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.

The specific focuses of it are strange for an old God, but it fits with the information. That the 'Spirit of Femininity Unleashed' was rich enough to purchase a possibly powerful artifact that imbues others with abilities, and that it didn't talk directly. Though not talking directly was also entirely consistent with it being past the Dark Tapestry, but the implicature of the words implied something more extreme than that.

Who was Delphine? It took a few moments, but it was determined to be the girl holding the notebook... who was also actively praying to Milani. She hadn't really paid attention to that past the Commune, but it was easier to see. Let's poke at that.

Hm, she was deliberately wanting to show Milani what she had seen. Interesting, and made it somewhat cheaper than ripping it out of a mortal's mind.

… That list of capabilities was truly questionable. Lots of ambiguities about the exact ways they were implemented, and it also implied pieces of higher magic that she wasn't sure if she was supposed to know. Possibly Pharasma would demand she legibly remove the exact knowledge, but possibly not since she had gotten this far.

This was also very Good, if the choices were made right and the person was right.

Milani looked closer at Delphine.

Lawful Good, but perhaps as much an Arodenite as one could be with never seeing one of His Churches… She poked around the edges. Thinking/simulating their actions in different scenarios, the ways their mind would probabilistically fall into different shapes with different incentives/pushes. Inexact but illuminating. One useful piece was the willingness to break her Law. That may be needed.

Yes, this one would work. They would do great evil, but always in service of what they thought good. Milani would have preferred another, even a Paladin of Lastwall, but this was in fact a better outcome than if the book never appeared, or if it were locked away to be researched.

She sends several questions to the book, probing it while also literally glancing at its internals as much as possible. She finds embedded a note detailing how the notebook works and that, yes, it is actually giving what it advertises. This is signed by Pharasma, also with the guarantee that if Milani used this specific note's knowledge beyond verifying the legitimacy, then she would have never seen the verification-note. And that would be worse by Milani's values.

Is this notebook a representative of a Goddess?

YES with the minor issue that the patron Goddess was not within Golarion.

Is this notebook legit?

YES

Was the notebook intended for Delphine?

YES

Is the patron Chaotic Neutral and as they appear?

YES

Is the notebook a trap?

LEANING NO

Is the notebook capable of giving the powers it describes?

YES

And one question added by the Church itself.

Should we report this to the main Church?

NO Too much risk of it spiralling early.

She still sold the information to Abadar and Iomedae under the usual clauses of nonintervention unless it was in both of Their interests and that They would not act upon the information until They otherwise would have learned of it.

(There is no need for her to add clauses favoring Iomedae acting over Abadar, because in the various way their interests align that lets Iomedae act more already)

The Cleric tells Delphine all of the answers.

Okay. So it was legit.

… or the Church has been suborned. That was still more likely.

She thanked them, and paid them (there goes a bunch of funds) then left.

Rather than heading back home, she immediately turns the corner to an alleyway and kneels in prayer to Milani again. “Milani, I know that I have not been a follower of you, but I wish to know whether the Commune was legitimate.” She could have done this within the Church, but if this is some oddly organized plot, it would be notably cheaper for them to just fake a vision while she was praying.

Milani was kinda hoping not to spend more on this. She was still far ahead of where she had expected to be for quite some time, but verifying uncertain higher magical objects outside of her domain was not cheap.

The girl is Lawful Good, and not so Lawful that she is very hard to observe to Milani's interests, but she's still only sortof Milani in the way that Iomedae was like Milani or Aroden would have been like Milani: wanting to change everything and save everyone. There were still pieces that Delphine simply did not have that Milani considered valuable, that longing for freedom was missing.

Images flashed through Delphine's mind, and a rose was drawn behind her eyes as they go completely shut.