.
Sense Madness  --   Determine mental disturbances in nearby creatures.
Share Language  --   Subject understands chosen language.
Shatter   --  Sonic vibration damages objects or crystalline creatures.
Silence  --   Negates sound in 20-ft. radius.
Silent Table   --  Give yourself privacy by muffling sound.
Spell Gauge  --   Reveal a number of spells – lowest first – that the target creature knows, up to your caster level.
Status  --   Monitors condition, position of allies.
Summon Monster II   --  Summons extraplanar creature to fight for you.
Suppress Charms and Compulsions  --   You can grant a bonus to saving throws against charms and compulsions or suppress an existing, in-effect charm or compulsion.
Track Ship  --   Track a ship's location and movement with the aid of a nautical chart and a piece of the ship to be tracked.
Undetectable Alignment  --   Conceals alignment for 24 hours.

She writes down spells like Augury and Conditional Favor on a separate piece of scrap, since her guess is that those spells won't get passed, and if she guesses right she can maybe save herself rewriting the whole list.

3rd circle:

Agonize  --  Pain encourages an outsider to obey you.

(Would that spell work on Keltham himself?)

Animate Dead  -- Creates undead skeletons and zombies.
Aura Sight  --   Alignment auras become visible to you.
Bestow Curse  --  –6 to an ability score; –4 on attack rolls, saves, and checks; or 50% chance of losing each action.

It's at this point that Ione gets interrupted to ask for her current draft, Ione realizes she lost track of time, and Ione frantically tries to write down at least some 3s and 4s while her 0s, 1s, and 2s get reviewed.

Continual Flame  --  Makes a permanent, heatless light.
Create Food and Water   --  Feeds three humans (or one horse)/level. 
Cure Serious Wounds  --   Cures 3d8 damage + 1/level (max +15).
Dispel Magic   --  Cancels one magical spell or effect.
Inflict Serious Wounds  --   Touch attack, 3d8 damage + 1/level (max +15). 
Invisibility Purge  --   Dispels invisibility within 5 ft./level.
Locate Object   --  Senses direction toward object (specific or type).
Planar Inquiry   --  This spell calls a creature from another plane to your precise location, functioning like lesser planar ally except as noted.

Why is she thinking of so many spells they shouldn't tell him about!

Remove Blindness/Deafness   --  Cures normal or magical blindness or deafness. 
Remove Curse   --  Frees object or person from curse. 
Remove Disease  --   Cures all diseases affecting subject.
Stone Shape  --   Sculpts stone into any shape. 
Summon Monster III   --  Summons extraplanar creature to fight for you.
Vision of Hell  --   Illusory hellscape makes creatures shaken.
Water Walk  --   Subject treads on water as if solid. 
Wind Wall   --  Deflects arrows, smaller creatures, and gases

4th circle:

Aura of Doom  --   Creatures in your aura become shaken.
Conditional Curse   --  Bestow a curse that is difficult to remove without fulfilling a condition.
Control Summoned Creature   --  Direct a summoned monster as if you had summoned it.
Control Water   --  Raises or lowers bodies of water.
Cure Critical Wounds  --   Cures 4d8 damage + 1/level (max +20).
Death Ward   --  Grants bonuses against death spells and negative energy.
Dimensional Anchor  --   Bars extradimensional movement.
Discern Lies   --   Reveals deliberate falsehoods.
Dismissal  --   Forces a creature (like Keltham??) to return to native plane.
Enchantment Foil  --   Trick opponents who try to cast enchantments on you.
False Future  --   Cause divinations of the future to reveal the result you choose.
Glimpse of Beyond  --  Reveal hidden things and shapechanged creatures, peer into Ethereal
Infernal Healing, Greater  --   Touch a creature with devils blood, giving it fast healing 4.
Inflict Critical Wounds   --  Touch attack, 4d8 damage + 1/level (max +20).
Make Whole, Greater   --  Repairs 1d6 +1 points per caster level on a construct (maximum 10d6+10) and can fix destroyed magic items or technological items (items at 0 hit points or fewer), and restores the magic properties of the item if your caster level at least equal to that of the item. This spell otherwise functions as make whole.
Malediction  --  Fuck with the entire afterlife system and send a paladin to the Abyss, it's not like Pharasma really gives a shit.
Neutralize Poison   --  Immunizes subject against poison, detoxifies venom in or on subject.
Planar Ally, Lesser  --   Exchange services with a 6 HD extraplanar creature.

Or is that safe to tell him about, now that they're under Forbiddance anyways?
No, because Keltham might ask to walk outside under guard for a few minutes.

Sending   --  Delivers short message anywhere, instantly, to someone the caster is familiar with.
Summon Monster IV  --   Summons extraplanar creature to fight for you.
Tongues  --   Speak and understand any language.

Aaaaaand she's out of time, Security wants her later drafts too.

Ione, on reflection, is feeling concerned about Cheliax's chances of fooling Keltham if Abadar grants more carefully-chosen spells like Abadar's Truthtelling.  The Asmodeans may be out of their depth here; possibly she, as a smarter Nethysian, should actually grab that library book and start working out strategies for Cheliax to follow if Abadar grants Keltham a spell like Lesser Planar Ally, or a Conditional Favor that Keltham uses with a condition of 'don't lie to me'.

Well, Asmodeus isn't actually stupid like some of His worshippers, Ione doesn't think.  Maybe He'll grant the clerics here appropriate spells like False Future in case Keltham gets Augury, and Undetectable Alignment in case Keltham uses Aura Sight on Ione, and obviously Spell Gauge so they're not caught off-guard by what Keltham receives... though Spell Gauge only goes up to 3rd circle, and you'd need a 7th-circle caster to get all of Keltham's spells up to there...

Does Cheliax have a plan B?  Is Ione part of it?  She's an obvious person that Keltham might try to whisper to, if Keltham notices something wrong.  She should ask about that later.

Security comes and takes a look and adds back in Aura Sight, since he already knows that it exists (but not Invisibility Purge, since ideally it wouldn't look like they added everything he knows exists.) Other than that they're satisfied. 

"Is there a plan if Keltham gets suspicious of something and wants to talk to me about it?" Ione says, as she starts to recopy that particular page.  "Voice of reassurance, worried ally who'll help him investigate?"

"Help him investigate; if he wants to flee, flee with him, but convince him that no other church or government is worth going to either. There'll be a more detailed briefing on the plan and various contingencies in the morning."

Oh.

Ohhhh.

Lord Nethys does have some secret plan that encompasses His intricate understanding of every move that lesser beings make, thinking their choices their own.

Going to fantastic lengths to make sure Keltham can get five books a day faster than Security could order them from Chelish libraries... doesn't make that much sense as the sole object of an expensive divine intervention, so Ione had supposed that she was going to be there to influence Keltham in a subtle way, or maybe see something that Asmodeans wouldn't see because they're too busy gouging each other's eyes out.

"If you get Keltham to flee to a remote wilderness hideout, or some old dungeon that's blocked from scrying, he's not going to get much research done unless he has a library oracle with him," Ione observes.  "Keltham knows that.  He'll come to me early on.  Maybe first.  I'll need enough books to turn some room wherever I go, into a library... I think one full bookshelf should do it, but two would be better."  She wants to ask, rather acerbically, if any Asmodean even noticed that their plan wouldn't work without Lord Nethys propping it up, but she is not quite that courageous yet.

"Yes. We're creating modified books as fast as we can; I'll try to get you a list. If you have thoughts on a plausible use of your powers to help Keltham escape, we want that to look organic and not strikingly lucky."

"I can't directly travel through Polyfractal Library Space until I'm more powerful," Ione replies before she quite realizes what she's been asked.

Keltham is still trying not to access any audiovisual memories of his vision of - wherever, whatever, that was.  Probably not literally a video, because, because you probably shouldn't be able to scry like that across a Forbiddance okay blatant rationalization but it creates a self-consistent branch of reality he can tell his emotions to shelter inside while he absorbs the blow.

By way of distraction, he first wrote down memory-anchors for all his pending sex questions to submit to Carissa later while they're not in the middle of sex - this being, in dath ilan, a completely reasonable and well-known tactic to overcoming the distracting conversations that are the fundamental obstacle to sex.  Plus, he needed to do that before they slipped his mind.

Currently, he's trying to invent a signaling code that his god can use to send him information via that god choosing Keltham's spells.

Since he doesn't have his spell list yet, what Keltham can do right now is note down which conditions he would like to distinguish, which is in any case a good first step for designing a code.

The first thing he should do is reserve a condition for "my god can't communicate with me in this way".  Arguendo:  This could obviously be done by expending one spell slot to signal just 'this communication channel works at all', which spell's absence then means that nothing else worked.  Counter-arguendo: that might be redundant if the other consistent states of the code seem sufficiently unlikely to arise by chance or optimization around other criteria, since the absence of a consistent code state would automatically imply channel failure; Keltham isn't going to pick some intricate code that makes full use of every possible bit of information in every spell choice, since that might not make it across the 'prayer' communication medium going the other direction.  Counter-counter-arguendo:  During initial establishment of this communications channel, probably a lot of bits should be expended on error codes.  Suppose for now that some very exotic spell gets picked to signal the condition 'this works as a communication channel at all', and its absence indicates failure of the whole scheme.

Or maybe, if he gets a long enough spell list, he can have a choice of four otherwise unused spells, signaling:

Question 1:  Does this communications channel work?

Spell 1.1:  This communications channel should work fine.
Spell 1.2:  This communications channel works at all, but may have errors.
Spell 1.3:  This communications channel is very expensive.  Use it very sparingly.
Spell 1.4:  This communications channel is both expensive and error-prone.
1.(none of the above):  Basic channel failure.

Plus actually:

Spell 1.5:  Some element of the code you used is problematic.  Try again with a different code.  Other spells received should not be interpreted.

And Keltham should not ask too many questions, on the rest of this first try, before he finds out whether cases 1.3/1.4 hold.

What does he really really need to know?

Question 2:  What overall strategy is appropriate to his current situation?

Spell 2.1:  Take your current situation at face value and cooperate with the surrounding project.
Spell 2.2:  Your current situation is not what it seems, use tomorrow's code for more info; but it's still good to go on doing research.
Spell 2.3:  Exercise your supposed right to leave, as soon as you can use tomorrow's code to figure out where to go.  Stall them on more valuable info in the meanwhile.
Spell 2.4:  They wouldn't actually let you leave.  Ask about escape or other options using tomorrow's code.  Stall info.
Spell 2.5:  You are in imminent danger.  IMMEDIATELY ask to leave your current location and go somewhere else in Cheliax or a Lawful Neutral country if accessible, taking with only Carissa as a guide and not telling anyone else where you're going.
Spell 2.none:  None of those are good ways of looking at it.

Keltham has of course realized that there's variants of 2.5 which imply he shouldn't take Carissa with him either; but if the situation is that bad, they won't just let him leave; and if they won't just let him leave, he's going to need more communication to figure out what he should do instead.  It's not like he can see any obvious escape plan as things stand.

Actually, now that Keltham thinks about it... he was planning to use a more elaborate code, and ask more questions besides those two; but maybe he shouldn't even be asking any more than this, on a first try at a channel.  It might not support that much weight.

Well, that does leave some room to potentially factor things, and maybe Keltham's own communications will be a bit clearer if he considers more branch points and fewer total leaves.

Version two:

Question 1:  Does this communications channel work?

Spell 1.1:  This channel works.
Spell 1.none:  Total channel failure.

Question 2:  Is this channel significantly expensive to Keltham's god?

Spell 2.1:  Yes.
Spell 2.2:  A little expensive, use it only as needed.
Spell 2.3:  Not at all, use it lots.
Spell 2.none:  Wrong question / channel failure / this question wasn't worth answering.

Question 3:  Is this channel error-prone or noisy?

Spell 3.1:  No.
Spell 3.2:  Yes, be careful.
Spell 3.3:  It fails only negatively; you may miss a spell you should have got, but not receive one you shouldn't have received.
Spell 3.none:  Wrong question / channel failure / not enough priority.

Question 4:  Could this channel handle more complex codes tomorrow?

Spell 4.1:  Yes.
Spell 4.none:  No or not priority.

Question 5:  Should you be cooperating with your apparent coworkers, or stalling them on things that are really valuable/dangerous?

Spell 5.1:  Cooperate at least for tomorrow, inquire in more detail later.
Spell 5.2:  Begin stalling, inquire in more detail later.

This question is sufficiently important that 5.none is a good candidate for just signaling total comms failure, but redundancy.

The other variations on v1's Question 2 don't actually imply any immediate change of policy besides stalling, except of course for:

Question 6:  Imminent danger at current location?

Spell 6.1:  Yes.  Flee with Carissa and tell nobody else where you're going.
Spell 6.none:  Carrying out 6.1 wouldn't be a net improvement.

...that's actually 11 total spells to take on signaling meaning, compared to version 1... okay, the fine detail in spell 3.3 is not something he needs to know literally during initial handshake, which cuts v.2 down to ten spells total, and makes it superior to v.1 because of the lower local branching, clearer meanings, and more critical meta-info being conveyed earlier.  Besides eliminating Spell 3.3, are there other improvements to be made here?

Actually, eliminating 2/8ths of the total code seems like the sort of thing that could easily cross some key threshold for feasibility on the first try, so if he cuts down on Q2...

Version three, probably final:

Question 1:  Does this communications channel work?

Spell 1.1:  This channel works.
Spell 1.none:  Total channel failure.

Question 2:  Is this channel significantly expensive to Keltham's god?

Spell 2.1:  Not at all, use it lots.
Spell 2.none:  Yes / somewhat / wrong question / channel failure.

Question 3:  Is this channel error-prone or noisy?

Spell 3.1:  No.
Spell 3.2:  Yes, be careful.
Spell 3.none:  Yes / wrong question / channel failure / not enough priority.

Actually on further reflection, he doesn't really need 3.2 here either, since 3.none can safely convey that information mixed into a wider bucket.

Question 4:  Could this channel handle more complex codes tomorrow?

Spell 4.1:  Yes.
Spell 4.none:  No or not priority.

On yet further reflection, Keltham can just ask this question tomorrow, if he gets a 'no' on things being noisy.  If 'yes' on things being noisy, but not expensive, he should construct a redundant code tomorrow instead of a complicated one.

Question 4:  Should you be cooperating with your apparent coworkers, or stalling them on things that are really valuable/dangerous?

Spell 4.1:  Cooperate at least for tomorrow, inquire in more detail later.
Spell 4.2:  Begin stalling, inquire in more detail later.
Spell 4.none:  Redundant signal of total channel failure.

Question 5:  Imminent danger at current location?

Spell 5.1:  Yes.  Flee with Carissa and tell nobody else where you're going.
Spell 5.none:  Carrying out 5.1 wouldn't be a net improvement and/or this channel element failed.

Okay, this is a code Keltham can believe in, relative to his own level of design ability.  It frontloads the most important meta-questions first, delays as many complications as possible beyond the fragile first attempt, and only requires him to keep five questions and six spell-meanings in mind to communicate across his own side of the 'prayer' channel.

Keltham goes to seek the spell list from Ione.