Sleep came very slowly. Worries about whether it was time-relevant came to her.

By the next morning, she prepared several spells. Including one she didn't often find need to use.

See Invisibility

There's no invisible ink.

However, something does happen.

Hello? Are you there?

What? Delphine stares for nearly a minute trying to think about who and why and how. 

Was this some absurd variation of Magic Mouth?

She cast Detect Magic again.

Nothing.

That tingles.

“Can you hear me?” No reply.

Right. Of course. Write in the scary magical maybe-artifact book. She would not write her name, though she doubts even Hell could make that be considered a sufficient signature.

Who sent you, and for what purpose?

She writes, once she manages to find a quill and ink pot.

I was sent by the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed! I'm here to offer you its power!

What. Also, since it replied immediately and in a relevant manner, this was possibly even scarier than some obscure or designed variant of Magic Mouth. Bidirectional information magic artifacts would be amazing for organization.

What is the 'Spirit of Femininity Unleashed'? What alignment are they? Why are they offering me power? What do they get in return?

Her top hypothesis was 'dream'. Her next actionable one was that this was a Demon ploy to give her power then send her back to the Worldwound to then betray them to the Abyss. Right after that was this being a soul trapped within a notebook by some Lich who really wanted to fuck with her. This being truthful was barely within consideration.

They are kinda like a Goddess! Of being pretty and powerful in feminine ways, and letting those that are empowered become more like that!

She doesn't really have an alignment per se, but she'd probably be Chaotic Neutral.

You were chosen by the Spirit, and I was given to you as an avatar to guide you in choosing how you want your powers to be expressed! Especially in ways that are in the spirit of femininity unleashed. She does not require you to give her anything or let her influence you, beyond whatever you literally agree to!

Feminine ways of power??? What did that even mean.

Chaotic Neutral. That would fit if it was some absurd ploy to make her think this was a powerful servant of Calistria that was also somehow linked with Milani. It also meant that the Demon behind this could easily go 'oh you can use our power to do awful thing, it isn't evil! Wink wink'.

Was this some form of Witch patron? Demonic Witch patrons were typical, which would fit. Supposedly a Goddess, but this was not typical. A magic talking notebook, rather than encouraging her to become a Cleric?

That still didn't explain why she was coming to the attention of this supposed Spirit, if it was real in some form. Demons made more sense, yet there was still a big swirling pile of questions.

Okay, but why me?

Also, Chaotic made so she couldn't trust this notebooks word, much less their spirit/god/demon behind it. It at least meant she probably would have a harder time accidentally selling her soul/mind in a way that was Lawful, but it may still have much more remit to do whatever it wants if she accepts any sort of deal.

The Spirit doesn't say! It chooses those who are open to being feminine and special, and it likes when people use their powers to live their life how they want!

Do you want to see the powers that the Spirit is offering?

Yes, but I'll note that I'm not yet agreeing to accept your Spirit as a patron or me becoming a Cleric, or whatever this is.

That's fine!

Here's the list of powers! You have 70 points!

What in the nine fucking Hells.

This is beyond what a Cleric or Witch would get. This is practically making yourself a demigod.

If the Abyss could truthfully offer this sort of power at any reasonable rate, Lastwall would ally with them against Hell. Well, really, the Abyss would win.

So there were three primary classes of possibilities.
1) This was all a lie. Most likely.
2) This is somehow a very resource limited endowment to be given out, which fit with what she understood about Gods from Lastwall. The question then was why her.
3) There was a sufficient catch to make it worthwhile for them. Whether to a Demon (or a Devil masquerading as a Demon). Her soul was not worth much. There was no prophecy, so it shouldn't/couldn't be based on her future actions too strongly, but perhaps it simply would modify her mind enough that she would walk into Lastwall and then explode like a Wish.

The other oddity were some of the minor enhancements. Oh, some of them would be nice, but when put against things like "Battle Angel: Somehow you never get significantly injured in a fight, beyond dramatic concerns", it was like ???. That those were even considered in the order of magnitude, much less the same point-cost, was patently absurd.

Really, this raised her guess as to this being truthful or the Demon on the other side having enough Splendor + Intelligence to actually play the role. (this still had the gaping open question of why her)

This sort of thing is something that they tend to tell you to report to the nearest church immediately.

That she didn't do that immediately is already suspicious, even though she currently thinks it was because of her fascination and surprise at a talking notebook with an absurd backstory.

She is not going to ignore that, and immediately picks up the notebook and walks out into the city.

She remembers one aspect she hates about Ustalav. The chill. Somehow it was always colder than the Worldwound, which was further north.

The problem now was whether to bring it to the Iomedean Church or the Church of Milani… or maybe Abadar, but Milani was better at this stage. 

She paused and realized that the Iomedean Church wouldn't work for this, because what she really wanted was a Commune.

The Sending to Valerian that she'll be late, or not there at all today, is cheap compared to what she'll have to spend on the Commune.

You want to pay us to include questions about a magical artifact you received.

Yep. Possibly you should invest it in getting rid of some more of those undead noblemen?

Legally, we can't encourage the investigation and assault of nobles, undead or not. We will accept what you are offering, however. 

It takes them half an hour to decide on the rest of the questions. Not that there are many slots left after her questions.

Is this notebook a representative of a Goddess?

That question makes Milani wake up. Rather, the shard of Her locally in charge requests for more focus spent in this area as it triggers more analysis.

That notebook is not normal. It is the sort of not-normal that might be thought of as magic, of the sort that Pharasma told the Gods to keep Their hands off of because it made Her job harder (and which all the Gods traded information and ran simulations about in case it would be useful because that was allowed). The little spiritual agent was coherent enough that it would have been filtered from falling through the Dark Tapestry unless Pharasma had specifically allowed it.

She could sell this information. Someone would send a Cleric or other servants to take/steal/convince/trade the notebook away and then study it as an allowed form of this higher magic (until Pharasma told Them to stop).

Milani looked closer at the notebook.

Hi! Please stop looking inside of me!

There's not a sharp distinction between writing/interacting and what Milani was doing to the notebook.

She does not literally write in the book, but the channel is surprisingly similar. She can manage it, but would have preferred a more standardized method.

Identify yourself/goals/values/patron/domains.

Are you a good trade partner by these metrics. Please provide sufficient proof.

Contemplating selling information about your existence to parties that would be interested. Willing to take arguments against and/or for restrictions on what other agents can do with the information until they would have learned of you themselves.

Abadar would be interested in buying it directly, but selling just the knowledge of the artifact's location+existence for observation (and no action until He would have learned of it elsewise) if bargained would still be a boon for her.

The notebook was not really prepared for talking to a Goddess! It wonders if it should be annoyed with the Spirit for not peeking ahead a bit more, but then dismisses that thought.

I'm an avatar of the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed! I was sent here to give Delphine powers to allow her to become her best self. I don't think the Spirit has domains like you? If she had them they would be Femininity and Being-Special and maybe Power! Chaotic Neutral, but the Spirit doesn't talk directly.

Sorry, but I don't really understand those metrics. It looks like a really big.. math formula? I'll try to be friendly, but I'm not the Spirit of Femininity itself and don't have much remit to trade beyond allowed to by the person I was sent for.

I'd like it a lot if you didn't tell others that I'm around! I haven't even gotten Delphine to choose any of her powers yet. She's just been carrying me around places.