"...the big one you're missing is that they are evil. They're bad people. They want to keep slaves. They want to be feared. They want to see people flinch when they enter the room. They want to see annoying preachy paladin children suffer. They see you extending them kindness that'd never be reciprocated and they see a - merchant who can be talked into selling at any price by any sob story because he's stupid. And setting their character aside - they want to pick the winning side. The most compelling argument you can make to them is that money, and power, and respect, and safety, are on your side, and that the government can no longer offer those things. People will not rebel out of the goodness of their hearts, but they can track a shifting tide."

"People do rebel out of the goodness of their hearts," Iomedae says. "We get reports - I mostly can't publicize them, for secrecy reasons -"

"Sure, some people do. Those ones I imagine you've got already. The ones you don't have, and could get, are the ones who want to hear that there's power and advancement and opportunity on your side. That their past is an asset, that they're clever for getting out now."

"Thank you. I think I understand. …you listen to the show, then."

"Everyone listens to the show. Even at its worst it's a less predictable sermon than you'll get in any church, and sometimes it's better than that. - is it, at this point, really necessary that I be shackled," she says to the guard, with the smooth professional impatience that at least in Cheliax sometimes causes people to do what you said instead of go check with their superiors. 

Back in his Worldwound days, Vildug once stood guard for twelve hours over half a dozen succubus prisoners. They were still prisoners at the end. It's what qualified him, in the eyes of his superiors, for jobs like this one.

"Yes, unless you wish to leave."

She goes back to ignoring his existence. "We believe you to have fairly little penetration in the interior of the country. But the port cities were a problem."

"Because the boats need radios," says Iomedae, nodding. "I was hoping it'd work out like that. I was hoping for more in the interior, too, but it didn't end up making sense to move that slowly."

So she takes part in strategic decisions, too, instead of just being the voice on the radio. Lilia wishes that the effort to kidnap and interrogate the girl had succeeded; it would have been interesting. "I will admit," she says, "I would have imagined that if a plan required letting an inexperienced if charming child go on the radio and talk about whatever she wanted Lastwall's leadership would've chosen their alternative plan which did not require that."

Iomedae is going to have to be very careful to have this interaction not be wildly more informative to the defector than it is to her. "I can see why you would have imagined that. I obviously cannot comment on whether Lastwall's leadership had any say in my plans at all."

(It's much too late to not have this interaction be wildly more informative to Lilia than to Iomedae. It was too late for that the second it started.)

"You're a paladin of Iomedae, in Cansellarion's order, based out of Vigil. Don't be clever, you're not good at it."

She would have left Vigil if they'd objected to the radio show without sufficiently good reason. She does not say that. "I'm not clear on whether you're summarizing the state of Chelish intelligence's speculation."

"Chelish intelligence knows that you worked out of Vigil. We got persistent tracking on Marusek so we could find you when she was in the room with you. I did not confidently know you're a paladin until I saw you, though once we realized you worked out of Vigil and that the passionate opinions on democracy were a distraction it was a likely guess. They figure you're lying about being from Cheliax, which would imply you're not a paladin; if they were satisfied on that point they'd be pretty sure you are one."

"And you concluded that when you saw me because -"

Because when I said it you didn't look like I'd said something incorrect. That's half the game; say things you're only mostly sure of and let the other person's reactions confirm them for you.

"Because paladins behave differently around other paladins. Cansellarion watches you like you're his, and probably wouldn't have brought you here at all if you weren't. And I was never that persuaded you had to be lying about your background. Some people make it out, and the gods can smooth the way for their favorites. You do seem - too educated to have so little intuition for Asmodeanism - but there are stranger things."

"What sorts of things betray - having so little intuition for Asmodeanism -"

"Defectors generally have more contempt, for those who remained. They know the crowd would cheer at their execution; they don't try to tell them how nice they are deep down. You act like you don't really understand what Chelish people would do to you, if they had the chance."

"I don't think I want to change that," says Iomedae consideringly, "and I'm not even sure I could. But thank you."

"See, that's what I mean. There's a - level of analysis you haven't learned how to conduct -  'thank you'? Am I doing you a favor? Why am I doing that? Do I want to see you sent to Hell? Would I have sent you to Hell? What am I hoping for, here, and why do I think you can give it to me? These are salient questions, when one meets one's enemies. What did I purchase of Cansellarion, and what did I pay for it? You're not very old but you couldn't get even that old without keeping track of those things, in some place where people aren't toothless."

"I have been told I'm very specialized," Iomedae agrees. Then realizes that this is possibly the kind of answer which makes Chelish defectors feel like you're incompetent to reason with and grapple with the world on the level on which they understand it, which she doesn't in fact wish to be. "- and I care about some of those things but wasn't treating what's personally interesting to me as a good guide to how to spend our time. Do you want to see me sent to Hell?"

"I spent a while wanting to because you were making my work environment notably less pleasant but at this point it wouldn't even solve that problem."

"How did I do that?"

"By making Abrogail incredibly upset all the time."

"Ah," says Iomedae. "I don't think I can apologize for that."  ...wow, this is an important defector. Probably she should've assumed that for a less important one Cansellarion wouldn't have indulged proposals he make odd personal requests of his staff.

"I would imagine not."