She's not going to resist punishment, or anything, but she's going to continue not moving.

"Dare I hope that I'm here to hold her down while you hurt her?"

"That would have been a relationship outcome far above my expectations.  No.  I need you in position to disable Carissa if she tries anything."

"Carissa.  There's a lot of entry processing we didn't do with you.  Most people here have sworn oaths not to oppose my plans, as a condition of being allowed to possibly reduce harm from them, with a few exceptions like Tarnish who consider themselves more aligned.  When I was - wearing a Splendour headband instead of Intelligence - and finally meeting you again - I did not - want to confront you over things that - might not have turned out to be necessary."

"But it is not actually something I will permit, that you use your Wishes on yourself, and keep your headband, and go around being INT 29 while I am INT 24.  You've already made an observation of vital importance to reducing the chance that I destroy the world, and I'd like you to make more of them, but the level of danger you represent without serious constraint is unacceptable."

"My 'best-alternative-to-negotiated-agreement' is statuing you at least until I am fully augmented with Wishes of my own.  Possibly until I've obtained at least a +6/+6 artifact headband of my own.  Do you want to offer me an alternative to that?"

"It took me five minutes, not knowing your plans, to notice a way they were going to destroy the world. Your reaction to this is that you don't want me to be smarter, because then I'd be too good at preventing the destruction of the world?

I won't use the Wishes. I wasn't planning to until I'd at least rederived my original plan, and I'm not actually entirely sure we want them used for augmentation rather than some situation where a Hell-Wish is safer interpreted than a genie-Wish, if we're not going to be short on diamonds.

But I do want to register, Keltham, that I think you are making really terrible decisions, decisions that are in expectation going to kill millions of people, and that if what you discovered about yourself, deep down, was that you aren't that selfish, then you have to be unselfish enough to, if you notice a decision is going to in expectation kill millions of people, not make it. I don't know what unselfishness is for, if that's not it. If there's any real true shard of the Light anywhere in dath ilan, it'd be that they have fewer people who'd in expectation kill tens of millions of people as their first pass at solving a problem they could solve with, like, a conversation."

She turns back to the wizard's door, to knock on it.

"Go ahead."

Knock knock.

The woman opens the door again.

"Iamhavingapanicattackandneedsomeonetoremindmetobreatheforthenexttwominutesareyouavailableandifnotdoyouhaveareferral"

" - yeah, hey, it's okay, come on in. Sit down." She shoots a baffled glance over Carissa's head at the other occupants of the hallway.

"Tarnish, follow her and make sure she doesn't, like, suddenly kill everybody and escape.  We have to assume at this point that tropewise she's now the story's protagonist and I'm the villain.  Be silent otherwise."

"Carmin, sorry.  I let myself get excited about meeting Carissa, I was - trying not to do the thing that obviously isn't going to end well, or rather, is going to end even worse, of suppressing too many emotions, not making any concessions to excitement - didn't ask her to swear any oaths in advance, and - just now told her that it was looking like I needed to turn her into a statue for a week, if she didn't want to offer any promises."

"Carissa, Carmin and Tarnish are cleared to know all I told you."

"Breathe in," Carmin says calmly. "That wasn't really much of a breath - there you go. Breathe out.  Breathe in.  Out.

In. Out. 

In. Out.

Do you want to talk about this, or just breathing assistance?"

"What I want is to go to Hell where people aren't so fucking awful!!!"

Saying that had not been in her plan. It just sort of happened. Also it got her behind on breathing and it takes her most of the rest of the two minutes just to catch back up.

"People, uh, don't threaten each other, in Hell?" Carmin says quietly, once she's calmed.

"Probably they do. Probably nowhere's safe. I - sorry. I said two minutes. I'll leave now."

"I am skeptical that's a good idea and don't mind if you stay longer."

"Abrogail Thrune tortured me to death once. By turning me into a statue. I - told Keltham - told him it was, it was what I'd always been most terrified of - uh, before Abrogail, not because of her, that's why she did it -"

"- wow. It makes sense, then, that you panicked, when he brought up statues."

"Didn't panic then. Said something. Don't know if it was enough. Panicked - after - when I was trying to think of what - to say - that could possibly be enough when - he wants to destroy the world, he wants to kill everyone, that's the fucking plan, that's what convinced me to sell my soul, it's not overthrowing Asmodeus, it's overthrowing Pharasma, and may the beasts of the Outer Dark consume us all, that'll just make this corner of reality prettier, to a dath ilani. I hate him. I don't understand how I ever -"

"I don't want the universe to be consumed by the beasts of the Outer Dark. I think with these resources, we can do a lot better than that."

"Only if Keltham wants to!!!! He could - he could just give all the diamonds to the Church of Iomedae and you'd- handle it from there, wouldn't you -"

" -we would be able to do a ton from there. I don't know that we'd be able to do everything."

"He's not going to do everything!!! He's going to destroy the world because he can't be bothered to fucking think for five fucking minutes because he's - selfish stupid cruel horrible - this is why you're not supposed to fall in love with people, it's because it makes you fucking delusional, why didn't anyone say that instead of 'oh it's unAsmodean', it makes you think that they might be worth saving - I should've just told Otolmens, right away, to crush him -"

"I don't actually think that you should have done that, even by your own values."