"Okay, so, that's been helpful, which I especially appreciate from everyone who wasn't paid for it, but - I need to go back to one-on-one conversation, now."

Message to Mirna:  I have a relatively surprising thing to say to you, that you might not want to look visibly shocked about; prepare to control your expression?

Her expression: skeptical.

Your Intelligence is at least 14, which I've heard is considered the threshold for where it's worth trying to become a wizard.

I asked the elder adult here what to do about that, if I wanted to do something about that.  She thought I should give the Temple of the All-Seeing-Eye fifty gold pieces to pay for initial wizard lessons, and an additional gold to have - somebody, I think maybe your neighbor, watch your children.

If I did that, and you did successfully become a wizard, I'd want you to pay that on to three other women, in time, when and if you'd earned say at least 1000gp total of your own from being a wizard; and ask those three for that same promise.

Is that something you'd want?

Well, sir, I'll have to talk to my husband, but I'd expect we'd want that, if you think I can do it. Do I have to repay you if it turns out I can't?

No.  And the same with those to whom you make this offer.

Well, then. She's very grateful and she'll study very hard, if her husband thinks it makes sense and they end up trying it.

He'll be visiting the Temple of the All-Seeing-Eye later today, if nothing goes wrong, and he'll set it up then.  If Mirna, whose husband is (checks cuff) Gamal, turns out not to wish it, he'll tell the Temple of the All-Seeing-Eye to put it towards some other woman's education.

And if his well-meaning attempt to help goes horribly wrong, somehow, send a message about it to Keltham via the Black Dome, if he's still alive then within Golarion, and the Black Dome knows how to get a message to him.  Keltham cannot promise that he'll be able to fix things, but he will at least want to know.

Mirna nods, a bit tightly. Does not try to make herself whisper something back.

"Need to take a short break, now," Keltham will say out loud, "but I'll be back in a bit to talk to the others whose time I purchased."

"Did that go well? It was somewhat hard to tell in any given moment whether you were abandoning Osirion as a cosmic error of some kind or coming to comprehend it."

"Will answer later, I need to go off and cry for a bit in a corner where that won't bother anyone, hopefully quietly unless somebody can put a silence field around me."

Back!

"Sorry, it was just -"

"The Carissa Sevar I thought I knew - would have wanted - something that I just did.  The imaginary Carissa Sevar.  I, don't know, about the real one, if she would have wanted that too, but it doesn't matter, does it, she wasn't the one I was in love with."

"Do you want a hug? You look kind of like you want a hug, but it might just be the having recently been crying."

"I am not sure that I should, Fe-Anar.  I am not sure we should be hanging out together more.  I like you, you see, and I am not sure that I should be making any more friends, at this point.  Osirion is - maybe not an Evil place, but it is not, not necessarily looking like a place where I can belong, and the story I'm in seems to be one where emotional relationships I develop, just - just get torn away from me.  When and if it turns out that I can get Carissa back, if it turns out I'm in that sort of story, I will consider the possibility of developing new emotional relationships.  Until then, it is in my own interests not to be, that sort of character, any more, the sort who has friends and interesting relationships.  Not me threatening the tropes, see, just, what makes sense for me to do in my own best interests, given the way the story has been going."

"That sounds wildly unhealthy and ill-advised, but I'm not going to ignore you and hug you anyway since that seems liable to cause an international incident of some kind."

"Thanks.  Dath ilan - is all about self-determination, see.  In a world where people - can't decide for themselves, without hurting themselves - there's not - very much left, of what we are."

He doesn't like this, doesn't like what it's increasingly obvious is the thing he is going to end up deciding to do, from here, even if he hasn't decided it yet.

All he can do, maybe, is speedrun the Osirion arc, as much as he can, and get past, the unhappy part.

"I am not really, understanding, Osirion.  I think - I suspect, speculate - that I was supposed to be here with Korva Tallandria, that she was supposed to help me understand this, but I shit all over her character route by being stupid and thoughtless and now this part is just, fouled beyond repair."

"That is a really concerning thing for you to be saying, I don't think it's a good way to make predictions, and I sort of think we should pay Iomedae to talk to you again for longer or something."

"I'd rather She didn't.  I appreciate the first vision, it was very good for me, but - but I do not want anybody looking at my mind, at this point, not even gods, not even gods who used to be human, I want my privacy back and am seriously considering severing the cleric bond to Abadar in case he gets the contents of my thoughts every morning at dawn - how serious of a decision is that, is it hugely expensive for Abadar to cleric me again afterwards or is it much cheaper the second time."

"I think it is very expensive to re-cleric someone who rejected - I'm not actually entirely sure it's even possible - do you want me to just urgently ask Him that - and can someone get Keltham a glass of water, with a lemon in it -"

"I've got a Commune, I can ask directly, but if you've got a Commune anyways and have a spare binary question begging then sure go ahead and ask."

"I mean, people did claim to me that Abadar cannot easily read my mind especially about non-Abadaran things which - helps, and maybe Abadar is not a sort of thing who'd use info he read, against me, but - having to constantly think about which of your thoughts might be read out and used against you - is something I'd like to leave behind in Cheliax if at all possible.  I only did that for one day at the end of it all, didn't suspect before then that they were reading my mind, but it was very tiring, doing that.  It's a high cost to put on cleric powers and the main thing keeping me a cleric is that it gives me a stronger Will save against mortals running Detect Thoughts on me."

"Abadar's definitely not a sort of thing who'd use info he read against you."

He takes the water off one of the guards. "Did you hear all that? Put the question to the pharaoh."

        "Yes, your royal."

"I think you....might be underestimating what you would lose, if you broke with Abadar, even if you meant nothing about your intent to trade with Him, even if to you it's just a set of magic benefits. People would not have answered those questions from a random person. They know the church, they know its priests are fair, and say what they mean, and desire mutual benefit, and where they're strange they're strange pursuing Axis."