"That seems true; there's no danger of him leaving us for them, and the fact that they have a similar cultural history to us and have ended up there after trying to fix society explains why we might be inclined towards caution in some areas, even when current conditions seem somewhat abhorrent to him. I don't have confident opinions on why they left in real life, I'm younger than the Chosen and don't personally remember much of it, but I do think that Old Cheliax shattering into four or five pieces during the civil war is the neatest explanation."

"So. I guess we need to go through all of the major elements of coercion that exist in real Cheliax, and determine whether an alter-Cheliax that's being conservative about moving away from the level of coercion in Old Cheliax has them?"

"We figure out simply what would have happened in the real alterCheliax, if that concept makes sense, before we consider trying to modify any part of that for other reasons.  Maybe the fully realistic playout just works."

"Right, right, okay."

She paces.

"Fifteen years out of a major civil war. We don't ban clerics of other gods, obviously, we hadn't before and we have no reason to now. We don't ban Old Cheliax's existing slavery; agricultural production is the last thing you want to mess with when you're in a delicate position like that. We may phase out intergenerational slavery, or be planning to. I am going to need... an accurate list of which laws were passed when, if such a thing exists, because many of them wouldn't have been added in an accurate alter-Cheliax."

"Off the top of my head, compulsory education is more coercive than Old Cheliax, in terms of placing specific legal requirements on people, so I suppose if we were really serious about moving away from and not towards coercion, we would make school voluntary. Or we could say that Old Cheliax had compulsory schooling, but I think that's wrong, because it didn't, and our neighbors don't. So a new, voluntary school system, courtesy of Infernal resources. Worldwound service is... no, I don't think that has to be voluntary, that's a threat to the entire world."

"A bunch of things about how we raise children are probably wrong and are going to take a bunch of effort to fix, which is mostly relevant because most of Keltham's students were children not very long ago and it'll affect their backstories. At least our childhoods were probably just Old Cheliax sorts of childhoods, outside of school, because our parents grew up in Old Cheliax, so we don't have to give ourselves weird even-less-coercive-than-that childhoods. I think. Mind, I don't have an amazing sense of what that looks like, we might need some biographies or something."

"Before you arrived we were debating whether in other countries parents are affectionate towards and protective of their children."

"Oh, gods. Not all of them, but yes, many. I meant, like, enough of a picture of what their parenting looks like to be useful to people."

"You've obviously got full Facility access at the secondary site, and - Chosen, can you clear Tallandria for full uncensored access to books from other countries?  She's not meant to come into much contact with Keltham from now on; I expect it to be safe for the Project even if it turns her heretical."

"Sure, cleared."

Well, if she's going to die horribly, at least she'll have an interesting couple of weeks first.

Korva has a bunch of other things she wants to flag as considerations, more agriculture and some stuff about the government and the feudal system and the use of punishment in schools and the penalties for crimes and what effects the presence of non-Asmodean churches has and what to do about recent real progress in wizard spells probably being related to the fact that the Chelish education system is not fifteen years old, and other topics that flow out of those topics, but eventually she'll feel that she's said most of what needs to be brought up immediately and that maybe they should come back to some of this after she's done any amount of real research on it.

"I believe for my own part that Korva Tallandria has more than justified her apparent usefulness as a valued member of this Project under my command, Chosen, with real rank in Cheliax at least equivalent to that of a tier-2 Project member.  But final judgment on that is obviously yours."

"I agree. It's good to have another set of eyes on this anyway, we should have looked sooner for an assistant for you. I'll also clear Tallandria for anything else you know that you think she needs to in order to assist you on the wall."

"Mm.  I suppose this Tallandria passes as not wholly incompetent, despite her weakness.  I'll put forth a Crown order that Tallandria is to have unrestricted access to even the most heretical material, and total freedom of requisition for books and the like; somebody on this Project needs it."

(No, Abrogail Thrune hasn't been visible to the three before this point.)

OH FUCKING FUCK DOES SHE JUST NEED TO ASSUME THAT ASMODEUS HIMSELF IS PERSONALLY WATCHING EVERYTHING SHE SAYS FROM NOW ON TO AVOID THIS SPECIFIC THING CONSTANTLY HAPPENING TO HER -

Korva manages not to visibly do anything more obvious than inhale sharply, stiffen, and go pale, which is really quite a loud reaction but not the literal worst thing she could have done. She glances at Asmodia out of the corner of her eye in an attempt to figure out what the acceptable response to this is and whether they're supposed to bow right now.

Asmodia will get over her initial reaction of freezing in utter horror relatively quickly, since it's not her first time, then drop to a respectful kneeling position and try not to have any thoughts, it's too hard to have unscreened ones.

Carissa kneels, and does not panic at all about her thoughts which are that she wonders if doing that to people ever gets old.

Korva will also kneel, then, only a fraction of a second slower than the others.

"I'll be taking some of Tallandria's time for a project of my own, which neither of you are to know about for now.  Be told that she may be absent from the Project for a few hours or a day, now and then; you have discretion to schedule that with her, as Tallandria's work will not be time-critical on a daily basis."

"Tallandria, a word with you; you may rise.  Asmodia, Carissa, dismissed."

Asmodia will depart very quickly.  She is too scared herself, in that moment, to think about Korva's safety right then.

She is, of course, intensely curious, but probably the more ideal Carissa wouldn't be. It's the most Asmodean thing in dath ilan, the mental habit of learning that there's something you're not permitted to know and going 'oh, okay, then I won't try to learn it'. She's...working on it. 

She leaves.

She does not contemplate Tallandria's safety at all. Abrogail just said Tallandria was useful, so presumably at the end of whatever Abrogail cares to do with her she'll still be useful, maybe even moreso.

She rises. She's going to die. Well, not literally die, just experience something incredibly unpleasant that may or may not end up having worse long-term consequences for her than death, which isn't even saying that much because death is actually not itself that bad, you know, if you didn't also squander your time here or mess yourself up by becoming involved with some project that is definitely, absolutely worth chewing people up and spitting them out as broken husks if it increases the odds of project success by even a little bit, but there's really nothing she can do about any of that, is there, so she'll just stand here like a crippled bug about to be stepped on and wait to see what possible interest her Infernal Majesty could have with her.

"I've arranged for your sister to be resurrected, and supplied with a generous living stipend.  I am placing at your discretion the question of how or whether to reunite her with her son, given that he was the one who turned her in for heresy; you may have access to Security transcripts of their thoughts, if that helps you decide.  You have the option of permitting either or both of them to leave Cheliax, supervised or not, at your own will; I don't know whether you placed value on being able to visit her yourself, nor could I be bothered to investigate whether travel would be safe for her in terms of her own welfare and wisdom."

"I've written Crown orders excusing her, or if need be her son, from any further matters of heresy, and indeed all punishment by Crown or Church, even myself.  They are not being held hostage against you.  They may potentially be held under house arrest, if they try to raise a rebellion or some such, but will not be harmed even then."

"I swear to you in Asmodeus's name that this is so, and that those orders will not be revoked while I am yet ruler of Cheliax."

Her sister is alive??

- why, though??

That doesn't seem like it improves anything???

- oh gods this is meant to be a favor to her. Why do they think she cares about her sister. Probably because she spun up that reason for her alter-self to be crying this morning, which now that she's thought about it she thinks was placing her own personal concerns over those of the project, she probably wanted everyone else to assume that she was just a little on the weak side and then have a good reason if anybody asked about it, which was careless and she shouldn't have done it even if it did arguably match what she would have expected to happen in alter-Cheliax - unless they know something else? Does she actually care about her sister?? She's sure not immediately feeling like she wants to order her re-executed, although now that she thinks about that she feels sick about the obvious waste of a diamond -

- idiot dumbass your queen is in front of you you have to respond - 

She nods. She doesn't say anything because it's not called for, and secondly she isn't remembering any of the obvious words that one might say to that, and also she probably couldn't say much without her voice breaking if she tried.

"You're a hard person to do a favor for, Korva Tallandria.  I know, it seemed a little silly to me too, but your Security file didn't reveal literally anything else that you might want."

"Is there anything else that you do desire?  If I offered you a para-baronetcy, would that genuinely cause you to feel like I'd done you a favor, that you desired, commensurate with asking you to put forth a little effort on something?  I have my own reasons not to simply command it from you on threat of punishment, as would, of course, be by far the more Asmodean thing to do."

"I... don't know what it would mean for a favor to me to be commensurate with being asked to put in effort by yourself, your Majesty," she manages. Does that sound like the literal opposite of what she intended it to mean, shit - "In that it's expected, I mean. To put in effort when given an assignment by one's sovereign."

GODS. WHY CAN'T SHE BE A NORMAL FUCKING PERSON WHO HAS VALID ONE-WORD ANSWERS TO THESE THINGS. IF SHE KEEPS SAYNG THAT MANY WORDS SHE'S GOING TO DIE.

"It's a strange and difficult thing that I'm trying to arrange here, Tallandria, so I suppose your confusion is excusable."

"So I'll put it this way.  Keltham wronged you, Korva Tallandria.  Not by Cheliax's standards, of course, but by dath ilan's, he has wronged you.  Knowingly, deliberately, carelessly, without bothering to investigate or understand the truth of the matter, all while strutting the part of a righteous cleric of Abadar."

"It is of course treason and heresy to imagine that you could possibly have any equal complaint about the Queen of Cheliax, who then walks in and hands you some project of hers to work on, without any reasonable option of saying no.  That it is treason and heresy to imagine so, may perhaps make it difficult to consider whether it would be true that there would exist any such justified complaint - oh, not in your eyes, of course, I'm sure you're far too loyal and faithful for that.  In the eyes perhaps of some hypothetical person who did not think Asmodeus's will alone determined the right."

"But I am willing to go to great lengths to ensure that it is not in fact true, in the eyes of this hypothetical person, that Keltham and Abrogail Thrune are to you just two coins of the same metal.  It is my will to make very certain that I have not actually dealt you any careless, willful, uncompensated injury.  That Keltham alone on this Project has wronged you so."

Her heart feels like a stone. She almost puts the awful shame and terror at I'm sure you're too loyal and faithful for that into something like words, and feels a defensive argument raising up inside her about how it's a good thing that she at least understands Good, or has a better grasp on something like it than most Chelish people, or she wouldn't be able to do her job at all -

And then she flinches away from the thought, from the entire genre of thoughts, because there may in fact be something truly horrible there, and the Queen has found some piece of her heart and is showing her, she thinks, how easily she could crush it in her hands, and how justified she would be in doing so, and Korva is weak and pathetic and frightened and doesn't want to be crushed, not like that, not in a moment, not without time to resign herself to what's happening -

"I see, your Majesty."