The Emperor will want to follow up with Kastil in person, of course, but - tonight. Once he's had some time.

For now, once the meeting is wrapped up, he'll head over to meet privately with Doral and brief him on the investigation. 

(Telepathic Bond to Kietres: here's a quick update on the latest council meeting and his sense of how the different ministers are approaching the situation. He's trying to angle for ways to get the Empire willing to accept Iomedae's help with something, as a next step toward building any kind of collaborative relationship, and he wants the war with Oris over but it's complicated to juggle. Presumably on both sides. He would ideally like a report from Iomedae, before tomorrow, on what concessions Jean is more or less willing to make, and what Jean sees as his own hard political constraints. This backchannel has got to be good for something. 

He mentions that Marit will be questioned some more about Iomedae's reaction to various potential proposals. He understands that Marit is probably incredibly stressed and on edge, given that they can't safely brief him, but - he's pretty sure Marit can handle it, and hopefully it won't be for that many more days. Also, Iomedae should expect an official communication soon about the Mirrorgrave's base. He assumes she knows to pretend it's the first she's heard of it and respond accordingly, and also to respond without giving any indication that Altarrin is no longer with her? 

ALSO: can he get Alfirin on call in the near future for a sneaky undetectable Dominate Person? If she doesn't have the spell slots, that's understandable, but - he'll feel better navigating this conversation with undetectable mind control as a backup, it's pretty high stakes and important to minimize suspicion on himself, and he can't mindread the investigator in real time to gauge his reactions.

He doesn't ask for another update on the real Bastran's condition. There probably isn't one, and it would just be a distraction.) 

And then to meet with Doral! He'll invite the man into his private office, offer him a seat, and ask what context if any he already has on the Iomedae situation and the current diplomatic talks? 

(Marit can handle it. This is why she sent him and not someone else whose ability to handle it might be an important constraint.)

(She's happy to backchannel with Jean.)

Mage-Inquisitor Doral will arrive and be very polite and overwhelmed and keen!

"I've reviewed the files, of course, Your Majesty, but there's very little of substance there. Nearly everything is classified above my level."

"Mm. Right." And he'll give a brief, harried summary of the prior attempt at diplomacy - let a hint of quickly-squashed sheepishness slip through, when he mentions the testing done on whether the 'paladins' could be disconnected from their god and the repeatable-miracles - and the leadup to this second attempt, which does sound like it's going better, based on the reports the new diplomat is much less...adamantly religious...and Legate Sterngal seems to have a good handle on him. 

...Or it looked like it until last night, when something bizarre and baffling happened, that has got to be part of a plot, but the senior Thoughtsenser he dispatched to interrogate the diplomat about it came away very unsure what the goal could possibly be. He wants it traced down to its origins and sorted out, of course, but - as discreetly as possible - it could have a lot of awkward consequences for the diplomatic efforts and for the situation at court, if word of it leaked around, and the whole Iomedae situation is already complicated enough. Doral will understand a bit more once Bastran shows him the notes. 

(Aaaaaaand can he get that sneaky Dominate Person now, and mindreading coverage in case the man does start to get suspicious?) 

Yes, yes, sneaky dominate person. Altarrin is probably already aware that they might have a finite number of sneaky dominate persons before one gets noticed, but this one seems important.

"Of course, Your Majesty!"

He does not notice the sneaky dominate person! To sneaky mindreading he is clearly loyal and impressed and eager to sort out whatever sensitive difficulty this is, right now his best guess is sappy love letters or something that someone is threatening to release.

"So, er, a letter was slipped into the normal Ministry of Barbarians channels - it was in the middle of the night, junior staff on duty - and no one knows who dropped it off. And then letter was. Um. Proporting to be from me, and..." He will not actually squirm but it is the not-actually squirming of someone who is absolutely squirming and cringing internally and just has too much dignity and practice to show it. "- oh, and there was a pretty generic Imperial order - stamped by my office, not signed by me personally, I still don't know how they got their hands on it - saying to give the diplomat privacy to read it. And - here. Just have a look and tell me what you think." 

(And no one is reading his mind, but just in case, his surface thoughts are carefully matching that - he in fact genuinely did not write the letter! And genuinely did not seal or sign the Imperial order!) 

He slides copies of the letter, the cover letter, and the Imperial order across the table. 

To Marit of the Knights of Ozem 

I would be very grateful if you could convey a message to Iomedae, and tell her that I recognize now the horrifying mistakes that the Empire has made, especially in our treatment of her paladins, and I am deeply sorry and wish to personally offer my surrender to her, though I cannot at this time give it for the Empire as a whole. 

I also recognize that the Empire is not the civilization that Altarrin wanted to build, and that he was right to leave. I would be obliged if you or Iomedae could alert Altarrin that I wish to relinquish control of the current empire to him, and hope that he may see a way forward from here, because I cannot. Altarrin likely already has as much context as is helpful. I have no standing to plead with Altarrin for anything, but if he would listen, I would beg that he act before morning, and find a way to confirm receipt of the letter. I will be in my quarters. 

- Emperor Bastran IV

All right.

Mage-Inquisitor Doral is not stupid, and he is loyal to Bastran. The message, on the surface, makes no sense. But it makes a complicated kind of no sense, the kind where every phrase is a reference, and he thinks he's pretty good at telling the difference between that and attempts to fake it. 'The treatment of her paladins', right, that's the attempts to break them out of their god's control. 'Personal surrender but not for the empire as a whole' is a fascinating one. 'The civilization that Altarrin wanted to build'...

This letter was written by someone at the highest level of knowledge of the complicated political situation that Doral has just walked in to. What they were trying to do, he can't tell. What he can tell is that this was a letter written for someone who knew what it meant, by someone who knew what it meant, whatever it is actually for, which he cannot even begin to guess.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The Emperor drags a hand through his hair. 

"I sent a non-Inquiry Thoughtsenser to question the diplomat - er, not that I don't trust the Office, just, if this was internal I don't know who was responsible or why - I wanted to know if it made any more sense to him, and of course why he responded the way he did, and what he told Iomedae. I'd like you to get everything from the Thoughtsenser directly, of course - and ideally not bring anyone else in, I incredibly don't want this ending up getting discussed in servant gossip - but the summary is more or less, no it didn't make any more sense to him, he was alarmed and assumed it was a coup plot, he didn't tell anyone the contents because he worried it'd set off the rest of the coup plot, and he asked Iomedae to check if I was, er, dead. Which presumably she did, and presumably she saw me asleep in bed, and past that we have no idea what she went off and did." 

Sigh. Heavy sigh. "The scary theory that the Thoughtsenser came up with is that it was a false-flag operation by Iomedae's ally Alfirin, who - apparently isn't fully on the same page or fully trusted, and wants the Empire - and maybe Altarrin, who - I guess if there's anything the man would sell us out for, it'd be to buy Alfirin's help in murdering the gods, and apparently the diplomat claimed she probably had a plan for it already and believed that."

He shakes his head. "...I'm really hoping that's not it, and it's something internal, but - keep in mind. I'm worried it's dangerous to draw attention to the investigation, not just, er, awkward."  

...Telepathic bond check, is that explanation going over mostly without suspicion? 

Bastran also thinks there's a leak near the top. And either doesn't know who or thinks it was the Office of Inquiry.

(... or is guilty himself but that's just the usual suspect the victim instincts going, everyone who works in the Office of Inquiry develops those, this is the Emperor and he is a loyal man.)

Or it could have been Iomedae. Or Alfirin, who is the most likely suspect and therefore probably innocent just because of how many suspects there are, in a case like this. So far he concurs non-confidently that this was either an attempt to recruit him into a coup or an attempt to false-flag recruitment of him into a coup, but both of them run into the problem that whoever wrote this knows quite a lot that Doral doesn't know.

"I understand. Your Majesty, I request all available information on the situation with Iomedae and Alfirin." He needs to know this if he's going to carry out his investigation.

:Oh he's incredibly suspicious, but not of you.:

Of course! Doral can have full access to everything that was ever reported to Bastran, including the appendix pages of reports he was too busy to read, but that he's hastily gathered together. If Doral thinks he's still missing things after this, he should feel free to book time on the Emperor's schedule to ask about it privately, there are probably things Bastran knows that were only said to him in direct conversation and that he didn't write down. 

(Which Altarrin was not present for, and thus he'll need to ad-lib those conversations and guess what would have been said in private briefings, but hopefully the secrecy of the investigation, and the unreliability of memory, means that Doral is unlikely to go do cross-comparisons with the ministers and find a discrepancy.

There are a lot of notes, a full day's reading at least. They're probably 80% wild speculation and arguments between different departments on Iomedae's motives. The hardest evidence they have is the written communications exchanged, and the scrying and immediate after-action reports on battles and on later incidents like the Mirrorgrave ones and Aritha's kidnapping. (Plus the artifacts, of course, still under guard.) They...technically have copies of Aroden's holy books as well, which are probably not themselves mind control, but the ring that does translation plausibly is mind control that suborned Altarrin, so actually using it to read the materials is risky. 

Does Doral have questions or requests for now. 

He'd like a broad imperial order sealed with the imperial seal to allow him to snoop? Then he's going to go talk to everyone and do appropriate pastwatching and so forth, since that's time-limited. That's it, though.

He can have it!

The Emperor would like regular reports. And...obviously this might be time-sensitive, if there's a second half to it, but overall he thinks that investigating discreetly and thoroughly probably comes as a higher priority than doing it fast? ...He's not sure. If Doral finds anything that indicates otherwise to him, he should immediately report in. 

And the Emperor will thank him, tiredly but with some warmth, and shoo him out with his sealed Imperial writ for broad snooping authorization, so he can finally be ALONE

(So he can actually focus on the Telepathic Bond checkin, mostly. If it's not too costly in spell slots, he'd like Alfirin reading the man's mind a few times a day, to make sure he's not wildly conspiracy-theorizing something too close to the truth. 

...Also if they have translation capacity, something that would be useful for his goals and potentially interesting would be to send translated copies of Aroden's holy books. The Empire is not touching the Scholar's Ring but they probably would let some relatively disposable clerks and such read the material if the ring weren't involved?) 

(She's working on it. There isn't good magic for writing in a language you don't speak, and those few Imperials she's in possession of have more important priorities, but if a few more resurrected people decide to stay they'll get it sorted out.)

(She assumes the man is going to think of pastwatching Marit, and the letter, and not the Emperor's private chambers, but of course if he does that Alfirin can make him stop.)

(Iomedae is, unsurprising, correct.)

Altarrin has sent a note with new orders for Legate Sterngal. 

(Ellitrea is still on site and still the allowed Thoughtsenser on duty. Marit is, in fact, not briefed on anything more suspicious than the letter itself. Continuing the diplomacy in parallel with the "investigation" shouldn't add in any more complications.) 

He would like Legate Stergnal to (with some delicacy, of course) ask Marit for his assessment of how Iomedae would respond to a range of proposals, most notably:

- A polite suggestion that she go bother Ithik, accompanied by a pile of materials on the religion of Atet, which is pretty much the opposite of what "Aroden"'s religion claims to be about. Marit can read those materials too, of course. 

- A request to help the Empire with one or both of their civil wars. 

- A treaty for Oris that imposes sanctions on the Knights of Ozem, or is otherwise embarrassing for Iomedae, but in fact gives the actual Orisian rebels most of what they concretely asked for. 

Legate Sterngal will, of course, obey. 

(He wasn't fully briefed on recent events, though he was told that there was a 'minor' incident and security precautions have been modified.) 

He's not even particularly dreading it! Marit is vastly easier to get along with than the Ithiki. In fact, his orders are explicitly to complain about Ithik, which sounds like it could be incredibly satisfying. He brings the packet of Ithik-related materials with him to their meeting. 

Marit is in a much worse mood for diplomacy than the day before, but he's pretty good at hiding it. His orders are to keep doing what he's doing, so he's going to do that; Iomedae is juggling enough constraints without having to worry that hostile coincidence could maneuver him otherwise.

He greets Sterngal cheerfully enough.

Legate Sterngal will greet him with genuine cheerfulness! (He feels very insulated from the annoying part of court politics, out here.) 

He sits. "It seems the Emperor is floating the idea of asking Iomedae for some favors, with the goal of getting more information on how good her intentions are and how dedicated she is to carrying them out. I'd like to get your read on her and how she's likely to respond to some of the proposals they're discussing. To start - I know Iomedae must have encountered or at least heard things about Holy Ithik during her, er, earlier visit to Velgarth. I'm not sure how much she conveyed her impression of them?" 

"She mentioned a little bit! She wasn't impressed. She considered at first the possibility they were the work of the god of tyranny and slavery from our own world, or one of His lieutenants, in which case I think we'd have gone to war with them, but she had determined to her satisfaction that, while it seems like a terrible place, it wasn't damning anybody, which made it much less of a priority."

"Your world has a god of tyranny and slavery? Goodness. ...The actual discussion point here is, in fact, whether Iomedae would consider going to war with Holy Ithik simply over the enormous human suffering and waste of potential that the religion causes - I have some reading materials to show you - but I am curious to hear about your version first." 

Asmodeus is the ruler of Hell, the Lawful Evil afterlife, and it's probably the worst one, though it has stiff competition. Petitioners in Hell are tortured, for centuries, until this reduces them to a suffering shell of themselves or turns them into a devil absolutely obedient to Asmodeus. One of Iomedae's major initiatives, back in Golarion, has been to make people aware of what Hell is like. Asmodeus likes to lie about it. And it's - horrendous, to threaten people with eternal torture to get them to do what you want (which is fund the crusade, mostly) but worse to let them ignorantly walk into it. 

Iomedae and Aroden mean to kill or dethrone Asmodeus eventually. It won't be easy - ancient gods are more powerful than newly ascended ones, but, well, some things need doing. 

Wow. That's so deeply offensive and horrifying! Legate Sterngal is...slightly lost for words about it, actually. 

...Well, anyway, here's an information packet on Holy Ithik. 

Some highlights:

- The church of Atet, in Ithik and elsewhere, confidently claims that there is an afterlife, at least for Atet's followers, which is verifiably not true in Velgarth. 

- Their teachings are intensely socially repressive and hierarchical, and this extends to the afterlife teachings; nobleborn proportedly get a much nicer afterlife setup than commoners, for example. Slaves, of course, have the worst. 

- Atet supposedly punishes people directly in the afterlife for ""shaming"" Him by having ambitions above their stations. 

- Ithik isn't the only nation outside the Empire with slavery, but they certainly have the worst conditions for their slaves, who have a noticeably higher death rate than free peasants. 

- They are especially regressive on women's rights, not just compared to the Empire - which has female mages and female military officers and even a woman on the Emperor's council - but compared to normal poor uncivilized countries. 

- Women belong to their fathers and then their husbands, cannot own property, cannot get divorced from abusive partners (and the church teachings normalize quite a lot of abusive behavior, he's seen some of that up close), and are allowed into very few professions aside from servant work.

- The literacy rate overall among commoners is abysmally low compared to the Empire, but women are explicitly not supposed to learn to read, because it, guess what, ""shames Atet."" 

- Women who have Gifts are ALSO ""shameful to Atet"" and aren't allowed to be trained in them. The only dubiously unshameful thing for them to do is bear Gifted sons. 

- Foresight is especially shameful, for some baffling reason, women with Foresight specifically are ""bad luck"" and in some administrations were burned on a pyre as an apology-offering to Atet, though the current high priest goes with ceremonial blinding, plus or minus other less-visible and less-talked-about mutilations, and a life of solitary confinement and prayer.

- Very unsurprisingly, none of the most oppressed peoples of Atet are taught that they will have nice afterlives. 

Wow! This guy was on a diplomatic assignment there! That must've required, uh, great skill.