Oh right, they hadn't finished briefing Terendelev - no, actually, Jon had that idea long before she told him of her first life.

Jon's theory is that I'm from an Earth in an 'alternate reality' because its history, knowledge of magic and the year I remember it being don't match the local Earth. I don't understand it any more than that.

'Fateful struggles,' ugh. This is good poetry, maybe, but it definitely doesn't sound like good science. I would appreciate a description of the presumed effects of 'circling' in my case but that's not urgent. ...besides keeping me next to the worldwound, if the effect of the curse is to specifically keep me out of the safer areas we came here for then I dislike doing that. How much security is gained by being in Lastwall but not in an antimagic field?

If we go back to Kenabres, are there immediate research prospects for finding a way removing the curse? We could triangulate the pull I feel, which is risky but maybe not much more risky than just staying in Kenabres. Is there something else I could be doing to gain more options or resources over the next few days, instead of studying the local situation like I had planned? What resources or people could help with this?

Lastwall’s antimagic cells are very secure, as secure as any other very secure area they have.  I don’t think it loses or gains much security.

Lastwall has… more expertise than Mendev, but not anyone who would be substantially better than me at assessing the wound’s curse.  An idea I had was to get a message to the Archmage Morgethai, with the payment of a glance at your Orb for her help, maybe negotiating allowing her a more extensive look if she needs to expend expensive resources to help you.  Er… She also owes me a favor, maybe if we could figure out the fair price of it I could spend it on her helping you and we could deduct that from the money I owe you?

It is kind of awkward but between Tanya’s payment and her city she really needs to be thinking about liquidating some of her softer assets as the opportunities present themselves.

 I was planning on having another outsider called to help you study, Jon explained he was picked on short notice with specialized anti-mind control abilities and abilities as a spotter and very little context on you personally, so someone picked by Heaven now might be much better at explaining.  And they would be competent to bridge the cultural gap without taking any offense.

I think that if we hope to make progress quickly, in hours or days, I should stay here in an antimagic cell, and only return to Kenabres if the wound worsens too much. I can test that by leaving the antimagic regularly. If we don't expect progress soon but the only reason for me to be in Kenabres is to be closer to the Worldwound, it still makes sense to stay here if it's not expensive. 

I'm not averse to letting someone look at my orb in payment. The enemy has already seen it and possibly shown it to others, so it's probably best to also give access to someone you trust if you trust them enough. If you can replicate it and start training local mages, you will likely benefit from my help there too. And I still hope to also trade non-magical general knowledge I have, I just need time and safety to do it.

...I would normally say that a competent company of aerial mages with orbs like this and with freedom of the skies could level any city in the world, or all the cities of a country, in a night and the only way to stop them would be to teleport and mind-control them. With local magical support they'd be unstoppable. But I don't know what other magical countermeasures this planet might have.

I trust Morgethai, but the geopolitical implications are immense and you should be aware of what sides you would be indirectly picking, even if the other sides are firmly in alignment with Evil Gods.  I guess that is another thing for you to read up on and Jon to help you study with.  Alright, it sounds like you will stay here, in which case it would make sense to stay in an antimagic field to stop the wound.  If Jon stays just outside the field, he can still talk to you and relay the telepathic bond.

She addresses the inquisitor over a message (and includes a copy to Tanya over the telepathic bond).  "I believe Tanya will want to return to an antimagic field.  If her wound starts to worsen even with it, either sending me, I will try to keep two teleports in reserve, or expend teleports from scrolls to bring her back to Kenabres.  Also, if she doesn't return today... tomorrow morning if you could call an Angel or Archon with lesser planar ally for the purposes of acquiring aid in helping Tanya orient to this planet faster, I believe it will be worth it for the cause of Good."  (And if Lastwall pays for it the payment will be much tighter of a closed circle.)

The inquisitor replies out loud to both of them.  "We have an individual antimagic field, not among a hall of cells, but it is further from us, I will start escorting Von Degurechaff now?  And the assistance you requested for the wardstone should be here in... I think under a quarter hour?"

"Yes, thank you." She will follow him, blissfully unaware that his job title is 'inquisitor'.

I am very aware of the implications! I don't even know what the final equilibrium of mage-assisted warfare will be on Earth, and we at least have non-magical counters to that. An aerial mage war here could end - very, very badly. I wish I could share technology that makes defense stronger than offense, but the computation orb is not that. And so I did not intend to share it without extremely careful vetting before I learned that our mutual enemies, whoever they are, already had access to it!

And a few years' lead. Maybe they are sure the orbs cannot be replicated with local technology, or that no local intelligent species can use them for some reason. Or they have their own production running and are about to start using them, and think we can't catch up. ...or whoever is behind this honestly doesn't care what happens to the rest of the planet. 

If whoever had her captive planned this to manipulate her into giving them orb technology - no, that's too convoluted and in any case the argument remains valid: better for everyone to have orbs than only the enemy.

...there is actually a worse possibility than that. I cannot categorically rule out that they found, or added, some kind of vulnerability or backdoor to the orb which they can trigger later. I'm not a magical engineer and I don't understand local magic anyway. You should make sure you fully understand how it works and aren't blindly copying it. To whatever extent that's possible while reverse engineering.

Right, enough downplaying of her own value. What can you tell me about Morgethai? And while we're considering sharing orb technology, it makes sense to also share it with you and Lastwall - maybe the church of Iomedae, if they're a distinct organization, or your other allies - unless you think of that as being part of the deal with Morgethai. 

He follows along with her.

As an Archmage, Morgethai was and still is a key factor in Andoran's independence.  A few decades ago, Andoran rebelled and broke free from Cheliax's control.  Andoran is currently a democracy, the only full democracy operating at scale on this planet.  Some city states here and there across the world have some democratic mechanisms, but not as a complete paradigm like Andoran.  Galt broke free from Cheliax shortly before Andoran did and nominally has some democratic mechanisms, but mostly their government is under the control of the military leadership of Cyprian.  Are you following so far?

It's a longer walk this time, in a different direction, through a different set of halls and through several buildings.  Several times the inquisitor gives Tanya a password to speak before crossing an area.

Tanya approves of having security measures! (They rotate the passwords regularly using an unpredictable method, right?)

Democracy may be good in theory, but most of the time it fails badly enough that it's easy to point to a better-functioning autocracy next door. Or perhaps it's better to say that all the hard work lies in shaping a wise electorate. Once you have an enlightened, educated population it's easy to give them the vote, but nations tend to fail at the earlier stage of teaching people not to vote for genocidal morons, short-sighted sectarian interests, corrupt self-serving liars and insane ideologues. This is to say that the thoroughly pro-democracy upbringing of Tanya's first life has been somewhat overshadowed by her later observations of the policies of democracies in practice.

I'm following. 

Cheliax is currently a monarchy firmly under the control of Asmodeus, the Lawful Evil God of Slavery, Tyranny, (treacherous) Contracts, and Hierarchy.  Asmodeus is strongly concentrating his intervention budget on Cheliax, spending down millennia of saved resources, as well as what budget is more easily fungible across planets, in order to maintain his control of Cheliax.  With the resources Hell can directly transfer to the Chelish government, they have the most comprehensive public education on this planet, and subsequently the highest percentage of wizards, two or three percent, the exact percentage varies depending on if you count wizards that don't make it pass 0th circle spells.

He is taking this explanation slowly to make sure Tanya gets it properly.  Also, best to get the news that makes Asmodeus look better out of the way first.

Tanya's first reaction is that sounds like old Francois propaganda. There's a devil on the Rhine and she he is coming for 🫵you🫵! Spending down his enormous evil capitalist fortune to put 🫵you🫵 under his jackboot! With his army of enslaved mages brainwashed by the devilish schools all Germanian children are forced to attend he has built his tyrannical empire which has no citizens but only slaves! And he cannot be stopped unless 🫵you🫵 yes YOU do your part to save the liberty of our glorious republic!

Tanya's second reaction is that... yeah, that still sounds pretty suspiciously specifically anti-Germanian no matter how she thinks about it? Why is Jon telling her this? He already threatened her with hell and now he's saying hell is - funding a local government so they can have public schools???

I suspect I'm not following your intent. Unless you mean to say the faction best placed to keep people out of hell for a payment are the ones working with hell. 

Cheliax's claim is not that serving Asmodeus keeps you out of Hell, but rather that almost all mortals end up counting as Evil to Pharasma, so you mind as well aim for Lawful Evil, and that obediently serving Hell and Asmodeus in this life means you will more quickly pass through Hell's tortures to be made into a devil.  The claim that most mortals are sorted into Evil afterlifes can be demonstrated to be false, scrying over randomly selected samples of humans indicates well under a third, more like under three-elevenths, are sent to Evil afterlives by Pharasma.  Even for Asmodeus's loyal followers, the torture is well over a century and the resulting devil almost always has no psychological continuity with the mortal they originally were.  Hell 'allows' mortals to sell their souls, in one of the few ways of bypassing Pharasma's sorting.  This makes the mortal a slave of a devil when they die.  They don't even bother pretending to offer a way to avoid the torture for Chelish mortals selling their souls, but if they knew of your case they might make the pretense of offering.  Hell's devils also make a sport of writing treacherous contracts, so even with a legal team hired out of Axis, the Lawful Neutral afterlife, you would be taking a very unfavorable risk.

This probably all sounds like absurd propaganda, but one of the few upsides of Infernal Cheliax is that Asmodeus's church has greatly reduced their effort to mask this stuff, so hopefully they can figure out a way for Tanya to have convincing evidence this is what Asmodeans actually claim.

It may be what they claim or it may be what the Iomedaens claim but either way Tanya has no idea why she is being told this! How is this relevant to anything?

...wait, no, he mentioned Cheliax because Morgethai is backing Andoran which was ruled by Cheliax and rebelled. And then instituted the world's first democracy. So if she gives orb technology to Morgethai, Andoran might vote to use it against Cheliax and Morgethai couldn't refuse. This is Jon not-so-subtly pointing out she'd be giving military technology to someone who'll use it to start a war, and while Terendelev doesn't care - either because Morgethai's her ally or because she has more pressing problems - Jon's faction does, since wars of aggression are 'evil'. And normally Tanya would fully agree, but right now she needs to ruthlessly maximize her own chances of survival!

 ...unless Pharasma will consider her even more 'evil' for enabling a war? Damn it all, you really can't win with religious people.

What do you suggest, then? I understand your concern about Morgethai, but some faction already has access to orbs. If they're not interested in using orbs themselves, for all we know they might sell them to Cheliax since Cheliax is rich. This is a shot in the dark; if Jon meant to hint at another direction, Tanya missed it.

This isn't a concern about Morgethai for me, she will almost certainly use the orb technology against Cheliax if she is able to, but breaking Asmodeus's control over Cheliax and overthrowing his puppet monarchy is something Heaven is very strongly in favor of!  I was trying to make you aware of the factions involved and the sides you would be taking.  And I wanted to make you aware of Cheliax and Asmodeus because if they have the opportunity, followers of Asmodeus will likely try to win you over.  If they realize you have foundational values that would lead to you opposing them, such as viewing mental privacy as a fundamental right, they will try to eliminate you at a very high price.  I realize the claims I am making about their beliefs may sound like exaggerations, but that is what they actually claim within Cheliax, and even outside of Cheliax they only moderately mask their beliefs to make them sound more palatable.

I imagined it as a one-time sharing of information which could be kept secret, not an ongoing relationship where I helped Morgethai study and use orbs to the point where Cheliax's intelligence services might find out and try to eliminate me. But you're right that if I become known for using orb magic, and later Morgethai develops her own, I'll be implicated. Giving the technology to more factions... probably won't help much. Even if Cheliax comes to believe the cat is out of the bag and I have no ongoing value, the rational move would be to punish me to disincentivize anyone from siding with their enemies in the future. Damnation, why can't she solve one threat to her life without creating another?! 

Unfortunately, selling valuable military secrets (even if they're not anyone's secrets in particular) clearly constitutes taking sides. A peaceful retirement isn't in the cards when everyone is backed by one or another divine faction hooked into a thought-reading universal surveillance system! And if you can't run and you can't hide you have to take out the enemy first, but even apart from whatever second-strike capabilities Cheliax has she can't do anything about their divine backers. Making yourself the personal enemy of an entire state isn't good prosocial behavior, it's elaborate suicide!

(Tanya absolutely appreciates the terribleness of lying to your own people about population statistics in order to send them to hell; she will allow this to influence her actions as soon as the same fate is no longer on the table for her personally.)

Thank you for warning me. We should try other avenues first, then. Although, in case we have no other choice... If we discover who manipulated me, or even if we assume without further proof that it was Areelu, could we make Cheliax believe they were the ones who shared orb technology with Morgethai and Lastwall? After all, they sent me to Terendelev orb in hand, so the implication is already present. And if they've shared orb technology with other factions we don't know about yet, or are working on using it themselves, that would reinforce the apparent pattern.

Well... he succeeded in communicating to Tanya that she has options and won't be coerced into giving up her knowledge or magic, which in the long run will probably pay off?  Anyway...

One thing I should clarify... prior to Andoran and Galt's successful rebellion against Cheliax, Cheliax signed a treaty to hold a large section of the Worldwound line, Asmodeus would have a hard time directing Cheliax to conquer the rest of the world if it was overrun by demons and demon lords.  It was a very thorough treaty, with called outsiders to help make it proof against loopholes and a number of Lawful Gods committing to upholding it in various ways and verifying the terms of the treaty would be sufficient against loopholes.  Arbitration is ran through the Abadarans, they are trustworthy to uphold the letter and spirit of treaties whether it would benefit Good or Evil.  As Evil Asmodeus is, he upholds the letter of his treaties and contracts.  The reason this is relevant to you is that among the treaty's terms, anyone fighting against the demons is protected from any of the treaties signatories.  This includes outright criminals and exiles of the signatories.  The only thing it doesn't cover is desertion from the forces stationed at the worldwound itself and acting as a demon cultist.  Cheliax has tried retroactively stationing defector soldiers on leave at the Worldwound to make other treaty signatories give them up and faced fines by the Abadaran arbitration and extra scrutiny against future such claims.

So if Cheliax learns anything that would make them think of you as a threat, returning to fight at the worldwound would provide protection.  You can pay for a confidential assessment from the Abadaran Treaty Arbitration Committee about the exact minimum fighting required to qualify if you want to safely push the limits of the treaty.  This treaty only has a few clear release conditions, a set period of time after the Worldwound is closed (if that somehow happened) or Cheliax entirely collapsing to another war.  And Asmodeus has quite a number of levers over the Thrune monarchy to enforce them carrying out the terms as agreed to.

As for the other avenues you suggest... well should I explain this more first?  I suppose this all might seem unbelievable if, in the absence of knoweldge of Pharasma's system , Good and Law seem more heavily correlated?

He hopes the next outsider Heaven sends really has a more intuitive grasp of Earth-human mindset (as opposed to dry factual knowledge).

The part that sounds unbelievable is that a nation signed an effective blank pardon! You're saying that no matter what crimes someone commits in or against Cheliax, they're bound not to prosecute him as long as he signs up with another army at the Worldwound? Someone could - assassinate their prime minister or rob their central bank or, or just be a serial murderer, and as long as the punishment looks worse than army service they're always just a teleport away from safety? Why would any state ever sign this treaty?! ...I suppose all the armies that you could sign up with at the Worldwound must be very wary about taking in volunteers since you don't want criminals in your army, but why was this clause needed in the first place? 

They have to stay at the Worldwound for it to continue applying.  And a force signed on to the Worldwound has to be willing to take them in some form.  But Lastwall is willing to take almost anyone, and specifically has a fort intended to accommodate adventurers.  And fighting demons almost always shifts people’s alignments towards Good.  

One intent of that term of the treaty is to provide incentive for powerful adventurers to want to volunteer.  And most nations lack the capacity to effectively pursue powerful adventurers anyway.  Another is that no one wanted to be on guard for another nation pursing ‘criminals’ or ‘defectors’ among their forces at the Worldwound.  No nations trusted Cheliax not to abuse the letter of terms, so these terms are written very thoroughly with only the minimal exceptions I mentioned previously.

For context, Cheliax has extremely deadly internal politics.  And they can stop lower circle wizards from forming plans to escape with regular mind reading loyalty checks, but teleport capable wizards can escape too easily.  If a teleport capable wizard learns the right true fact, or has a disloyal thought they don’t want to be tortured for, they can be gone as soon as the next time they prepare spells.  Over a fourth of Cheliax’s wizards that become teleport capable end up defecting or fleeing.  One of Lastwall’s strongest wizards is a Chelish defector.

You may have a few days to consider about granting a look at your orb or more to Morgethai.  I’m having Lastwall pass a message through their relay with Andoran but I don’t think Morgethai is likely to respond immediately.  And if you’re still undecided… I’ll let Morgethai know you can use my favor with her if you’re willing to count it against an eighth of what I owe you.

Even a small favor from an archmage is possibly worth more than that, but Tanya doesn’t know what anything is worth yet…

'Adventurers' are powerful individuals, like mages but more varied. Of course an army would want powerful, experienced mages to volunteer, and wouldn't want someone to accuse a soldier of crimes in another jurisdiction. Put another way, armies reserve the right to court-marshal their soldiers but they are very antipathic towards any kind of extradition agreement. That said, their own governments tend to restrict them; a soldier accused of a crime committed before they enlisted goes to civilian court. And if the government is signatory to an extradition treaty, being a soldier won't save you because no one soldier is that important and if they are it becomes an even worse diplomatic incident. 

But 'adventurers' are, by definition, rogue actors. To get good at something you must practice it, and the things soldiers need to be good at are generally illegal outside armies. So surely you'd want to vet volunteering adventurers very carefully - and maybe they can, with truth spells and so on, but why would anyone want to recruit known criminals? Is Lastwall so desperate for quality manpower that they field a whole Foreign Criminal Legion?

I don't understand the incentives here. Do these nations have extradition treaties for criminals who don't volunteer for army service? I thought Mendev and Lastwall were allied nations; would Lastwall accept recruits fleeing justice in Mendev? 

The picture you paint of Cheliax, with a quarter of their best mages consistently defecting the moment they're able, sounds like a brain drain that doesn't bode well for them. It makes me wonder why, if teleportation can't be policed, they do not help many others to leave who can't themselves teleport. You said most states don't have the capacity to pursue powerful adventurers, is Cheliax an exception?

...none of this is urgent, I'm sorry for the digression. None of us knows how long the curse can be put off, here or in Kenabres, and by the time we contact Morgethai that may be clearer. For myself, I'm willing to deal with Morgethai if it's the best option on the table but I'm not clear what other options we have. You mentioned some other possibilities, but each came with its own downsides.

They’ve apparently finally gotten around to the other antimagic cell.  The inquisitor opens the door. It’s more nicely furnished than the other cells, with a tiny desk and shelves which hold a few books.

He addresses Tanya. “We’ll pass on information and news as we get it.  Guard station down the hall there, they can also pass on requests to servants, they’ll have a meal brought out later this evening if that is your preference?”  He points down the hall.

We can keep trying to work out ideas… I don’t have any contacts as generally relevantly knowledgable as Morgethai and also as trustworthy… I know a few wizards who might have some chance who are Lawful enough we can trust them with a well written contract… I’ll ask Lastwall to contact them and work with Jon on a sufficient non-disclosure agreement.

“We are uncertain if Tanya’s dietary needs are like that of typical humans, for now if you could just include chicken, bread, and water, they seem like safe choices.”

We are at the antimagic room now.  I’ve actually had a few thoughts on combinations of spells to get more information… Terendelev and I can discuss that while Tanya… she can’t read inside the anti-magic field… we could see if Lastwall can spare anyone with a permanent tongues or spare a tongues spell on someone with enough clearances.  Meanwhile Terendelev and I work on technical details of plans. I can verbally pass on what we come up with.  Is there anything more pressing?

“Is there anyone appropriate for the level of secrecy who a Tongues can be spared on or has permanent Tongues… and ideally they would be very hard to offend or upset with large unusual differences in culture and context?  …although if they are just reading hopefully it will be avoidable.”

The inquisitor thinks a moment.  “I can check at least.”

I don't have any more pressing questions. A map might help me orient a little, but besides that - if you don't happen to have an overview prepared for visitors from other planets, someone I can keep asking questions would in fact be better than just giving me books to read. 

(Also, Tanya does not go around offending people! She is honestly offended to be described that way to her new hosts! As long people refrain from affecting or reading her mind she is perfectly polite and will not criticize the local customs!)

What is most urgent for her to know, on a scale of (hopefully) at least a few days? General politics (who's against who but not why), general overview of available technology so she can get at least a plausible lead on trade goods (is that kind of an overview even feasible outside of a narrow field?), overview of what known magic can do (unless there's too much)... Having someone read to her will definitely help, they can both suggest and find useful material much more quickly than she can and they can answer her questions, and she doesn't have to reveal anything about herself beyond that she's an off-planet visitor.

How often do you think I should leave the cell to check if my wound immediately gets much worse and will there be healing available in case it does?