"Just Golarion?"

"It seems to me, knowing little of other worlds, that the principles which would enable conquest in Golarion would be usable elsewhere, and that devils more worthy of Asmodeus would serve Him better everywhere."

"Ah!  Now that sounds more like I am speaking to the first source and original fountain of those wild rumors of Project Lawful that have run through the streets of Dis; and sent up to mad heights the soul-prices on what are, to all appearances, some very ordinary souls of mortal women out of Cheliax.  You wouldn't think, looking at her, that she'd stand out enough in Asmodeus's sight to merit His direct intervention."

"My best ignorant guess, my lord, is that I came not to our Lord's sight but to Irori's, who bargained for me; and Asmodeus thought it entertaining to take both Irori's payment and His prize, or saw afterwards that I had more value than either of them had initially imagined and desired to rearrange the contract to His greater benefit, or otherwise found Himself advantaged in the events surrounding Project Lawful by laying claim to me after all."

"Our Lord conceives of Himself to be in contest with Irori for you, yes.  He is proud that way.  I misdoubt that Irori sees it the same.  But in Hell one must take Asmodeus's views as definitive, where they are known."

"And what business do you have with Me, then?  For I am neither Asmodeus nor Irori."

What kind of QUESTION is that what's the GAME is it that she has to admit she came to Him because she couldn't go straight to Asmodeus, without wounding Dispater's own pride?

"If I had attained all I hope to in the mortal world, my lord, and risen in my own power as far as that took me, I might have dared venture farther into Hell, so as to offer myself to Asmodeus, who commanded me to come to Him. But events are moving quickly, and I do not believe we have the luxury of the years I would require to dream of surviving even two, three layers deeper into Hell, for not all parts of it are crafted as Dis is, to welcome outsiders, if they have the boldness and strength to come here.

And I am unfit, yet, for Asmodeus; I believe I can do Him a service no other can, and I know I can hand Him the victory He is owed in His contest with Irori, but I am a flawed and ignorant slave, and require further formation before I am fit to be presented to Him.

And further, my Lord, some rumors of Hell's doings reach the Material Plane, and it is rumored that specifically in Dis my name is known everywhere, and the souls of all those I touched traded as prizes; and so it seemed to me that the ruler of Dis might be more entertained by the prize of Carissa Sevar's soul, and by the work of finishing Asmodeus's gift, than any other."

"It seems that there are some things a woman of Irori will find difficult to grasp no matter how long she lays with a man of Abadar."

"Your value is not something intrinsic to yourself, Carissa Sevar.  Your value is not something you gain by your achievements.  It's what others expect to gain from you, when they bid on you - what they gain only if they pay.  What they expect to obtain regardless they have no reason to pay for."

"You could, perhaps, sell yourself to an Infernal Duke, of Dis.  And to that Infernal Duke, your value would not be any service you've done for Asmodeus or any victory over Irori that He gains.  It'd be the prestige they gain by being the Duke alone in Dis who holds Carissa Sevar's soul, a prize that obviously their rivals would have gained for themselves if they could."

"I have no rivals.  No matter who in Dis holds your soul, they answer to Me.  The contract devils here in My domain are not Asmodeus's agents to reimburse a soul for services performed to Him, they buy souls for themselves and to profit from them.  That Cheliax exploits this institution to also make those slaves more useful to their governments is not why the devils do it, any more than Cheliax is selling us souls for our devils' benefit."

"If you harbor any hope of reimbursement from Asmodeus for delivering a hundred planets to Him, who made Barbatos an archdevil for delivering but the one, you'd best compact with Him while that prize still lies within your hands to withhold.  Once He already holds it, He'll see it as but His due, from His slave.  He'll ask you what more He'll gain from you than He would have had elsewise, does He compact with you; and whatever that is, He'll not offer you any more than that, whatever your past services.  Barbatos delivered a whole planet of souls to our Lord, but He compacted with our Lord first."

"What's your value to Me, Carissa Sevar?  What will I gain that I would not elsewise have had, by owning you?"

That is an extremely reasonable question that smarter-Carissa totally presumably had an answer in mind to, but she isn't smarter-Carissa; likewise smarter-Carissa had a reason in mind for trying this, and not a compact with Asmodeus about delivering a hundred planets, but this Carissa does not know her reason.

...it's possible smarter-Carissa just made a mistake. A problem with this approach is that there's no way to know. 

Or, what if, smarter-Carissa did have this realization, and wanted to compact with Asmodeus and set herself on the path to become a Power in Hell, but remembered that it was not what she'd been ordered to do, and intended this Carissa not be confronted with the temptation. That's now lost; is there more it was an attempt to preserve?

Well, she's committed to obeying smarter-Carissa, who hopefully did not make silly mistakes; trying to halfway obey her will be worse. 

"Asmodeus did not direct me to compact with Him, my lord, but to come to Him without thought of other choices and become among the most treasured of His possessions." Why are you instructing me instead in how to fulfill my own ambition which I don't think He shares.

"I am to find in Hell what I cannot find in Axis, and Axis will certainly offer me compacts in which I achieve great wealth and high place for my achievements; but they cannot perfect me. I think it would be a mistake, perhaps a deadly one, to seek from Hell power without accompanying slavery. And it seems a worse deal for you, unless I misunderstand you greatly. If I'm yours, all my achievements are, and you can compact with Asmodeus. But perhaps I misunderstand you; for you speak in one breath of how I might deliver a hundred planets to Asmodeus, and then ask in the next what you would gain by possessing one who achieved such a thing."

"I?  Compact with Asmodeus?  Threaten to withhold your services from Him, unless He does pay Me in exchange?  Do you imagine some relationship between Us other than that He commands, and I obey?"

She in fact gets the sense it's a bit more complicated, with the dukes of the nine layers of Hell, that they are not precisely the same thing as all other devils - but perhaps that's wrong, or forbidden even if it's right.

"I am ignorant of the secrets of Hell," she says.

"You are indeed.  And was Carissa Sevar arranging to sell Me the soul of Carissa Sevar all the business that Carissa Sevar had with Me today, then?"

"No, my lord. I desire also to buy from you the souls of all the other parties associated with Project Lawful, at the spellsilver-denominated prices they've traded at in the markets of Dis, ideally at exchange rates which don't match present Chelish ease of spellsilver production, so that my own price does not break Hell's budget for intervention in Cheliax and so I have budget for future purchases."

More of that warm laughter, that you could imagine hearing in Heaven.

"So many, many mortals do seek to make themselves more like devils during their time in the Material.  It is a thought that has occurred to many who see no destination for themselves but Hell, to act in imitation of how devils act.  Hoping to earn a little favor in Hell, when they come here in due time.  Hoping to be more like devils already, when they come here in due time, so that less torment will be required to perfect them."

"Few such simply want to do the same things devils do, solely because that suits their own purposes.  Perfecting souls, merchanting them.  The woman who sent you hither is treating with me as Powers do in Hell, having her representative merchant a soul to me and buying of my own merchandise in exchange, making budgets for herself with which to fit into well-organized arrangements of Cheliax and Dis, benefiting both herself and Hell in a way that shall also please Asmodeus by its cleverness."

"And from having met you, as must be not too dissimilar to the true Carissa Sevar, I have no doubt that she did not do it out of the little fear of Hell."

"Did I consent to such an arrangement it would aid greatly in her eventual ascension in Hell, that she once treated with the Lord of Dis as one of His lesser peers - and I doubt she even knew it, for such knowledge of Infernal ways she'd not have erased from you."

"It is a pity I cannot speak to that Carissa Sevar and negotiate with her directly.  But I suppose she might be a worthy soul to own, even for the Lord of all Dis.  What price are you sent hither to seek from Me, on her behalf?"

Thank you smarter-Carissa, you did know what you were doing, smarter-Carissa, love you smarter-Carissa

"She commanded me to ask for two headbands granting +6 Intelligence +6 Wisdom +4 Charisma. And 30 Wishes."

"Hardly a price that seems earned, unless her present accomplishments are far greater than you've named to Me."

"I am as ignorant as you name me but I know that the value of an asset is its expected future value, and I think the one who sent me here clearly has at least one chance in a hundred of conquering a hundred planets."

"You'd sell yourself as a speculative investment, then."

"Would you know the real story of how the Project Lawful girls came to command the prices they did, in Dis?  It was on just such speculative investment, that they might learn the secrets of making better devils.  And then, their prices having grown that high, it became a mark of status among the lesser players to own them.  Then the greater players, and then they became held by Counts of Hell."

"And then - as those who stayed out of the game, or left it early, do always say afterwards was foreseeable, inevitable - the speculation was punctured, and the market in Project Lawful girls disappeared."

Oh good, if the bubble is popping their present owners will be looking to get out. "It cannot have helped, my lord, that the first one we sent to you we sent with an order to hurt her as much as possible even at the expense of any profit you might have of her."

"Is that what happened?  Ha!  Neither her old owner nor her new owner have said why that one Project Lawful girl changed hands at such a low price, but nobody was willing to buy at higher prices after that, nor current owners admit their losses, and so the whole market froze up."

"But then, if that's the true story, and the others' value is still intact, you shouldn't say it, little puppet of something greater.  Let them think that Cheliax is taking advantage to buy souls with inflated bona-fide prices of record, with inflated spellsilver, to restore Hell's budget in Golarion."

"I will find it entertaining to witness the reactions of my Counts of Hell as they are told they have one chance to get out of this market, at full price but not for any cleverness of their own.  And she who is your true controller, when she is restored, will find it helpful to her ascension that she once dictated terms to so many Counts of Hell."

"That's assuming she attains greatness successfully, and becomes My own valued possession whose ascension increases her value to Me.  If she fails to earn back her price, whatever that price is, I'll sell her down to one of those Counts she humiliated, as a plaything."

"Are you sure she'd still have 30 Wishes of Me?"

"Yes, I am." There's no way that smarter-Carissa did not understand what she was gambling. 

"Don't think too highly of her, shadow of Carissa Sevar.  She is not quite as clever as she believed.  She is not the first to try this gambit.  Not the tenth.  Not the hundredth.  I am older than she, and have been doing this a long time."

"When somebody erases their own memories before negotiating with a deity who can read them, it's because they know something themselves that would adversely affect their price.  Oh, they rarely set out to cheat their own future owner entirely, they know that would not be healthy.  But there's always something.  Just enough to get one over on Me, in an Asmodean way, they think, that will prove their own cleverness and value.  Not so much as to truly enrage Me, not so much that I have really lost on the trade."

"I think that's worth a discount, don't you?  For the information you've withheld from Me, whose existence you've failed to conceal.  And be it clear, I'm not speaking to you, puppet.  I'm addressing the high priestess who stands at your side, who will have been sent along with you by the true Carissa Sevar with the real negotiating instructions, unknown even to yourself."

"This is not My first game of memories, not My tenth, and not My hundredth."

Aspexia Rugatonn will not give any visible sign of reaction to this.

"There are people other than you she might have aimed to deceive, hoping to act against their interests without their knowledge. Irori. Keltham. Abrogail. Me."

Dispater is in many places at once, in this Palace rising like a great metal knife thrust through and out of Dis's center.  Not after the fashion of a god splintering its attentions across planes and planets; the greater portion of Himself is here.  But He has hardly been giving all His attention to Carissa Sevar.

Now that attention gathers, to decide for true upon Sevar's price as He offers it.  30 Wishes is to Him an expenditure that even He will notice as unusual, but if Sevar's true value is much greater then He should not risk losing it by trying to buy lower.

The blur about Him grows stronger, the ruby topping His badge of office blazes up brighter like a lidless flaming eye.

He's not annoyed.  Just looking at you.

Make a Will save or be frozen in utter terror and horror, DC 37.

There are very few mortals on the face of Golarion who'd even stand a chance at that, and Carissa is not at all one of them.