Carissa was going to take a bath but manages to be graceful about being interrupted.

          "Tell me," Elias says to her, "how you reconcile the teachings of our god with the teachings of dath ilan."

Oh, wow, this conversation is going to suck. "dath ilan is different from our world, and I think less of Keltham's lessons transfer than he realizes," she says blandly. 

         "I forgot to mention," Elias says, "that I'm in a hurry, and that your ability to say things that don't mean anything isn't in question. What's wrong?"

"- he's got to be wrong about Law and Chaos because if that's all there was to it some church would explain it that way, and they don't. He's got to be wrong about, uh, I think dath ilan teaches things well for if you're going for the Starstone, but badly for if you're going to Hell, because you don't need a lot of initiative at making progress on unstructured questions and developing it before you're a devil seems like it involves a lot of indulging lazy human impulses -"

         "Cleverly said. Is that a trade you want to make, becoming less useful to Hell after death to be more useful to Keltham?"

"- I think it serves Asmodeus, for me to... indulge weak human impulses temporarily, if that's all I can do to try to understand dath ilan's technology. We'll make Cheliax stronger and more powerful and more useful to Him, and if I require more correction subsequently, so be it."

         "I think you'll require different correction, at least. But there is opportunity to arrange it in advance."

This is hardly even surprising so it's confusing that Carissa feels like she's falling, and like her fingertips are tingling. "Of course."

         "We've made arrangements with some devils for purchase contracts with the students here. Take your time to read it over, of course. We're going to invite most of the students to a signing ceremony tonight, but it sounds like you've made conflicting plans?"

"Well, I don't know, can I bring a date?" asks Carissa sweetly. Elias slaps her, harder than that really warranted (though it did warrant it), hard enough to kill someone who wasn't a wizard. Maybe he's otherwise having a bad day. 

        "You have an hour to read it over and request any changes to the terms," he says, and (apparently) leaves.

Carissa is not under the impression she is alone.

She sits down. Reads through the contract, which doesn't take an hour. 

And then takes her bath. She's not sure when else she's going to have the opportunity.

Carissa was going to take a bath but manages to be graceful about being interrupted.

          "Tell me," Elias says to her, "how you reconcile the teachings of our god with the teachings of dath ilan."

Oh, wow, this conversation is going to suck. "Dath ilan is different from our world, and I think less of Keltham's lessons transfer than he realizes," she says blandly. 

         "I forgot to mention," Elias says, "that I'm in a hurry, and that your ability to say things that don't mean anything isn't in question. What's wrong?"

"- he's got to be wrong about Law and Chaos because if that's all there was to it some church would explain it that way, and they don't. He's got to be wrong about, uh, I think dath ilan teaches things well for if you're going for the Starstone, but badly for if you're going to Hell, because you don't need a lot of initiative at making progress on unstructured questions and developing it before you're a devil seems like it involves a lot of indulging lazy human impulses -"

         "Cleverly said. Is that a trade you want to make, becoming less useful to Hell after death to be more useful to Keltham?"

"- I think it serves Asmodeus, for me to... indulge weak human impulses temporarily, if that's all I can do to try to understand dath ilan's technology. We'll make Cheliax stronger and more powerful and more useful to Him, and if I require more correction subsequently, so be it."

         "I think you'll require different correction, at least. But there is opportunity to arrange it in advance."

This is hardly even surprising so it's confusing that Carissa feels like she's falling, and like her fingertips are tingling. "Of course."

         "We've made arrangements with some devils for purchase contracts with the students here. Take your time to read it over, of course. We're going to invite most of the students to a signing ceremony tonight, but it sounds like you've made conflicting plans?"

"Well, I don't know, can I bring a date?" asks Carissa sweetly. Elias slaps her, harder than that really warranted (though it did warrant it), hard enough to kill someone who wasn't a wizard. Maybe he's otherwise having a bad day. 

        "You have an hour to read it over and request any changes to the terms," he says, and (apparently) leaves.

Carissa is not under the impression she is alone.

She sits down. Reads through the contract, which doesn't take an hour. 

And then takes her bath. She's not sure when else she's going to have the opportunity.