That was yet another language she mysteriously understands! Which disproves the (unlikely) hypothesis that Tanya had perfectly learned the local language during her months of lost memory. A local 'tongues' spell would explain this except neither she nor Terendelev can detect one and Terendelev said making a permanent hidden one was very expensive. Why would you want to hide a tongues spell - to avoid detection, obviously, Tanya would definitely not want to go around with a spell she couldn't mask or deactivate! (And she still doesn't understand how spells work without mages casting them.)

Here is another visibly-magical alien species! (This is presumably not what it really looks like.) Which, yes, teleported here, presumably the building's wards let Terendelev authorize someone to do that. 

"I was to neutralize any demons in the city but had an imperfect proxy for identifying them." She will avoid the prior events in the interests of being terse; Terendelev spoke the way one reports to an indirect superior. "I am willing to continue, in accordance with local law and as long as this does not seriously endanger my life; I am unfamiliar with local protective spells and the demons' capabilities."

He takes another moment for his alignment detection to finish reading for Evil.  Tanya is strongly Lawful Evil.  And, now that he is paying attention, he notices her clothes look like the the result of mass production.  He's has a vague idea of the state of hundred of planets, up to date information on the general developments of over 27 different planets, and has more specific information about several high value planets (including Golarion).  Golarion only has the proper beginnings of industry in one region and rudimentary elements elsewhere.  Tanya is apparently from a high magic, industrialized planet, which is very unusual combination (for a lot of reasons).  He'll think about this more before he pushes.  As to the immediate questions.

To Tanya (still in her native language): "That is acceptable to me.  I am up to date on all the fundamentals and common forms of this planet's spellcasting and about the common forms of demons and I have a general knowledge about the situation at the worldwound."

To Terendelev (in Draconic): "I accept."

To Tanya again. "May I ride on your shoulder?  It would be convenient for staying close and I have some protective effects that operate in an area of effect constantly and some spells I can cast in an emergency.  May I cast a message spell on you?  This spell allows whispers to travel between us.  My message spell is a bit more potent than normal, think clearly of the words you wish to say and begin the slightest vocalization of it and you will be able to respond."  (The word for the message spell somehow literally translates as "message" and associates with the concept of the message spell from Terendelev Tanya has previously experienced).

She opens the door so that they will know they no longer need privacy.

"I have some long duration buffs to cast on you and Jon.  I believe Jon should be able to provide context on them as necessary."

She starts with the Wand of Resist Energy.

Ah, a hands-on examination for the prospective new employee with a senior manager literally riding on her shoulder! A really senior one who works on the interplanetary scale! Tanya will make sure to impress.

"Of course." Is she supposed to stop being military-terse and start being polite at this point? "Will you physically or magically hold on to me as I fly, or will we fly in tandem?" Pair flying in combat is an advanced skill; aerial mages train in pairs and can be significantly impaired if paired with a stranger; if she's expected to fly with an alien, he'd better be very good at it... Granted, the air was uncontested fifteen minutes ago, but that's not something you rely on. Allowing the senior manager to be injured or even seriously endangered on your interview-test-flight is an automatic disqualification!

He casts a message "I can hold tightly.  My flight speed is typical for this planet's magic, but I am unsure how it compares to your flight speed.  Also, would you be willing, to try speaking through the message by subvocalizing, and also try thinking several loud thoughts without subvocalizing, so I can confirm you can speak through it sufficiently quiet and also won't accidentally speak a thought you meant to keep private?  My message is slightly nonstandard."

"This is a deliberate message." One-hundred-twenty-seven is prime. When I first met Terendelev I thought she was a human. "Did that work?"

"...I normally accelerate at one to three gees - this planet's gravity is very close to mine - up to seven for very short durations in emergencies, with a rated safe flight ceiling of twelve thousand feet for aerial combat, lower when attacking ground targets if there are no airborne threats. I have a top horizontal speed around a thousand kilometers per hour in short bursts, or half that sustained." Wait, does she need to do unit conversion or does mysterious knowledge of a language take care of it?

“I heard ‘This is a deliberate message’ a pause and ‘Did that work?’”

They are still talking in Germanian.

“Your acceleration and top speed are vastly superior to everything on this planet.  Typical speeds and acceleration of flight at best resemble biological flight in mundane birds… if I’m operating this languages’s units right, the 8 hour duration 5th circle flight spell’s speed and my speed are a mere 14.6 kilometers per hour.  A faster demon or the best variant flight spells that are 3rd circle but only last minutes would be 1.5 to twice as fast as that, and an unusually fast demon might be three times that speed, 49.3 kilometers per hour.”

He had wanted to hold off on the ‘whatever knowledge of industrialization and the scientific method you have, however vague, might trigger a divine struggle and be worth the struggle’ conversation but they are kind of already edging close to it just talking gravity and precise units.  Also, he got sloppy getting distracted.

“I’m sorry I assumed that you would be familiar with spell circles, but, judging by flight speeds and my caller’s earlier comments, your magic is out of context enough I should check that assumption.”

"That worked," she confirms. "I imagine that with teleportation available, there was no reason to invent faster flight? It is becoming an increasingly important form of rapid transportation on my planet, and aerial dominance is a crucial element of military doctrine," although most armies only realized this in the past five years. "I suppose fliers can still be sniped from the ground; our anti-air fire's main downside is that it is unguided and inaccurate and has to rely on saturation..." Ah, she's digressing, she shouldn't waste his time.

"I was given to understand by Terendelev that circles are the local system for ranking spell complexity and the ability of individual mages to cast them. And that several percent of the population are mages, but the best known training methods to achieve higher circles" are a horrific and inexcusable waste of human resources, but she needs to be diplomatic "lead to many regrettable deaths in the course of determining the highest circle a given mage can use. Our own rating system focuses more on the ability to cast and manipulate multiple spells at once, but it is still true that most mages are of the lowest rank and can use only the simplest spells."

Is Terendelev done, should they start flying?

Terendeleve has taken exactly 3 seconds casting each spell, with a precise 3 second pause in between casting each spell, and has just finished.

"Jon, are you competent to cast a Death Ward from a scroll?  It would be best to save it since it only lasts minutes."

Terendelev notices Tanya's impatience.

"There are hopefully a number of very useful protective items that should be on their way shortly.  My worst case scenario right now looks like a succubus getting very lucky with a teleport on top of you followed by a dominate which manages to land, and the right protective items would greatly reduce the odds of this disaster."

To both of them he says (In Hallit this time, for some reason) "I can cast from scrolls.  My aura of Magic Circle Against Evil will help against potential dominates, and I am unusual, I have 3 uses of Suppress Charms and Compulsion, which will buy us 6 rounds each casting to kill the dominate caster or find another solution.”

(In Germanian, via message) "6 rounds are slightly more than half a minute.  Dominate person is a very thorough mind control magic possessed by succubi."  Wait why are the time units not regularized but the distance units are?  And more confirmation that Tanya's magic is totally different, he can tell that neither rounds nor minutes nor tens of minutes have any special association with spell durations.

(continuing his message) "Teleports take 3 seconds or so to cast, so with a fraction of your flight speed and preemptive evasive maneuvers, you can make it so that any teleport aimed at you will end up out of range for a dominate.  ...dominates only have a range of 75 feet without metamagic which it is unlikely for a succubus to have, and even with metamagic, I doubt they could do better than 300 feet."

He considers exactly what Tanya said... "I think there is a big enough context gap that actually we should spend at least a few more minutes discussing it at this location so that neither of us miss anything critical and we should wait for the items anyway."

Yes let's wait because what the fuck magic mind control!!! With teleports!!!

"We do not have magical mind control," she says somewhat faintly. "My barrier normally blocks incoming magic, although it's easy to overpower with mage blades so I should assume, pessimistically, that it won't stop mind control..." Tanya is having second thoughts about letting these people contact Earth!!

"...which parts of this conversation should we have over the message spell and which with Terendelev? How secure is this location and is 'message' a necessary part of the security solution or is it defense in depth?"

"It is part of a defense in depth."

He switches back to Hallit and addressed both of them "Are we in a Mage's Private Sanctum?"

"Yes." she says without hesitation.

Back to messages.

"Mage's Private Sanctum is categorically adequate against scrying.  My senses are quite good so I should have a decent chance at noticing anyone invisible, but yes, defense in depth, especially given the context... Terendelev has-" he has noticed alignments don't have the right connotations in the language via word association to himself "-reasons I think she is generally trustworthy, but given the context, which we should discuss more, I would strongly recommend caution about what information you share until you've had time to consider some of the implications.  I should clarify I don't have authority to issue you or Terendelev orders, but I think my recommendations should be highly weighted given some of the context I will explain if we take the time."

It's not that he thinks people being slaughtered by demons isn't an urgent high priority, it is that a few percent chance of someone with industrial and scientific knowledge and nearly unprecedented magic being dominated or something is even higher priority.

He pauses a moment, doing word associations to himself.

"Would you like me to start with one recent combat-related confusion that could be quite important very soon, or start with some very fundamental basics (I can assure these basics will quickly lead into relevant things to consider)?"

Tanya can sense anyone using magic, including illusions to become 'invisible'... she's not at all sure this still holds. Magic is supposed to be impossible to hide perfectly, but that's really a technological limitation and not a theoretical one. 

She has absolutely no idea how to defend herself from teleporting invisible mind-controlling enemies, and it sounds like Jon and Terendelev can't guarantee an absolute defense either. This shouldn't be surprising! Soldiers transferred to a new unit often need to be retrained; if officers could change armies mid-career they would need to spend months, at least, adjusting to new doctrines and available resources. And that's with the same technological base! All her hard-earned skills as an aerial mage and both a field and staff officer might be no better than garbage now! So long as she can follow instructions she remains a useful tool tool, but she must gain a correct understanding of her worth and abilities in order to receive fair compensation and to keep herself safe. 

"Correct intelligence is invaluable. I will be happy to discuss both subjects and much more if time permits, and will defer to you on where to begin." She considers. "I would also like a clarification of the organizational structure here at some point, but it is probably less urgent." Terendelev offered to pay her and also paid Jon (who is apparently a consultant), shouldn't they both be deferring to her? "Should I repeat everything over the message spell to you?" she asks Terendelev. Having to say everything twice is annoying but opsec always demands sacrifices.

She takes a moment to think.

"It is plausible there are some things which should be kept absolutely secret, or some things that should at least be need to know.  Given the things that have come up so far I would suspect at least need to know is plausible."

To both of them "I suspect there are quite a few things that need to be handled carefully.  For now I recommend Tanya initially keep most of what we discuss as secret possible.  Should by some mischance I die before I can fully brief Tanya and decide with her what to share with you, I strongly recommend you use another Planar Ally to get an advisor to her.  I believe Heaven would find it worth it to send someone to advise both of you.  Should by some mischance Tanya die, I can all but guarantee a Raise Dead would be well spent, I strongly expect a Resurrection would be worth it, more likely than not a True Resurrection.  I'm not sure about a Miracle should a True Resurrection not be sufficient (for several reasons), but it is at least worth a Commune to check."

And back to the message "I've been mentally doing word association with my True Speech, and I've noticed some indicators in this language that the question I ask next may be confusing, alarming, or even seem pointless and irrelevant.  I ask for your patience and attention in communicating through this.  What is your understanding of the state of divine activity and divine intervention on the planet you come from?  In simpler terms, what does your planet know about the Gods?"

Shit. She can't evade the question and she has no idea how they'll react to different possible answers. But in her state of (complete lack of) knowledge, she can't give them anything but the truth... Well, she could refuse to answer, but if Jon thinks this is important enough to delay rescuing civilians then he is no better than half the people back home probably wouldn't accept that. Still, she has to keep back anything that would make her stand out until she knows what she's walking into.

"Earth has, and has had over its history, dozens of widespread religions. In more ancient times, before the rise of large empires, there were probably as many local cults as there were distinct groups of people. Almost none of them agree with each other about the God or gods, their names, numbers, powers, desires, commandments... Most religions claim their gods performed or perform various miracles, usually on behalf of their believers. The modern consensus is that these are reports of the use of magic from before it was well understood, and some are presumably simple myths. It's impossible to prove or disprove any particular historical claim, but at the very least no scientifically accepted, publicly demonstrable divine interventions are known today." She smiles somewhat bitterly. "Of course proponents of many religions disagree with this claim."

"Relatedly, many religions claim their gods can and have resurrected the dead, but no such cases have been reliably documented in modern times." Hopefully that is clear enough that she won't have to challenge Jon's statement more directly.

She waits to see how they take this before continuing.

"I've heard of planets with very low rates of divine intervention... for a variety of reasons.  The claims mortals make can get very confused under those circumstances.  As an initial guess, I would guess some things you have heard so far on this planet have seemed confusing, misguided, or irrelevant given that context?"

He pauses a moment to try to sort out what knowledge he has of low intervention planets and what they are called by.  Wait... one of those planets is Earth?  Is that a coincidence of translation?  Rapidly growing in technology, some disturbing reports of Dark Tapestry activity... and very little and almost entirely not publicly known magic, which maybe fits what Tanya says if her magic was invented very very recently and he missed reading a report he should have?  He'll hold off and finish explaining his point.

"This planet is very high intervention.  Around 1 in a 100 people (nearly 4 in a 100 in some regions) are directly empowered by the Gods as spellcasters, the most common types are Clerics, Paladins, and Inquisitors."  (He uses the Hallit word, but Tanya can hear the translation).

"The Gods have differing interests, goals, and moral values, many times directly opposed, and most have agreed to limit their interventions according to a complex scheme putting a price on different interventions.  Directly empowering people, usually at just first circle, (but sometimes pushing them higher in circle at greatly increased cost) is one of the cheaper standard interventions.  The next cost up in interventions is acting through certain spells cast by the people they have empowered: Gods can reliably directly answer yes-or-no questions with a 5th circle spell called Commune, they can choose which outsider is called (such as myself) with the 4th circle lesser planar ally and 6th circle planar ally, they can unreliably intervene to indicate Weal or Woe via the 2nd circle spell Augury.  Giving visions or messages (unprompted by such spells) to mortals is more expensive, with an even higher cost if the mortal isn't already one of their empowered.  Certain information, such as advanced technological or magical information, is even more highly priced... for a variety of reasons I will explain.  Directly acting, such as smiting an enemy is an option for God, but is very expensive, with a variety of circumstances and conditions that can modify the cost."

He thinks if there is anything he should say before he sees if see has any questions.  If she actually comes from that Earth...

"I think I should make this clear, some Gods are Evil, that is, they have one or more core values or goals directly opposed to the common Good and the flourishing of reasoning beings.  There are Good Gods that oppose them."

Another pause.

"I have more to say, but you may have fundamental questions just about what I've already said that I should address first?"

Terendelev looks a little anxious, but she already said her city is under attack by demons, and there are signs of higher divine intervention in this Calling, and they keep running into things like "Tanya didn't know about dominates" so she'll suppress her impatience and wait while the Archon explains whatever it is he is explaining.

Tanya takes a little while to digest this novel religion. It sounds... maybe a little like what she remembers of Chinese mythology from her first life, with an extremely complicated celestial bureaucracy? This is bad, she might be expected to memorize a Heaven and Hell of a truly Byzantine complexity like a student preparing for Confucian exams, but at least if she tells them about Being X they might be able to slot him into their conceptual divine hierarchy. And now she knows she shouldn't claim to believe in any kind of monotheism.

"Please forgive my questions if they inadvertently offend." People can be so touchy about their religion. "I expect I will make some wrong assumptions at first by pattern-matching to religions known on Earth. Would it be appropriate to understand this as a divine bureaucracy, with infighting or organizational politics causing some members to be at odds, and a supreme god above them all? Or perhaps as two mirroring and opposed organizations, celestial and infernal? Or should I think of the gods as more independent actors than that? I have heard Terendelev mention the names of several local churches; are these gods subordinates, allies, or in some other relationship? Which gods are you and Terendelev associated with, and in what way?" She doesn't know yet if 'worship' or 'follow' or some other term would be more appropriate.

"I am going to check on the progress of procuring the magic items."

"There is a God with a substantial first mover advantage, generally claimed to be the creator of this universe-" he really needs to explain his information sharing limitations so she'll understand why he responds the way he does "- who operates a sorting system of Lawful to Chaotic, and Good to Evil, with Neutral in-between, for a total of nine combinations of alignments within that system.  I would describe Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil, True Neutral, and Neutral Good as each having at least one 'organization', but I wouldn't exactly call all of them bureaucracies.  The organizations that make up Lawful Neutral are more like markets or distributed democracies, for example.  My organization, Heaven, is Lawful Good.  There was a period of some millennia were Heaven wasn't in-fighting per se, but badly organized enough some resource allocations were provably suboptimal with potential paths to optimization that were not carried out.  That changed 8 centuries ago with the ascension of Iomedae, who I now work for.  As a mortal, Iomedae successfully figured out several features about divine interventions and how to more optimally coordinate divine and mortal interactions around them.  As a God she was finally able to get Heaven to reorganize more efficiently and navigated a number of complicated treaties that were previously entangling Heaven's operations for no gain."

He is getting too detailed, especially for someone coming from a planet with exceedingly rare divine interventions!  Understandable details...

"Oh, and Iomedae lead a successful crusade against a 9th circle undead and his army which were attempting to conquer the world.  To briefly mention some of the more major Gods operating on this continent... Iomedae, Lawful Good, focused on victory over Evil and triage where it cannot be obtained currently mostly focused on containing the Worldwound and the seals on the 9th circle, relatively newer as a God and weaker as a result.  Erastil, Lawful Good, farming and community.   Torag, Lawful Good, honor and discipline.  Abadar, Lawful Neutral, focused on mutually beneficial trade and production of wealth.  Irori, Lawful Neutral, self discipline and self perfection.  Sarenrae, Neutral Good, redemption and opposition to the undead.  Shelyn, Neutral Good, redemption and art and beauty.  Desna, Chaotic Good, travel and dreams.  Cayden Cailean, Chaotic Good, bravery and heroism... and alcohol... in reasonable amounts.   Pharasma, commonly believed to be the creator of this universe, responsible for the sorting system and currently holding a plurality of power among the Gods, True Neutral.   Nethys, True Neutral, magic and explosions.  Gozreh, True Neutral, nature, storms, and sky.  Calistria, Chaotic Neutral, revenge and hedonism.  Gorum, Chaotic Neutral, war and battle.  Asmodeus, Lawful Evil, focused on slavery, treacherous contracts, and tyranny.  Infernal is the right word for him I think.  Urgathoa, Neutral Evil, undead, disease, gluttony, and hedonism.  Zon-Kuthon, Lawful Evil suffering and torture.  Norgerber, Neutral Evil, theft, secrecy, and murder.  Lamashtu, Chaotic Evil, monsters and insanity."

"Relevantly to the Worldwound are the Chaotic Evil demon lords Baphomet and Deskari who are directing hordes of demons from the Abyss to this planet.  They aren't as powerful as full Gods in many ways, but they also defect in some ways from the divine treaties limiting intervention, and are capable of expending much more of their power more directly."

"Relevantly for operating at the Worldwound, in most civilized societies, worship of Evil Gods and of non-Good Chaotic Gods is often banned (or at least proselytizing for them is prohibited) but Asmodeus has a common interest in not allowing demons to overrun the world and thus his proxy state contributes in keeping it contained.  Asmodeus, his church, and his proxy mortal state are not to be trusted in other matters, they make an art of finding the maximum level of treacherousness and deception that can still count as, and, more importantly, be detected as 'Lawful'.  Followers of Gorum and Calistria contribute to the Worldwound's defense also."

He should pause for her question, but there is one more point he wants to make, it will be so awkward if he doesn't.  "Sorry for one more comment before hearing more of your questions.  A common direction mortal religions trend in, especially in absence of divine intervention directing them otherwise, is believing that Good Gods want their unthinking obedience, absolute deference, and mindless worship.  I would find our interactions much easier and more pleasant if we could avoid that."  He takes a moment to think... "...although it might be more prudent to err in the direction of excess deference towards the divine around many mortals-"  he deliberately allows some annoyance and resignation into his voice  "-it is not officially endorsed theology, especially for Iomedae."

"I've got a Cloak of Resistance, one step up from the basic, a basic Headband of Wisdom, a weakest grade Ring of Protection, an Amulet of Natural Armor, and the weakest grade of Bracer's of Armor.  I also got a scroll of Mage Armor and a scroll of Identify, I should identify those bracer you had earlier Tanya."

(To both of them.)  "We should hold off on the Headband a moment, but it makes sense to get the rest on as Tanya and I continue to talk."