"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?"

"Oh, most people find the changes fairly striking." He flutters the wings; the overall impression is like there's a smudge on the lens of your glasses. "I took it pretty slow. I have the not particularly uncommon preference for psychological changes to not happen to me unless I have reviewed them very thoroughly and favor them having tried them on and taken them off a few times. I'm happier, and I have less desire to see my enemies suffer, and I feel less bitterness when people are incompetent in ways that make my life worse, and I notice matters of law more instinctively, and I am unafraid all the time instead of just when there are paladins around. Haven't changed anything else on a persistent basis yet."

"I am glad that is working well for you."

"I have categorically refused to try on being more trusting even though several of my friends have said very gently that it seems maybe a little pathological. …I am trying to get a read on how much you've changed, but I can't say I have much of a guess."

"As a former friend I suspect they are right - that's not to say I feel any animosity toward you, just that we haven't spoken in centuries. I think I have changed…less than you would expect looking at how much a typical human changes in their lifetime and multiplying fifteen or twenty-fold. Not a surprising amount accounting for the fact that even normal humans experience less dramatic changes as they get older. I am sure I have changed for the worse in the last hundred years but I would not appreciate a lecture about it."

"I wasn't really planning to lecture you about it," he says. "Maybe it's true of some evildoers that they've never really heard much case for Good - maybe it's true of most evildoers - but you've heard anything I could possibly think of saying. I assume if you thought we were in error that you'd be willing to debate."

"I've heard most of it before, yes. I guess most people trying the lecturing don't know that. I may have some disagreements about what is - desirable, for the world - but it does not seem to me that debating that is among our most pressing concerns. Those disagreements aren't what anyone's planning to destroy me over."

Well that sounds like they've entered dangerous territory. "If there's anyone planning to destroy you presently I would expect they're either an idiot or an Asmodean," he says.