"Even if they damn you with magic Asmodean clerics are also damned! I wouldn't go around damning other people, killing them for not serving Asmodeus, just to spend a little less time in Hell."

"It wasn't fair of them to do that to you," she says to Blai. "I think you probably did have better choices, even if you didn't see them, but it might have been very hard to see them, or very hard to take them even if you did see them. I think Thall would be gentler about it if he understood the sorts of things they do better but I don't know if you want him to be."

"I am for perhaps obvious reasons neither accustomed to nor fishing for gentleness, but thank you, Ember. Malediction works for any Evil afterlife depending on the caster."

He Prestidigitates another piece onto the board, a little blue one that's vaguely butterfly-shaped, and rearranges the pieces so that one of the black bishops is directly next to it along the diagonal. He slides the Blai piece in between them, so it's straddling the border between multiple squares in what's definitely not a legal move. 

"You could have stood by and let the Prelate kill me, and you didn't."

Maybe it would be a legal move in some kind of variant. "I work for Iomedae now and I did not think he was doing the best job of that."

He rotates the board a hundred and eighty degrees. 

"If Iomedae went the way of Zon-Kuthon and ordered you to turn Chaotic Evil and work for the demons, would you listen? Do you think Irabeth or Seelah would listen?"

"That would be an illegal order. It's - a very important concept that I did not have before."

"But you're not sure that having it would be enough on its own for you to decide not to become a cleric of Asmodeus if you got sent back in time? Or did I misunderstand you earlier, I might have."

"I am not very persuasive. Even if I thought it was likely I could persuade some of my classmates, which I do not, probably the priority in this situation as in this one would be my Worldwound-related information making it to the appropriate parties. It is plausible that I could come up with some means of escape that is not obvious to the typical highly lawful sixteen year old but none is immediately coming to mind. The vicars did not particularly attempt suicide prevention, but I would not be sure if suicide would be acceptable because I have not read enough commentaries on the Eighth Act to know how it generalizes beyond its original scope, and further would not know how my soul in this bizarre multi-timeline condition would be judged for out-of-timeline acts, and would therefore need to be concerned about Hell's likely disposition of what information it could get out of me, which I must conservatively presume to be all of it. I do not think I would become a cleric of Asmodeus because that requires a particular posture I would see no call to adopt, but that does not necessarily get me a way out of seminary. They are perfectly willing to shut up the students in the basement as many times as it takes for them to be chosen or die."

Iomedae's people were perfectly willing to order his family to lay down and die; it seems difficult to imagine them objecting to her followers choosing to hasten the process if the alternative is to serve her so-called enemies.

"That makes more sense, when you said earlier you weren't sure what you would do I thought you were saying you weren't sure whether you'd try to go back to Asmodeus. ...but I do think it's better to die than be chosen as an Asmodean cleric. I wouldn't guess someone would be damned for killing themself if that was the other option but I haven't asked an agathion."

"I am willing to attempt a theological analysis of whether you would be damned for committing suicide in seminary if you desire one."

She pauses for a moment. She has been waiting so patiently for the opportunity to say this, even though they keep discussing matters that are far less interesting than the alternate timeline, and she doesn't want to wait any longer. "Do you think your Asmodean counterpart would be willing to sit for an interview? I would be very interested in a comparative analysis of the pair of you."

"I do not think that his willingness is in any way the main obstacle, here. - I can mostly answer for him, my timeline is ahead of this one by a little bit."

"I would also appreciate the opportunity to interview you! However, the respects in which your answers differ is relevant to my research, so I do not believe that interviewing you would be fully sufficient."

"I see. Well, if you can think of a way to get him assigned to the Crusade and for his superior to say in front of both of him and a relevant Abadaran that they will give me copies of his orders until such time as he's removed from the assignment, I will be able to use him on various things and also expect no further impediment to an interview."

"Hmm. I don't suppose his superiors would be interested in facilitating the spreading of knowledge through the Encyclopedia Golarionnica?"

"I doubt enormously that this is or can be made to be among their priorities."

"Cheliax's academies of wizardry are among the finest in the world, but so too is Cheliax's censorship apparatus. I'm afraid your Encyclopedia is even more likely to be censored there than in Mendev."

That's terrible! Now she understands why bird girl was so concerned on time travel boy's behalf!

Woljif mimes rubbing a coin in his fingers. "Could you send his supervisor some nice incentives to get them to send their you over?"

"I'm not actually good at navigating that sort of thing. I know it's common among Chelish people but I usually just ignored it until it went away, unless it was causing a problem I had to address. Also I do not have a line item in the budget for bribery. I know who would need to sign off if it does seem like the way to go. ...I could maybe try going through the Hellknights and see if they can request him, I was told once I should have been a Hellknight."

He gives an exaggerated shudder. "As long as you're the one asking, I guess."

"Don't be absurd, Select. What you need is not a line item for bribery, but a line item for diplomatic gifts. The two are entirely different."

"I don't have either. The present source of income is just about sufficient to field the army."

That sounds bad? He's never tried to run a Crusade but he's pretty sure that's bad. 

"Well, if you ever feel like taking up a life of crime to fund it, you know the guy."