Oh. 

Are there?

If Asmodia's in fact in Hell she probably cares at all about Asmodia. She's mad at her, but she does, if she's honest with herself, have preferences over Asmodia's state, she wants to make Asmodia useful again. Asmodia was clever, and determined, and loyal until Cheliax demonstrated her loyalty was not returned.

Peranza - she didn't know Peranza, didn't like Peranza, she's angry with Peranza for betraying them. She...doesn't really want Peranza to be turned into a useless paving stone but that's because she still doesn't understand WHY THERE ARE SO MANY PAVING STONES, surely those souls could be more useful to Asmodeus some other way. 

The girls still living - no, she doesn't care about them, she doesn't think. Maybe about Pilar, but Pilar can take whatever Hell throws at her and anyway isn't available for purchase. The others are - what they are, they haven't grown where Carissa's tried to water them.

Avaricia can be a paving stone at least for a couple centuries it'd be good for her attitude problem. 

There are people she cares about, embarrassingly. Olegario, Maillol. But those souls she's not here to purchase and should, obviously, not be permitted to, while the impulse is in her to protect them.

His true attention passes, then, and goes elsewhere.

But not before Dispater has heard back answers from His subordinates, who answered to His queries, and chosen a strategy-tree accordingly for this fragment of His attention.

She's still here, somehow. It feels as if she should have been turned to dust. 

She has enough composure to not do anything really embarrassing like collapse or cry.

The Crown of the Most High is a less versatile and more specialized tool than the Crown of Infernal Majesty, but one of its specialties is that it will let you deal with archdevils without collapsing; those do not always wholly pursue Asmodeus's own true interests.

Aspexia Rugatonn seems outwardly to be unfazed.

Dispater is among the most courteous of all devils, certainly the most courteous of all archdevils; He'll give Carissa Sevar a space to regain her composure before He speaks again, a warm sympathy in His voice.

"So you care about Asmodia.  A pity, that.  It seems Asmodia also changed hands at very low prices, of late; something similar seems to have happened with her as with Peranza."

That's confusing. Cheliax conveyed no such order for Asmodia. And why would Hell have refused the resurrection, if she was worthless to them - or why would she have refused it, if tormented in Hell -

"Peranza's torment did not begin from any order out of Cheliax.  Her owner did see within her mind her betrayal, and that Asmodeus's compacted Queen of Cheliax had commanded such torment of her if she was to turn traitor, so she set upon beginning it at once.  There are arrangements set in place by which Cheliax compensates us for such, though not - alas for hopeful buyers! - at their most recent price commanded in Hell, only the original sale price.  There was an attempt made to call back Peranza with True Resurrection; Hell refused consent on the traitor's behalf, of course.  Asmodia's case is more recent, and I have received a less detailed report of it."

But why would Asmodia kill herself if she didn't have a clever plan?

Maybe it was murder. Or maybe she did have a clever plan and it failed. Clever plans do sometimes fail, even if you're styling yourself an ilani.

"I understand, my lord, and am pleased to learn she is in Hell and not conspiring with Asmodeus's enemies."

"Pleased to learn she's not conspiring with Asmodeus's enemies... yes.  Pleased to learn she is in Hell, I think not.  The thought of Asmodia suffering a similar fate to that which the Queen commanded for Peranza, tormented to the greatest possible extent of mortal suffering that little devils can achieve, never to become a devil herself, never even to collapse in on itself and become a lemure, always to be preserved with a part of herself remembering that all this suffering was in the end her own fault, able to want everything to end and knowing it will never end... that does not please you at all.  Hm?"

"I am mortal, and muddled, and made of contradictory parts, and among them are parts that know their duty, and parts that don't, and parts that are just stupid and flinch from anything that hurts, but I can choose which parts I name myself, and I, myself, am glad that Asmodia is suffering a traitor's fate, because Asmodeus is glad and I serve Him."

"That falls short of a lie only by being the sort of statement that defines itself into truth regardless of realities."

"It leaves our negotiations at something of an impasse, I'm afraid.  It is not at all Asmodeus's policy to sell souls to those seeking mercy for them; it's not contrary to His nature as a god, but He does consider the inescapability of Hell's horror to be part of its aesthetic and its incentives.  Letting you buy souls for whom you seek mercy would quite diminish whatever pride I gained within His sight by winning for Him His contest with Irori, if something like that proved to be the case."

"It somewhat diminishes the price at which I ought to be willing to buy you.  Are you willing to make Me a lower offer, to gain the souls of Peranza and Asmodia?  Your true self will have left you some negotiating flexibility, though only Aspexia Rugatonn is supposed to know that and only she has been given your true price."

"...my lord, if it is an unAsmodean impulse in me that desires those souls, then I should purchase only other souls, and not those ones. It should still be possible for me to purchase enough of them to free up the budget for my first request."

"Oh, they've both changed hands at lower prices in any case.  To buy them at their bonafide market prices, as laid down in treaty, would not much help in restoring Hell's budget for deals in Golarion.  And any soul suffering such extreme torment as Cheliax's Queen commended would, even after this short time, be very little use to anyone, ever, as anything but a decoration.  I suppose we could leave those two souls out of our negotiations, then."

"Or, going to the opposite extreme, my wife - Erecura, I presume you've heard of Her - is quite good at predictions even when prophecy is broken."

"You could sell yourself to Me for... let us say, one +6/+6/+4 headband, and 15 Wishes.  And as part of that deal, it shall be the case that Asmodia and Peranza have already been saved from Hell, shortly after arriving there, brought into the Gardens of Erecura and given peace and peaceful treatment there as my wife is accustomed to do; not forever, but for a hundred years at least.  Enough time for you to ascend in Hell and take their souls into your own keeping, if that's something you prove able to do in a relatively short time.  They will not have been shattered at all, they shall be whole souls and healthy."

"I do not understand why you would offer that, my lord, if it is displeasing to Asmodeus for souls to be offered mercy."

"That's quite an impolite question, but I'll forgive it to you this once."

But not answer it, of course. 

Maybe it's a test. In which case the answer should be the same, unless - 

"Most High, it seems to me that Asmodeus's will is already being done here and I would err, dangerously, in trying to see it done any differently. If from what you know that is mistaken, if Asmodia and Peranza are somehow required for the Keltham seduction plot, and in your judgement Asmodeus is better served by my taking the worse offer, to secure their souls as well, I would know that now, so that I do not err in my effort to choose what best serves Asmodeus."

"Oh, until now I wasn't even aware that this was part of a Keltham seduction plot.  I only directly read your mind three times, to do more didn't seem sporting.  It's up to you, really, unless someone else wants to step in."

"There is a Keltham seduction plot and Abrogail promised him that if he returned to us worthy then all he cared for would remain for him. But I was not commanded, by greater-Carissa, to purchase those souls specifically, and I was commanded to ask for 2 headbands and 30 Wishes." And in many worlds where greater-Carissa did want Asmodia and Peranza, it's because greater-Carissa is a traitor. 

"So I will not sell myself for a lesser price, nor save Asmodia and Peranza from destruction; I have no orders to do so." That's what I mean, when I say I can choose which of my muddled bits I am.

"Good job being loyal to Asmodeus!  You should take the lower offer and get Peranza and Asmodia, though."

oh no

"I was wondering when and whether you'd intervene, unwelcome guest.  Surely, I thought, you would not imagine that you could escape My notice."

"And pick yourself up from My floor and stop groveling, Pilar Pineda.  I know that it was not you who chose to come into My domain uninvited.  If I destroy anyone for it, it'll be your little parasite.  Now let it speak."

"I'm here to make a deal with you too, Mister Dispater!  I'm just as much a guest looking to negotiate here as anybody!  Sorry about barging in without an appointment, but it'd have been pretty hard for me to get one.  We can do our deal as soon as Carissa Sevar is done with hers!"

"You may speak with this thing, Carissa Sevar.  I ordinarily don't take kindly to others interrupting My deals, but I am fascinated by what this entity might have to say to you about yours."

"I have my orders," Carissa says flatly to Snack Service. "My duty here is not to optimize for Asmodeus's interests, but to obey his commands. Don't tell me that some absurd thing serves Cayden Cailean and Asmodeus both; I don't care."