But if—

And the rumor says that when that day and hour comes, Carissa Sevar doesn't ask you to promise her your allegiance or your soul in death, she doesn't ask that you turn away from your own god forever—

—only asks your best wishes, your faith, your hope, your prayer, only for a few minutes, if you lost anyone you loved to somewhere they'd rather not have gone, if there's anything in you for them that isn't full despair, if you read of Aroden and mourned His dream of a world better than this, know that even the gods have their trials and Carissa Sevar will soon face Hers; and all you can do for Her in Her trial is pray that She ascends, to harrow Hell and Abaddon and Abyss—

And then the day and hour comes, which few were fool enough to even mark,

When the awful light flickers again in the sky, visible even by daylight in those parts of the globe that hold day,

And a hundred million mortals who heard, who laughed, who scorned, who didn't want to feel even one spark in their hearts and be predictably disappointed later, look up, to the sky, and see—

Even then, they mostly don't believe it.
But it doesn't hurt much, doesn't cost much, to spend a few minutes in prayer, if it's true.

Because if—

Yet among those who felt a spark of hope even at the rumor, there is born then a blaze of desperation:

The replacement mayor of a town filled with justifiably sullen tieflings proclaims an emergency moment of prayer;

An emperor on another continent, who knows himself for damned, orders every major city within Teleport distance of his mages to worship Carissa Sevar;

A priest of Sarenrae from further yet who stayed up past midnight to see, now rings frantically the bell of Her temple, to summon Sarenrae's faithful to pray to a Lawful Evil goddess, just in case, just in case;

A nine-year-old boy, whose father told him his mother went to Hell, kneels by his bed and sobs for Carissa Sevar to save her;

His father is busy gathering cattle in to the fold, and he cannot delay in that work, but he weeps and prays to Carissa Sevar all the same.

It's all that almost everyone on Golarion can do, those mortals who know anything at all of what's happening, if they don't just want to stand and wait in the hour of their own doom.

Carissa Sevar finds the fragments of Herself / the fragments of herself find Her, and She is whole then, and a god.

It's with mixed emotions (perceived more clearly in their parts, Her parts, than ever before) that Carissa sees the gods have not done the last thing They might have done to stop Her, have not destroyed Absalom, or even Golarion, where it stood behind Her.  There was a sense in which that path being probable would have been a very bad thing; if that was an outcome expected by Nethys, Keltham and the others would not have attempted this strategy, and Golarion would have been destroyed by Rovagug. 

But also They are all off the path Nethys foresaw, as is even clearer from where She now stands; and perhaps Golarion could've been destroyed helpfully, not as Keltham's distraction but to preserve Creation. From what She knew when She ascended, it was possible. And She'd hoped for it, and it is not so.

She is reaching now for a glimpse -

- and then for a whole and stable view -

of the god-negotiated levels of the world -

- She sees how Nethys and Cayden and Milani have been twisting and bending those alongside the mortal layers of reality to bring them all here to this, and She doesn't see any ways out, now, though of course She looks -

The mortals are still praying to Her, empowering Her in a way that's injurious to their own interests on one level, and also part of a greater strategy that leaves the people of Golarion better off, and also asking Her to do something She deeply wishes to do but which is not in this instant Her first priority.

She spares little of Her attention to her feelings from Her other priorities, but even a little of a coalescent god's attention is a great deal, and She could not be coalesced if She was leaving parts of herself behind.

So Carissa Sevar mourns / and nods across time / and accepts a debt to be repaid -

And in mortal Absalom, the Starstone is visibly much diminished in size and brilliance; for Carissa Sevar has seized of it almost all the power that Aroden did not take for Himself, and nearly all of Achaekek's remaining energies beside.

Keltham comes forth, then, laid around with protective spells so that he will not immediately evaporate in Carissa Sevar's mere presence; and he lays his hand upon what remains of the Starstone.

NO.  Absolutely NOT.

In a way, Carissa Sevar is more aligned to Otolmens than any other god's purposes here.  Otolmens should have been allowed to squish Keltham, and everyone else should not have stopped Her.  And yet, straight through Her as a fact that does not change, an oath she swore / time-crossing decision that she made, standing halfway between mortal and goddess, because the alternative consistent pathways through time were even worse:

I will not let you destroy Him.

More and greater gods, then, answer with larger pieces of Their attention when Otolmens Herself adds to the call, for this whole business is becoming quite worrying.

Their blows rain down on the goddess Carissa Sevar, seeking to extinguish Her piece by piece wherever She shields Keltham.

Carissa Sevar is above all the greater goddess of survival at any price, and to extinguish any piece of Her own selfhood would take a divine effort more serious than this.

He channels some of his attention, while he can, into the crown worn by his mortal form, that was prepared by spellcraft of Carissa Sevar to accept divinity into itself: and into that crown, by Keltham's will, as he wears it along his journey to godhood, he places as much of dath ilan's knowledge as he can place, to be used by a wearer out of Golarion with whom dath ilan might have touched fingers; not someone like a dath ilani, but someone on their own pathway toward a greater whole that dath ilan once hoped to join someday; an assistance to help other worlds along their own ways, to become themselves and not a copy of dath ilan, as dath ilan would also have asked of him;

And the crown awakens as an artifact, and knows of itself that it is the Flame of Civilization, to kindle in another place what burned elsewhere, though they be different fires that light;

As Carissa Sevar placed into Her own crown, greatest of the three, Her comprehension of Law and Spellcraft and magic's hidden order; tinged by her strength of will, and her fierce determination; to be wielded by one who chooses, with that knowledge, to protect souls and worlds from destruction; and that Crown awakens and reflects upon itself, and knows that it is the Light of Consciousness that must never be extinguished;

And final of those three is a crown once worn by Pilar Pineda, which device is also now a person, and that crown knows herself for the Warmth of Friendship; and that crown is not Snack Service, for Snack Service now is no more, but she bears Snack Service's last best wishes, and some of her imaginary personhood, and some of her power.

But soon enough Keltham can no longer try to channel divinity into his artifact-of-ascendance, soon enough He also falls into fractally shattered dream and ascends—

But it is over more quickly, for Him; He is making Himself into the least powerful god who can do a single task.

And Keltham claims for Himself this divine portfolio:

He is foremost the Neutral god of Kelthamness, with domains of 'being Keltham', 'staying Keltham', and 'becoming more Keltham',

But also He is the god of being in one place and then another; and god of things being made of math; and somewhat the god of silent death, since that part of Achaekek's essence was like right there and it seems potentially helpful.

It can weaken you, to try to be that strange and specific as a god, but Keltham does not need to be any stronger than He is become.  One task only lies ahead of Him.

And when Keltham has finished ascending, and vanished about His purpose in Creation,

After the deadly focus of the gods shifts elsewhere,

There teleports into the ruins of the Starstone Cathedral a wizard who follows Iomedae, who was oathbound to Keltham for a time but no longer, to gather up the three artifacts called Warmth and Light and Flame.

The three crowns don't form a set and you cannot wear them all at once to gain ultimate power.  They are simply there to help.

And Iomedae's wizard gives a wondering sad look to the remnant of the Starstone, now dimmer.  The Starstone is no longer defended, but anyone who touches it now will be destroyed, if they have no gods to defend them in their ascension.  Reaching the Starstone was never really the hard part in the first place, if anyone is that much the fool.  Once this Cathedral was defended at least against some gods, if not the likes of Asmodeus or Achaekek; but now that is no longer so.

And so Carmin departs to Lastwall, setting an illusion of warning glyphs in the air there before she goes, accompanied by warning animations; lest any touch the Stone and true-die.  Lastwall will return, perhaps, with greater troops than this, to claim the Starstone's remnant and make the reckless hear at least a disclaimer first.  But to muster her fellow Iomedaens will take time, now that she is no longer oathbound and her secrets are secrets no more.

So the Starstone, or its remnant, now lies alone and quiet, but for the seethe of lava and crackle of flames that will take long to subside—