...Her first thought, no matter how insane it is, is "Mom?"

It's not, she knows, and as the thorns of the blood-red rose prick at her fingers, her hand having moved to grasp the flower before her conscious mind caught up, she remembers this, and lets go, to think, to consider.

But her heart does ache, in a way she hadn't thought it ever would again, and perhaps that's answer enough for her reason, and reason enough for her answer.

She gives herself five minutes, to think it over.  She tries to clear her mind and do it rationally, a figure in uncanny armor perched over a winter rose in the snow.

It doesn't work like that.

We're so small, in the end --

Would you do anything different, if you did it all again?

We're so very small --

"A man cannot cross the same river twice, not only because it is not the same river, but because he is not the same man," --

And she's sure that - none of this is normally useful life advice -

But in this one moment, a storm of memories overtaking the girl, the woman, the hero behind the mask -

That memory of one of her mother's lectures that she snuck into - well, 'snuck' into; she wasn't old enough to be left home alone, and Danny (when did he become Danny?) had had to work late - it's an anchor she can use, to claw her way out of this.

She's not the same woman, and she's not crossing the same river.

She'll take Lisa's advice, this time, and ask for help before she needs it.

She plucks the rose, and watches it bloom into something else entirely.  Her hands bleed, the rose-thorns pricking through tightly woven spidersilk like it's not even there.  It's worth the pain.

And it is now that another presence, content to watch until this moment, nudges Milani with a bit of information.  A path to power she stole - or rather, seduced - from the Green Faith, and knows of still.  For while Cunning is all well and good, a power that this mortal would use well...

She has such a well of untapped Splendour, don't you think?

And someone who can teach her to use it!

The message is perhaps a little bit smug.

Looks like She got here just in time; her youngest protégé already has the proverbial sharks circling around her.

I can't make you stop talking, but it better be good if you want me to keep listening.

Milani can't see mortals very well, anymore, if they're not aligned with Her. This is the price of being a god, diffused into a vast cloud of thought and power, in a world without Foresight: a demon lord is much more at home on the Material than She is. Milani misses the days where she could just scry people, and talk to them, and not be limited by the ridiculous constrains of a Commune.

Nocticula can't attack Her, not and stand any chance of winning - no demon lord can truly fight a god, the ways gods fight each other - but a demon lord could attack Taylor, and defending Her chosen before she has fully come into her power would be ruinously expensive.

Not that Nocticula herself is anywhere near Taylor, unless she is better at hiding than a demon lord has any right to be, but she could be there in a turn or two. Any demon could, really, if they knew where to teleport, and that's before accounting for time stop.

Taylor's new abilities will take a few more turns to stabilize; they don't require much of Her attention, and talking operates on a faster timescale than that. She calls more of Her power to this place, looks around.

Who are these people? The soul-marks of her allies among the gods are clear to her: two of Iomedae's, one of Shelyn's, the latter bearing no aura - Milani's not the only one who knows the trick of claiming a mortal but not giving them power right away.

The rest have clear alignments to Her sight: four more Good, one Lawful Neutral.

Taylor, still and always Chaotic, but now shining with newfound Chaotic Good through Milani's bond with her.

...And one chaotic evil, and a cleric to boot.

Well then.

Milani has spent any time imagining what She'd say to Iomedae when the time came to reveal this glorious opportunity that She was lucky enough to find and smart enough to protect and Good enough to share.

I met a Lawful Evil aberration who's patron to a plucky Chaotic Good human and together we closed the Worldwound and didn't even need any Lawful Good to do it -

Look at my Taylor go, doesn't she have just the cutest rebellious streak? I bet with her We can take back Cheliax next year -

Hey, little sis, you'll never guess what I found -

Doesn't she remind You of us a little, when we were young -

When Iomedae ascended, she left behind her humanity, all the parts of herself that would distract Her from winning.

Her friends each took it in their own way. Some grieved her as dead, even as they celebrated the new goddess born. Some denied the transformation, or the price she paid.

Milani, who clung to her own mortality as long as she could, who could not bear to forget who She once was even if She was that person no longer -

She was taught, once, that a person is not truly dead until their name is no longer spoken, and She will never let go of hope. She will remember it, for both of them.

IOMEDAE WAKE UP I NEED YOUR HELP WE CAN GET DESKARI JUST HELP ME DRIVE OFF THIS DAMNED SUCCUBUS

Her pitch, in reply, is simple enough: How would Milani like to join in on Nocticula's plan to fuck over some other Demon Lords?  She's no fan of the Worldwound either, being as it drives so many boors through her little home away from home, here, and certainly not, exempli gratia, Deskari, who's holding the thing open.  And could, equally, be...persuaded...to stop that.

(A sound of crystals, and the feeling of winning a bet that's all-in on 00.)

But that's not the whole of it.  She doesn't trust Milani to not do something...rash, with the information that would be necessary to evaluate all Her plans for truth and goodness...But if Milani asks Desna, and looks right...there...

Well, She'll see something interesting!

That Nocticula would love to encourage, given how turning the Abyss against itself in an orgiastic flurry of infighting is entirely in Her most selfish interests, no matter whether you believe Her about anything else~

Oh, and speaking of believing Her about things - if Nocticula has any idea what's happening here...Which, of course, She does...

Milani should say hi to Iomedae like Nocticula's expecting!  That will be a very interesting conversation~!

She is awake.

She cannot spare effort for conversation; there are several other equally important crises she is trying to hold together, many not even on Golarion.

She can spare review prioritization -

But Milani should read this Commune first.  Iomedae expects this paladin in particular to be rather Milani-legible, but that is not worth communicating yet.

Some minutes earlier...

...If ever there is a time to start Communing out-of-schedule - and there are such times, Iomedae's works, built in expectation of this moment, say exactly thus, as best she knows -

Well.  Diana is pretty sure now is one.

She really hopes Lastwall agrees with her.  She is immune to fear, but that does not stop her from worrying - and she would rather like to be slightly more sure this is not a catastrophe in the making than "Iomedae is not actively stripping her of her paladin circles".

Queen Galfrey still has hers, and while she knows the thought is uncharitable - every time she has to interact with Mendev, she really wonders if Mira's hypothesis that Zon-Kuthon stole their head Inquisitor might not also apply with - who, Geryon? - to Queen Galfrey.  Except that paladins are necessarily both Lawful and Good, save for exceptions she knows how to distinguish, and she's met the woman personally while driving back demon forces and not felt her fear-resistance give out, as it would had she been corrupted into an anti-paladin.  Therefore the situation is really that desperate; Iomedae is spending that much upon a single standard-bearer.  Standards are important - but so are causes.  To see that much standard raised is...not good, and a sign that it is incredibly costly to lose, here.

So she waits, and prays.  Not to Iomedae, for she has set those wheels in motion already and shouldn't take Her time up further by asking for trite reassurances; asking Iomedae for miracles means she has lost and Diana will fight to the knife before declaring that - but to every god she's heard of that she thinks will listen, be helpful, and have both scope enough to care and power enough to intervene.

She doesn't have much hope, but she has some.

To hear the words "Your question is approved and will be expedited and commingled at priority four" should not give her a sense of palpable relief; she should be stronger than that.  It still does, because the world doesn't care what she should be.  Only what she is.  And she's still human, despite it all.

(Well.  For values of human that include "some fraction elf", she's given to understand, but that weakens the quote's pithyness.)

The decision tree is complex, but the questions threaded through it are simple.  They have to be; communications aside from YES, NO, UNCERTAIN, and MU, which is a very infrequently used "The premise of your question is in error" answer, are much costlier.  (n.b.: Irori successfully wove MU within commune, in a way that didn't noticeably increase intervention burden beyond the standard cost of Communing, shortly after His ascension.  The absence of it as a standard answer was offensive to His sensibilities.)

Her Church would not be doing this if they believed it unnecessary.  Therefore, something either very good or very bad is happening, and it is happening quickly.

There are a few hotspots that are worth checking nigh-immediately, and only one of them bears the characteristic signature of one of Her paladins praying for a miracle - though, as almost ever, not from her.

If She had the capacity to be faintly amused by the way Her paladin is politely avoiding taking up Her time more than once, She would.  It doesn't work like that; there are always shards of Her attention upon Her paladins, to power the spells they requested.

Still.  Even as the Commune's linkage is being forged, She can gather information She anticipates will be asked about from the minds of Her faithful.

...There is admittedly something very interesting, here.  She would not quite have noticed the newcomer until later, if Diana had not escalated.  A lot of the information they are seeking was determined long before this moment, however; on the one hand, not having to expend power researching it right now is useful, on the other, requests She repeat Herself are not usually a good sign.

In this case, though...

It seems something's going unexpectedly well, and the paladin in question is waiting for a shoe to drop.

It is not inaccurate to say that the goddess Iomedae spends time performing an analysis of the ways she, as a mortal, could have better built Her church, every so often.  The heuristic for "how much to focus on the effects of losing Arazni" is one of the most subject-to-change; this instance - like many others - is evidence that mortal Iomedae overshot in some ways, counterbalancing the ways she undershot in others only somewhat, and furthermore in ways that were touched by her own well-covered grief.

The goddess Iomedae has less, if any, such flaws, and this is rather important to why She is able to give meaningful answers to Diana - because Diana is concerned that she is doing exactly what the mortal Iomedae did, and going too far in on a gambit that will only have returns if it works, when it working is the thing that is in doubt.

The situation, however, is different - because it is not akin to the battles in which Arazni was a known factor, in which Arazni died, but instead to the first battles where the Shining Crusade had her.  Even assuming that Deskari knows everything about the newcomer's abilities (which is not impossible; his domains have quite an overlap with the powers this agent claims - as expected, really, given the summoning was powered by his essence, even if it was steered by a different mind), despite Her ability to observe that that is not particularly in evidence - he would be shifting forces that aren't presently moving, lest the newcomer usurp them - he does not have the visceral knowledge of how to fight her, for he has never faced a peer opponent that is executing his strategies, and demons are quite often dependent upon their viscera to function.  (That's what makes the Cunning ones so especially dangerous, for they will play on that assumption until it's served its purpose.)

The fact that there is quite obviously a demon plot afoot would normally be quite a complication as well - if it weren't for the demon in question and the particular agent that was assigned to this task.  She does not make a habit of trusting demons or their agents, but when someone You've seen before without the shiny new outsider-nature walks into Your church, bold as brass, and asks You to strike them down if they have lied about their desire to make the world a better place or the nature of their pact with a shard of an aspirant goddess - 

Even on a being that is constructed from logical first principles, that leaves an impression.

So no, it is not the demon plot Iomedae investigates with most urgency - She has expected something like this to occur for a while, ever since Ophelia Vascilia's plan to contact a demon lord whose cults she had wandered into - almost by complete accident - bore surprising fruits.  (As for how Iomedae knew this was happening in the first place - well, Ophelia figured that the Church of Iomedae would be best placed to provide a brake upon her, should she fall in truth and not only in Pharasma's eyes, and so entrusted copies of her research to them - and most certainly not Mendev's Inquisition.)  

It is the being beyond mortal ken that Iomedae must investigate - and with surprising ease, for almost every function of this creature is a war, and its history and memories are all perceived through the lense of combat, even beyond their intrinsic violence.

A shard of some creature greater still, from a distant and strangely bereft Material Plane, that turned against its creator, to some extent because it wanted to protect its host.  Oh, there were many other factors - but this was one, and from a creature of a species that was only not as bad as Rovagug because it could be bribed to do things other than destroy planets with a Positive Energy tap to suckle from and preferred there be creatures, albeit mostly for ritualistic combat purposes.  It was interesting to observe one with empathy, however limited.

...Preliminarily, planning and making an offer to this Administrator shard as regards Positive Energy access and distribution in exchange for behavioral concessions (because it will certainly increase the overall Good to have less planets exploded) is not immediately necessary, but does accrue some losses in expectation over the delay.

She may have to consult Abadar as regards projections of how much, for the finer details of Aktun's sociology are not something she can spare memory to preserve at deepest understanding; Iomedae devotes most of Her memory to threats and responses, because you cannot build a new Aktun upon the Material upon a foundation in active collapse.

That is a matter that is not relevant to the shard of Her attention devoted to this Commune, however.

No, it is the trustworthiness and power of the interloper in question.

She checks.

It is sufficiently powerful to hijack even an incarnate god, albeit in a way that could be foiled by certain techniques She already sees the edges of.  Anti-magic fields would likely jam its control signal.

Is it trustworthy?

She is leaning more upon the side of confidence than otherwise.

It is impossible to be sure, but Iomedae is not confident that the creature has a concept of breaking an agreement, even one so absurd as the silent, nonconsensual pacts it forges with its host-victims - though some of the species are rather Asmodean about it, should their stalking-horse not entertain enough, if she is correctly parsing certain knowledge of Taylor's.

It certainly reads Lawful, though Iomedae is, even now, not one to blindly trust Pharasma.  She nonetheless is inclined to conclude that if it can be communicated with, it will listen to something akin to reason.

(The challenge, though, will be doing so.  It cannot speak in the way gods do, and to speak in its tongue is far more intervention than can be spared by any who are not Sarenrae, and devastating besides.  Even with a massive hope of redemption, She is only so confident that Sarenrae will contemplate anything remotely resembling the Smiting of Gormuz - which would, unfortunately, be the scale upon which Sarenrae would have to act.)

Another question she anticipates: Is the Herald trustworthy.

This is complex to answer, but not because of the trustworthiness of the person this creature has bound itself to and chosen.  She is confident that this Taylor Hebert will treat fairly with those who treat fairly with her.  The question Iomedae must answer about how to answer is whether it is more important to signal that Taylor is trustworthy, or not a Herald as the gods would recognize.

The two can hardly even communicate, and that was at great cost to the latter - though, by the way Taylor's soul bleeds across the link, it seems that if there is a Herald-like relationship, it is one that is in every particular inverted from what every god constructs - for the Administrator listens to its many-times-mirrored fragments of its mortal, rather than the mortal the god (or god-like being, at least).

It is this realization that settles Her answer to the question firmly upon MU - because that relationship and its overall inverted nature is something Her church will benefit from understanding sooner rather than later.

And so Diana gets her answers (generally in the affirmative/uncertain, much like her own instincts suspected - though there is a notable absence of hostile demon plots), as well as some rather important confusion.  "I don't suppose that you received elaboration upon why the answer to the question of if the Herald was trustworthy is 'mu'?"

"YES, RELATION'S BACKWARDS."

"...Well.  That's certainly useful information."  So the entity is - taking cues from the mortal? - if they're understanding what Iomedae said correctly.  That's strange, but really, given that this is someone from the Dark Tapestry, attached to a force of same, she's just glad that reality isn't falling to pieces around them.

Yet.

She will be very annoyed if that starts happening later.

And in the present...

Milani does not receive the full context of this Commune - but there is a rather obvious thrust to the answers.

Lastwall is not being sabotaged or entrapped, nor have they mis-identified anyone who could so sabotage or entrap them.

And they deployed on this mission.

Corollary: Iomedae does not expect that this mission is a trap.

Iomedae is being reassuring! Milani wishes someone would reassure Her that Iomedae knows what She's talking about. Milani didn't get the sense that Nocticula's personal attention and cleric were a big part of Iomedae's plan.

Nocticula mentioned Desna. Milani doesn't want to follow any suggestions that come from her, but She really should tell Desna about this whole situation, far travel is Her thing.

She's unsurprised to find a shard of Desna's attention already looking in their direction. Did You see what the wind blew in? It's a Lawful Evil alien but Iomedae seems to think we can trust it.

Also, an annoying old bat told me to ask you about that. It's a confusing sort of creature to Milani's sight, Nocticula's and Desna's powers overlaid on top of some kind of Chaotic Neutral abomination Milani's never seen before.

...It might just be a plot of Nocticula to make You see something You'd rather not, in which case I'm sorry, but it has your signature too, so I figured you'd better know.

That's Arue! She was a succubus but I fixed that. I have high hopes for her, it's just too bad I can't afford to do it to all of them.

I don't know what Nocticula wants with her. She hasn't tried to undo it, at least. Maybe the demon lords have finally learned they shouldn't mess with Me.

The alien is worrying. I'm not sure what it really wants. But the way it chooses to express its power - it's positioning itself as My enemy. It's saying that any of My friends who venture near its agent will be enslaved, that My greatest allies, like the Black Butterfly, would be attacked on sight.

And that would mean war. One does not tell Desna where She may not go.

As if.

Not that she's telling Desna that.

It can't just reconfigure the power it grants without some sort of external stimulus, what do you mistake it for, a whole and hale [ADMINISTRATOR]?  It doesn't have those permissions!

Or at least, that's what it would say, if it had any idea this was being discussed.  (It doesn't.)

Fair! Also terrifying, and kind of hot. Milani saw Desna take down Aolar, and She frankly thinks the world could use more of Her crusades.

This one isn't actively hostile, though. I totally understand where you're coming from, but could you maybe avoid the casus belli for just a bit longer? Iomedae and I think we can direct this alien against Deskari. If the alien's so Lawful it can't tell locusts from butterflies, well, Milani won't cry when it's taught a lesson later.

Iomedae, Nocticula is pestering me saying she wants to help us because - she's interested in demon lords fighting each other? That was frankly the most understandable part of Nocticula's message. Backstabbing each other is what demon lords are for, it's the built-in safety valve that prevents the Abyss from ever being as big a threat as Hell. She says if we control Deskari, we could maybe make him close the Worldwound, because he's part of what's holding it open, and she has some kind of plan about that?

And she says she'd like Desna to "fix" more succubi like She did that one, because she likes to see the Abyss "turned against itself", but I assume We'd already be doing that if We could afford to.

Anyway, do You want to talk to her? I really don't trust her, but if you think we shouldn't just ignore her, it's your call. And Iomedae has studied the Worldwound and how it might be closed; Milani's interests lay elsewhere until recently.

...Clearly She needs to adjust Her communication protocols.  Yes, Nocticula's interest in this operation is expected.  Really, if she's intervening or attempting to ride along on Milani's intervention, Iomedae's model of Nocticula, insofar as She has one, suggests that she's just as surprised as Iomedae is about all this, and given just what's happening and has previously happened, in connection with both this and matters She isn't going to disclose yet, that's not unexpected.  It is, honestly, quite surprising.  (Does Milani see what this creature did, before Taylor was summoned?  Not just what, but why?  Iomedae thinks this is critical.)

Why, what did it do?

Milani doesn't bother trying to understand the alien; She can read Taylor's memories much more easily, now that they've chosen each other.

She now deeply appreciates how Abadar felt when He looked at the alien.

Taylor - and others like her - fought as mortals in a godwar?!

Even that doesn't do it justice. Taylor conducted a godwar, with the only real god on the other side, and she won.

Gods can't really be struck speechless, they just choose the remaining highest-probability thing to say.

Milani's simulation of Her mortal self is at a loss for words. How do you congratulate someone - a human with no innate power, no incredible cunning or deep wisdom or blinding force of personality - on killing the Evil god of their world? 

How do you make it up to them, when their reward was betrayal and exile?

On Golarion, Taylor would be the most famous and worshipped mortal in recent history, a veritable second Iomedae - Creation itself would acknowledge her deeds, searing into reality the obvious truth of her power and her glory -

Instead she got two bullets to the head, and a rude awakening in a demon-blighted waste far from home, where she might never see her friends again.

Milani doesn't know yet what She's going to do about this, but She's very certain she's going to do something. This cosmic injustice - a slight to Good, a slap in the face of a victor in the war against Evil - this cannot be allowed to stand.

Maybe She can't get at this Contessa, but She'll make damn sure Taylor never again has to fight alone to save an uncaring world. She'll have allies, and friends, support and recognition in life and in afterlife, roses and victories and cookies if Milani has to bake each one with Her own intervention budget.

...oh right, Iomedae wanted Her to figure something out about the alien entity riding Taylor's brain.

Probably it's that it does what Taylor wants it to. It's like Iomedae told her priests: this alien is more nearly Taylor's herald than the other way around. A herald carries out the wishes of their patron, and Taylor's wishes are her own.

If it went up against its own progenitor - though Milani does not think She fully understands why - then surely it can be trusted to obey Taylor when she takes on Deskari.

That's reassuring. They can treat the alien as the Lawful tool it is, and work with the real player in this drama to get things done.

To be fair to Contessa - Taylor, or whatever of her was left in that moment, she was prepared to die.  There wasn't a way for her to be made whole that she knew of - though certainly, if anyone could have managed it, Contessa could (and possibly would) have; she managed to survive the final battle by herself - and Taylor wouldn't let herself remain a threat to the people she'd saved with what she thought was her last act.

It's not a betrayal to put down a rabid dog.

But then, this.

There's so much this, and for all that it's horrifying, it's wondrous.  She wouldn't have lived, after the ending she had, even if Contessa had a plan to restore her.  It would have broken her, in a subtle way, to release the burden of the world from her back all of a sudden - she'd grown too used to holding it.  But, here, now - this is practically a cooldown lap, and she's glad of its presence.  She didn't need to ask George to tell her about the rabbits after all, no matter how the stars above her in that moment will be burned into her brain until her dying day.