"Oh! Yeah, I wanted to talk about kind of a lot of it. One of the things is--so, I don't know if you knew this or not, but there was the remnant of a dead Aeon hovering above where you left the knife. I held onto it for a little while, and while I did, I could use its vision, and I looked at my soul--I think it matters, that you picked me. Not just because of the underlying compatibility, but because--my Luzainess is actively cooperating with the process. It matters, I think, that I want this. All of me. Also I had a completely separate vision for completely separate reasons--well, it sort of wasn't me having the vision, it was someone else and I was just sharing it--anyway. It's more than just the memories trickling in that make me sure I'm going to be okay."

This is the best news. She's been observing Luzai's soul, of course, but there's only so much you can see from the outside looking in.

"I'm really happy to hear that. I was scared, when I finally went through with the attempt, but this is much better than I expected."

Luzai smiles back at her, then winces slightly. "So the next thing is...less happy, but before I say anything else, I should say that I did it on purpose, I knew what the consequences would be, and I really, really do not want you to kill anyone, or erase their memory, or anything."

That's not a very promising way to start.

"What happened?"

There's no graceful way to say this, any more than there was in the other direction. "I told a couple of paladins that you're my mom."

"What were you thinking?"

"That I take all my personal relationships seriously. They were my friends, and I couldn't keep on being friends with them while concealing that. They reacted, uh, way better than you would expect paladins to react, actually. I may or may not have completely trashed those relationships, but--" deep breath "--the Worldwound is bad, actually. I'm not going to argue with you about whether it was worth my life, but I'm here and it's got to go. I can't just--playact at being on the side of the crusaders, I have to actually do it. And sometimes that means being honest, even when from a self-centered perspective it's a really really bad idea." 

Why would the paladins... ah, because it's a way to get at her. There's not a lot of things that could get her in range of their swords, but if she keeps stopping by to visit Luzai that would do it. She'll have to be more careful; maybe do a possession for the trips, or finally put in the time to buckle down and figure out how to finish up Astral Projection. 

"How certain are you that they'll stay that way? Do I need to ensure whatever outsider I send with you can also handle a few paladins?"

She could probably find a Ghaele that would be willing to take Luzai's side over Iomedae's, especially with the right bribery.

"That...probably won't be necessary? But this happened, like, right before I contacted you, like, it was in fact the reason I really needed a hug, is that one of my best friends might hate me now. Uh, I would be really surprised if they were aggressive towards a vulpinal, although, I do want to emphatically agree that a quasit would be a bad idea. On a directly related note, Anevia--also present, not a paladin, married to one of the paladins who was also in the room--would like any information on cultists that you have and are willing to share. Like, they're not happy, but they're also not stupid, and I did also share the fact that the Worldwound has served its purpose and as long as Deskari doesn't know you don't share his goals you're not exactly wholly aligned with him and Baphomet anymore. Although it didn't happen to come up that you were perfectly happy giving me a magic crossbow bolt with which to literally backstab him." 

"What do you need to know? I haven't really been tracking most of the cultists in the city; I know baphomet has one of his minions organizing them, but I can't say I ever cared to learn which one. You might have better odds just scrying them. As for the garrison, though, the main defense is that Minagho's been sticking around the wardstone in person. She has a passable alchemist on premises and one of Deskari's stronger oracles, but most of the rest of her numbers are made up by mid and low level demons - a few vrocks, incubi, and succubi, but mostly dretches and abrikandilu. I think there might also be a moderately capable kalavakus somewhere in the city, but Minagho hasn't had any luck getting him to show up and take orders."

“That is actually pretty useful, thanks,” Luzai says, but also turns back to the crystal ball, muttering about Minagho being a bitch. Can she find…that one cultist guy they accepted the surrender of in the Shield Maze and then weren’t able to follow up on.

The first two tries fail to connect, but the third manages to slip past his will. The cultist in question appears to have made it out of the shield maze, only to end up immediately falling in with another group of cultists; at the moment, he's with a group of other followers of Baphomet in what is recognizably the grey garrison.

He's pretty alarmed at having just had to fight off two spells, and is glancing around wildly looking for demons.

Woopsie. 

Well, if he noticed, there's no way she's landing one on Minagho without her realizing; can she see the Lilitu, since the guy is in the Grey Garrison?

He's not currently close enough to her for that, but maybe if she tried spooking him with a message or something?

Message to cultist: You surrendered. Haven't you ever heard it's unlucky to go back on your word?

Message is really short range, which means she’s got to be in the room with him right there. He starts trying to poke likely looking corners with his glaive for invisible wizards.

”You again! You’re the bitch that bit me, I’ll make you pay for that.”

She snorts. Not included in her next Message. 

You won't. You can't. Run, little boy, before you get caught.

His search doesn’t turn up anything, even after he recruits his fellows and they check the area above their heads as well. That’s not great, but he knows plenty of demons can see invisible people, so he just needs to get the boss to let him borrow a Babau for it.

Within ten feet from a prostrating cultist isn't the best way to view Minagho, but it's better than nothing. Through the sensor she's a lot less terrifying, but that just gives Luzai the clarity of focus to realize that according to detect magic she currently has ten different magical auras up, at least one of which is very strong.

"You're not being followed by an invisible wizard, imbecile, you're being scried on."

Minagho then turns to look directly at Luzai, and then at a gesture her vision winks out.

Well, that could've gone better. What about the guy she told off for trying to burn down a library. 

Even with a partly run down orb, that one still works fine the first try. He's also with a number of other cultists, but seems much happier about it, and they're all armed and armored. From the looks of things, he's currently on the move.

She checks his position and trajectory relative to the Defender's Heart.

...Then she scries Mama again to have a conversation with her, because she really does not want to risk being unable to do that. 

She does cut it off after a few minutes, though; there are more cultists to scry and also it's not exactly fair that she gets to talk to Mama and Villibor doesn't. 

How about that guy Faxon?

It's hard to be completely confident when she doesn't have an expert on Kenabres' geography there to confirm, but she thinks it looks like he's just east of the market square.

She's not getting past Faxon's will, especially not on the seventh try from the crystal ball.

Yeah that’s fair.

She tries various low-level grunts she can vaguely recall, noting down everything she can about their surroundings and locations and so on whenever she gets a hit, until the ball gives out.

With the extra scries she can be more confident in her diagnosis on their location; they're a little over an hour out from the defender's heart, though they might spend longer than that before the attack making an encirclement or doing more preparations. They also seem to have done some more recruiting or called people in from patrols between when she spied on the tower and now, because there are definitely more of them than she saw before.