And she is moved, but not, alas, stayed.

Befutig Safiza Uj-alet does plead with her, then, warning her that Hell has cruelty but no generosity, it does not have the capacity to prize Pilar Pineda as he would, it will not shower her with gifts to complement its torments.  Her beautiful form will never know the touch of a caressing hand to soothe the whip's bite before it lands again.

O Pilar, O Pilar, why would she foresake the cruelty of the Efreet for the cruelty of Hell?  She was made to be a slave, but let her choose a more appreciative master than Asmodeus!  If the screams he draws from her are not enough, he will apprentice himself to more skilled torturers.

The slave-girl is silent for a long time.

"I do not need my master's appreciation nor his caress," she says.

"You lie."

"I did.  But though you could be my master, you could not be my god, for you would be content to sate your cruelty on me and not desire to perfect me as I must be perfected.  Efreet are Lawful, but they are not of Law."

"Your cruelty is indeed the cruelty of Hell," he says.  "How will I ever know satisfaction again, after tasting your savor and then being denied it for ever?  I am sworn not to take your life for it; but tell me what enemy of mine laid this trap for me, that I may spend the rest of my eternity on vengeance."

"Did I not swear this was no trap of your enemy?" says Pilar.  "You have shown me your might, now let me show you mine."

The slave-girl closes her eyes, and the fragile beauty of her mortal face seems to fill his vision.

Then her eyes open, and they are standing in the warehouse of a slave-market where no mortal of Golarion should ever be, before a slave-pen where young girlchildren crawl upon ten legs and eat the rotting corpses of things with more legs than that.

"You cannot be here," says Befutig Safiza Uj-alet.  He must exert himself to not let his own form change, in this place.  "The City of Brass itself would be forfeit."

But Pilar Pineda points to one girlchild who glares at them from a corner with emerald-faceted eyes, as though daring them to try and take her from her sisters.  "She has also my nature," Pilar Pineda says, "if you buy her and see her well-raised, to become a slave that leans into the whip and repays cruelty with desire.  Only buy her sisters also, and treat them kindly, and never threaten them to threaten her; for that she will never forgive as mortal nor Efreeti.  Free them and send them home, when they are grown enough to be safe returning, and she'll be yours forever."

It is not in the nature of Efreet to know gratitude, but they know debt and hierarchy.  Befutig Safiza Uj-alet does acknowledge then that Pilar Pineda has shown herself grander than he; and that he owes her any one service she asks, short of his life or future wife.

"And I do acknowledge the City of Brass in turn," she says, "for showing me my own pride, that I did not know I had in me.  But now it is time for me to return, for as you say, I must not be here."

"To what fate do you return?  I have not missed that such a revel as this is one that a mortal might undertake, knowing they were not long for their flesh.  There is a saying among the Efreet:  Eat, drink, and be merry, for even gods can die.  Is it that, which you were doing?"

"Perhaps.  Perhaps I go now to die, perhaps to become a goddess, perhaps to be made traitor.  Only my companion knew what fate is set for me, and she would not say.  Whatever it is to be, I'll try to hold to this pride, and not whine about it."

"Now send me back from the City of Brass also, to serve Asmodeus in Golarion, and then in Hell.  I am twice tempted now and twice refused; the third temptation will see me His true servant for-ever, or break me, if the tropes hold true."

And if all this is to become a fable of the City of Brass in a year and a day, or if by then the City of Brass will have been consumed utterly in ruin - whether in Golarion this is to become a tale of a Deed of Pilar Pineda when she was mortal, or if her fate lies down some other road entirely - that is yet to be seen.  Her companion oracle knew what was fated, once, but fate is now cracked if maybe not shattered.  And even that cracked fate Ione Sala has not spoken of, as yet, where things that watch can see her.  If they want to know what comes, they shall have to continue watching to witness it.

Telepathy between Keltham and Carissa follows in: the meeting of their minds.

This is an extended depiction with a lot of added context for the benefit of sub-INT-29 readers; the real telepathic exchange, of course, consists of thoughts flashing back and forth at a much higher speed and level of abstraction.

If you find yourself glazing over at the debates about ethics or Greater Reality, the more relationshippy section of 'meeting' starts here; and in the final extremity you can skip ahead to the next thread, null action act 2.

In case you missed it, there's now a completed dath ilan thread between Iarwain and Swimmer963, about how Merrin first came to the attention of Exception Handling: for no laid course prepare.

You may also have missed:  dear abrogail (Abrogail Thrune's terrible terrible advice column), summoned hero sevar (on hiatus and probably never going to be completed).

To readers noticing the recent update:  "the meeting of their minds" was moved to the main section, completed, and the story now continues in "null action act ii: unact harder".