Iomedae looks over at Alfirin rather than think of anything to say to that.

…She does not know if that's better or worse than being eaten by a bear. Depends whether she's evil, she supposes, and on whether she's immortal or undead. Her original life being an immortal powerful wizard would be pretty cool; her original life being an evil undead wizard would be pretty scary. "...How did you just learn this yesterday, if she's been helping in the war and was in the shining crusade?"

"We have no record of her in the shining crusade and are investigating how that happened. She's been helping us pseudonymously and also possibly in secret ways she hasn't told us about."

Iomedae squeezes Alfirin's hand. "Well, that seems like a weird thing for an evil undead wizard to do."

"I assume they have a reason to think that…"

"It's not that weird. You said it yourself, on the radio just now. Asmodeus doesn't have any friends, even among other evil beings. The reason we suspect her to be undead is that very few wizards have achieved immortality by other means, and even stretched to its limits with magic her natural lifespan would have ended seven hundred years ago. We suspect she may be evil because she's likely-undead, because the Goddess cautioned us against treating her as an ally in general, and because - we think she had a conversation with the Goddess after Arazni left. Iomedae said, quote, 'The person you'd be if you were living up to your own values is someone I'd have no quarrels with.' end quote, to which she replied 'do your worst'. That's reconstructed from what multiple witnesses remember, so the exact words might be off."

Alfirin clings to Iomedae's hand.

Iomedae clings right back. That does kind of sound more like what an evil undead wizard would say than what friends would say. …also she's now kind of upset that her body was used to say something that evil undead wizard Alfirin plainly took as a threat. "Probably it is not very wise to try to reason about maybe undead wizard Alfirin by thinking about the good Alfirin," she says. "But it is easy for me to imagine that the maybe undead wizard Alfirin is still a good person and just doesn't like gods very much."

Lastwall has been dealing with undead wizards since its inception and not one of them has turned out to be a good person. "Maybe. Just - be careful if you ever do meet her again. Don't trust her just because she and Alfirin used to be the same person. People can change a lot, in nine hundred years."

Alfirin is the person who taught Iomedae not to trust people instinctively. 

She nods.

"The second thing you should know is that we're working on sending you back to the Dome. Probably tomorrow. Cheliax tried kidnapping people with wishes again yesterday, and we think they might try again - they also might not, if yesterday cost them too much and they have to conserve resources more, but it doesn't seem that we'd have been served well by thinking in those terms after the first kidnapping attempt, or after the wall of hellfire."

Iomedae nods again. If Lastwall hasn't gotten a lengthy complaint about their behavior she has no desire to be the one who tells them that they find Osirion difficult.

"I understand you had some conflicts with Jeres. Do we need to replace him with someone else? Keeping in mind that there's a war on and we don't exactly have officers going spare."

Iomedae does not herself feel like it makes any sense to try to solve 'Iomedae is stubborn and insubordinate' with 'get Iomedae a more diplomatic commanding officer' but the real sticking point here is Alfirin. She's absolutely not going to blame Alfirin for anything, though. …she's also not going to assure Valentina that everything's fine on Alfirin's behalf. This does leave her without much of anything to say. 

"I think most of our conflict was due to having different understandings of how much authority he had over me, especially how he - ambiguously imprisoned me - after Iomedae was possessed and left. If that's made clearer and he's not holding a grudge I expect we can civilly tolerate each other…for a few weeks or a month at least. I'm less sure, if we're going to be there for the rest of the year."

"We'll probably know within the month whether or not Cheliax is going to keep trying wishes and can revisit the question then if relevant."

"Then I think we can keep working from the Dome for a month and then revisit. I, uh, regret any problems I caused by leaving the dome against orders, I don't remember it and could hardly have done otherwise but I - didn't know they ambiguously imprisoned you -" She squeezes Alfirin's hand again.

"It caused only mild inconvenience, especially considering what was at stake. I also didn't know you'd been ambiguously imprisoned, I will make sure Jeres' orders are clearer about how he should not do that."

"He let me out after I yelled at him and reminded him he had orders to let me leave if I wanted to, but it would've been better if he didn't do it in the first place. He also made me waste a scroll and bother Lord-Watcher Zima because he wouldn't tell me where Iomedae was even after she'd been found."

She reminds herself that Alfirin is a civilian and shouldn't be expected or required to be patient and do her duty in an emergency. It's kind of frustrating. "I understand. I'll make sure his orders are clear. I assume no major progress on radio detection, given the disruptions? There are a lot more undetectable wizards around, these days, and if it bypasses existing wards it could help a lot."

"No, nothing." She's been a little busy.

"In that case I think that's all I have for you." She drops the usual 'Goddess go with you', under the circumstances.

Lastwall calls Marit. Of the shining crusade's commanders, he's the one who lived the longest and saw the most of the relevant period.

"Subject to your best judgment of what information is worth the cost of sharing, we would like you to help us correct the historical record of the shining crusade, particularly as it relates to the individual 'Alfirin', and also to, again subject to your judgment of what information is worth the cost of sharing, consult with our leaders on why Asmodeus is willing to spend as much as he is on preserving Cheliax. In exchange," - and this is always the most awkward part of calling angels for help - "We offer to contribute four thousand absalom pounds to research efforts aimed at producing better enchanted weapons for combatting the undead and the forces of Hell and the Abyss. Most of which would probably have been contributed to that research anyways. Alternately, we can provide that payment to you directly if that is preferred."

Marit is a spyglass archon, now, winged and limbed but not particularly humanoid in form, and hard to look directly at, more like an inconsistency in what one’s eyes are reporting than an actual being. His voice, though, is an ordinary human one. “I assent,” he says, “and would see the payment directed wherever you believe it serves me.” 

"Currently we know that she served in the shining crusade, was capable of casting plane shift at the time of the battle of Vaishali Pass, and had a personal demiplane, though we don't know whether she made it herself. And that the accounts of the Crusade underwent revisions at some point in the past and that may be why she is not mentioned in them. I've been told that we are best served by acting as though she is alive today, though we don't have explicit confirmation that she is. And that's all. What can you tell us about her, during the crusade?"