Liliane is fighting.

In a way, she knows she's going to die. Acererak's hags - well, she can only say they cheated. Turning her father into one of their puppets, a hoard of people into zombies, and they're focusing on Liliane. Luckily, because she knows her team won't be able to take this kind of damage.

And - she gets lucky, strikes her father devastatingly hard, pouring the last of her smites into the blow - 

He falters, begins to fall, and the radiant energy washing over him swirls, turns dark and evil.

"Ah... damn. So I wasn't supposed to win, huh...? These hags sure are cruel..." he says, and his body begins to expand, and the dark energy begins swelling in the other downed zombies as well. "Well. If I see you again... I've got a lot to apologize for."

Rian does not successfully dodge the oncoming blast. It heals the zombies it bursts from - her father included, and he scowls. "Hey, now, I get healed? That's just cheating."

Rian gasps, falls to her knees - and something wells within her. Something angry. Something she's nursed since she was a child, cursing the gods for not doing enough.

Her eyes start to glow. Her skin starts to crack and flake away. Her mouth moves, but the words are incomprehensible and terrible to hear, slipping away as soon as they land -

She's impossible to look at, searingly bright -

Her father doesn't move, frozen in the light, but he smiles. "Seems you've learned something from me after all. When someone cheats... Cheat right back."

And then Rian lunges to her feet, roaring, and throws herself at her father, fists raised as she explodes in a wash of divine energy.

She can feel it releasing the soul of every undead in range - and she washes over the city, dusting some, turning most so they'll flee from the site of her death - 

And she thinks she'll go to the Soulmonger, now, to feed Acererak's machine, like the souls of all dead have been - 

But she doesn't.

She floats, and something coalesces within her.

She doesn't know how long she drifts, building herself, reaching into her power and seeing something there - she knows more than she did, is more than she was - 

And someone calls her name.

Liliane can't form an avatar, does not even have her own demesne on the Outer Planes yet.

So -

She steps through, still glowing and naked, and manifests in the center of the circle, eyes fixed ahead, senses expanding out from her - she can know everything within a mile easily enough - 

And everyone who can see her and is washed by her light - around an hundred and sixty foot radius - is going to be horribly, terribly aware they're in the presence of a divine being.

David Mazer graduated near the top of his class at Cornell, and he'd been a professional placebomancer for 5 years after that; two as an intern studying under the famous Clara Lowell, the Archmage of the Northeast herself, and three more as an independent operator. He understood full well the first rule of placebomancy, which was to always seem like you know what you're doing, and he had the acting credentials to back that up to. Placebomancy didn't prepare you for most things that could go wrong in a ritual itself, simply because listing them made it more likely they would come up. Certainly he'd never heard of anything like this. Internally, he went nearly into a blind panick, even as engraved muscle memory kicked in and made sure nothing showed on his face.

"Identify yourself."

It comes out commanding, but inside he's screaming immediately afterward, trapped between two poles of 'aaah don't try and command this, it's obviously stronger than you can handle' and 'aaah that didn't sound like you knew what you were doing at all.'

"Liliane, She of the Sundawn," she says, assessing his language and all the languages of this place. There's no exact word for what she is, now - there's things with a similar denotation, but wildly different connotation. There's no word for where she's from - they don't have the same concept of planes, not precisely.

"Who are you, and why have you called me here?" she asks instead.

'Grant my wish' implies he wants a miracle. Ballsy, calling on an unknown god of which you aren't even a cleric, even a newborn demigod worshiped only by what seems to be a small band of grung taking the 'worship everything that might be vaguely nice' approach. (She spares half a heartbeat's attention to grant the one currently praying to her a healing spell. The prayer's not sincere enough for more than the basics, but - she wants to help.)

But - this here has the air of something accidental. The circle isn't fit to bind even a minor celestial, and certainly isn't enough to keep her here. They're lucky they got her, and not a fiend.

Right, play it off. If you stay in control, the dismissal at the end should work just fine, because the universe expects it to. This, he thinks, attempting to convince himself, makes sense.

“You were called forth to find what is lost, to locate Catherine's missing ring.”

Never mind that he’s been planning on using a  dowsing rod to lead the way, and had no idea if this being could even do it. It was like his uncle had said: if at first you don't succeed, lie baldly. 

She tilts her head. "I think you should reconsider your summoning books, and your priorities. I am not a lesser power. You are lucky you didn't get a fiend, or someone vindictive." She can cast Locate Object, but so can most third tier spellcasters. Summoning any sort of being for a second-rank spell is... odd.

And this world is especially odd to her senses - or at least the mile within her range. (And she's never had senses like that, where she can feel the texture of clothes and stone far from her skin.) Many things are almost unnaturally smooth, and there's strange scents about, and strange items that work like magic but aren't, and the iconography of the gods is very, very limited for such a crowded place. Are they single pantheon?

And in searching, she constructs a metaphor that might at least explain some of what she is. "I am not of this Garden but another, far away. Your world feels strange to me. What are the local great powers?"

Are there any relevant conversations she can listen to within a mile, or news announcements, or interesting signs or books? She needs information, and, well, best if she's getting it from more than one place.

There's not much going on, by the standards of the world. There's actually no one else in her 160 foot radius, and the nearest other people are some housekeeper's chatting by the kitchen of this mansion. The mansion itself has 3 different bookshelves; one in a bedroom, one in the front parlor, and one in the living room. 

Just over a thousand feet out, there's a road, and there are some other expensive houses around it. They aren't as big as this one is, but still quite fancy and expensive - they have to be, to be in this neighborhood. Most of them have at least some books, but the amount varies; only one has what would be considered a real library's worth, and most of that is Sci-fi. There are, altogether, perhaps five dozen houses within a mile radius; about two-thirds of these have people in them.

David's not sure he's supposed to be answering these kinds of questions, but he's hardly a demonologist or a kabbalist. If she threatens him for the information, he realizes, he's obviously going to cave, so it's better for appearances if he magnanimously gives them to her, as long as he sounds sure and impressive about it. 

"This is California, one of the westernmost parts of the Untied States. It's ruled by the governor, and the angel Gadiriel, under the president of the Untied States."

'Angel' feels like the closest categorical equivalent of the type of thing she is; she has the sense that 'god' might've once conveyed it, or would still convey it to some people, but that here and now primarily would convey - either the same sense as Ao, or a sense intermediate between Ao and the Luminous Being, or even the Luminous Being itself. (Liliane has only vague theoretical knowledge of the Luminous Being; even Ao only was revealed the once. It feels like something that's been slotted into her head, along with every other requirement of being divine. The deities rule their portfolios; Ao rules the deities, and ensures they follow the cosmic rules, and the Luminous Being creates and destroys universes and sits above Ao. Nothing actionable or useful).

"Angel," is what she says. "That's the closest word for what I am. Greater, I think, than the word implies... Would Gadiriel be who I should speak to, to get an idea of the local organization?" 

She’s clearly not an angel. He’s never been to a strategic angel reserve, but he’s seen videos, and he’s seen the fallem angels. He’s seen all kinds of fherm, even video of Uriel from his abortive UN appearances, and she’s not like any of them. Still, whatever she sctually is, she’s clearly a problem the government is better equipped to deal with than he is, between the army, the kaabalists, and Unsong. 

“Not really, no. Gadiriel is near the top, but she’s also not part of the officisl government chain. You’d be better off going through the Governor’s office.”

The mayorial office of this sleepy town is hardly equipped to desl with her, either, and perhaps more importantly, if this sumonee goes there, there are far fewer suspects and a far greater chance the trail leads back to him.

"And they are where, in relation to here?"

“The Governor’s office is North-Northeast of here, in sacramento. It’s not the bigfest city in the state, but it’s pretty big and it’s the largest one in its area.”

"You've been quite helpful." While 'curing him of any illnesses' would be polite, she doesn't actually want to encourage irresponsible summoning. "Be more careful next time."

And she gestures, and - this is annoying, she can only immediately make items within her portfolio - well, she adjusts - a set of healer's robes forms around her, she tones down the glow so she's merely radiant (best to minimize chances of being shot) - does not tone down her divine aura, it's on hope and awe not fear anyways -

And 'governor's office in Sacramento' is enough of a description for her to go on - 

Perfectly without error, she disappears, and reappears on the sidewalk outside the office.

She lands in front of a large white building. There aren't any protests currently ongoing, so the grounds are mostly empty; there's an old lady walking down the street who almost falls over in surprise, and a few people who seem split between gawking and attempting to subtly sneak away; no one outright bolts, although that seems to be a near thing.

She... Doesn't really try to smile at people. Probably wouldn't be reassuring. Instead she walks, slowly and calmly, up towards the door. If no one intercepts her, she'll open it.

It's fairly impressive, at least by local standards! There's a display for every Californian county, the room is air conditioned, and the ceilings are impressively vaulted.

If she goes looking, she'll find the Governor's office behind a large pair of closed wooden doors. Outside stands a life-size golden bear.

For a governmental office, this is fairly tame, and there's no real indications of enchantments or magic used in the architecture. Implies a different or lesser level of magic, and possibly fewer resources allocated towards impressing visitors (good, she's always thought that grandstanding such a waste) especially given that the language doesn't have words for her...

Or direct words for the different types of magic. She could construct something, and make herself understood, but it's not a fundamental conceptual part of their vocabulary. (She's still trying to figure out a different metaphor than 'angel' since that fits only about as well as calling the blue sky purple, and she might just want to go with a paragraph long explanation and an introduction of Midgravian Common words. Unfortunately the language she now thinks in doesn't really have sounds so much as pure concepts).

She opens the office doors.

Inside the door are a pair of security personell, their guns aimed at the entranceway but not fiting yet. Inside the room sits governor Jerry Brown, and in a chair nearby sits an agent in an Unsong uniform, clearly there to meet with him.

One of the guards speaks up. “This is a restricted area.”

"I was told I would find the leader of this area here, and given no other indication of protocols. But I believe you will want to speak to me."

“If you’re looking for the governor of California, you’ve found them. I do tend to appreciate scheduling meetings in advance, but usually most visitors will knock.”

The silent alarm was sounded the moment she entered the building, so there’s no need for him to do anything on that score. If it turns out he does in fact want to speak with her, maintaining civility is a plus; if he doesn’t, it’s in his best interest to drag out the conversation as long as he can without making it obvious. 

"I do apologize for any breach of civility."

"But for why I am here... I was summoned to a house, by someone who seemed very confused about proper summoning procedures, and who did not seem to actually expect to get anyone. I asked him a few questions about this world, since I didn't recognize it or anything attached to it as one I've been to or heard of before. It seemed like the sort of situation where I should talk to someone official, rather than a random accidental summoner, so I asked where I should go for that, and he recommended the governor's office. In the worlds I am familiar with, it would be rude of me to stick around for any length without at least alerting someone official that I am around - those like me wandering isn't unknown, but most leaders prefer to at least know we're about. And I am curious about this world, and would like to see if there's anything easy I can help with, given that magic here seems to work very differently."

Also she doesn't have anything else to do except ponder eternity in the Outer Planes. She can grant spells and answer prayers for the tiny band acknowledging her, but she hasn't figured out yet how to manifest in her home world. Perhaps it requires being called, or perhaps there's something else going on. Plus, everywhere has problems - and if this world truly isn't as crowded with gods as hers, there's more space for her to maneuver in. Even the off the cuff suggestion she once produced for how even the weakest of gods could save a massive number of lives (purifying water en masse) would be opposed by greater deities in her world. If she can get permission to operate here, or if there's no one to give or deny permission and enforce that...

"Your language doesn't have a precise word for my kind, or for our category of being. There are related concepts, but the closest comparison to using those would be like calling the sky 'purple' because you don't know the word for blue. It'd be misleading." She pauses to organize thoughts on how to summarize her nature.

(She's still paying attention to everything in a mile of her. She might not know the meaning of everything, but... Well. It's hard to surprise her.)

“I can see our normal immigration procedures don’t apply. That’s certainly more friendly than most of our planet’s visitors, especially demons. There’s certainly no shortage of things that could use help, although I must admit I’m curious as to what you mean by that.”

There is now a national guard unit entering her range on motorized equipment; with them are a few Unsong Kabbalists. The vehicles aren’t really that different seeming from civilian traffic as a whole, but if she’s already familiar with their weaponry or is matching traffic patterns it shouldn’t be too hard to notice.

She tilts her head. Odd that their backup wouldn't be closer. How uncommon are major threats here, anyways?

- And those weapons aren't magical, she doesn't think. A few are likely be spellcasters of some description or another, but... She's not going to rule out someone ninth tier or equivalent among them.

"The lowest hanging fruit I've ever criticized my fellows for not going after is 'purifying enough water of disease for every mortal to use.' Things like 'directly curing disease' are harder to scale personally, but doable. 'Granting enough power that mortals can handle problems themselves' is standard, but granting more than a little to any given person is difficult. Still, again, 'enough for disease and healing' is low-hanging there, and if I grant to enough people someone's bound to take to it better than most. I can fight, if you have any hordes of undead or fiends or such beings not being handled by someone else; that's usually inefficient in my homeworld but I'm sure the lack of beings like me changes the calculus." And also she's sure Acererak and the jungles of Chult would've been a lot less of a problem had gods in her world been more proactive and less at each other's throats.

"Clean water isn't an issue for most of the world, and almost nowhere in the Untied States lacks that. If your healing covers things that can't be handled by Names or medicine, that could be helpful, though. There haven't been any demons in the Untied States in decades, and it's been years since they were last on the planet."

...

"There are undead to the southeast of here, but I wouldn't recommend heading down there. The cometspawn have it mostly handled, and... fighting the Other King is dangerous."

"If he's capable of fielding an army equipped with magic numbering in the tens of thousands and can get them onto a field in less than a few seconds, or if he personally could take an army that size or produce effects on that level, I might want to be cautious."

"I'm not sure yet what your world is capable of handling on its own. I can handle massive injury including spinal cord injuries and dismemberment, all diseases of the body including cancer, death within one minute, less recent deaths if the possessor of the soul doesn't object, malevolent shapeshifting, most inborn malformities, poisons and overdoses, curses not divine in origin... I would have more difficulty with most disturbances of the mind."

"But if you have healing capabilities that scale well, it might be more efficient for me to fight, at least in hit and run tactics, or find some other method."

"The Untied States have armed forces in excess of a million men; our remaining problems tend to be not solvable by military force, or require absurd amounts of it. The other king... falls into the latter category.

"As for medicine, I'm hardly a doctor; most of that sounds like it's within the grasp of medicine, but not reviving the dead. That one is widely accepted to be impossible."

He has, at some point in this conversation, pressed a second button, informing the troops outside there's no need to immediately bust down the doors but that they should be vigilant and nearby just the same.