That -

That can't actually be -

Pilar learned it from Carissa Sevar.

Pilar was cruel to the carter, but only after he started trouble, and in a way that didn't break him, and gave him a story to remember afterwards of how he was strong and handled himself well around a mysterious threat.

Before Project Lawful, Pilar had only seen mean people who liked breaking things.  Or were trying to act in a way that would look Evil to others or to themselves.  Or who had excuses for doing things they enjoyed that other people weren't enjoying and that would not in fact make people any stronger.

It is a very narrow path to walk, to find a way of Lawful Evil that isn't about being forced to cast Acid Splash on prisoners.

Pilar had thought - that Snack Service was playing a long game to make Pilar renounce Evil.

In the end, Good and Evil, Law and Chaos, are definitions made up by an ancient entity that didn't care very much about a lot of things that mortals do care about.

Snack Service has never tried to steer Pilar towards becoming Good, or Evil, or Lawful, or Chaotic, or anything else but Pilar Pineda.

Pilar walks on in silence towards Ostenso.

She's gone back to not thinking about things.  It seemed like a wise order to give Pilar.

Some more carts pass Pilar on the road going the other way.  No other carts pass Pilar going her own way, until she reaches the city.  It wasn't much further on, at this point.

Ostenso is a thoroughly walled city, and Pilar's road takes her to a well-guarded gate.

Pilar doesn't feel like dealing with questions.  She closes her eyes, blacks out, and finds herself inside the city.

Ostenso's streets seem smaller, somehow, than they did when Pilar ran them as a child, before Authority told her to become a wizard and Pilar obeyed.

The streets seem smaller, even, than they did on cautious excursions from Ostenso wizard academy, not very long ago at all.  Cheliax is a Lawful country, and Ostenso a Lawful city, but not so Lawful that a wizard academy would reasonably let their apprentices out to wander the streets alone and unguarded, and have no fear of misplacing them.

It's not that the streets are safer.  Pilar has always felt safe in Cheliax.  There really isn't very much bad that can happen to her, here.

But they are... less challenging, in the ways that the world could have presented her with some little challenge before.

There is a foreign sailor-adventurer swaggering down the street in expensive leather armor with a blade at his belt, and Pilar doesn't have to be clever to evade him and whatever little trouble he might bring.  If he pointed his trouble at Pilar, she could laugh and dance along with him, and if he made too much trouble for her, he'd die.

Ostenso's streets seem smaller, and it isn't really a mystery why they do.

She should... probably get something to wear that isn't an Ostenso wizard student's uniform.  Here in Ostenso, it doesn't stand out too much, but a single unescorted wizard apprentice is a slightly anomalous sight even so.  And outside Ostenso, it screams 'Project Lawful' and maybe even specifically 'Pilar Pineda' to those rare people who keep up on that sort of news.

Does Snack Service has any comments on that?  Pilar is here because Snack Service told her it was time to go.  Pilar does not actually know what she's supposed to do next or if she could use different clothing for it.

Pilar should get high-quality but otherwise standard adventuring equipment for wizards!

It'll be easier if Pilar gets a Bag of Holding first, though.

...the smallest available size of Bag of Holding tends to be pretty expensive, even by the standards of Pilar's new wealth level.

Dare Pilar hope that Cayden Cailean is paying for this?

He sure will!  Sort of.

Turn left at the street intersection up ahead.

Pilar is... okay she just dared to think 'pleasantly surprised' and now has a feeling she should not have dared think that.

But perhaps she will be pleasantly surprised again by the consequences.

Pilar turns left, and then right, and then right, and then left again, following Snack Service's directions.  Say what you like about Ostenso, nobody could possibly accuse the street layout of being boring.

Then Pilar will come at last to an abandoned-looking shack wedged between two rows of dirty cottages, near the outskirts of the town furthest from the water and docks, not quite wedged up against the city walls but near to them.

Snack Service needs to run this part, if Pilar can yield her body for a bit.

Don't worry, Snack Service won't do anything with Pilar's body that doesn't ultimately serve Asmodeus's interests.  Hopefully, Pilar has now seen some amount of evidence about that.

...all right, Pilar will hand her reins to Snack Service temporarily.

Snack Service lifts up Pilar's hand and knocks on the door of the shack, not hard.

...eventually, as if some process was taking place that took a lot longer than 'come to the door of a tiny shack', the shack door opens and a scarred tiefling girl in a ragged maid uniform looks out from behind the door.  Her gaze is not a friendly one.

"Hi!" Snack Service says in a super cheerful perky version of Pilar's voice.  "Do I have the pleasure of addressing Mister Doomlord's maidservant?"

...oh no.

"What do you want?" the tiefling girl says in a harsh low voice, after the sort of pause that might be associated with somebody making a quick but obvious deduction.

"I want a Bag of Holding and I want you to put inside five thousand gold pieces and three of your leftover divine Plane Shift scrolls and the Bracers of Shadow Armor you've got in inventory that none of you are really going to need and a scroll of blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah holy shit that's expensive blah blah blah blah and I want you to not tell Mister Doomlord about it!"

"Uh huh.  Out of pure grim curiosity, if I asked for a reason I was doing that..."