"It's said that the torments there are worse than any in Golarion, and I have not enjoyed such torment as has fallen to me, in my life."

"Do you suppose that in Hell they are better at torment, so that it doesn't have whatever annoyed you about it in Golarion."

"This supposition has never occurred to me in all my life, Lady Sevar - the Church does not - teach it?"

He is not so terrified, so despairing, and so resigned, that he cannot see the potential cruel joke of converting him to heresy just before his death, if he's that stupid, to arrange an even more painful reception for him in Hell.

"Well, maybe they should, so that everyone wouldn't be so terrified of going to Hell all the time! Look, do you think you'd dislike being a devil?"

"I - have not heard that devils seem to be in constant pain, it is - the process of getting there, that I fear.  That, and that - I worry that I am not - destined for a devil's place, in Hell."

He'd ask how he could earn that place, but he is not stupid, stupid people in his profession do not last long at all, and he has grasped from meeting Carissa Sevar that at least the rumors of her semi-divinity are likely false.

She looks like an ordinary pretty young woman, really, sipping her tea. "You're a smart young man. Reasonably quick. Reasonably capable. Doesn't it seem like it would be better for Asmodeus - less wasteful - if people like you became devils?"

He cannot grasp what game is playing, he cannot conceal his trembling, he does not even know if he is meant to be lying let alone what lie is demanded of him; and so whatever game is being played, he has certainly already failed it and is losing more points by the minute.

"I - would of course be honored, if once such as I - were deemed worthy thus to serve Asmodeus," Ermengol tries.  He isn't worthy; he has no faith about him, little pride, and as a young man he did not keep his word.  If he escapes Hell it will be by way of inadequate Law, and if Ermengol comes to Abaddon he does not know what he will do then, faced with the worst choice that anyone ever faces.

- her expression changes. 

"You don't know what you would do, if you came to Abaddon. Because you - fear Hell that much."

His mind is being read.

Ermengol would despair, if he had remaining despair-capacity to spare, which he does not.

Yes, says Ermengol's mind, even as his mind automatically composes the required nonheretical lie about how clearly Hell is the best among the choice of Hell/Abaddon/Abyss but what's the point of saying that, if she's reading his mind -

"Security, when's the next lunar eclipse?"

"I don't know."

"It is said to be four months hence, Lady Sevar."

If she spent all of them attached to a devil she'd be fifth circle for sure. Maybe sixth. Nowhere near enough. 

Abrogail won't let her do that anyway and the part of her that wants to isn't Asmodean. It's like with Keltham and kids, her brain offers helpfully. You being confronted with people getting their souls devoured because of Evil damages your Asmodeanism, like how when Keltham thinks about kids he backslides on all his progress being Evil.

"This can't be the way of running a church and country that best serves Asmodeus. It can't."

Is he supposed to take her up on her pretended treason - said right in front of a nonreactive Security - who would believe that -

"You know, I don't think the Intelligence headband is what I need here, I think I need the Splendour one. Too bad it's not finished. Wonder how hard it'd be to stack them. I'm speaking with you because I thought it'd be mildly entertaining, and I haven't spoken with another human being in more than a month and should probably get some practice before Her Majesty returns. Since that was my intent, there's no way at all for me to gain your trust; I wouldn't believe me. You'd have to be an idiot, and you clearly aren't.

And yet.

My guess is that my theological advisors will tell me that herding souls from Abaddon to Hell is not a good idea for me, even if it does serve Asmodeus, because it also serves my own worst impulses. 

And yet."

She keeps the paper close to hand, the one where Asmodeus's instructions to her were written. She pulls it out. She reads out the first and last line.

"Serve Me well in this world and you shall be raised high in it. Come to Me in Hell without thought of other choices, as mortals once did in the days before they were cursed with their own wills, and you shall be among the most treasured of My possessions.

That's - the real prophecy, such as it is, in this age without it."

There's the bare possibility of honesty here, even in Cheliax, if what serves her whim is to speak truth to a prisoner who's to be executed soon after.  He has no idea - what he is supposed to do with it - but he is listening, now, alert for opportunity -

"So the Church doesn't contradict that you are Chosen of Asmodeus - because that is true - but that you can grant mercy in Hell - isn't in the prophecy?"

(He would serve her incredibly sincerely if it delayed his death.)

"It says nothing of that. And I am faithful to Asmodeus, and if mercy does not serve Him, I would not dream of dispensing it. But - and whether this is heresy, I doubt the Most High wants to comment on - it seems to me that, sometimes, mercy makes people better. Stronger. Worthier. And if that's so, and if Asmodeus's nature does not forbid it absolutely, then I would dispense mercy, wherever it brings strength; because Good abhorrs the weapons of Evil they fight with one hand bound, and if Evil abhorrs the weapons of Good as well then we're making the same error."

He continues to have no idea how to play this game on this level.

"Is there a way that mercy for me could bring strength?"

It's a fool's answer, a sucker's answer, but if he doesn't play the game at all, it might end; and of course, that something is being dangled in front of him, and that he has nothing left but that thing, is part of the game.

"Well, I notice that the possibility you might get something out of this interaction made you substantially more competent at it. I am not sure if that's the same thing or not. 

If you were to choose Abaddon, Hell is weakened. Yes?"

"Yes, Lady Sevar."

"So the best thing, obviously, would be for you to choose Hell without thought of other choices, as we are all commanded to. 

But the second best thing, I'd think, would be for you to choose Hell believing that, if mercy is what's required to build the strength to be a devil in you, then you'll find it."

"I would surely choose Hell, believing that; but reading my thoughts you know that I - would not believe that, if the Church calls it heresy" and actually even if they didn't, but he's at least trying to sound intelligent now; a stupid minion is one you have no reason to spare.

"Yes. I'm not a god, and that's not how Hell works. But - when I first started thinking about this, when I first noticed how much Asmodeus is weakened by the state where He cannot improve us in every way that achieves His aims, when I first realized that someone was going to have to build a purer, clearer, righter Asmodeanism - that's when I tried to sell my soul and instead learned of His instructions."