"Someone who has been sentenced to, and is in the middle of, a slow execution, gets dragged out to deliver cake instead, dies more cleanly?"

"We do have to Raise them afterwards to get the info, right, but I guess I could use my authority to ensure that they were cleanly killed again, immediately after that..."

(Asmodeans.  Why.  Pilar's curse is not particularly Abadaran but even it wants to yell "HAVE YOU CONSIDERED OFFERING MONEY" at this point.)

"Could also track them down in Hell, which might be more inconvenient but doesn't run the risk of them refusing. I do think we should consider it possible that the Osirians will Soul Bind their captive to keep the secret, so this'd have to be worth that, to Asmodeus."

"Can anybody give me a completely different line on how to mislead the Osirians with the or a cake girl?  This line is looking increasingly less promising."

"We could go to the opposite extreme and try to make Project Lawful or cake girl look significantly more impressive than the reality - you'd know better than I would if that's realistically possible.  Seventh-circle wizard walks in looking like the real cake girl, with Mind Blank and Dimensional Anchoring and a few other things up, serves them some cake, chats with them, ignores anything they try to do to her, leaves."

"Are we okay with them knowing about the weird constraint that prevents us from arresting them?" somebody asks Pilar.  "Because if we're not, we should make it look like cake girl is not with Chelish services, and if we are, she should very clearly have the ability to turn them over to Security but not do it."

"I think the fact that we had to let them go probably falls under the incredibly fucking misleading category."

"We're running out of time here, I like this option best of anything so far, let's roll with it."

Eight hours after the Queen of Cheliax took her, Carissa Sevar gets a teleport to the fortress which is the new home of Project Lawful and goes to the temple to check in. The plan is for her to return to Keltham while still a little fragile - it's good for him to know what that looks like, and less costly than keeping her away from him for what might be the entire next day - but she really really wants a situation report first, so she can stop feeling like nothing is quite entirely real, and so she can get a precious rundown on what Keltham thought about in the Grand High Priestess's hearing. 

She just spent several hours napping, but she still looks fairly exhausted, and something a little deeper than 'exhausted'. She is carrying a dagger, because in hindsight she really should have one, and dressed like the heir to a county.

"How's my Keltham."

'My Keltham' what, what did the Queen do to her?  Brainwash her into Keltham's sex slave or mistress or Abyss-knows-what so long as she had an extra three minutes?

"Usual condition," Maillol replies.

Aspexia only has limited Detect Thoughts per day that use her caster level; she hasn't been constantly reading Keltham the way the Queen can.  No Keltham behaviors merited emergency checks.  Occasional spaced spot-checks didn't turn up much of interest, besides an advance read on everything obvious Keltham thought to try with metalworking.

If Carissa is trying to scan the full transcripts, she'll see that Keltham is thinking he should maybe try dating Meritxell next rather than any of the Complicated Girls, but isn't quite sure that his brain will actually do that if he's no longer aromantic; also the earliest morning transcript shows Keltham repeatedly reminding himself that Carissa will be all right and that he will not receive any new info about this until later.

"- I can work with that. My plan is to go find him and probably spend the afternoon with him, then authorize lies for Ione, Asmodia and Pilar; I want a Telepathic Bond with you, ideally tomorrow, so we can coordinate even when I'm occupied. Also, I am fourth circle now and would like the chance to copy some spells off Security."

You know what's really, really, really fucking annoying in Cheliax?  People who bear up much better than you under torture.  Also wizards in general.

"Copying spells will be arranged, Telepathic Bond arranged, I have noted your intended whereabouts.  I will not move ahead on returning our extra students until you tell me you're ready for project responsibility handoff, and either that looks accurate to me or I'm overruled by High Priestess Subirachs about your readiness to return to duty... please confirm that's acceptable."  It is not actually easy to remember that this is now his boss.

"That's acceptable. Ab- Her Imperial Majestrix thinks I lack common sense on this front and with that in mind I'll consult High Priestess Subirachs before I say I'm ready."

No shit.  "Acknowledged, and that's High Priestess Jacint Subirachs, seventh-circle," Maillol says, just in case somebody didn't actually mention that part to her.  He goes to a map temporarily pinned to a wall until everybody learns the fortress, and points out where they are, and the paths to Carissa's new supervisor, to her bedroom, and to Keltham's bedroom.  "I suggest that I have somebody else notify Keltham you're waiting for him in his bedroom or yours; he's presently in the library-study hall."

"I'll wait for him in his, and someone can tell him so now." So he doesn't wonder if he's not supposed to bother her or something.

She heads off, still looking mostly content if slightly haunted, down the indicated path.

Keltham will stride about as fast as he can without running as soon as anybody tells him.

He'll slow down before he gets to his bedroom; he's not to suddenly burst in, looking out of breath.

It has been impressed on Keltham with a few smiling but rather stern words from Aspexia Rugatonn that it is his place now to hug Carissa, not pester her about anything she doesn't seem to want to talk about, and in particular not to demand lots of reassurances about how fine she is or ask for lots of details on how she isn't, until she seems to be fully her previous self.  Yes, even if Carissa says otherwise and that he should do what he wants and pester her, Keltham is allowed to ignore her on this particular occasion though after that he should go back to believing her again.  No Aspexia is not going to explain what axioms derive those conclusions, she's busy, ask Carissa a day or two later.

Carissa is sitting on Keltham's floor near the fire, playing with her dagger. She hasn't decided how to enchant it yet but she's going to do something incredibly cool.

Sharp kitchen knives are in fact one of the most convenient ways to hurt yourself or somebody else, if you want to hurt somebody including yourself, and you are not in a good mental state to figure out any more optimal ways of causing damage.  'Stabbed with a kitchen knife' is very much an archetypal Worst-In-Category Thing such that it Actually Happened To One Person You Know Though Not Yourself Personally.

Keltham doesn't smile at her; that would be lying.

He's got healing, they've got resurrections, it wouldn't be an actual emergency.

"Carissa," he says, softly, instead of his usual 'Hey' of greeting.

- she sets it down, gently, and stands up. 

"Keltham," she says back, and then shakes her head. "I'm okay. ...I should qualify that. I feel okay. I feel really good. I don't feel normal, and, uh, Abrogail and the site manager both told me very sternly that I was not okay and possess no common sense, so I guess, I shouldn't say I'm okay with so much counterevidence. But I feel okay."

He does smile at that; it's what somebody should sound like if they had a Huge Thing happen to them which was not actually catastrophic; and it totally upset lots of their internal equilibria, but didn't trash them so hard that it trashed all the meta-level processes, so they can still consider things like what other people told them.  "Snuggles are available for those who seek them," Keltham says, and doesn't ask her at all about how her day went.

Snuggles are sought. "I want to tell you at some point but not right now. I think once you have independent interest in...two or three of the things that happened, and once I have been officially declared Okay by nosy busybodies in the government."

"That's fine," Keltham murmurs near her ear.  He's surprised, hearing those words from his mouth, and then more surprised when he realizes that he actually meant them and doesn't need to say 'wrongthought' and back up.  "I just need to know you're alive and will be okay, I don't need to know why that's so."  Want to, sure, need to, no.

"I am alive! I will be okay! That I feel incredibly confident about. I'm hoping for better than okay, really, I think I might - feel safer - and I'm fourth circle."