The guards at the door stop them, but only, apparently, to take their message to the prince, and give them directions. And then they are escorted through the first floor of the palace, all pillars and fountains and silk sheets in the place of proper walls, up some marble stairs to the second floor where there's a sumptuous meeting-room. 

And a woman-priest, there to chaperone. She is clothed as the male priest, which is notable only because the women visible in the distance as they were escorted here were wearing half-transparent gauze dresses and a great deal of gold jewelry. 

"Here I may leave," her guide says, "or stay, if you would rest more easily knowing I will tell Prince Merenre, when he arrives, that we are here on my authority, and my conviction he'd wish to see you urgently."

"Do as you deem best to serve your god's purposes here."

"If somehow there's any question, refer the Prince to the Priest Senusret for clarifications," says the priest, and departs. 

"Pleased to meet you," the woman says. "I have no qualifications for this business, but can call in refreshments, if you'd like something to eat or drink."

"Thank you.  I believe I shall manage."

"To save some little time perhaps, I will ask now what arrangements have been made that you not hear what must be only for Prince Merenre's ears."

She taps her earrings. "Without these I am deaf."

"That would hardly stop me if I wished to comprehend a conversation, but I take it the rest is meant to rely on trust."

"Prince Merenre will offer such assurances as you might require, but even without them, it would be a wrong against Abadar in His own house, to aim to eavesdrop on one who came for a private conference because they happened to ask for the wrong set of assurances. We're not Cheliax."  The name is said with contempt and annoyance and some sadness.

"No, you are not, though that is a rather lax standard to which to hold oneself.  Still, I take your meaning well enough."

Derrina is content to wait in silence for Merenre if this woman is.

It is not a long wait. When Prince Merenre walks in the woman kneels. He is a man of average height, slightly balding, with a distinctly ruddy complexion which one wouldn't expect on one with his Garundi-bronze skin. He's very lavishly dressed, of course, though an observant person will notice the hems of his sleeves are stained with ink.

He nods at the woman, and she removes her earrings.

Derrina, after some previous unfortunate life experiences, will wait to be addressed before speaking.

She does not fail to notice the ink-stained sleeve hems.  It is a good sign.

"For reasons of secrecy, I was told almost nothing of why I'm called here," he says, and sits; at another gesture from him the woman sits, as well, at an angle such that she can barely see them. "I take it there's some urgency."

"Will our words be heard by the two of us alone, now?"

"I strongly believe so, and have never to my knowledge been wrong on that within the walls of this palace. It is said that gods can scry the Dome if determined enough, but not any man. - any mortal."

"I am Derrina, dispatched to this errand by a vision sent of Irori.  On request, I am given to understand, of Abadar."

"For purposes of my being very sure that I am in the right place and speaking to the right person, I must convey to you a warning whose understanding is a test.  Irori is a god.  My being here is therefore the result of a god's intervention.  All the information I have for you, if you act on it, will mean that act stems from a god's intervention.  Not only my god, but also yours."

"I would have you riddle to me the true meaning of this warning."

"It can't inspire any action in the interdiction zone," he says immediately. "This office, and that above me, have a policy of ordering none, anyway, that Abadar may speak with us more freely."

"Aye.  And to speak truly freely, can you tell me the name of the goddess whose purpose is hidden?"

"Otolmens, whose interdiction we speak of." He folds his arms, looking suddenly tired. 

The tiredness is also reassuring.

"Here then is the information that I am sent with, for you, as best a divine vision can be passed down to a mortal in the first place, and then put by her into words."

"There is a cleric of Abadar who should not be where he is, striving to overcome his own displacement.  Looking about that cleric, Irori found that one woman there had set her foot upon the Way from hearing him speak.  I do not know what it was that woman heard; for my own part I would give much to meet her or this cleric and ask.  Whatever it was she heard, it was enough for Irori to take great interest, and to act to ensure that the woman not be hindered along her own Way.  I am not sure, but I would guess, perhaps guided by vision, that this would probably involve a new bargain or old compact or favor called with Hell, which would allow her to leave Cheliax in time and without her being required to sell them her soul."

There's more, but she'll pause if Merenre is, for example, writing this down, or asking questions.

He is writing it down; he is not, yet, asking questions.

When he stops writing, she will continue in speaking.

"When next Irori looked upon this woman she was in pain and utmost terror, far from her teacher and with a being of power and evil about her, believing herself to stand in danger of her eternity being taken from her.  Not damned, but lost entirely.  With everything she was, she strove to avoid that fate, without hope and yet harder than most mortals ever strive for anything in all their lives.  Irori feared that he had been responsible for that, and so he - I am not sure here - he did something to her, to try to save her from her worst fate.  I think He was trying to convey to me that it should not have been an intervention that would affect the interdiction zone, because she was due to be - lost, somehow, thrown away - but now Irori would be able to undo that loss, eventually -"

"And then shortly later, the woman was apparently fine, not scarred in any way visible to Irori by that utmost pain and terror, like her trial and torment had been somehow undone.  And she was once more in the company of your stray cleric, her teacher."

"There was a fearful consequence of this that was unclear to me.  I think possibly Otolmens was upset."

"Does he - I know gods often don't - know her name -"

"If Irori knows, it cannot be said to me through the bond we share.  The woman's name is not - a meaningful thing within her Way, it is nothing to any trial she has undergone or path she has walked.  If her name was elsewise her Way would be the same.  To be clear, that last was my own answer and not Irori's."

"I understand. I will explain my question further, and what other methods might answer it, when you've finished, then."

"The woman is however known to you, because of a compact upon a compact upon her soul.  It was painful for Irori to convey that much to me, it is a concept of Abadar's and not Irori's, but it is how she is already known to you."

"That is all that I know to say, that I have already put into words."

" - ah huh. Thank you. Carissa Sevar, her name is, and our cleric signed his - is it a he - to the compact as 'Keltham'."