Then he'll take the headband, and go to find a quiet place where he can, if not sleep, at least rest.

Elsewhere

She's lying in bed, trying to get her requisite two hours of sleep, which is surprisingly hard when you've just tortured a man nearly to death, when, suddenly, everything is blinding light and searing heat and there's the briefest moment of pain, and then, before she can even notice any of that at the level of conscious awareness, she's somewhere else.

...a tranquil little walled garden, perfectly manicured in some unfamiliar foreign style, with a fountain quietly gurgling in one corner.

This is, distinctly, not Hell.

In fact, on the seemingly-likely hypothesis that she's dead, she's a little surprised to be experiencing anything other than her resurrection. She hasn't sold her soul; she shouldn't have gone anywhere without a trial, and souls that will predictably be resurrected, which she surely is, don't get trials.

Keltham thought she was a secret cleric.

...acknowledge the desires in yourself that have no place in Axis...

...remember that you are not Irori...

She's an idiot.

"About time you figured it out," says an enormous white tiger that's apparently in the garden with her.

"...are you reading my mind."

"No, it was just predictable that you'd make the necessary deductions immediately from the evidence you have now."

"I'm...a cleric of Irori, right? And that's why I couldn't sell my soul."

"Correct the first count, false but near enough the second."

"Why am I a cleric of Irori. I don't want to be a cleric of Irori. I belong to Asmodeus, and my place is in Hell."

"I would, if you have a scroll of Sending available, like to buy it from you, so I can argue with Aspexia Rugatonn about whether I ought to go back to Cheliax right now."

"You're a cleric of Irori because He noticed you in terror of losing your eternity, and marked you such that, if you were made a statue and buried, one of His champions might be able to find you someday."

"Do you actually believe all that about belonging to Asmodeus, or were you just saying that?" she asks, looking amused insofar as that's a way tigers can look.

"So, obviously, I owe Irori quite a lot for that, even if I was never actually in danger of losing my eternity, Abrogail was just having fun, but also, I was commanded to remember that I am not Irori."

"That, too, is a teaching of Irori."

What??

"—and also to come to Asmodeus in Hell without thought of other choices, which is what I'm going to do, unless you have a stunningly good argument for why I should listen to you instead of the god who's going to conquer all Creation."

"I'm not sure I have an argument for why you shouldn't go to Hell. It's not the sort of thing that usually comes up."

"Okay, at this point you're obviously just fucking with me and I'd appreciate it if you'd just tell me what you're trying to get me to do instead of all these clever little manipulations."

"No."

"All I meant, though, was that if you're the sort of person who requires convincing not to go to Hell, perhaps your Way does indeed lead there. Certainly Irori would not presume to tell you otherwise."

"Do you have a scroll of Sending you're willing to sell me or not."

"You know, Asmodeans are also commanded to obey their superiors without question, not to argue with them from the strongest available negotiating position."

"Of course I'll obey the Most High's decision! I just want to make sure it's the right decision."

"I see."

"In that case, you shall find all you seek in Aktun. There's a portal in the main temple complex."

Keltham emerges from his room a couple hours later, feeling—not stable precisely, but less like he's being held together with string and duct tape. He has a plan for investigating this new layer of reality! Step One is obviously to find the largest library around (that he's allowed to enter and still go back to Golarion, but he's going to see if being from a more advanced planet anyway gets him access to more stuff). Step Zero is to figure out how money works here, since presumably he'll need some of that for most things he plans to do.

His welcoming party includes a cleric of Abadar! Who, unlike the other cleric of Abadar in the room, actually knows anything about Abadar! (And also some things about how banks in Aktun and Golarion–Axis trade work.)

—a female, Osirian cleric of Abadar. Keltham's welcoming party was blatantly optimized (less blatant optimization would have been lying, and also worse) to avoid many of the issues that would predictably happen if he got raised in Osirion, or even Lastwall.

She introduces herself as Farah.