Did she fail to clean her room Iomedae comes promptly like a responsible professional adult.

She looks nervous. He'd tell her she's not in trouble, but she kind of is. "I've recently learned that Cheliax is going to attempt to have you kidnapped via wish spell during your broadcast tomorrow. We're planning to cast some spells on you that will help you resist the kidnapping, and to otherwise proceed as normal. This is secret and you should not tell anybody - Cheliax will probably learn that we knew, but we might get away with them thinking you are much more powerful than they think, or your normal protections are strong enough to prevent this, and even if they do determine that we knew the less they know about how much we knew and when the better. Do you understand?"

"- yes." She had no idea a spell could do that. She in fact wasn't clear on whether Wishes were a real thing anyone could just do or if they were something only Aroden could do or something. "Is Alfirin safe? It'd be even worse if they got her, she knows more."

"I know that they are targeting more people than just you, I don't know Alfirin to be one of the targets - We think this is revenge for your last broadcast. I don't yet have any reason to believe that Cheliax knows Alfirin exists. But you're right, that we should try to protect her too…do you know if she is Good?"

"- I would really expect so! We have been doing all the same things, for all of the same reasons. Are we safe in a Forbiddance?" She hasn’t had time to get caught up on all of the possible interactions of magic - and most of what she did learn was aimed at understanding magic warfare so they could figure out which weapons it was most important to make soonest - but Lastwall has lots of Lawful Good Forbiddances, they are safe to walk into and out of only if you're Lawful Good, and one can't Teleport directly in or out of them, she knows that much.

"Wish is - I think the only known spell, though I'd have to ask a wizard to be sure - which can teleport someone out of a forbiddance. If it couldn't - I expect they wouldn't try it. I asked if she was Good because some of the protective spells that we'd use only help Good people…I think we will not be able to protect her as well as we can you, even if she is Good. Paladins are already very resistant to magic and the same protections we have that only work on Good people work better on Paladins. I'm sorry."

Iomedae nods, tightly. There's no point getting upset with him about it. "May I tell her about this."

"Yes. Tell her not to tell anyone else, of course… And bring her with tomorrow, to the broadcast. Dismissed."

" - if the things that we did go wrong, and Cheliax kidnaps me, what should I do."

"I don't think you'll be given the opportunity to kill yourself, or Alfirin or any other people they get, but if you do get it take it. We'll try to get you back regardless, but - raising you might be the easiest way to do that. And it gets you out of their hands. We'll go to a priest of a Good god, so you know it's us."

"I could wear an explosive vest? Probably not by tomorrow. I'll ask Alfirin."

"If she can make one by then it seems like a good idea."

Iomedae does not try to find Alfirin until their workday is done, and it is totally unremarkable that she'd try to find her at that time.

"Hey, you. How are the crank-guns coming along?"

"Overheating at half the rate of fire that is supposedly obtainable. Though that's still 200 rounds a minute, so I wouldn't say they're useless in the field as is. You can take a look tomorrow, see if I'm missing something obvious. Shall we get dinner?"

"Sure." Neither of them need to eat, but Alfirin mostly appreciates this for the ability to get absorbed in work and skip lunch with no consequences. It feels weird to skip every meal just because they can. "Company mess or should we have them bring us something?"

"We should have them bring us something, I have another engineering project I maybe wanted to throw at you when we're in more private."

"Okay." They go mention it to their secretary and then head back to their suite.

And Iomedae takes a deep breath. "Apparently Cheliax is planning to try to kidnap me with a Wish during the broadcast tomorrow. Probably just as - Freedom - because I was mean to them on the radio, they probably don't know any of the rest, but -"

Alfirin throws her arms around Iomedae. "They can do that? No, it's not - it's not fair."

Iomedae bursts into tears. "It's not fair. It's really scary. I didn't know magic could - without even knowing where you are, or who you are - I wasn't even sure wishes were a real thing -"

"Is Lastwall going to - can they stop it? They're going to stop it, right?"

"They seemed to think they could probably stop it. …but also they thought that if we did have time to make an explosive vest it'd be a good idea."

"No no no no - I mean - I can do it, probably. I just -"

"I know. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't - I don't think I'm sorry I said the things I said but I should've - known first what might happen - they can raise me right away, if I do die -"