"She tortured you until you -"

"Of course.  She is Lawful Evil, not Lawful Neutral.  But she didn't break me in any way she couldn't repair afterwards, because she isn't your kind of Asmodean."

"My kind of Asmodean?  I am the one who defines -"

"It's only heresy until it becomes orthodoxy, Rugatonn, and remember that you too will come to Hell in time."

"Enough of this.  You don't know the true stakes on this gameboard - and neither do I.  So let's negotiate about the parts our lesser minds can understand."

"Gorthoklek might have been destroyed by an ilani weapon, and upon my being resurrected I could have taken Cheliax from Hell, though with great strife and loss.  And then I'd give Cheliax into Sevar's hands, to rule in Hell's name again; and souls here who cry her name would be hers to own, in Hell after Her ascension.  Except," Abrogail turns now to look deliberately at the watching royal guards, "those already soul-sold to Hell, who are excluded from Sevar's compact with Asmodeus.  Whom Sevar has separately compacted with Dispater to be able to buy from their current owners in Dis, with the approval of Crown and Church."

"So as an alternative to the road that needlessly costs Hell - Cheliax could submit itself to Carissa Sevar as its Empress, with myself as her viceroy, styling myself Directrix.  The worship of Sevar, as a destined future goddess of Hell under Asmodeus, will be legalized and encouraged by the state if perhaps not the Church.  Those worthy in Cheliax will still go to Sevar in due time.  Perhaps through emigration to Wanshou; perhaps after She's taken three-quarters of Avistan in Hell's name, backed by an unweakened Cheliax.  The Church will give its approval to Sevar's buying of those who've already sold themselves to Hell, if they please her or seem to hold promise."

"Neither Church nor Hell shall try to interfere with Sevar's rulership of Cheliax for three years, so long as it stays within the bounds of reformed Asmodeanism; nor will the Church protest certain changes away from the more wasteful and self-destructive of Cheliax's current policies.  On Sevar's own oath that she expects all those changes together to increase the number of souls that come to Hell eventually, compared to what would have come about if she did nothing at all."

"You do not trust me, of course, and I do not trust you.  But we both aspire to Lawfulness, and Gorthoklek actually is Lawful, and neither of us wishes to expend Cheliax's strength in a conflict between us.  Lawful beings need not waste their strength so, if they both prefer doing something else.  That we do not trust one another, that we do not have the same goals, these are obstacles that we are both incentivized to pay some little costs to overcome.  It isn't even hard, for us, being Lawful and knowing one another for Lawful.  We'll set up cutouts in Cheliax's command structure whereby I or Sevar cannot just betray the country to Good, or whatever it is you fear we'll do with it; and your and Gorthoklek's oaths, somewhat severer than those you've made before, will properly forbid the Church to use those cutouts to take away our country."

"It's an offer that works for everyone, really.  You should all be grateful that Sevar is the sort of Lawful Evil who'll give you the chance at it."

"Mmhm.  And the coming war with Osirion?"

"In a word, no.  Those preparations will prove useful, but we'll conquer where the Empress says we conquer, and Sevar will take care of talking it through with Keltham first.  I am not going to tell you any details of what would happen to us otherwise; you might not believe the plain truth about what They can do... before seeing evidence that will be demonstrated in some little time."

There are many uneasy glances, then, among the sort of Chelish powers present who are not mainly thinking about running away.

"Snack Service made mention of the Keepers of Asmodeus needing to be ready before we attacked Osirion."

"It would have been truthful given what It knew, expected, at the time.  Carissa Sevar has altered Cayden Cailean's plan; let Him pray that she does not alter it any further."

"I frankly fail to see how any of this benefits you.  Asmodeus would still own your soul, and He seems unlikely to be pleased with your concept of loyalty.  Dispater Himself could not sell you to Sevar even if He wanted to.  You will never come to her hands in death."

"Carissa promised me she'd make a reasonable effort to do something about that, and said she thought she could, though she said I couldn't know the details."

For a second there's just sheer disbelieving silence in the throne hall of Cheliax.

"I thought you stronger than to have been that brainwashed, that quickly, if you can still talk this coherently at all."

"I'd have believed her even if she hadn't sworn to me that she didn't expect that my own expectations were too optimistic, and that she wasn't concealing those details primarily in hopes I'd make a mistake that benefited her.  She's Carissa Sevar, not Asmodeus, and soon all Golarion will learn what that means."

"Now let us be about our necessary business, Most High, for I have a great deal of work to do.  And a planar binding to perform on one of Hell's most recent petitioners."  Abrogail nudges the decapitated head of the former 'Terthule II' with one foot.  "This isn't, actually, escaping me that easily."

And by the end of that day, in near-competition with how fast spies and rumors can spread news across Golarion, the country of Cheliax will send out messages, by ambassador and also by other means, to announce the peaceful annexation of Cheliax into the Sevarian Empire.

The Sevarian Empire realizes this trend might worry other countries.  The Sevarian Empire strongly suggests that the delegates of many countries come together to negotiate a new, more stable international order.  The Sevarian Empire is eager to engage in peaceful and lawful negotiations with such countries as may know Law, in order to achieve more mutually beneficial outcomes for both parties than might have been achieved without such negotiations.

That said, the Sevarian Empire is Lawful Evil and fully intends to conquer weak and vulnerable territories like Wanshou used to be.  The Empire may annex any countries which don't negotiate a guaranteed place in the new world order, including aspects like contributing to Worldwound defense; and including satisfactory guarantees on points like exit rights for their citizens if they want to move to a Sevarian country instead.  Nidal is a fair example of who might've been next if Cheliax weren't already busy digesting them.

This arrangement is the product of negotiations between Carissa Sevar and Keltham of Elsewhere.  Keltham's own part in that arrangement is that he will not protect countries that do not come to the negotiating table and negotiate reasonably there.  Pilar Pineda's part can come as a surprise to anyone who insists on being silly.

As a good-faith gesture of their own cordial participation in the new international equilibrium to be negotiated, the new Cheliax is voluntarily adopting a temporary moratorium on Maledictions pending other negotations.

...absorbing Cheliax into the "Sevarian Empire" is going to get a LOT of entities paying attention who were not paying quite that much attention to the earlier fight in Wanshou, and who'd dismissed the "Scientific Revolution" as a one-off import of extraplanar knowledge about spellsilver alchemy.

One might, possibly, worry that a public takeover of Cheliax was a risky move for Keltham to allow Carissa Sevar to make.  Most attention will be aimed at Carissa Sevar, but it's also going to get a lot of people - and liches, and ancient dragons, and gods - taking Keltham more seriously than before...

It was ultimately more an intuition than anything else, by which Pilar made that call: that they were entering an endgame unseen by Nethys, and that the game's nature was not to be winnable by timid play.

That it mattered to have it be seen, and also mattered to have it be true, that Cheliax on the eve of war suddenly turned its sword's aim from opposing Good to opposing Evils, and ceased from the worst of its cruelties.

That it was worth doing, above all, for the sake of that thread of painful disbelieving hope that would run through Golarion like a hitch in the world's breath.

But exposing so much capability does involve, unavoidably, a chance that a certain deity will finally have enough information to figure out the plot.  And then -

Carissa Sevar now definitely has His personal attention, yes.  Annoyingly, that doesn't give Him very much information, in this case.  He compacted not to peek through Otolmens's veil; and if a mortal stays Mind-Blanked outside that veil, even her having sold her soul to Dispater does not allow Dispater to read out her thoughts without more effort than Asmodeus cares to pay Dispater to exercise.

But it's obvious enough that Carissa Sevar is playing this game on her own behalf, as is not wholly to Dispater's benefit, who in turn is not entirely aligned to Asmodeus...

...and that's entirely fine, as Asmodeus considers His aesthetics.  But Carissa Sevar had better be benefiting the tyranny in all this.

Aspexia Rugatonn will carefully scrutinize, with the aid of Gorthoklek, every significant order that Abrogail Thrune conveys.  Sevar is not weakening Cheliax in any drastic respect except that Osirion's Scientific Revolution is gaining steam while it prances about uninvaded; and Sevar has promised clear evidence to be delivered shortly that Keltham had the capability to defeat Cheliax's military if that invasion had actually been carried out.

Sevar has also promised, and begun maneuvering for, negotiations whereby the Keepers of Asmodeus will be placed in power and responsibility over all greater ilani weapons, as those inventions are inevitably discovered - though the Keepers will swear to carry out Otolmens's purposes alone, when they act in that capacity, without tricks or favoritism or any manner of shenanigans whatsoever.  It will be argued, truthfully, that only Asmodeus's rigors can suffice to train those who could actually be entrusted with such a duty, among those very few mortals well-suited to Asmodean rigor.

There is an equilibrium implied by the existence of truly deadly weapons, which Hell's elite understands better than Golarion's mortals have previously needed to know.  On Gorthoklek's own analysis, Cheliax is not being maneuvered into a position that will cripple its ability to serve Hell later.  Sevar is executing some non-obvious correct maneuvers to position Cheliax for that long game, which Gorthoklek would not have been permitted to reveal if Sevar had not made them.

Which isn't to say that they ought to trust Carissa Sevar for that reason.  Carissa Sevar is obviously - this is blatant from Gorthoklek's viewpoint - playing some game against intelligences of divine level, which is to say, against Cayden Cailean or Asmodeus or both.  Sevar is playing that game competently, and has honed her policy to yield no evidence that she is breaking with either Good or Evil - and as for whether it's Evil or Good from which Sevar is trying to hide her allegiances, all not privy to her purposes are left with their prior odds.

Most probably, if Gorthoklek takes obvious inferences at their face value, Sevar is not committing herself fully to Good or Evil; she is waiting to demand a further compact with Hell that she deems her fair share of Evil's gains, and will demand more of her desiderata, possibly sentimental ones, at that time.

Or Sevar may know well that she's irrevocably cast her soul's fate with Hell; but could be trying to deceive Hell's other minions about whether that threat has power to move her, in hopes they'll tread more cautiously and generously around her.

It's an analysis that would be more reassuring if the new Carissa Sevar were not 3 INT ahead of Gorthoklek - though even in the worst case of ilani transmuting diamonds, Sevar must be much less Wise.  But still.

Aspexia doesn't like the part with suspending Maledictions.

It really comes down to that, in the end.  All of Aspexia's instincts are shrieking to her that ending Maledictions is much more something that Good people invent clever lies about when they're pretending to be Evil than that Evil people think of doing to deceive Good, and if that's a ploy by Carissa Sevar to fool somebody else then it's also working on Aspexia Rugatonn.

The aspect of Asmodeus paying attention is not quite able to understand all that his most favored squirrel is thinking.  But He understands of Gorthoklek that Carissa Sevar is not being allowed to play Cheliax into an untenable position, that Cheliax can be taken back from her if she oversteps herself, and that's most of what He cares about right now - that if Sevar betrays Hell, it is her and not Cheliax who will regret it more.

His position has fluctuated wildly, these past months, but it still appears to be notably ahead of where it started - namely, with Cheliax facing down Galt and Andoran as serious opponents and trying to hold on to the remainder of its diminished territory, and Zon-Kuthon as an ancient rival for Lawful Evil's final throne.

Asmodeus isn't going to get this one; even if a larger fragment of Him is paying more attention, the matter is too contrary to His nature.

The truth is not in Sarenrae's nature, or Desna's, or Abadar's, for Them to read through from only glances.

But there's one non-allied god whose nature it matches all too well -

Iomedae was already paying attention; not literally as much attention as She can, but as much as She can afford.

Iomedae has been paying attention since the start of a godwar under mysterious circumstances, in which Zon-Kuthon ended up sealed and Iomedae obtained His vault's key.

She paid more attention after Cayden Cailean's anomalous actions against Her intelligence network in Cheliax - actions by one Good god against another, at the behest of Nethys.

When Peranza called out to Her, Iomedae learned that Keltham, a mortal from outside Creation bearing precious knowledge, was the trigger to set all those events in motion. She coalesced Herself then, and considered many possibilities. Then Her greater self set out conditional response patterns for Her splinters, abstract reflexes wiser in many ways than a mortal's full deliberations.

(A more knowledgeable civilization might have the metaphor of a not-overly-deep function approximator, trained on a dataset that was itself produced by something greater and smarter than a mortal.  A god-splinter can predict and act with insight greater than any mortal; but only if it is, in some sense, usual insight, as seen from an inhumanly broad perspective on what is high-probability.  A god-splinter's performance degrades as events go out-of-distribution; there's a certain sense in which a god-splinter is not ultimately as smart as a very smart mortal - though even then, there are kinds of classic mortal errors that a god-splinter just doesn't make.)