Right. High-level Chelish wizard. Move BACKWARDS fast, Sending takes five minutes to cast so is completely useless - she's got no third- or fourth- circle spells that are relevant to this, there are witnesses at a distance - 

- Kesa, who is rather larger than most tigers but equally good at jumping on things and biting them, can tell when Telri is upset and she moves forwards - 

- Her current bodyguards are Borya of the Sons of Flame (currently readying a doomed counterspell) and the shackleborn soldier Eberard, who's drawing his sword - neither of them are at her level of power let alone his - 

- He has a third-tier headband and Cheliax does not give those out casually - obvious guess is that there's some still-invisible devils with him, her first move for identifying them would be a quick Entangle and then she can spot them by their breaking the stalks of wheat, if they aren't - 

- What she needs to do is buy time for Razmir to happen to look through her technically-not-mask and then he can have his own army of outsiders land on them - 

All this is going through her mind very quickly.

"I think that a plan in which you try to kidnap or murder me without Razmir knowing is a plan that will end badly for everyone involved?"

He's reading her mind, of course, not that he really needed to be to predict how she'd react. He can take the bodyguards and the tiger, but he doesn't really want to make a mess that Razmir might notice at this stage in the game. Their being witnesses is bad enough, though after several aborted prior attempts to corner her alone he decided he was just going to have to deal with them somehow.

"I realize that you have no reason whatsoever to believe me, but I am not here to murder you and I don't work for Cheliax—anymore, that is. They would rather like to have me back, but I would rather they not." He doesn't say anything about kidnapping, since, in fact, this would probably have gone better if he'd just grabbed her and Plane Shifted both of them to a disposable demiplane before revealing himself. "I wish to negotiate an alliance between your patron and mine, but there are—complications."

Telri is actually very good at telling when people are lying, and her guess is he's not. Of course, an eighth-circle wizard could just invent a ridiculously powerful spell to be superhumanly good at lying?

Either way, it is extremely obvious that this Chelish archmage can just Win in a fight between him and everyone else in the area, and the casualty-minimizing option is to delay as long as possible and otherwise to do what he says.

"And these are complications of the sort where you couldn't talk to any of His diplomats?"

"They are of the sort that I ought not reveal to anyone not Good until a certain level of trust has been established. I advise that you send your guards away—they may stay, if you wish, but I would most likely have to kill them afterward."

Well, at least she got a century. That's more than humans get.

"Fair warning, I do not intend to keep anything from Razmir."

She'll glance at the two of them. "Please go and inform your superiors." (Which, the Chelish wizard knows, will take a minimum of ten minutes for a Sending.)

And she'll give Kesa a pat, and try to soothe her, before her inevitable horrible death.

He casts Mind Blank on Telri before continuing. He has a (very custom) item of it for himself, a gift of Felandriel Morgethai in recognition of his assistance in securing the independence of Andoran.

"I defected from Cheliax more than a decade ago and have been working against them in various capacities ever since. By now the price on my head has grown so large that even Living Gods might be tempted by it, and this is very widely known among those powerful enough to potentially claim the bounty. If Razmir does not know it then someone in His court will. I cannot show my face there until I have some assurance I will not be delivered to Hell the moment I do.

"The other complication is that my employers cannot be seen to acknowledge Razmir's divinity, and yet do not necessarily disapprove of what we understand His project to be." (He definitely doesn't believe Razmir's a god either, but he can be polite.) "That is why this conversation is taking place between you and me, and not between two proper diplomats."

Telriana does not, in fact, have a complete list of all the high-ranking defectors from Cheliax! She isn't Razmir's chief lieutenant, she's just a contractor with an official DO NOT KILL OR TORTURE badge.

She is, however, pretty sure that the number of Chelish defectors who can cast Mind Blank is going to have, like, three people on it, max.

"This is completely reasonable of you," she says, shifting into Competent Mode as best she can. "It is indeed true that Razmir is a trading partner of Cheliax," she totally does not have the pull to get him to stop that, "since He is Evil and Galt, not Cheliax, is the main military threat to His domains. Cheliax does not acknowledge His divinity either, and yet He trades with them - mostly through back channels like this one."

She pauses. "As I understand His project, it is to expand the domain of His influence on Golarion, end the persecution of His worshippers outside Razmiran, turn His domain into the most luxurious country the world has yet seen, and bring about the Age of Glory that the last Starstone-ascendant archmage failed to accomplish?" Aaaaall of which is eliding the fact that He is doing this in Evil ways and largely for selfish reasons, but, you know, present the truth favorably without lying, that's her job when dealing with Very Powerful People With Lie-Detection And/Or Thought-Sensing Magic!

"Of course, we do not wish to see Razmir's domain expanded in its current state, nor is 'luxury' quite the phrasing we would use for the thing we want, but, if Razmir means to reduce material scarcity on Golarion, we can hardly be opposed. My intelligence at least suggests that the thing where all His plans are having the opposite effect is unintentional and might be remedied. We could help, in exchange for His assistance in achieving some of our own goals."

He pauses a moment before continuing, but this next thing does in fact have to be said. "Razmir is not, of course, an actual god. He" (Riudaure is no longer using god-pronouns) "claims to have touched the Starstone? I have it on rather good authority that that isn't even slightly how the Starstone works. His priests' apparent 'channeling' is accomplished by the clever application of arcane magic, as is visible to anyone who watches the process with Arcane Sight. My patron might, however, be willing to back a bid of his for actual divinity, on certain conditions. She does not, you see, think there should be Evil gods at all, but, so long as 'Lawful Evil' remains a fundamental category of the world that must go on being nonempty, there are many possible Lawful Evil gods She might prefer to the one who currently dominates the space."

Iomedae.

Okay, technically there's a two out of three chance it's Iomedae, conditional on this not being a Chelish trap or one of Razmir's Visions trying to mess with the new girl. The list of female entities who think there should be no Evil gods, can sponsor an eighth-circle-plus caster, and can engage in diplomatic negotiations on a national basis consists of Felandriel Morgethai, Iomedae, and Queen Galfrey of Mendev, who is basically a local proxy of Iomedae. And he's using god-pronouns, which she almost missed.

He absolutely needs to know if Iomedae wants an alliance with Him. And she should absolutely tell Him as soon as she gets out of this, even if it isn't that. So whatever happens, that's on the list.

Move to the actually ground-level problem. On the one hand, Razmir absolutely wants to be a godlier god than He is now, it's one of His top priorities, He is pretty open about how increasing the spread of His faith empowers him.

But on the other hand, "I think your replacement claim is less plausible than the original? His priests can stabilize Cure Light Wounds, then cast Cure Light Wounds, to cure people. Which I've seen, under Detect Magic albeit not Arcane Sight. Saying that He has solved the famously unsolvable problem of arcane healing, which Aroden of Azlant did not solve, seems less likely, to me, than that He is some kind of god or godlike entity. Right now the state-of-the-art is Infernal and Celestial healing which are recent inventions and some kind of cobbled-together Conjuration in which you try to Conjure the fast-healing properties of devil or angel blood into someone" (she has no idea why it isn't Transmutation) "and He can just give His clerics Cure Light Wounds spells."

She pauses. "... I'm sorry, I recognize that diplomatically speaking you can't admit His divinity, and He would absolutely like to stop His current feud with the other gods and is in fact extremely enthusiastic about plans to reduce material scarcity on Golarion and it's completely plausible that he would like to displace Asmodeus and become king of Lawful Evil, I obviously haven't checked with him about this specific issue and can't speak for Him here," just, this wizard is wrong.

"Razmiran priests' channeling ability appears to me to be a necromantic arcane spell, most likely a variant on False Life. I suppose it is not impossible that this is merely because, as an Evil god, His clerics cannot channel positive energy, but I did not in fact come here to debate His divinity. I am at least perfectly capable of using the pronouns for courtesy's sake." The Church of Iomedae thinks that, if he has solved the problem of arcane healing, he ought to share the solution with the world rather than use it to pretend to be a god, and in fact one of Riudaure's secondary missions (if the alliance fails) is to steal the secret, but it isn't the highest priority. They have actual Good clerics for that.

"I suppose the next step is for you to arrange an audience between myself and Razmir which credibly will not end with me being sold to Cheliax. You may tell Him everything I have told you, but, He must absolutely not go around claiming that Iomedae supports His quest for divinity, which is only complicatedly true anyway. She expects that He is sufficiently Intelligent and Lawful to understand that, if He were the sort of entity who would do that, this conversation would not be happening in the first place."

(These sorts of negotiations are easier and less risky when the other party is, in fact, actually a god, but if Razmir wants to be one he should probably start learning decision theory now.)

"Razmir is absolutely intelligent enough not to sell you to Cheliax, and I think it is much less true that Iomedae supports His quest for divinity so much as that She is potentially willing to negotiate an agreement in which She would support it in the future, in exchange for concessions. Which he wouldn't claim in the middle of negotiating because it would spoil the negotiations."

(Telriana has never heard the phrase 'decision theory', nor anything remotely resembling it, and mostly just copes with Wisdom.)

She pauses.

"I do think that the very obvious thing to bring up now, because it will affect negotiations and having some sort of message to pass on would be very helpful, is Galt. Right now there are three Great Powers in Avistan, and they are Cheliax, Galt, and Taldor, and there's five hundred miles of forest, mountain and swamp between Taldor and Galt. I think His main reluctance with any deal you offer is that Galt is right there." Kyonin has mainly avoided being completely annexed by hiding in the forests and by the fraction of its population who made fifth-circle a hundred years ago and then retired from ever doing anything interesting, and she really doesn't expect that to last for very long.

"A topic to be discussed in more detail with your employer, I think, but—if I understand your concerns correctly—Cyprian does owe me a rather large favor." (Because he practically put the man where he is now, not that he retains much influence over him, or wants to admit either of these facts to Razmir.) "We have, in fact, an arrangement with Galt similar to the one we mean to pursue with Razmiran—I am sure you can imagine why." (Because they need there to be someone in Avistan with the means and motive to overthrow Infernal Cheliax; Iomedae's own countries barely have the strength to contain the Worldwound.) "I am sorry for any inconvenience they may have caused you; however, if you are also our ally, I think they can be persuaded to direct their efforts elsewhere."

...

There is a large-scale conspiracy to conquer Infernal Cheliax.

And feed it to Galt is this man insane or - 

- Or does he just... want Infernal Cheliax to stop existing. For all the obvious reasons, where everyone in it goes to Hell. If Galt conquers Avistan and the elves are completely destroyed as a civilization and everything collapses in a civil war when Cyprian dies -

- Then, in eighty years, there will be a number of kingdoms scattered across Avistan, and maybe on average they'll be worse than they were before, but none of them will be ruled by Hell.

Telriana is not used to the games of politics. At all. But -

- Galt is obviously just using Iomedae to take over the world because Cyprian likes running the world, and if they think they can control him they're crazy -

- But that is in fact what they want him to do, conquer his main rival -

- They have no leverage, what are they going to do not support him if he conquers the world.

- She is utterly unqualified to make this kind of decision and she's pretty sure Razmir is too.

Desolation.

"I hear, understand, and absolutely cannot decide anything at all without talking to Razmir."

"Of course. I must be going anyway." He hands her a tuning fork. "Unfortunately, I mostly cannot be reached by Sending; this is a key to my current disposable demiplane. If someone arrives in it I should be there to meet them shortly thereafter. There are about ten days remaining in its duration; if for whatever reason you need more time than that to consider the matter, please send a messenger to tell me so. Is there anything else that cannot wait until our next meeting?"

"Nothing I can think of."

Her home is going to be destroyed.

She was aware that that was a possibility. Had been for a while.

It's... rather worse, when it's the Forces of Good doing it, than when it's an evil god she was trying very hard to deter.

(He has, by now, figured out that Telriana is upset and why. He doesn't say anything about it; it's not as though that would make anything better. The fall of Kyonin, if it happens, will be unfortunate, but they knew that when they made the decision to support Cyprian, and his happening to meet someone from there doesn't actually change the relevant tradeoffs at all.)

"Then I shall see you sometime in the next ten days, I hope," he says, and Teleports out.

And Telriana tells her bodyguards that it is EXTREMELY URGENT she contact Razmir, and, while petting Kasa until she no longer feels like breaking down in tears, casts Sending, very slowly.

"Extremely powerful wizard attempted to send a message to you through me, need to speak with you urgently."

Twenty-four seconds later she's in the Thirty-Ninth Step.

More of Razmir is visible, now, since he no longer bothers casting Overwhelming Presence. He is indeed wearing more custom-made magic items than most people have ever seen, his construct musicians are playing beautifully (and his construct bodyguards, and inevitable bodyguards, are standing by), and orbiting his head are six ioun stones, relics of lost Azlant rather harder to find than third-tier headbands and impossible to make, for the secrets died with lost Azlant, and if Aroden could craft them he did not teach the art to another.

(There are also another nine invisible, one of which he has secretly converted into his arcane focus, but that he does not say, or even think, in spite of his permanent Mind Blank effect.)

"Dispel Magic."

Mind blank: Off.

Telriana does not particularly attempt to resist the mind-reading, and does prostrate herself in spite of the lack of the spell. It's good to remember that Razmir is a god, as well as being Himself, and she plays through the memories as fast as she can before they fade.

"Rise."

She does so.

"If, uh, anything got confused, Your Divinity, a ridiculously powerful wizard who works for Iomedae -"

"Jean Riudaure, eighth-circle wizard and spymaster of Lastwall."

"... well, I suppose there can't be that many eighth-circle wizards?"

She pauses to recollect herself.

"Anyway, he's building a giant conspiracy of all the countries against Cheliax -"