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

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"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."

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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?"

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

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A number of people are currently strongly wishing that their general status and deportment permitted them to run away, very quickly, sometime around now.

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"Are you betraying your compact with Asmodeus?"

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"I died and the country of Cheliax was bestowed on another Thrune.  I need not regard current events as falling under the rubric of that compact."

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Could Aspexia win?  Definitely, she reckons, if Abrogail does not dare to don the Crown - unless Abrogail is more backed by Sevar and Keltham than Aspexia expects...

Aspexia finds that she is reluctant to open battle, no doubt because of how disastrous it would be for Cheliax either way.  Aspexia will not give in to threats from a lesser power, for only that reluctance; it is the Asmodean way to give in to threats only from greater power.  But she will make an attempt to avert a costly outcome, even if those watching might misinterpret that as a sign of weakness, in a contest where appearances matter.

"Abrogail.  Come to your senses.  Asmodeus still owns your soul, and I don't see Him particularly happy about this matter, even as a threat that you then don't carry out.  If Sevar has broken you too badly to see it -"

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Abrogail interrupts her with a brief, cold chuckle.  "Carissa Sevar showed me what awaits in Hell; for myself, for the others here.  Accurately."

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"You cannot be serious.  If any of that came as a surprise to you, I have catastrophically overestimated your wisdom and indeed your sanity."

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"Would you swear to me, Aspexia, in Asmodeus's name, that Hell takes anything like care not to wantonly ruin those souls whom we believed, trusted, to have made themselves valuable?  Instead of just having whatever cruel fun strikes their whim, and making a few devils out of what remains?"

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"I think that Hell effectively keeps its secrets on such matters, including from the likes of Carissa Sevar; and serves Asmodeus well in all that we cannot see."

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"Hell has carefully engineered the impressions we hold of it, without ever making us any promises.  It carefully manages what mortals see on their trips to Hell, if they've any prospect of returning, and never swears us any oaths.  Of course I trust Sevar's sworn probability estimates above that.  Any sensible person would." 

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"Sevar is not privy to Hell's hidden truths, nor can they be bought, nor scried.  For Sevar to swear that she's guessed a thing is still nothing more than guessing, even if she dresses it up in numbers."

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Rugatonn surely does not think that Abrogail can be unbrainwashed upon the spot; or if she's modeling Sevar accurately, knows that Sevar would not have sent Abrogail here in a persuadable state.  And Abrogail knows that Aspexia Rugatonn cannot be turned from her own course.  Least of all could any debate move Gorthoklek.

What Rugatonn must be contesting, then, are the opinions of the high officials and palace Security wizards uneasily watching all this.

This handful of Chelish powers cannot decide any large military-civil conflict, they have not the numbers or combined potency.  But they are informative; the next batch of Chelish powers might not arrive to any different opinion, if these few backed Abrogail here, or Rugatonn.

"Carissa Sevar has now reached INT 29, and mastered every scrap of Law that an INT 18 child could contain out of another world, and extended it.  If Sevar is not yet a god, she is close enough that the likes of us cannot predict in which direction she'll be mistaken relative to a god."

"But you're worried that Sevar's sworn guesses are wrong, for all that you say you don't know Hell's truth yourself?  Or you think yourself sure that an INT 29 ilani is making errors and in a particular direction?  Fine enough, then, Gorthoklek is right there.  He can give us his own oath about anything I say that happens to be false."

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"Hell decides for itself what to say, or not say, and to be moved by such a taunt is beneath a pit fiend's pride.  So I answer on Gorthoklek's behalf, for if he answered at all it might be to destroy you."

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"You need hardly be INT 29 to understand that Hell makes the decision of what to keep from us for reasons that include leaving the pathetic deluded mortals to their delusions, when those delusions lead them to serving Hell more eagerly than they'd serve if they knew the truth."  Abrogail's voice is clear now and cold.  "Matters of Evil and pride may proceed of Asmodeus, but matters of truth and reality are of Law.  It was stupid in the first place for the mortals of Cheliax to trust to their fates in Hell while only guessing what those fates were.  It was not a sane or Lawful arrangement.  If our dues in Hell are to be the foundations of our loyalty and the Chelish state, if we're to work all our lives to improve our fates, let those fates be known to us and not guessed."

"If Sevar is wrong about that, let Gorthoklek swear that Hell originally decided to not swear to us regarding our fate in Hell, for a primary and decisive reason other than that we mortals were thereby too optimistic, and more eager than we would have been.  That ought not injure his pride by much, if Hell has any legitimate reason for secrecy."

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"That rather sounds like Keltham's style of reasoning -"

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"I mark that attempted change of topic, and that Gorthoklek remains silent."

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"Is there even anything left of Abrogail Thrune, or am I only speaking with what Sevar put into this flesh after it was put into her by Keltham?"

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"Carissa Sevar was Chosen of Irori, you know, as I was Chosen of Asmodeus.  Irori doesn't really go for that sort of thing.  I am given this because it made me stronger."

"And also, I'm afraid you're worried about the wrong puppetmaster, Aspexia."  Abrogail looks down at the Crown of Infernal Majesty with entirely-honest wistful regret.  "The other reason I haven't put on this Crown is that, if we do come to an agreement, the Keepers of Asmodeus will need this overpriced headband more than I do, for their training."

 

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"You've gone over to Snack Service."  None of the absolute horror in Aspexia Rugatonn's voice is the tiniest bit feigned.  As promising as Asmodeus's Keepers seem, she's never forgotten for one second whose project that was.

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"I understand that Sevar's come to some arrangement with that alliance's representative, yes.  I'm not intelligent enough, Lawful enough, or trusted enough myself to know the details."

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"And is Sevar on Asmodeus's side, in this?"

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"Don't be absurd.  Sevar is on her own side, as is the way of Lawful Evil.  And I'm on my own side; it's just been shown to me that my best interests lie with her."

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