That is - much much better than almost anything else it could have been, really, given Menador being in the service of Asmodeus at all. "And the healing has to be priests of Asmodeus because they ban all the other gods? - we are no longer in Menador and you can discuss House Narikopolus of your own world freely, as long as you're not trying to confuse anyone about the extent of your affiliation with the Doux's house in this world."

"Mmm. Worship of most other gods is permitted, actually, just not their organized churches or clerics. The temple in Kantaria has half a dozen other shrines inside."

"I suppose that's slightly better. What happens if someone is selected as a priest or paladin, can they leave or are they killed?"

"Killed, if the authorities can find them. Doesn't happen very often. You can be executed for heresy, or for primary worship of another god without being empowered, or effectively acting as part of their church, but you can get away with a fair amount out where we are. Unless it's Zon Kuthon." He quirks his lips into half a smile. "Or Iomedae."

"Iomedae.  Is, uh, a god." ...not a very useful one, if Menador's ruled by Asmodeus!!!

"It's funny. Iomedae was the patron goddess of Menador, once, or so they say. You don't get a shrine in the temple, and your Acts are illegal to read, so I don't know what Ferran and Oriol are working off, exactly."

"- I'm not upset about becoming a god, I'm an Arodenite and we are supposed to aspire to it, but it sounds like Menador's patron god failed badly at Her one responsibility."

"Nah, I think you had some other ones. You'll have to forgive me for not having read your Acts. I know they have paladins of you at the Worldwound, still. Big tear in the fabric of reality leading into the Abyss. It's really quite a mess."

"Sounds it. Is that...related to how Menador came to be ruled by Asmodeans?"

"Probably somehow. - Look, I never went to school. I can read and write and do math, but that's about it. I will tell you what I know, but please don't mistake me for a historian. 

As far as I know, the Thrune Regime is about a hundred years old, came to power in a civil war before that, and favors Asmodeus as the state church. The worldwound is also about a hundred years old. It's up in Mendev, if that's a place yet, and it takes the combined might of Cheliax and Taldor and Lastwall and probably half a dozen churches to keep the damn thing contained."

Iomedae would not even have guessed that a person in Menador had heard of a school, those being a thing in grand cities. "Well, I guess we'll see what we can do about it. - we can't be going back and forth between worlds, I did ask the gods about that. The Thrunes, that's the family name?"

"...yes. What do you mean, we can't be going back and forth?"

"'No one will transit back and forth between worlds.' I don't know if that means it's impossible or just forbidden. I am sure you have people important to you back home - and one doesn't always have to do what gods say just because they're gods - but for now we should assume we can't get back there. If it is any consolation, if we could then my Empire would try to conquer it."

Okay, there continue not to be any benefits to having feelings about anything in this space. "Mmm."

"Did the priest of Asmodeus say anything about contacting anyone? Cast a spell?"

"I think he was praying. He didn't consult me about it."

"For how long was he praying before the other man arrived? Did you see him arrive?"

"A minute, maybe. I did see him arrive."

"Did you recognize him? What did he look like? He teleported in?"

"I didn't recognize him. He was, I don't know - sixties, human, I couldn't say a region because I don't know how people dress in which place here, with graying black hair and an imp on his shoulder. I assume he teleported, but I don't know that I could have distinguished some other means of appearing or disappearing."

"Was anybody else, other than the priest of Asmodeus, doing anything that might've summoned him - casting a spell or praying -"

"I didn't see anyone else visibly praying. Iolanda is the only one who can cast spells other than the priest, and she was writing something in a journal. Some of the others were building a shelter, and some of them were tending to the horses."

"What's your best guess of what happened? Who the man was, how he found you -"

"My best guess is that Asmodeus wanted his cleric and sent someone to pick him up. I have no idea how he found us. Maybe he was himself a devil, I don't know. I have never known Asmodeus to respond to a prayer with something like that and I don't have a lot of guesses about what it means, other than 'the situation is extremely important to Asmodeus'."