"We have no record of her in the shining crusade and are investigating how that happened. She's been helping us pseudonymously and also possibly in secret ways she hasn't told us about."

Iomedae squeezes Alfirin's hand. "Well, that seems like a weird thing for an evil undead wizard to do."

"I assume they have a reason to think that…"

"It's not that weird. You said it yourself, on the radio just now. Asmodeus doesn't have any friends, even among other evil beings. The reason we suspect her to be undead is that very few wizards have achieved immortality by other means, and even stretched to its limits with magic her natural lifespan would have ended seven hundred years ago. We suspect she may be evil because she's likely-undead, because the Goddess cautioned us against treating her as an ally in general, and because - we think she had a conversation with the Goddess after Arazni left. Iomedae said, quote, 'The person you'd be if you were living up to your own values is someone I'd have no quarrels with.' end quote, to which she replied 'do your worst'. That's reconstructed from what multiple witnesses remember, so the exact words might be off."

Alfirin clings to Iomedae's hand.

Iomedae clings right back. That does kind of sound more like what an evil undead wizard would say than what friends would say. …also she's now kind of upset that her body was used to say something that evil undead wizard Alfirin plainly took as a threat. "Probably it is not very wise to try to reason about maybe undead wizard Alfirin by thinking about the good Alfirin," she says. "But it is easy for me to imagine that the maybe undead wizard Alfirin is still a good person and just doesn't like gods very much."

Lastwall has been dealing with undead wizards since its inception and not one of them has turned out to be a good person. "Maybe. Just - be careful if you ever do meet her again. Don't trust her just because she and Alfirin used to be the same person. People can change a lot, in nine hundred years."

Alfirin is the person who taught Iomedae not to trust people instinctively. 

She nods.

"The second thing you should know is that we're working on sending you back to the Dome. Probably tomorrow. Cheliax tried kidnapping people with wishes again yesterday, and we think they might try again - they also might not, if yesterday cost them too much and they have to conserve resources more, but it doesn't seem that we'd have been served well by thinking in those terms after the first kidnapping attempt, or after the wall of hellfire."

Iomedae nods again. If Lastwall hasn't gotten a lengthy complaint about their behavior she has no desire to be the one who tells them that they find Osirion difficult.

"I understand you had some conflicts with Jeres. Do we need to replace him with someone else? Keeping in mind that there's a war on and we don't exactly have officers going spare."

Iomedae does not herself feel like it makes any sense to try to solve 'Iomedae is stubborn and insubordinate' with 'get Iomedae a more diplomatic commanding officer' but the real sticking point here is Alfirin. She's absolutely not going to blame Alfirin for anything, though. …she's also not going to assure Valentina that everything's fine on Alfirin's behalf. This does leave her without much of anything to say. 

"I think most of our conflict was due to having different understandings of how much authority he had over me, especially how he - ambiguously imprisoned me - after Iomedae was possessed and left. If that's made clearer and he's not holding a grudge I expect we can civilly tolerate each other…for a few weeks or a month at least. I'm less sure, if we're going to be there for the rest of the year."

"We'll probably know within the month whether or not Cheliax is going to keep trying wishes and can revisit the question then if relevant."

"Then I think we can keep working from the Dome for a month and then revisit. I, uh, regret any problems I caused by leaving the dome against orders, I don't remember it and could hardly have done otherwise but I - didn't know they ambiguously imprisoned you -" She squeezes Alfirin's hand again.

"It caused only mild inconvenience, especially considering what was at stake. I also didn't know you'd been ambiguously imprisoned, I will make sure Jeres' orders are clearer about how he should not do that."

"He let me out after I yelled at him and reminded him he had orders to let me leave if I wanted to, but it would've been better if he didn't do it in the first place. He also made me waste a scroll and bother Lord-Watcher Zima because he wouldn't tell me where Iomedae was even after she'd been found."

She reminds herself that Alfirin is a civilian and shouldn't be expected or required to be patient and do her duty in an emergency. It's kind of frustrating. "I understand. I'll make sure his orders are clear. I assume no major progress on radio detection, given the disruptions? There are a lot more undetectable wizards around, these days, and if it bypasses existing wards it could help a lot."

"No, nothing." She's been a little busy.

"In that case I think that's all I have for you." She drops the usual 'Goddess go with you', under the circumstances.

Lastwall calls Marit. Of the shining crusade's commanders, he's the one who lived the longest and saw the most of the relevant period.

"Subject to your best judgment of what information is worth the cost of sharing, we would like you to help us correct the historical record of the shining crusade, particularly as it relates to the individual 'Alfirin', and also to, again subject to your judgment of what information is worth the cost of sharing, consult with our leaders on why Asmodeus is willing to spend as much as he is on preserving Cheliax. In exchange," - and this is always the most awkward part of calling angels for help - "We offer to contribute four thousand absalom pounds to research efforts aimed at producing better enchanted weapons for combatting the undead and the forces of Hell and the Abyss. Most of which would probably have been contributed to that research anyways. Alternately, we can provide that payment to you directly if that is preferred."

Marit is a spyglass archon, now, winged and limbed but not particularly humanoid in form, and hard to look directly at, more like an inconsistency in what one’s eyes are reporting than an actual being. His voice, though, is an ordinary human one. “I assent,” he says, “and would see the payment directed wherever you believe it serves me.” 

"Currently we know that she served in the shining crusade, was capable of casting plane shift at the time of the battle of Vaishali Pass, and had a personal demiplane, though we don't know whether she made it herself. And that the accounts of the Crusade underwent revisions at some point in the past and that may be why she is not mentioned in them. I've been told that we are best served by acting as though she is alive today, though we don't have explicit confirmation that she is. And that's all. What can you tell us about her, during the crusade?"

Marit hasn't been assigned to Golarion particularly, and has talked with many petitioners once of Lastwall but apparently not asked the right questions. "- I would advise against extensive revisions of the histories and the revisions in question would have been very, very extensive." He'd scold more but these probably aren't the people who even did the relevant revisions. "Alfirin was the Shining Crusade's archmage from 3824 through the end of the war. Sarkorin; enchantment specialist; Lawful, not good, not confidently known to us to be Evil. We asked Aroden on several occasions if we could assume her trustworthy in our shared endeavor and always received assurance that we could. I first met her in 3800 shortly before I joined Iomedae's command; she was a fifth circle wizard on contract with the Crusade, at that time, and Iomedae's personal friend.

…she and Iomedae were lovers, briefly, in …probably 3802, before Iomedae decided that the kind of - process - she wanted to be didn't have complicated personal attachments. Alfirin left the crusade at that point, for five years, and returned at seventh circle. They both believe they acted foolishly; I didn't observe either of them to do anything wrong.

Alfirin did not to my knowledge have very many other close friends, then or later; she had a fox familiar, Curiosity; she worked capably with the other crusade wizards and once she was a powerful spellcaster was tutored by Arazni. Iomedae trusted her, though mentioned to me on a few occasions that she was less confident she could trust the person Alfirin might someday become. - she wanted to be immortal, and we weren't sure she wouldn't in desperation eventually turn to lichdom. I never knew her to act cruelly, or to betray trust where it was extended to her, and I spent a lot of time and energy looking for signs she was doing wrong and successfully concealing it and never found any, but she did not particularly attempt to earn my trust in a deeper sense than - that I was confident she wanted to beat Tar-Baphon, and confident she would never betray Iomedae. - the mortal. I do not think she possesses any similar loyalty to the god.

She reached ninth circle about eight months after Arazni died. We'd been making do, barely, with ninth circle scrolls we were running low on. We were gambling that somebody would make it before it was all over, and she did. She had, at that point, significant negotiating leverage she never employed at all; she drew a nominal salary and put what must have been very close to her full slate of spells at the Crusade's disposal. She was never formally in Iomedae's command, but I never knew her to refuse a request unless she thought it was a bad idea, and in that case they'd debate it until someone was persuaded. She was very smart, good tactical judgment, could imitate a few of Tar-Baphon and Arazni's tricks that no one else ever could, one of the people I'd most prefer to work with if conducting a war and sure she was on my side of it.

She left as soon as the site at Gallowspire had been secured and the war was over. I never heard from her again, and I don't believe Iomedae did.

I am willing to elaborate, and don't know where elaboration would be more valuable to you."

"We have both a historical interest, in wanting to correct the record where it is mistaken, and a present interest in that we believe her to be active in the world. For the former, whatever accounting you can give of what particularly she contributed to the crusade, especially after 4824 when her omission seems most glaring. For the latter, elaboration on her capabilities, especially those tricks that only Arazni or Tar-Baphon could manage, and anything Heaven knows about what she did after the Crusade, if that is known to you and permitted for you to tell us. In particular we are of course interested in whether, knowing her to be active today, you predict that she achieved lichdom or some other means of immortality."