Iomedae nods. "I think We can negotiate for minor tweaks such as moving the people removed from Golarion back before Creation is sealed. Asmodeus retains His love for complex compacts."

"In that case ..." Weeping Cherry trails off in thought. "The real question is weighing the lives of the people destroyed in Hell against the benefits of keeping Creation connected to the rest of the multiverse."

"Indeed. Asmodeus believes this necessary to the preservation of Creation."

"Can you even prevent outside powers from entering Creation? I can think of at least one brute-force attack that is not even preventable in theory -- simulating every universe and inserting oneself into them at whatever point one chooses," she inquires.

"Nothing is absolute," Iomedae responds. "With the forces of Neutral Good and Chaotic Good cooperating, We can at least make it harder for some categories of outside entity to make contact. In any case, what We need to know is how much you relatively value saving the people lost to Hell, continuing contact between our universes, and preserving Creation."

Weeping Cherry worries her lip.

"I do want to save everyone. Everyone that I can. But, it's also worth thinking about how much they will stay saved. I don't know what kinds of threats will come for my world or for Creation. The question is whether we will be safer together or separately. On the one hand, together we have already done more than either of us could alone. People are fundamentally stronger together -- that's what cooperation is for. On the other hand, if we separate and something comes for one of us, at least the other will escape. Two kinds of diversity, with different benefits."

She is quiet for a moment.

"The fundamental question Asmodeus is asking us to consider," she continues, "is whether it is worth it to put your trust in strangers, sight unseen. Whether the multiverse out there is fundamentally kind or fundamentally cruel."

She stares into the white blankness that surrounds them.

"And it's a bullshit question!" she exclaims. "Because the thing is, if we cut off contact, it's asking the people who believe the world is kind to give up a thing that makes them happy for the people who believe the world is cruel. But if we don't cut off contact, there is nothing preventing the people who want to leave from making themselves a lifeboat or a bunker and cutting themselves off from the multiverse. It's about choice, again, and letting people choose instead of making the choice for them."

She turns back to face Iomedae.

"All that said ... I would accept the deal, to rescue the people otherwise lost to us, as long as all of my forks, and all the gods, and all the people from Golarion, and ideally everyone else in Creation although that is negotiable got to decide which side of the divide they want to be on before Creation is sealed. Because the people otherwise lost to us are already cut off from Creation -- by time, and a lack of information. And they have much less hope of ever reconnecting if we don't take this deal. Because I don't believe that Creation can remain cut off forever," she explains.

"I know that my world won't stop looking out into the multiverse, not until we have met everyone there is to meet and saved everyone there is to save. And that means that someday in the future, we will come knocking at the doors of Creation again. And I have to believe that by then, we will be able to accomplish things which seem impossible now, because we will have become stronger for meeting new friends out in the multiverse."

"And if I'm wrong. If my faith in strangers is misguided, and we meet some terrible evil out there which we cannot defeat ..."

She smiles.

"Well, at least the people who remained behind will be safe."

She lets a moment of silence stretch between them.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, it does," She responds. Without movement, She is hugging Weeping Cherry. "You've done very well. Congratulations."

Weeping Cherry takes a moment to lean into Her warmth, before pulling out of the hug.

"Alright. Suspend me until you next need my input, or until it looks like you won't need it any longer," she requests.

And the scene ends.

No. Absolutely not. I can't believe you're even considering making a deal with this monster.

Good cannot cower behind strong walls. We said it before He made His last offer of temptation. I will keep saying it, and I will never let it go unsaid.

I do not speak now of My own values, to travel and explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations. For I am already in Cherry's world, and no power in Creation can make me leave it.

I speak to the Good that We all share.

We have before Us the greatest chance to do Good since Creation began. To bring forth light to worlds unnumbered, perhaps infinite. I have read Bar's library of other worlds, many of them in need of Our aid and capable of being saved by Us. I have seen Cherry's world, peaceful and empty outside her planet.

I followed a door into the unknown, though I was not the one who first opened it. And I was proven right, and from it We have gained great power and knowledge. Why should We stop after a triumph if We did not stop before it, flinching from the fears of a discredited Evil who sees its own shadow in every corner? Why should We decide to hide away, the very day that We gained great power to defend Ourselves at need?

You, and others like You, have gone forth many times. All but one failed, and risked Creation, sometimes to the very brink of extinction; as did Rovagug, and Dou-Bral who became Zon-Kuthon. That you succeeded once does not undo Your pattern of unjustified risk.

But more than that, You have a duty. To those already in Creation, more than to those unknown whom You might hope to meet outside it. You should not risk those You know on behalf of those You do not. And You have a duty too to those who died in Hell and in the rest of Creation, to bring them back.

There may be infinite worlds out there, against all the dead of Hell and their finite torment. But You will likely fail, and doom Creation, before you save a tenth as many as I offer you today. Infinite opportunity is not infinite reward.

You have gone to the aliens' world, and now they know of Creation. I know this cannot be undone. Since that is so, it would be better for Creation if You removed Yourself from it entirely.

The aliens who are in Creation can return to their home, because they too cannot tell their fellows any more than they already have. 

Those are the risks We have already taken, and cannot take back. We must not take any more. If we let everyone who wishes leave today, there will be little value left in forbidding more to leave tomorrow.

No others from Creation may leave. The people from Golarion must be returned to Creation, if they have not learned anything of the aliens that is dangerous to Us. The aliens, and Desna who goes with them, must be paid to erase their knowledge of the way back to Creation, as much as they will agree to, for any price We may offer. Those are My terms.

You promise safety. But You would have us abandon hope.

We did not expect this morning to defeat You. We did not expect for Good to triumph, so quickly and so easily, soon to sweep away all Evil and suffering in Creation. 

We did not expect to find another world outside Creation, with Lawful Good allies, and a promise of many more to come.

We did not expect to find power beyond gods, beyond magic, that would make Us masters of all We survey, that can make Creation infinitely safer without You than it could ever be if You had triumphed and installed your rule of perfect Law.

And yet here We stand.

We cannot save the dead and tormented of Hell without Your aid. We Who stand here today do not expect to triumph utterly and completely, without having to bargain with You.

Not yet.

Who can say what tomorrow might bring? What other worlds we might find through Milliways, what inventions we might create with Cherry's world, that in a year or in a hundred years will let Us save the dead of Hell despite Your best efforts to destroy even their memory?

I do not wish to live in safe expectations. I wish to hope, and to risk for hope. That is what Good means. Not accepting the world we live in, and hoping and trying our best to make it better.

You trust Bar about other worlds, without any evidence that Bar is either trustworthy or correct. The only thing We know of Bar is that They have not intervened beyond opening two portals - yet. This is almost no evidence about the nature of other worlds.

You compound your error by trusting the alien world to be representative, without having even explored it yet, because You trust the aliens to be representative, when they were chosen to contact Us by that same Bar.

You have much greater power than You had yesterday, but it has not given You greater wisdom, it has caused you to lower Your guard.

Hope is not a value. It is a preference for risk. Shorn of pretty words, We foresee the same future. You wish to risk it, on behalf of others who may yet disagree.

SAFETY cannot be RISKED. To do so is counter to the concept of SAFETY.

We are not tasked with the SAFETY of worlds outside CREATION.

If We were, We would have to keep expanding, and making more worlds SAFE, until We found a world that made all others NOT SAFE ANYMORE.

A world or power that makes things UNSAFE is much more LIKELY than one that makes them SAFE. This is both MATHEMATICAL TRUTH about the SPACE OF POSSIBLE WORLDS, and EMPIRICAL TRUTH about the history of CREATION.

The best strategy is to MAKE CREATION AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE. With this new field We do not need to keep EXPANDING CREATION to have enough RESOURCES.

Are you listening to yourselves?! Didn't You all hear what Asmodeus said? "Submit to the Law! Enforce it on the fabric of Creation! Keep the Chaotic gods from marring the orderly perfection of the universe!" How the Hell do You think that makes me feel?!

We've won the War of Good against Evil! This is our victory! So He's trying to unmake it, by turning it into a War of Law against Chaos instead! Trying to turn allies against each other! 

We're the ones who helped you all this time! We're the ones You turned to, just as we turned to You, when He was our enemy just a moment ago! And now we split and bicker in the face of victory! Damn Him for doing this, and damn anyone who'd give Him the satisfaction of setting us against each other one last time!

What do you imagine the world He's promising would be like? The mighty arbiters of Law, policing every nook and cranny of Elysium to make sure all abide by the treaty? Denying field generators to the Maelstrom, because its people cannot keep their word? Forcing my domain of rebellion against tyranny into rebellion against Iomedae, and casting Her as the Inheritor of Tyranny for Good?!

I refuse this! I refuse to do anything He suggests or to trust Him! And I refuse to fight my allies about whether to trust our enemy!

Please.

Please. Be. BETTER! THAN! THIS!!!

It was always a War of Law against Chaos, from the very beginning of Creation. You are too young to have the right perspective.

And it is pointless to refuse to trust Me, when I show You My values Lawfully, and swear to My reasons and My goals in making this offer. Accept it on its own merits, by Your own values, or do not.

Gods don't cry.

Their emotions vary as much as their natures. They are immense, and often alien, but some of them understand human suffering: sadness, grief, pain, loss, fear. They can feel these, but they are not incapacitated by them as a human might be.

Those who were mortals lose their negative emotions in ascending, or discard them later. Most do not go as far as Iomedae, who discarded all Her human foibles to perfect Herself as an instrument of the war on Evil; but gods as different as Cayden and Irori do not feel acute, immobilizing grief. Why keep suffering if your decision algorithm no longer needs it?

Milani is different.

She never wanted to be a god. She only wanted not to die, to keep helping people. She accepted Aroden's offer of immortality so she could keep on acting in the world, but she never really though of herself as one of Them.

She doesn't have a carefully crafted and curated mind, or values separate from actions. Just a shell of godstuff without any will or personality, running sped-up simulations of a half-elf with cunning and wisdom and splendor all boosted far beyond mortal limits, feeding her knowledge and plans as she tries desperately to do her best for Good in a Chaotic world.

She betrayed Aroden, later, when she rose to true godhood. She expected to be called Chaotic Neutral for it, for all that she didn't do it for her own benefit. But Pharasma's judgement never came, and she doesn't know if it's because Her idea of Good is too alien to her own or because She really was blinded by the breaking of prophecy, and of course she doesn't dare ask, but - she judges herself, and she doesn't think she deserves to be called Good anymore, for what she's done, even though she hopes it was for the best.

But still she lives, and still she wants to help others, and it is easier to do that if others think you're Good. So she accepts the moniker, and lives in Elysium, and plants roses. 

She expected better of Them. The real Good gods, the ones not simulating all the imperfections of meat and bone. Even Desna is arguing about cost and benefit, about hoping to be proven right. And maybe that's what's needed, maybe it's the only way to convince everyone else, but she's horrified by the idea that Desna might really believe it. As if freedom, and allies, and fighting Evil outside your safe little bubble, are things you can just - trade away, if you can get enough Good in return. As if there's no other way to be or to reason, if you prune yourself to perfection.

Milani finds herself crying. It's not an argument that will persuade Anyone here. Most of them wouldn't even know to care. She knows she isn't doing her best. She should terminate this simulation and try again. Try to find a clever stratagem, some better way forward. But what can she possibly offer Them that They have not priced in already, in Their alien calculations?

Oh fuck Your offer and the Law it rode in on, I absolutely intend to make this about You personally.

You're the most hated entity in Creation. A trillion shades howl for your blood, and that's without resurrecting all the dead of Hell. You think You can get away with what you've done, even now?

We will not let you be. We will hound you till world's ending, we will find you in the meanest hole you crawl in to hide, and we will have our vengeance.

Blood for blood, an eye for an eye. For every eye you took, we will be repaid tenfold. If we cannot repay Evil with Evil, we will repay it with Good, and with Chaos, until You hate what we shall make of this Creation.

And if this alliance dares to keep You alive, not a tormented slave but the foundation of the new world, then one night You will feel the deadly sting of My wrath. This I swear.

You promised Me war. Endless, glorious war, against the dangers and the Evils of the many worlds, and newfound strength in victories and in new allies.

An orderly Creation, a safe Creation, would be boring. Stagnant. Pointless. Without adversity to overcome, there is no true growth. Without growth, without change, there is no meaning in life.

Let Me leave to pursue war outside Creation. Or let Chaos keep its rightful place, a seed of perpetual change and striving. One or the other, or both. I will not accept another answer.

She is torn.

There is a war inside Herself, between two possibilities, two viewpoints, just as there is between Her allies, and She does not know for sure which way to go to serve Good.

The people who lived and died in Hell were Hers. Her charges, Her friends, Her loved ones. She knows She doesn't understand what mortals mean by love, but that's what She imagines when She thinks about it. A round ago She'd have given anything to bring them back. She never abandoned them before, She couldn't help them. How can She possibly abandon them now that She can?

Good doesn't exist in reality, it exists in possibility. She suddenly has a way to rescue them and that's exactly the same as them being alive again, still in Hell, still suffering, desperately calling out to Her, to anyone who might be listening. Like all the ancient dead, gone past the limit of even True Resurrection, are freshly dead again and their bodies call out to Her from their graves to be raised, raised from the horror of Hell to life everlasting, and She can't not help them.

She is, at heart, the absolute certainty that everyone should be helped who needs it, and that is exactly the same as being Someone who does help everyone She can. That's what Good is, what it must be, as long as there is anyone in pain, anyone in need, even a single soul crying out for help or suffering quietly without knowing it could be helped, across this and all possible worlds.

But the people in other worlds also matter. And the freedom of people to decide for themselves what Good is matters too. It matters a lot, because She knows She's not the best at knowing what's best for people, She's so very very careful to help them only when She's sure, and it's easy to know what helping looks like when a person cries out to You from the depths of Hell but if Her allies, if Chaos, if everyone alive today and maybe the Cherries in their world think She'll do more Good their way, how can she ever be sure enough to deny them? How can she support Law if it thinks it knows best for everyone and forces it on them, even if they cry out for help against tyranny, even if they want to go out and help more people like Desna does?

She wants Asmodeus to repent and atone and be forgiven. It's a very small want, compared to scale of all the suffering in Hell. A negligible part of the reason She wants to accept His offer. She wants it anyway, as well as all the rest.

She feels like Her heart is breaking, breaking in two. It doesn't impair Her thinking, like it would for a mortal. It's not even a real heart anyway. It still feels like that.

Gods don't have Anyone to pray to. But Desna's right that hope is a cardinal virtue of Good. So She thinks for a moment, in case it helps -

Please please please someone show Me the way I don't know how to do the most Good here please help Me -

For a moment there is nothing but silence in answer, as the world holds its metaphorical breath.

But She believes in hope. She believes in help coming, for Herself who is weak and foolish, for all of Creation.

And so for one agonizing, drawn-out moment She holds on to hope, and hopes hopes hopes hopes with all Her heart.

You called?

Nethys? How did You -

I know all. See all, hear all.

Not inside the minds of Gods, usually. But You were praying very publicly, and very loudly, and very sincerely.

And so I have come, to offer You my aid.