"Hm.  Yes.  I believe that much was made clear to me, now that you point that out.  That Keltham is male is then important to either his Way or that of Carissa Sevar's, and likewise that she is female."

The prince of Osirion looks utterly unsurprised by that being important to someone's Way. "Cheliax - handed him a bunch of girls, we think. There are some obvious possible explanations. Go on."

"I have reached the end of what I know how to say.  Possibly not the questions I could answer, if you can find some question that is about their Ways and how they walk them, which proves to be in the knowledge I was given."

"Would you like a summary of what we know, and what we are seeking to know, in case it inspires some further clarification, or is useful to you in its own right?"

"I have little personal stake in all these matters, beyond my desire to complete Irori's errand.  And my curiosity as to whatever teaching so inspired Carissa Sevar, if there is any way for me to learn more of that."

"I might hear out that summary in order to complete Irori's errand as thoroughly as may be done, but not if it confines me to Osirion thereafter."

He nods. "It is my judgment that Abadar must have paid for this errand, but that Irori has interests that lie here as well, and I think none of those are served by your sharing with Cheliax, or with those who might report to them, what we have learned; but if I have assurance of your discretion, I will share what we know; and with or without that assurance I would not expect I have the means to bribe you to remain here if your path, in your mind, leads somewhere else."

"I was already treating this errand as quite confidential.  You have that assurance; it is wholly covered by determinations I have already made."

"If you do know what Carissa Sevar learned, or there is a prospect of speaking to her or Keltham shortly, it would not be hard for you to alter where I saw my path as leading me.  Nor shall I be especially upset or disbelieving if it is expressed to me that you think Irori's errand can be a little more thoroughly completed by tarrying a week to fail to answer more questions."

She hasn't tried any magic in the Black Dome, as yet, but if it's hard to learn, she wants to learn it.

"I only have guesses, as to what Keltham is, and what he could have taught her," Merenre says. "And I need to re-estimate those guesses, with this new information, which will take me some time; I could give you an approximation, now, or a better answer tomorrow. I should speak to the pharaoh, also, and you may if you wish to. 

It is our very dear desire to welcome Keltham here, but we know of no particular reason he'd arrive tomorrow, or next week. If you'd like we can notify you when he does."

"Mortal memories do fade in time, and this vision is fresh in me now as it may not be later.  I came to Sothis by teleportation and did not tarry much along my way to you; we are still less than three hours from when I received Irori's thought.  Were I you, I think I would speak of those guesses now."

"And yes, I should be much grateful for a Sending if Keltham or Carissa Sevar should appear here, or indeed any other students either may have taught; is pay needful for that?"

"I think it would make only a small part of what we owe you, rather.

Our primary theories of Keltham are either that he discovered some trove of knowledge on his own initiative, or that he came here from another world or another time where or when such knowledge is commonplace, and that the knowledge includes much of the secrets the gods are forbidden from speaking of, to mortals or even to their own followers, or maybe some power that allows stealing that knowledge - getting copies of books that are destroyed, for example, or books from the First Vault, or books from another world or another time. He didn't exist, to the eyes of Golarion's gods, a week ago. Abadar, immediately on noticing him, paid Asmodeus not to engage in any of the misconduct to which Asmodeus and his followers tend, and the Asmodeans took Keltham to a secret facility for a secret project they are calling Project Lawful. For some reason the primary participants in it are Carissa Sevar, a former third-circle weapons enchanter at the Worldwound who may be the first person to have run across Keltham, and nine girls from the graduating class at Ostenso's academy of magic, who by now are rumored in Cheliax to have spectacular powers, and indeed seem to."

Pause for questions.

"Keltham is out of his accustomed place, and striving to overcome the disadvantage at which that places him, and also striving to use - what that makes him.  Another world, another time, either would fit.  I suppose that to gain a strange power might also remove a man from his accustomed place in the order of things, but that does not feel right, it is not enough to describe Keltham."

"What sort of spectacular powers?"

"The most bizarre rumor out of Cheliax was that in the palace in Egorian, any time a surprising thing happened to you, a Project Lawful girl would show up with cake. Delicious cake. It seemed ridiculously improbable, to us, but  - possible to check, which many of the rumors weren't - so we sent a team to quietly and legally book an inn room near the palace, and planned to contact them truthfully later that day with the news that one of them, whose wife was in labor when they departed, had just become a new father. 

The cake girl showed up. We'd intended to Plane Shift out with her, and ask her if she'd defect for any price. She was Dimension Anchored, counterspelled the team's attempted Teleport out without her, insisted they all eat some cake, and then left."

"Egorian is not within the interdiction zone, then?  Perhaps I should go to Egorian and try to learn some new trick worthy of celebration?  I would not mind having some cake as the price of that conversation."

"...is what I might otherwise say, but it rings wrongly to me.  At least as something that would be true of Carissa Sevar.  For her to learn something that interested Irori, it would be - a hard, long path for her to walk, by which she gained power that was truly part of herself and not grafted onto her like a cleric's powers."

"Keltham should not be - to Carissa Sevar - somebody that she can touch like a Starstone, and gain the ability to counterspell Teleports and hear a call for celebration."

"I am suspicious of whether the cake girl would appear for me; or if she did appear, would have anything truly to do with Keltham; or if she did have to do with Keltham, would know anything of his that interested Irori.  That being so it is not quite worth the risk of Malediction."

"I appreciate that assessment. It did not seem right to us, either, though it did push us towards - being far more unsure what is going on. The thing that inspired Abadar to such initial concern for Keltham was a sense that Keltham saw the world in a manner more akin to Abadar's than any human alive ever has. Perhaps that confers...cake-related superpowers...in some cases, but it isn't, fundamentally, about cake-related superpowers. 

Anyway we are confident Keltham is back in the interdiction zone, though Project Lawful is reportedly still active in Egorian. For a brief time after the godwar ended, Abadar favored and provided resources and impressions towards plans to somehow communicate with Keltham; then he ceased participation in developing them. And Sevar is, from what Irori observed, with Keltham. 

I have no idea what to make of the report that Sevar went through some horror at the hands of some powerful Chelish entity that meant to destroy her, only to emerge unharmed and rejoin Keltham only hours later. Well, the first part's not surprising. Is it possible that Irori's intervention inspired the entity to not destroy her, for some reason?"

"Unknown to Irori, or unsaid to me.  I think Irori is not puzzled only by Sevar's unexpected survival, but that she also does not bear the expected soul-scars that she should have needed to overcome in order to continue on her Way."

He frowns at his notes, scribbles some things. "They made her forget it, or it was a test and she approved of being so tested, or they possess very fine control of the scars they leave on a mind, and weren't aiming for those, or it's a Project Lawful superpower, or something I'm not thinking of."

"If I were going to make up my own answers, I'd guess that Keltham is out of his time, and a future worshipper of Abadar as He will then become known.  Perhaps with some knowledge of Irori's teachings likewise from that time?  Or no, I have said a foolish and over-worshipful thing; not Irori's teachings, the teachings from however many have by then ascended.  There should be some fair number such, if their teachings are less fragmented and over-narrowed than those we have of only Irori."

"If there is still something - time-twisted, about Keltham - it might explain Sevar's survival with too little harm.  It might explain how the cake girl knew where to find your emissaries."

"To be clear, this does not feel at all like something that was told or hidden within my vision.  Whether it would have been within my vision, if it were true - I can't guess."

"If he's out of his time - then he ought to know what Cheliax is. And we think he's deceived. Unless Hell is defeated utterly by then, which - would surprise me, I suppose."

"Oh, it would not surprise me in the least to hear that today's Cheliax is little remembered in five thousand years.  They have been around for only seventy.  And even Nidal, which has more centuries than every of their years, is now falling at last."

"...that he is signing compacts upon compacts for her soul, on the other hand, you would think would be more of a tipoff.  Why do you believe him deceived?  Cheliax could offer much to a man out of his time, if he had almost anything left in the way of worldly desire at all."

"We could offer most of the same without him going to Hell about it! And one with valuable knowledge would not go to the Church of Asmodeus to negotiate compacts for its sale, not if Asmodeus is remembered at all in their time; and Abadar thinks that Keltham does not yet know the names his god is called, or anyone he could contact with Sending for further questions.

My current best guess about the girls is that they were part of Cheliax's offer to him, but an offer that I think must have been accompanied by some deception."

"I cannot see Hell defeated utterly, no, not in five thousand years.  I can imagine Asmodeus forced to renegotiate the way He treats with mortals not aligned to Him, if a hundred or a thousand ascended joined with Irori to enforce that on Asmodeus.  Perhaps Keltham grew up too ignorant of his time's history to realize what it meant to treat with Asmodeus in the days before his days." 

This does leave the question of why Keltham would not know Abadar's name.  She hopes on behalf of her hosts that nothing unfortunate happened to Him, but Derrina herself will not mourn overmuch if it was so.

"I can imagine it," says Merenre, but he sounds slightly dissatisfied. "I am not sure it much reduces my confusion. 

The things rumored of Sevar are that she is not a third circle wizard at all, that she is the discoverer of Keltham, that she is running the whole of Project Lawful, that she is a Princess of Hell and devils die for speaking her name..."

"Carissa Sevar is growing at her own pace; and what she has already attained out of wizardry, if that was previously her path, she will not abandon so lightly.  Whether she discovered Keltham - I cannot say.  Running all of Project Lawful - I cannot say.  Princess of Hell seems quite unlikely; I think Irori would notice and be able to say something about that."

He nods, scribbles. "The compact on a compact on her soul permits Keltham to buy it for 500,000 gold pieces, which is a sum almost no one alive commands. We aren't sure what to make of it."

"All right, now I like them.  Possibly as a couple, depending on who had which parts of that idea."