"Oh, I just thought of her because she was personally relevant to me, and Tar Baphon because he's personally relevant to you. I think she'll be born in Sarkoris in - well, before 4606, but I don't know how old she was when she opened it. I'd guess at least seven centuries away."

Something flickers across Iomedae's face that would be totally imperceptible to all but one person in the universe and she hopes also imperceptible to that one person but that's never straightforward. 

"Huh. And the Worldwound is the Abyssal rift that the Fifth Mendevian Crusade targets? Also the first four Mendevian Crusades, or were those about other things?"

Yeah she noticed. It really doesn't sound like her, though.

(It kind of sounds like her. She wouldn't do it without reason but - there are reasons for which she'd conceivably do it.)

(Sure, she'd do it with a good enough reason, but she's having some trouble imagining a good enough reason!)

"Also the first four Mendevian Crusades, yes. It's kind of been the primary concern in Mendev for a good one hundred years."

It occurs to her that the crusades have kind of been getting less successful over time, haven't they. That's not the most comforting thought ever, but it's not one that really changes anything.

A hundred years. The rift opened around when Aroden died, if the woman's timeline is consistent, which she mostly expects but isn't going to directly ask about. "I'm surprised it didn't become a - more serious emergency - in less time than that, really."

"Oh, it was. The first crusaders managed to - this was before my time, you understand, but I've been told - managed to contain the the Worldwound inside a series of artifacts known as the Wardstones, which create a barrier that prevents the demons from pouring out into the rest of Golarion. - well, makes it harder for them to, anyway, it's not that none get out. Patrolling the barrier is still a major military operation for half a dozen nations, but Mendev is the closest, and Mendev is the one that's made a national identity out of it."

(She almost said something about what the wardstones are, in the middle of that, and then didn't, because it's the only thing that's come up so far that isn't publicly available information.)

"I see. What's the Crusade's objective?"

"To close the Worldwound," she says - but the bravado slips a little further than usual, there, and it sounds a little bit like a child trying to feign confidence in an answer for a test they didn't study for.

- encouraging smile. "Good. What do you need in order to do that?"

" - that's a great question I did not expect to be on this list, but I guess I should have. To hear the logistics advisor tell it, we are generally low on troops, weapons, food, armor, and presumably everything else one needs to keep troops alive." She's not entirely sure that she believes Dorelinga about all of that, and it's arguably not public information, but it's not very specific non-public information, is it. "I admit I assumed you'd have your hands too full with Tar-Baphon to be able to offer any of that without compromising your own position. - Also I'm not entirely sure whether - Heleer, you were pretty confident in the branches-of-a-tree model rather than genuine time travel, right - "

"To destroy a thousand years of history, that is not something I would expect a spell, even a strange one, to be able to do. To knock a person loose of their own history, perhaps. It has been speculated for a long time that, where the future is uncertain even to the gods, the truth is that all the worlds will come to pass, and the difficulty is in discerning in which one you'll find yourself."

" - for the paladins in the room, please -"

"I think she's from another world."

"I'm just occasionally remembering the scenarios in which you're not all demons and I go and accidentally alter your actions in a way that prevents me from ever being born. Thank you, Heleer."

It occurs to her that she doesn't, actually, have any idea how to close the Worldwound, and has been forging ahead blindly in the hope that there will be some answer nearer to the source. Or possibly that the gods have a plan? Or that Areelu Vorlesh will at some point tell her what's going on, which she's acting remarkably like she might do at some point?

None of that is public information.

"I think we're largely low on troops, and on support for them. But I kind of assume that this is a problem that all armies have. I admit, it's now crossing my mind that having Iomedae would be a big deal in terms of the number of people on our side - but I get the impression that you're rather busy here. Regill might be able to give you a better account of our weaknesses that, uh, simultaneously doesn't harm us too much in any of the remaining demon trick scenarios."

"Assuming the offer is genuine, advisors and staff to supplement the pack of vultures sent from Mendev. The crusade is woefully lacking in anyone with both basic military experience and the willingness to place their personal desires second to accomplishing our primary objective."

"Well that's... true."

It's not public information, but either Regill thought it was worth saying anyway, or it was said by demon Regill, in which case demon Regill obviously already knows it. And it's probably not demons anyway.

"I obviously don't know yet what the best allocation of forces across the two fronts is, but I have advisors that I trust and if this is what it appears to be we can certainly send some. I have more questions about the disposition of your forces but those should probably wait for your determination about whether I am secretly a demon. What time of year is it in your world right now?"

"Abadius." That, at least, is the most public of public information.

"So then it's mostly a matter of troop transport, rather than weakening one force for the sake of the other, we'll have practically non-overlapping campaign seasons- it's nearly Erastus, here. Of course, mostly a matter of troop transport isn't to say trivial. I didn't know until five minutes ago that there are purported to be other versions of worlds and I have no idea how one would transit between them. It was a misfired Teleport that took you here rather than a misfired Plane Shift?"

"It was an attempted Teleport that I was trying to power off of - whatever it is that also does these things," she says, lazily waving one of the butterflies away. "But I am not convinced that the thing I actually cast was anything like a Teleport. As I told Heleer, for the past six months I've had some kind of power that we believe to be aligned with Elysium, which does not always behave predictably when called on. I'd have gone back already, except that a bunch of us are worried that the next attempt will land us somewhere even more inconvenient."

Message to Iomedae. "Even if troop transport is solved we can't redirect too many troops - or powerful individuals - in our off-season, Tar-Baphon can still pull winter offensives."

It depends on how bad this Abyssal rift situation is, she replies.

But of course Alfirin is right that it's not free even if the soldiers would otherwise be wintering, and it's especially not free to send Iomedae or Alfirin, who could do the most good. 

"I'll leave it to the wizards to try to figure out if they can replicate what you're doing with your power out of Elysium. If only you can do it, but you can do it repeatably, our options are limited, though - I'd be inclined to have someone ask Myself who to put where, She'll presumably remember our position from the Crusade and just be able to figure the best allocation out, unless something went terribly wrong."

"That's probably worth trying, not that She's been been giving us very much direct advice thus far."