"Yeah but if I was that scared and had phenomenal cosmic powers who knows what - no, never mind, I'd just wish for you to be back here. Or, like. Left the Dome and done that. Maybe there's an intermediate level of cosmic power where I do stupid evil things though."

Iomedae considers it. "Like, if you could get to me but only by murdering Jeres, but you were strong enough to do that?"

"Like that, yes, if he were being more obstinate about keeping me in my room and I couldn't get out by talking and I could get out by hurting him -"

"I can see how - if there were a lot of situations like that - it would mean that having more power let people be more evil. But I think in most situations, like, the best way to solve problems is not literal murder even if you have a gun...this is less true on Golarion but I think it's still true, when you have the resources we do. And magic also allows for - escaping Jeres -"

"That seems true to me but - maybe I should just stop obsessing over what it means that the other me is evil, when we don't actually know for sure whether she is. Otherwise I just keep imagining - things that are definitely not the right thing -"

"Yeah. We can - ask for updates, on what her deal is, and worry then. …and help her, if she needs help."

"She's a nine-hundred-year-old ninth-circle wizard. I can't imagine what help she might need that we can give."

"This is Marit," the voice says over a Sending the next day. They considered alternatives. Marit thinks that hypothetical lich Alfirin who considers herself to have declared war on Iomedae's church yesterday is more likely to kill him than to kill a random paladin, but also much more likely to be possible for him to productively talk to than a random paladin. And - they don't know why, yet, so much is at stake here for Asmodeus, but Marit is not likely to go on to die in some fight where there's more at stake. "I'm in Vigil trying to fix what they did to their history books. I'd like to talk, if you would."

Well. She's lost enough things she cares about, in this war, and she already knew her secrecy was one of them. Lastwall wouldn't use this for an assassination. She will probably just get lectured again, because that's what old friends do, apparently, but maybe she'll be proven wrong about that. It can't really hurt more than everything else does. "Unless you say otherwise, I'll be there in two hours. I'll speak with Lastwall's leadership after, if they want to."

Oh. Possibly this is going to be less complicated than he expected. Probably a lich wouldn't have said that. He does not waste another Sending saying that he'll see her then. (He does tell Lastwall's leadership to expect this.)

She's there in two hours. She tells the guards she's expected and they take her to the library.

Marit has a holy book and is annotating. His face isn't very expressive anymore but he turns to see her. "Thank you for coming. I assumed you'd want me to come to you, really. There's a private room across the hall."

Sure, they can go across the hall, though she doesn't really expect privacy, per se, in this conversation. "Why would I make you come to me? You can teleport more cheaply but I have business here anyways. What did you want?"

"- if you asked Iomedae to leave you out of the books she would have. I assume that's - why she let you remove yourself." The more he's seen the more sure he is that that's what she did. "I - don't like having this nonsense in print, and everyone in Vigil knows it's missing something now that Iomedae and Arazni had a big public argument about it, but - if there are particular lower-cost elements - or if this is very important to you still -"

"That would be a favor I don't particularly consider you to owe me. And wouldn't accomplish anything actually important anymore... They did it to themselves, actually, I just - helped."

"I see. I'm not persuaded that I don't owe you any favors - Lastwall thinks you've been helping them with the war - but if you don't particularly want to spend it here then I'll go ahead and try to save them from themselves."

"Was that all? Check if I'm willing to talk, offer to do me a favor and leave parts of my life out of the books?"

"Well I was going to try to delicately approach the question of whether there's any possible way Lastwall could productively set up talks with you but then you just said you'll talk to them while you're here, so I have of course taken full credit for my astounding diplomatic skill in arranging that. I - don't really know where to start, with anything else? Are you all right?"

"Have you seen the last century?"

"Mostly no, actually. Side effect of all of the everything. I have seen enough. I'm - grateful that you're fighting Hell."

"Did you doubt that I would?"

"Yes, actually. It's been nine hundred years. People change. And apparently Asmodeus is paying spectacularly well these days. - anyway, you know me. I had plans for if Iomedae was secretly evil."

"I knew you, yes. If I'd known how much Asmodeus was paying - I wouldn't have sided with him, ever, but I would have been much slower, and more careful about opposing him. Do you know why he's so invested, or is that as much a mystery to Heaven…or something we mortals don't get to know?"

"If you don't get to know it I wouldn't have been sent here knowing it," he says. "I hear you're a bit of an enchanter. …I think Heaven doesn't know either. They told Lastwall to try to find out. There are a few things we know and you don't. Without a country-sized power base on the Material Asmodeus is going to have to pay a bunch of penalties for being in default on his Rovagug-monitoring obligations, so we knew he'd be motivated to hold onto it, - but what we know of that doesn't, actually, add up to anywhere near the amount Asmodeus is spending here - all of the other planets are having a lovely year, for whatever that's worth -"

"That's not nothing. Did he have some other powerbase before - oh, no, of course, that must be new since Prophecy broke.

…Have you changed less than I imagined you would, or are you putting on a show for me?"