My name is Marit. 

I haven't done my reading yet and most of my childhood tutors were approved by Hell. Just your name isn't very informative.

I'm a swordmage; I had the command of a division in the Shining Crusade. I was also informally responsible for Iomedae's security, and among her advisors. It is in this capacity that I worked with Alfirin. We knew each other for more than twenty years and apparently another five or so that I don't remember but she does.

You're still not going to tell me about her, if I ask?

It depends on what you ask. I don't mind telling you what I'll tell Lastwall if they ask, but that's - not necessarily all that much. And she, well, never told me all that much. 

I guess I'm mostly wondering what kind of person - fight in the Shining Crusade, alongside Iomedae of all people - and then does this. I don't know if the books will say since I imagine the books probably don't know about this.

I don't - know if I have an answer to that.

I guess I have parts of one.

…one part is that…Iomedae had a - bet, I guess, on the answer to the question of how we could destroy the evil gods. She thought that you could - set up Lawful Good institutions and do the right thing instead of the wrong thing and simply not horrifically wrong people and get better at leveraging the allied gods and make them hand us whatever we needed to fix the world, and then build a civilization that was stronger than Azlant and capable of fighting Asmodeus Himself. 

And it sure looks like she was wrong. So, even if you had literally Iomedae herself, here, in this world - I don't actually know if she'd be a paladin. She really wanted to win.

And Alfirin is also like that? Someone who wants to - win - against Asmodeus, you're saying - and - bet differently? Thinks you can't win doing the right thing, and just does whatever she thinks it takes? What do you mean that Iomedae wouldn't be a paladin today, are you saying Alfirin used to be a paladin too?

No. No, she was never a paladin - neither of us were - and she wasn't Lawful Good back then either, Arazni could accidentally give her a bad day with a Holy Word.

I didn't have a confident guess about her alignment. It's possible I'm attributing to the current extreme circumstances traits that really she had all along. The Alfirin I knew was pretty secretive, and - didn't try to reassure me, or Iomedae, when it was pretty clear we would've valued that, I assume because the reassurances wouldn't have been true. Maybe she was willing to do things like this all along. If you'd asked me at the time I'd have told you she might be.

…really, I'm more sure of her now than I was at the time. At the time Iomedae was very worried that she'd pursue lichdom or something eventually, and I was worried she'd betray us once Iomedae was dead. But she's - working on the obvious thing to be working on, and she has at no point sacrificed an entire city to an outer god for insane archmage reasons, and I'm sure Asmodeus would pay very handsomely if she were willing to work with Him. I wouldn't have confidently bet I'd find her on our side, but - I would in fact have bet that way, I was intending to try to rescue her if she'd been soul-trapped or something, and I'm more confident now. …confident that she's trying to win, and confident that she's possible to cooperate with. I do expect she's probably Evil.

I guess I just didn't think of the shining crusade as a place for evil people - I know kind of a lot of evil people. Knew. Is she, hmm, evil like a Kuthite, or evil like Daeran, or evil like Hulrun, or not really like any of them?

…not really like any of those but Daeran's probably closest. The Shining Crusade was more able to be picky than the fifth Mendevian crusade but not that able to be picky, when it came to people as powerful as Alfirin. And Iomedae trusted her, and would defend her to anyone who brought it up. Correctly, I think. All of Iomedae's predictions about her not betraying us have been borne out.

When you say she's possible to cooperate with, what do you mean?

- I would be much more surprised to learn she's doing horrendously evil things with my resources or in a way where she benefits from my trust than to learn she's doing them in some other context. I expect it to usually be a good idea to work with her. She might've killed me when she learned I was alive, if she wanted me dead, but I think it'd be uncharacteristic for her to have asked me for the tuning forks to her demiplane and then killed me once I answered. It's - Law isn't a sufficient descriptor, there are Lawful Asmodeans, but it may be the conception of Law she possesses personally, or it may just be that if she wasn't like that then it'd be wildly more costly and annoying for me to interact with her and she disprefers that enough to behave herself.

Should I expect her to basically keep to her word as far as our - arrangement - even if you're not around to check?

I would actually be pretty surprised if she broke her word. And - she's been around for a while, hasn't she, with no one she thought would come and check up on her.

I assume she has, but - I don't know anything about what she's been doing, for all that time. I'm not sure how just being around counts for anything.

I was going to say 'and she's still Lawful' but I don't confidently know that. Maybe Dictum thrown out by demons would hurt the two of you anyway because you're Lawful.

I don't really know how one would check, no. I suppose I could overthrow another government, if she lets me. It's not a very serious suggestion.

There's a part of Marit that has been thinking for six months about how to take down Geb. He's not ever going to do it, because he's sure there's a part of Alfirin that's been thinking about it for nine hundred years and if she hasn't come up with anything good enough, nor will he. 

Cheliax, but I doubt any of us will lose Law for it. I guess I find the fact she made an agreement with you at all something of a good sign because magically speaking I doubt she had to.

I was thinking Mendev but - I really do not have good enough reasons to do that and it would be a catastrophe - It wasn't serious.

I think she didn't have to make an arrangement with me, no - she didn't until you found out and -

And she wanted something from you? Marit finishes the sentence. Because he told Alfirin he'd only sleep with her if Catherine was free to choose and had agreed.

I …think I would've been quite unsure if that was the situation, if you'd asked me my guess before you told me. It is obviously unjust to you, and a worse sign than if she'd done it unprompted. I think I still expect her to keep the deal, having made it, if I were no longer here to check. …if I were for some reason in the possession business, I think I'd also avoid making a deal until I had to to get something I wanted. It wouldn't seem like much of a deal unless they had something I wanted.

I don't know if she wanted anything from me, just - she couldn't make me forget - that's what she said but she probably could, now that I think about it, or just - never let me be awake again - I don't know why she decided to make a deal instead, except that I assume you care and she cares what you think about it. Which is why I was wondering what happens if you're not around.

Were I betting I'd in fact bet she sticks to it but if I were in your position with that information I would absolutely assume the worst.

It really isn't as - Well. If someone hears ‘Catherine is being possessed by a thousand-year-old evil wizard scheming to become empress of Avistan' they will assume something much worse than what was actually going on last month and - it's better now, I guess, and - I keep feeling like I should be correcting you, because you're probably imagining the really horrible thing, but - I kind of hate saying that it's not that bad? Or feeling like I need to say it?

But - you knew her I guess so maybe you're imagining something more like what it actually is or - maybe you're not. I don't know. I think I'm rambling now and - you probably have more important things to do.

I'm doing a Teleport run, my attention's not occupied. I would expect that my own prejudices in this situation are to believe that you're suffering less than you are, as that's less awkward for my relationship with my closest friend. Only friend.

It does not seem reasonable to expect you to assure us that our choices aren't too terrible, or to help us feel comfortable with them.