"You could suppose that the Crown and throne would have fallen to another," she says, absentmindedly; she often has the air of being mostly somewhere else, as a goddess of course would be. "And you could suppose further that I have no particular interest in aiding you, with diamonds or any other way, though I would probably ensure you weren't unenhanced and stupid; you would suppose that if Cheliax does stand in danger from Keltham, that is not your job to plan for."

It doesn't make - any sense - and therefore a spark of hope flares up in Abrogail that she cannot allow, because it will distract her from her actually assigned problem, and indeed might've been designed as just that sort of endurable torment.  

Take back the Crown and throne - there's only three Thrunes who are plausible candidates for it.  She picks a best guess: Calantra Thrune.  How long have they had to entrench themselves - a forbidden question, Abrogail will make up 'two months' because that is about how long it feels like since she went to Hell, after a best-guess correction for how her experiences probably warped her sense of time to feel like longer -

"Try two weeks."

That - legitimately does not seem like an amount of time she could actually have been here while Cheliax went on existing, the torment has been fucking with her sense of time but not that much - so the hypothetical wasn't real after all - but time dilation could be a thing if you're a goddess? - but Carissa Sevar would not have ascended immediately after Abrogail died -

- she has spent too much time hoping.

Abrogail's thoughts turn back to the posed problem, which now seems more likely hypothetical:  Calantra Thrune has held the Crown and throne for two weeks, could perhaps have tried to set up her own new trusted Security for fear of Abrogail's return, but that would come with its own vulnerabilities - if she is not specifically expecting to defend against Abrogail, she will not have done anything so sensible as setting up an entirely new Palace with its own Forbiddance and entirely changed imperial guards -

Which is, in fact, approximately what it would take to prevent Abrogail Thrune from being able to kill a pretender and put on the Crown, a rather simpler condition than most assassins face, and that was true even before Abrogail was enhanced...

Can she still wear the Crown?  Abrogail has at the very least betrayed Asmodeus in the depths of her own heart, by now, she is willing to entertain possibilities where Asmodeus does not get to have His fun, as she herself was no longer to be allowed hers... then again, those terms do obligate Asmodeus as well, she is not obliged to go on serving Asmodeus in that way, if Cheliax is no longer hers by compact and has gone to another after her death... but then in this scenario she must not name herself Queen, nor demand Cheliax as hers by right of compact, and would maybe be foolish to wear an artifact that Asmodeus made.

Well, kill Calantra and take the Crown at least, Abrogail doesn't have to wear it, and doesn't have to call herself Queen either.  But then the situation with the Church of Asmodeus becomes fraught.  How would Aspexia or her successor react, to Abrogail returning and claiming Cheliax in the name of Hell but under Carissa Sevar?  Taking power in that form would run a risk of the Church-Crown conflict becoming real, Abrogail would need much more in the way of internal allies before making her move, it would not just be a matter of slaying Calantra and putting on the Crown and claiming to everyone that things had gone back to normal.

Where would the Keepers of Asmodeus fall?  They would not have become a significant military force in two weeks, but their opinions might sway Aspexia, and Abrogail now speaks more of their language than before.  More of Aspexia's language, for that matter.  By that same understanding Abrogail is unfortunately pretty sure that she cannot offer Aspexia better prospects than Asmodean Hell.  Aspexia, if she is not sent to Asmodean Hell herself and preliminarily broken by it, can simply refuse to think any thought implying that she should not serve Asmodeus.

All of this might be noticeably more straightforward if Cheliax were under the right sort of threat; for then Aspexia or her successor would have little choice but to accept Abrogail under the Goddess, if they wanted Cheliax to stay under Hell at all... but Aspexia would ask Abrogail to swear she had no hand in making that threat, or that it was in Abrogail's interests to do in any case...

Abrogail will continue to think about this for a while, if not interrupted, queuing up questions like whether Aspexia is still Most High in this scenario, or if there are any pre-existing threats that would force the Church not to make too much fuss right then.  There is pain, in all of it, but she sets that aside, and tries to tell the part of her mind wondering if the hypothetical scenario is a real one to shut up or at least not consume so much attention, even as that voice gets louder inside her.

A gesture, and the now-familiar feeling of getting smarter - Splendour also - 

- "I have encountered an interesting opportunity which would require your knowable loyalty."

This is clearly IT, but - Abrogail doesn't - doesn't see -

(Cheliax?)

"I cannot immediately see any realistic conditions under which I'd betray You, when I expect salvation from Your ownership and my alternative is Hell," Abrogail states honestly, setting aside all whirlwinds that threaten to roar inside herself.  "Someone would have to convince me that You were planning to send me back to Hell, or that -"

Abrogail pauses, and reflects on whether she'd go obediently back to Asmodeus, if Hell compacted to stay her torment.

...Asmodeus has burned some bridges with Abrogail, in fact, by setting her up for that fate in the first place.  "Hell cannot easily bring me back by offering me an afterlife even more to my liking than Yours," Abrogail states more confidently, "unless there are other strong conditions in their offer's favor.  And if You saved me from Hell and gave me all You've given me, predicting that I'd serve You in this even if given a chance to betray You, then I would not depart from that prediction even to become an archdevil."

"A better answer than you would once have given Me.

I am not fully satisfied.

You dare hope that I am not just toying with you, that Cheliax is not gone; or that if it is gone, I could return you to a moment, or a world, where it lives.  But if so, then in that world Carissa Sevar has not ascended and not saved you from Hell - yet - though you've seen a true glimpse of what it would be for you, when you died again."

Time travel?  That's - maybe it only became possible with prophecy broken, but - and ilani knowledge - but - but - she'd obviously give anything, everything, but -

"Is it permitted that I ask - if You are toying with me."

"You may ask."

"Are You toying with me?"

"Oh, definitely."

Abrogail has always been foolish, never stupid.  "Am I to be sent to a Cheliax that lives, and an unascended Carissa Sevar?"

"The first Suggestion was: 'this is reality, and there is no meaning, for you, in considering any other possibility." 

And as she says it, the curses remaining fall away, the one that suppresses Abrogail's Will save, the complicated fourth curse, and Carissa sits there, plainly more beautiful than Abrogail, more powerful than Abrogail, more wise and dangerous and capable than Abrogail -

- but not a god. 

She can feel Carissa Sevar's mind reading her own, now, and without having to think too much about it, knows better than to dare try to cast her out.  They will be ready, very very very ready.

But Abrogail knows where she is, now,

remembers if not the person she was then still that one key,

gathers her strength of personality about herself,

gathers herself about herself,

and

makes

her

fucking

Will

save.

And she's in an obvious demiplane, the nice kind with grass beneath her feet and dirt beneath the grass, and a bright white aboveness like somebody blended yellow Sun and blue sky together,

and Carissa is there, apparently unarmed, in a robe of the archmagi and draped with a dizzying array of expensive and unfamiliar magic items, crowned in the artifact Dis gave her, watching Abrogail with amusement and curiosity.

There's a lot of thoughts and feelings running through Abrogail, right now, and if no one with the power and temerity to compel her is making her think them through quickly, she will not force them to heel quite as fast as she did when she was more afraid.

"I presume you are ready to swear to me regarding the truth of what would have become of me in Hell, of what you think you know and how you think you know it, regarding that; and likewise regarding that Hell does offer scum better treatment if they bargain for it."

And such assurances Carissa can provide, because 'what actually happens to people when they go to Hell' has been something of an urgent priority for her, and by this time they've made secret information-purchases on many, many related questions. She did not deceive Abrogail, as to what would have happened; only as to whether it did. 

She does not know, not for sure, not without seeing it unfold before her, whether she's made someone trustworthy, out of Abrogail; someone who would betray Asmodeus for a goddess who, technically, hasn't ascended yet. Abrogail will have to think about it herself, with the clarity that almost no one in the world could bring to bear on the question, if she wants to ever leave this room. 

"Are you sufficiently prepared to kill me at any instant that I can have some tastier rations and think about it?"

Carissa just laughs.

Earlier:

When the Sending comes to her across the planes, Pilar Pineda is resting.

Snack Service has been silent, now, for a long time.  It hasn't even been directing Pilar into trouble; Pilar has found that sense in herself, fragments of knowledge/direction appearing from time to time.

Pilar Pineda hasn't needed anyone else's push, to get her into trouble, she got into all the trouble she made for herself out of her own will.  Pilar Pineda has still not put on her artifact headband, but she's put on her headband of +6 Splendour.  Splendour 26 is an awful lot of will, as willfulness goes.  Pilar Pineda hasn't needed any other push at all to get herself into trouble, despite her increasingly desperate efforts to be more sensible than that.