"And all of them lie constantly all of the time so that is clearly not one of their principles! Whatever. Say you need a local guide in Golarion and you already have rapport with her, that is true enough. Though I am not even sure it would be a lie that you are somewhat attached, either. Anyway. I have to leave now to go negotiate with Evil people for you." 

Nayoki storms out.

She's going to have to put some redirects on herself, before trying this, just to be somewhat less incandescently furious. But...not just yet. 

"We agree to everything you asked," Ebet is saying to the cleric, "but we'd like you to promise not to mindread our people, put compulsions on them, or try sneaking into secure areas. ...We'll be taking our own precautions, of course, but since in your world giving your word seems to mean something, I might as well ask." 

“Giving your word means something everywhere,” Hulien says. “I hope that we can teach more people what it means, here. You have my word that I, and my subordinates, will not read your peoples’ minds, or leave the areas we have been permitted to go except in the course of leaving your facilities entirely, or use mind altering magic on them or in a location where it would likely affect them, for the duration of our stay with you for healing magic and negotiations.”

Ebet ducks his head. "I appreciate that." 

Leareth sighs. 

He asks one of the Healers to do that Healing trick that will make him more alert for a couple of minutes– yes, he understands it's bad for him right now and will slow his recovery and possibly cause more damage, he doesn't care, the whole point of this is that hopefully he's going to get better healing very soon. 

He dispatches someone else to tell Carissa that he would like to speak to her briefly before the envoys arrive. 

Carissa is praying. She can be brought to see Leareth.

Leareth still looks terrible, but slightly less terrible, and his eyes are alert and level on her. 

"Carissa. I - would understand, if your preference is to return with your own people. However, I do still intend to travel to Golarion, and - if you are willing - I would appreciate if you could be my local guide. I think your country's diplomats would likely agree to it, in exchange for other conditions that I will probably not mind. I would of course let you make any arrangements regarding your afterlife first, and allow you to return to Cheliax at any time."

Which he's not delighted about, but it is, in fact, her life. And her afterlife, too. They'll interrogate her and learn more about him, but if he's going to try to negotiate, he'll actually want to tell them some of that. It's important context. 

What.

There has to be a catch. Well, the obvious one is that, actually, she thinks that the Chelish diplomats are not going to be cheerful about that at all - the more valuable she seems to Leareth, the more valuable they'll assume she'll be to interrogate - but that's not even a correctly located catch, that doesn't explain why Leareth would make an offer that - extends her a lot more of the benefit it creates than he has any reason to -

- well. He has an ulterior motive, sure. Is it a Good ulterior motive or an Evil ulterior motive. Good. That's what he's like as a person. She has zero doubt about this, only some annoyance.

Okay. So he - is trying to talk her out of Hell? But not actually interfering -and he said she can make her arrangements first - then what -

"This seems likely not to benefit you on net," she says, once she can think of something to say.

"Really? You are a wizard, with some research experience - I badly need one of those to work with my organization on finding a way to Cheliax - and I can work with you. I do not especially want a different random Chelish wizard foisted on me. You have cultural context on Golarion and also you have - invested significant effort in understanding me, and somehow I suspect others will be less motivated on that front, since they are not desperately trying to convince me by any means possible to help Asmodeus or else be destroyed. I expect that to help a great deal when it comes to explaining the culture gap in a way I understand. ...Also Nayoki claims to think I have 'gotten attached' to you, whatever that means - I suppose that we have some existing rapport." 

“It’s going to be expensive. They’ll think you’re up to something, that explanation won’t sound persuasive at all, they’ll think the fact the gods intervened means I’m important rather than just having been in the wrong place at the wrong time - 

- I like your project fine and I’m not decided whether you’re too Good to be possible to help but I think you’re probably making some kind of stupid Good mistake now.”

"Well. If this would be good for your goals and you are just worried that I am not looking out for my own enough, then - is there a different explanation that would sound more persuasive and make you seem less important? ...Nayoki seems to think it would not be a violation of Law as they see it to lie." 

“I’m mostly worried that you’re - miscounting, because you’re Good and don’t know how to accomplish your goals, and that’s going to cause a problem later. I’m not - coming up with a story that makes it seem like a cheap concession isn’t the hard part at all -“

Carissa is not sure she knows what she’s doing, here. In her defense everyone’s being very confusing.

The Healer is giving him a warning look and Leareth's head is buzzing. He's aware that he doesn't have much clearheadedness left, no matter what price he's willing to pay for it. 

"Would it help if I explain my long term scheme. I assume you would not like it, since we disagree on the topic of Asmodeus, but it might be less confusing." 

“Yes. I think that would help.”

"...I will explain this poorly because I am feeling very unwell, sorry. But I - wish to understand Asmodean propaganda - to learn how much of it is true, of course, but also just to comprehend better which levers of human psychology it pulls on. This seems useful in any long term project to cause fewer souls to go to Asmodeus. ...I would, of course, also attempt to extract as much generic information on Hell and on Cheliax from you as possible, which I think is much more than you realize, and deeply relevant if I ever do want to fight directly."

His lips twitch. "I, of course, do not expect you to cooperate with that goal. But I do think that given time, I could learn more than enough to justify the cost now, anyway. And, overall I feel quite confident about my position here. I do not think Cheliax can threaten my organization nearly as easily as it can threaten Valdemar. And I expect that the Chelish diplomats will have noticed this as well." 

It’s not a stupid plan.

She doesn’t like it. But it involves being alive. She does like being alive. Even if she’ll go to Hell.

”I’m pregnant,” she says.

"- What? Really - since when...?" Leareth gestures vaguely for one of the other Healers. "Can you check that please." 

The Healer is SO CONFUSED but goes to - 

"- Wait, that does not even... Oh. I am being very slow - is that the–" no, she said it like that on purpose, "the - reason I should choose to bring up with the diplomats?" 

He makes a vague 'nevermind' gesture at the Healer. 

“Yes.” Really that was on Carissa, as miscommunications go. “So it’ll be cheap. I - I will, in fact, go back if you don’t convince them, I swore an oath of military service and they can release me but I won’t defect. So if you want this, be convincing.”

"I will do my best. ...For what it is worth, I do, in fact, believe that the Star-Eyed Goddess did not even want you and the agreement was as much a god-to-humans and between-gods miscommunication as anything else. And - given the Void incident - I can certainly add some convincing implications that you were not especially clever or competent when left to hold me captive alone." 

Carissa might feel something if she were not SO DONE feeling things. “I’m incompetent and caused you lots of pain inconvenience you feel entitled to personal resentment about. But I’m pretty. And - your Healing can tell right away - pregnant. And probably Cheliax wants to discuss interesting things like alliances against Vkandis, rather than me, who honestly reflects terribly on them.”

"- Honestly I am rather impressed with myself on the pregnancy front, it has been - what, four, five days? Though I suppose there were those very long nights where the Tayledras guards left us alone." 

At least, Leareth is assuming that the idea here is that Carissa's pregnancy is his fault??? He is slightly bothered about giving them considerable false data on his general character, from a Law perspective, but it's far less plausible to claim one of his people did it - in the, what, four candlemarks they would have had - much less one of the Heralds, they would never. 

“… I assume this Chelish delegation is going to take a while to negotiate passage with and settle on preconditions and so on - are they here already? If so maybe it’s worth switching to -“ 

The problem is the story is practically uniquely good at explaining why someone wouldn’t give her up without suggesting she’s valuable in objective terms. “…I’m not sure what to switch to, actually. I can think about it. Uh, our society would have no idea how long it is before Healers can tell, we don’t have Healers and can’t tell for months.”

"They are not here yet - Nayoki is preparing to go. It is, in fact, true that our Healers can tell the next day."