And Abadar has not made Keltham a fourth-circle cleric.  The level of divine interest that Cheliax has seen does not imply an urgent need for Project personnel to sell their souls.

Carissa Sevar is not brought before a devil to bargain.  The special instructions from Hell concerning her do not become known.

Carissa Sevar remains only another subordinate on the Project, of importance only insofar as she's useful for getting information out of Keltham.

(And Project Pet Outsider remains the subject of a single visible divine intervention, not two interventions of Asmodeus and an intervention of Nethys and of Otolmens and a huge bestowal of cleric circles from Abadar.)

Pilar Pineda is not oracled of Cayden Cailean.  It really isn't very probable for that to happen under normal conditions.  Anybody who's only seen a version of Golarion where this happens may have acquired some wrong ideas about what's normal there.

Ione Sala does not try to give herself to Keltham, shows him no special ability along with a sexual offer.  Keltham does not think of eroLARPs as a result.  Keltham does not perceive evidence of tropes.  He does not ask the Project girls if there are other special people among them.

When it comes time to initiate sex with Keltham, Carissa Sevar only asks Security for her instructions, and does not go to Maillol.  Security disgustedly orders Sevar not to bother with worrying about what might upset Keltham if he eventually finds out; only to please him and seduce him.

The Security reading Keltham's thoughts during their sexual encounter warns Sevar early on that Keltham can read her levels of sexual arousal.

Carissa doesn't need to give Keltham an explanation about why she was faking her responses, only say that she is still unwinding from the Worldwound.

Abrogail Thrune has no particular reason to appear in Carissa Sevar's bedroom.

Aspexia Rugatonn does not cast an expensive Forbiddance about the villa.

Contessa Lrilatha is not needed to negotiate with Keltham since others can read his mind.

Zon-Kuthon is not alerted to look in Keltham's direction.  There is no Zon-Kuthon godwar to vastly increase Cheliax's estimate of Keltham's importance to the gods.

Asmodia doesn't go to Hell, doesn't tell a contract devil about Keltham's ambitions.

Abadar Himself does not know that this strange mortal is of much greater import than just the mortal knowing an important piece of math.  His attention has had less reason to gather, and He sees less of a cleric merely second-circle; His choice of possible spells with which to help, is more restricted.

And Otolmens is less unhappy with the total amount of divine intervention...

...which means that Otolmens is more amenable to manipulation, and Asmodeus has accordingly put more effort into manipulating Otolmens toward His interests' favor.

So Abadar and Asmodeus negotiate rather than fight, and both gods end up doing nothing, as is often the case with gods.

(They don't, actually, know the stakes, either of Them; for if it were that obvious, Abadar would have paid more, or Asmodeus charged more, in the beginning.)

And so matters plod on, in the archduke's villa, slower than they did in another timeline.

There is a diffidence to dath ilani, under some conditions if not others, that might surprise those who'd seen those dath ilani only under other conditions.  Keltham, having not yet proven himself of great importance, does not demand more resources from Cheliax; much as, in another timeline, he didn't demand larger and earlier investments in making spellsilver, or demand for someone to Teleport in immediately with a sack full of library books.  Chelish Governance may be presumed to have arrived at their own sensible investment priorities, given their skepticism of unproven Keltham.  It is his job to prove himself more valuable, if he wants more investment than that.

(Young dath ilani will do that, not ask for more resources or spend more resources, if they don't see themselves as having proven themselves enough to their investors.  In the median case they'll go on doing it even if they're altruists and the entire world is at stake and people are dying every day.  This particular facet of the average dath ilani's personality is not necessarily going to make sense to humans of other places; there is emotion behind it, not mathematics.)

The twelve original women of Project Pet Outsider remain Keltham's primary research group.  He doesn't fire the four underperformers, because Keltham doesn't expect that he'll be allowed to recruit more researchers if he does.  The teaching goes on more slowly, instead.

There is no Avaricia, no Shilira, no professional alchemist, not in the first two weeks, not in the first two months.

The Securities are less eager to spend their illusions on helping Keltham master wizardry.

His Chelish students are less impressed with Keltham, though they go on pretending to be impressed, after the first shock fades; he's not fourth-circle, and Zon-Kuthon didn't try to assassinate him and end up in a small box.  Being less eager, they learn more slowly.  Except for Carissa Sevar, they show more delight in 'practical' knowledge and not more abstract Law.

Everything plays out more gradually, in the archduke's villa; and Keltham's Chelish hosts are reading his mind, swifter to deflect his suspicions.

They are reading Keltham's mind, and his women are told how they should be, to please him; but the thought did also occur to Maillol, to try to corrupt Keltham to Evil for real, and to that end it is convenient that Carissa and Peranza and Yaisa have the sexuality that they do.

The process takes longer, but over time Carissa's feelings develop for the man who's come to think of himself as owning her, who would own her did he only wish it, who's been told that he could have her for real given the political realities; and who, with all that power, is yet kind to her.

In time acid manufacture starts to scale and be proven.  Not yet spellsilver, just acid; but acid still yields enough project income that Ferrer Maillol thinks he can afford nice things without spending a lot of political capital.

Project Pet Outsider's women are called in to sell their souls.

Asmodia—now Keltham's "ace girlfriend", to the puzzlement of many who don't bother to understand—tries to demand a fair share of her soul's price.  Asmodia tries to ignore threats.

She is hurt until she comes back to her senses.

The soul-sales trip the flag of Carissa Sevar's special instructions from Hell.

By this time, however, Sevar's status and place within the Project is well-set.  There's an informal respect that sees more Project decisions routed to Sevar to check, but she doesn't receive command.  It's suspected that she's being groomed as a cleric of Asmodeus and/or that Irori is contesting for her.

Abrogail Thrune doesn't manifest in Carissa's bedroom afterwards; Sevar is more of a known quantity in reports by now.

But that event plus the Project's success with acid-making does merit putting up a Forbiddance, and Aspexia Rugatonn does talk to Carissa Sevar.  The Most High's decisions proceed from a wisdom deep enough to be less swayed by immediate context.

And Maillol does pay more attention to Sevar's theories about how Keltham should be seduced toward Evil; and Sevar, feeling safer in her status, is able to admit more of her 'pathetic' feelings to herself.

While they're halfway through mastering spellsilver, Peranza receives an Owl's Wisdom, and changes her mind, and in one blinding flash of impulse decision calls out to Iomedae.

But it is hard, to outwit Asmodeus, if you do not have Nethys ranged upon your own side and taking potentially fatal risks.

By the time Iomedae has gathered enough of Herself to decide to act, by the time She is ready to reach out to Abadar for an alliance to save His cleric, Asmodeus has already set in motion His trickery upon some unwitting godly cats-paws: there are three uncoordinated divine interventions in quick succession around Project Pet Outsider, one of them by Irori.