“The minister for national affairs should mind that it could also be Clepati,” offers Xulia Cantibari, newly promoted advisor to the Queen, “relying on the fact that our doubts about Pineda’s loyalties might inspire us to permit it, where such an intervention, were it openly Clepati’s, would generate considerable suspicion.”

    “Pineda hasn’t denied it.”

  “My understanding is that  - owing to mismanagement under the previous monarch - Pineda offers no routine accounting of her actions either to Church or Crown, which is why we cannot ask of her if, and why -”

 "Is anyone being assigned to the duty of analyzing the possibility that this benefits Cayden Cailean, and if so how?  Or are we abandoning that as a bad deal?"

   "My understanding is that Pineda's final reports indicate her as having acquired the capability to act entirely for her own benefit, meaning we can't assume that any particular action of hers is meant to benefit Asmodeus or Cheliax at all."

         "It clearly does increase Chelish military potential, if only because we can recall more clerics from the Worldwound and our cities while incurring lesser consequences.  I don't think any gods will be confused by a cover of Pineda not rendering direct military aid, which further weighs against her choices having a divine source or reason -"

Terthule II lifts a hand, and all quiets at once.

“Never mind Pineda,” says Terthule II, who of course minds Pineda immensely but can’t look interested in calling her to account; she might not answer, and that’d be disastrous. She’s asked people separately to figure out what remains in Cheliax that Pineda might care about, and how it might be credibly threatened; early reports say that Pineda's immediate family is dead and unreachable, but one of Pineda's few disciplinary infractions was about granting too much fame to Paxti of Borras, a former classmate, during a sensitive intelligence operation. “Whether it’s Pineda's her hand or another, we ought not to rely on it for wartime logistics, in case it’s then withdrawn; beyond that, any scheme that strengthens Asmodeus strengthens Us.” Obviously false, but no one’s going to call her on it. “Pineda’s loyalties will become apparent when we go to war; most loyalties do.” And that’s quite enough on this dangerous topic, time to steer for - “Summarize, Timoteu, the state of those preparations.”

Cheliax's stocks of high-level consumables, scrolls and wands and potions, had been depleted by conquering Nidal; those would have taken time to replenish from only internal sources, and Cheliax is not as rich in high-level casters as in low-level casters.  The obvious alternative is to buy those items from foreign suppliers, using the newfound spellsilver riches, but many of Cheliax's usual military suppliers are currently balking at supplying Cheliax directly.

This is inconvenient but not fatal; any sanction on foreign trade that isn't obeyed worldwide is more for show than for impact.  Cheliax has offered higher prices to those suppliers that will still sell to them.  The former clients of those suppliers, outbid, will turn around and buy from the suppliers that are making a show of snubbing Cheliax.

"I estimate that we're at 70% of attainable military potential.  80% in one more week, 90% two weeks after.  That reflects our supply of consumables; our warriors and casters are as ready as they'll ever be.  With respect to recalling Worldwound forces," now that the new healing capacity has increased their efficiency, and realistically also gambling on Lady Pineda's demonstrated willingness to reinforce a Chelish Worldwound unit in distress, "we have acquired sufficient Greater Teleport scrolls to retrieve up to thirty high-level casters and fighters from the Worldwound without that impacting our assault potential immediately after."

A military advisor standing behind him clears his throat. “Your Majesty, I would recommend we move immediately. Those weapons that we’ve witnessed deployed by Osirion or those allied with it are a problem and they’ll be more of one in more time. This is the best moment to strike at them. We should adjust our objectives in line with our combat power, rather than delay.”

  “So which objectives does our lord minister recommend we abandon? Clepati? The project sites? The city? A weak attack weakens us.”

“Our aim is destruction, not conquest; a weak attack weakens them, and their counterattack weakens us precisely as much as they’re capable of, which will be more next week.”

This is the conversation Terthule II was angling for, without being too obvious about her desires. There’s nothing like a good war for securing one’s throne. She intends to preside over it with sober, mature deliberation, statesmanlike as Abrogail could never be bothered to be. “Are there those who’d advocate for further delay?”

There's a surprisingly loud click and nearly simultaneous snick.

This is the sound made by an adamantine spring, unwinding under incredible tension; and the sound made by an adamantine blade that sweeps forth and returns almost instantly back.

Anyone who sees at mortal speeds will see only that blood sprays forth from Terthule's throat, and she stops talking and looks puzzled for just a moment, before her head falls off her shoulders in another gush of blood.

Abrogail gracefully catches Terthule's head before it hits the ground, removes the Crown of Infernal Majesty, and heaves the rest of Terthule's body off the Throne of Cheliax before seating herself down there, uncaring of the latest set of bloodstains.

There are things you ought not to do if you are determined to keep your head attached to your shoulders for very long, and one of those things is seating yourself upon the Throne of Cheliax, in the throne room that was Abrogail's.

"I assume," Abrogail says aloud, glancing at the current royal guard members, who are looking just as decidedly neutral as everyone else in this room, "that you have secret instructions to summon the Grand High Priestess in such an event as this, considering my recent circumstances."  She leans to one side upon her throne, flinging one boot-clad leg up on the throne's arms, the very picture of seductive relaxation.  "Be about that, if you must."

Aspexia will come there swiftly.

Accompanied by adequate reinforcements, should they be necessary.

Everyone who is none of those people will be saying absolutely nothing.

"You have not donned the Crown of Infernal Majesty."

A tiny feeling of relief (entirely about Cheliax's prospects for competent governance, and which Aspexia was not in any case acknowledging in the slightest) vanished upon the instant that she saw.

"It's... very tempting.  But you will be pleased to hear, Aspexia, that I have finally learned not to do what I shouldn't."

"Has Sevar broken you to her service, then?"

They are none of them stupid.

"It's different when an ex-priestess of Irori does the remaking.  I am strong enough now to rule without this Crown."  Only a +2/+2/+6 three-quarters-circlet that she wears, small almost to the point of being invisible beneath her hair, and leaving her forehead clear.

There are uneasy shifts at this, the royal guards meeting each other's eyes, not daring quite yet to take up combative stances against Abrogail Thrune returned.

"If you intend to try taking Cheliax from the grasp of Hell, even if only so Sevar can reclaim it in Hell's name, there will be a fight about it."

It's an obvious stratagem and the one that Aspexia would expect.  It's the one that Abrogail expected: that Sevar would send her back to liberate Cheliax from Hell's grasp, make it true that the country was now ruled in its own name and without Asmodeus's compact.  So that Sevar would receive all the souls there, after she claimed Cheliax back from Abrogail's hands, in Hell's name.  It's the stratagem that would make sense of why Carissa Sevar did not simply return wearing the Crown, and claim Cheliax directly.

Abrogail still doesn't know why that was not the plan, but she has her orders.

There is, however, no need to say that right away.

"Sounds like an expensive fight."

"I see you have undergone insufficient torment to cure your optimism."

"You could have been slain upon this spot, Gorthoklek, having come to this place not fully prepared for war.  I too would have died, but I would be resurrected afterwards, and you, utterly destroyed.  The ilani philosophy of weaponry is still being revised to incorporate and counter magic, but it isn't designed with an aim of giving the targets a chance to fight back, or act at all, really."

Gorthoklek is already defended now against a weapon of such potency as slew the Queen and Most High before.  And there are more pit fiends in Hell, should it come to a greater war against ilani-spawn; did Gorthoklek fall here, the next pit fiend after himself would not die so easily.  He does not say as much, of course, but instead this:

"Do you intend to try to take from Hell a country that Asmodeus has compacted for and claimed as His own?"

"Not if there's a less expensive alternative."