Asmodia is sitting in her peaceful, lovely bedroom in the Imperial palace at Egorian.  It is not the gardens of Erecura, and the main thing that makes it different is not that the gardens are nicer-looking or the air is fresher, it is that the gardens are, so far as she can tell, safe, whereas the Imperial palace at Egorian is not safe.  It can have the quality of not hurting you right now; it cannot have the quality of being guaranteed to still not be hurting you a few minutes later.

But she knows where to find safety, for a time, if she needs it.  Maybe somebody would be nice to her again 100 years later, maybe not; but what comes after 100 years hardly feels like it would still be real, still be this Asmodia who makes the choice...

She keeps on reviewing what she knows.  Maybe if she knew all that Keltham knew, as well as her own knowledge, she'd be able to figure it out; but she can't.  The shadows got her, she was revived in the Imperial Palace, she's next to Pilar so the project is probably still active.  The gardens were peaceful except for two events: the disorienting sensation that, she was informed, not by Erecura this time, had been the sensation of her contract devil being destroyed and her soul being passed to whoever inherited it from him.  She'd figured, at the time, that he'd either asked too many questions about the Keltham project, or it was the Carissa Sevar thing.

Later, she'd been called closer to the center of Erecura's gardens, closer to Erecura Herself in the fullest place of Her power within Her home plane, and the seal on her thoughts had been placed in full.  Asmodia can't remember it well; she probably didn't originally experience it well, never mind memory.  When she'd woken - it apparently being possible to fall unconscious in Hell under sufficiently extreme circumstances - she'd known the rules.  How to put thoughts about the existence of the seal, but not the contents of the seal, temporarily outside of the seal and readable.  That if she needed to report defiance of the seal, she should go to the most senior outsider under Asmodeus, but not any archdevil or other being reporting directly to Him; and that she was forbidden, by Asmodeus's own Law, to pray to Asmodeus or turn her thoughts too much in His direction, while the seal lasted.

(No, she is not allowed to ask Aspexia Rugatonn what the fuck.  Not that she would, but it doesn't matter, it's not allowed.)

And she's been assigned her own room at the Palace, with a bed large enough to sleep four.  There was a Crown order on checking her for new or exotic special abilities, which has now been returned with a false answer.  There were way too many invisible people watching her when she came back.  Sevar was acting weird, asking weird questions that were almost like she knew the secret but didn't quite, and in other ways acting like she doesn't know what's going on around her any more than Asmodia does.

Around the only thing in the universe that still remains stable and true is that Abarco is a giant fucking asshole.

The main thing Asmodia is currently worried about is whether Abarco is right and her devil was destroyed to keep the Secret.  She found out that the devil was destroyed, before she found out there was a Secret, so all the explanations she thought up, had nothing to do with what happening to her being Secret.  But in retrospect maybe there was always going to be a Secret and she just found out about it later.  She shouldn't have mentioned the devil being destroyed.  Too late now.  Not that she'll ever tell Abarco he was right about anything, and he won't see it in her thoughts, either.

Asmodia knows what she has to do next, to figure things out, it's really fucking obvious actually, she just wanted to keep to her peace for as long as she could before...

Asmodia is sitting in her peaceful, lovely bedroom in the Imperial palace at Egorian.  It is not the gardens of Erecura, and the main thing that makes it different is not that the gardens are nicer-looking or the air is fresher, it is that the gardens are, so far as she can tell, safe, whereas the Imperial palace at Egorian is not safe.  It can have the quality of not hurting you right now; it cannot have the quality of being guaranteed to still not be hurting you a few minutes later.

But she knows where to find safety, for a time, if she needs it.  Maybe somebody would be nice to her again 100 years later, maybe not; but what comes after 100 years hardly feels like it would still be real, still be this Asmodia who makes the choice...

She keeps on reviewing what she knows.  Maybe if she knew all that Keltham knew, as well as her own knowledge, she'd be able to figure it out; but she can't.  The shadows got her, she was revived in the Imperial Palace, she's next to Pilar so the project is probably still active.  The gardens were peaceful except for two events: the disorienting sensation that, she was informed, not by Erecura this time, had been the sensation of her contract devil being destroyed and her soul being passed to whoever inherited it from him.  She'd figured, at the time, that he'd either asked too many questions about the Keltham project, or it was the Carissa Sevar thing.

Later, she'd been called closer to the center of Erecura's gardens, closer to Erecura Herself in the fullest place of Her power within Her home plane, and the seal on her thoughts had been placed in full.  Asmodia can't remember it well; she probably didn't originally experience it well, never mind memory.  When she'd woken - it apparently being possible to fall unconscious in Hell under sufficiently extreme circumstances - she'd known the rules.  How to put thoughts about the existence of the seal, but not the contents of the seal, temporarily outside of the seal and readable.  That if she needed to report defiance of the seal, she should go to the most senior outsider under Asmodeus, but not any archdevil or other being reporting directly to Him; and that she was forbidden, by Asmodeus's own Law, to pray to Asmodeus or turn her thoughts too much in His direction, while the seal lasted.

(No, she is not allowed to ask Aspexia Rugatonn what the fuck.  Not that she would, but it doesn't matter, it's not allowed.)

And she's been assigned her own room at the Palace, with a bed large enough to sleep four.  There was a Crown order on checking her for new or exotic special abilities, which has now been returned with a false answer that she has none.  There were way too many invisible people watching her when she came back.  Sevar was acting weird, asking weird questions that were almost like she knew the secret but didn't quite, and in other ways acting like she doesn't know what's going on around her any more than Asmodia does.

Around the only thing in the universe that still remains stable and true is that Abarco is a giant fucking asshole.

The main thing Asmodia is currently worried about is whether Abarco is right and her devil was destroyed to keep the Secret.  She found out that the devil was destroyed, before she found out there was a Secret, so all the explanations she thought up, had nothing to do with what happening to her being Secret.  But in retrospect maybe there was always going to be a Secret and she just found out about it later.  She shouldn't have mentioned the devil being destroyed.  Too late now.  Not that she'll ever tell Abarco he was right about anything, and he won't see it in her thoughts, either.

Asmodia knows what she has to do next, to figure things out, it's really fucking obvious actually, she just wanted to keep to her peace for as long as she could before...

Asmodia is sitting in her peaceful, lovely bedroom in the Imperial palace at Egorian.  It is not the gardens of Erecura, and the main thing that makes it different is not that the gardens are nicer-looking or the air is fresher, it is that the gardens are, so far as she can tell, safe, whereas the Imperial palace at Egorian is not safe.  It can have the quality of not hurting you right now; it cannot have the quality of being guaranteed to still not be hurting you a few minutes later.

But she knows where to find safety, for a time, if she needs it.  Maybe somebody would be nice to her again 100 years later, maybe not; but what comes after 100 years hardly feels like it would still be real, still be this Asmodia who makes the choice...

She keeps on reviewing what she knows.  Maybe if she knew all that Keltham knew, as well as her own knowledge, she'd be able to figure it out; but she can't.  The shadows got her, she was revived in the Imperial Palace, she's next to Pilar so the project is probably still active.  The gardens were peaceful except for two events: the disorienting sensation that, she was informed, not by Erecura this time, had been the sensation of her contract devil being destroyed and her soul being passed to whoever inherited it from him.  She'd figured, at the time, that he'd either asked too many questions about the Keltham project, or it was the Carissa Sevar thing.

Later, she'd been called closer to the center of Erecura's gardens, closer to Erecura Herself in the fullest place of Her power within Her home plane, and the seal on her thoughts had been placed in full.  Asmodia can't remember it well; she probably didn't originally experience it well, never mind memory.  When she'd woken - it apparently being possible to fall unconscious in Hell under sufficiently extreme circumstances - she'd known the rules.  How to put thoughts about the existence of the seal, but not the contents of the seal, temporarily outside of the seal and readable.  That if she needed to report defiance of the seal, she should go to the most senior outsider under Asmodeus, but not any archdevil or other being reporting directly to Him; and that she was forbidden, by Asmodeus's own Law, to pray to Asmodeus or turn her thoughts too much in His direction, while the seal lasted.

(No, she is not allowed to ask Aspexia Rugatonn what the fuck.  Not that she would, but it doesn't matter, it's not allowed.)

And she's been assigned her own room at the Palace, with a bed large enough to sleep four.  There was a Crown order on checking her for new or exotic special abilities, which has now been returned with a false answer that she has none.  There were way too many invisible people watching her when she came back.  Sevar was acting weird, asking weird questions that were almost like she knew the secret but didn't quite, and in other ways acting like she doesn't know what's going on around her any more than Asmodia does.

Around the only thing in the universe that still remains stable and true is that Abarco is a giant fucking asshole.

The main thing Asmodia is currently worried about is whether Abarco is right and her devil was destroyed to keep the Secret.  She found out that the devil was destroyed, before she found out there was a Secret, so all the explanations she thought up, had nothing to do with what happening to her being Secret.  But in retrospect maybe there was always going to be a Secret and she just found out about it later.  She shouldn't have mentioned the devil being destroyed.  Too late now.  Not that she'll ever tell Abarco he was right about anything, and he won't see it in her thoughts, either.

Asmodia knows what she has to do next, to figure things out, it's all too obvious, she just wanted to keep to her peace for as long as she could before...

Asmodia is sitting in her peaceful, lovely bedroom in the Imperial palace at Egorian.  It is not the gardens of Erecura, and the main thing that makes it different is not that the gardens are nicer-looking or the air is fresher, it is that the gardens are, so far as she can tell, safe, whereas the Imperial palace at Egorian is not safe.  It can have the quality of not hurting you right now; it cannot have the quality of being guaranteed to still not be hurting you a few minutes later.

But she knows where to find safety, for a time, if she needs it.  Maybe somebody would be nice to her again 100 years later, maybe not; but what comes after 100 years hardly feels like it would still be real, still be this Asmodia who makes the choice...

She keeps on reviewing what she knows.  Maybe if she knew all that Keltham knew, as well as her own knowledge, she'd be able to figure it out; but she can't.  The shadows got her, she was revived in the Imperial Palace, she's next to Pilar so the project is probably still active.

The gardens were peaceful except for two events.  First, the disorienting sensation that, she was informed, not by Erecura this time, had been the sensation of her contract devil being destroyed and her soul being passed to whoever inherited it from him.  She'd figured, at the time, that he'd either asked too many questions about the Keltham project, or it was the Carissa Sevar thing.

Later, she'd been called closer to the center of Erecura's gardens, closer to Erecura Herself in the fullest place of Her power within Her home plane, and the seal on her thoughts had been placed in full.  Asmodia can't remember it well; she probably didn't originally experience it well, never mind memory.

When she'd woken - it apparently being possible to fall unconscious in Hell under sufficiently extreme circumstances - she'd known the rules.  How to put thoughts about the existence of the seal, but not the contents of the seal, temporarily outside of the seal and readable.  That if she needed to report defiance of the seal, she should go to the most senior outsider under Asmodeus, but not any archdevil or other being reporting directly to Him; and that she was forbidden, by Asmodeus's own Law, to pray to Asmodeus or turn her thoughts too much in His direction, while the seal lasted.

(No, she is not allowed to ask Aspexia Rugatonn what happened.  Not that she would, but it doesn't matter, it's not allowed.)

And she's been assigned her own room at the Palace, with a bed large enough to sleep four.  There was a Crown order on checking her for new or exotic special abilities, which has now been returned with a false answer that she has none.  There were way too many invisible people watching her when she came back.  Sevar was acting weird, asking weird questions that were almost like she knew the secret but didn't quite, and in other ways acting like she doesn't know what's going on around her any more than Asmodia does.

Around the only thing in the universe that still remains stable and true is that Abarco is a giant fucking asshole.

The main thing Asmodia is currently worried about is whether Abarco is right and her devil was destroyed to keep the Secret.  She found out that the devil was destroyed, before she found out there was a Secret, so all the explanations she thought up, had nothing to do with what happening to her being Secret.  But in retrospect maybe there was always going to be a Secret and she just found out about it later.  She shouldn't have mentioned the devil being destroyed.  Too late now.  Not that she'll ever tell Abarco he was right about anything, and he won't see it in her thoughts, either.

Asmodia knows what she has to do next, to figure things out, it's all too obvious, she just wanted to keep to her peace for as long as she could before...

Asmodia is sitting in her peaceful, lovely bedroom in the Imperial palace at Egorian.  It is not the gardens of Erecura, and the main thing that makes it different is not that the gardens are nicer-looking or the air is fresher, it is that the gardens are, so far as she can tell, safe, whereas the Imperial palace at Egorian is not safe.  It can have the quality of not hurting you right now; it cannot have the quality of being guaranteed to still not be hurting you a few minutes later.

But she knows where to find safety, for a time, if she needs it.  Maybe somebody would be nice to her again 100 years later, maybe not; but what comes after 100 years hardly feels like it would still be real, still be this Asmodia who makes the choice...

She keeps on reviewing what she knows.  Maybe if she knew all that Keltham knew, as well as her own knowledge, she'd be able to figure it out; but she can't.  The shadows got her, she was revived in the Imperial Palace, she's next to Pilar so the project is probably still active.

The gardens were peaceful except for two events.  First, the disorienting sensation that, she was informed, not by Erecura this time, had been the sensation of her contract devil being destroyed and her soul being passed to whoever inherited it from him.  She'd figured, at the time, that he'd either asked too many questions about the Keltham project, or it was the Carissa Sevar thing.

Later, she'd been called closer to the center of Erecura's gardens, closer to Erecura Herself in the fullest place of Her power within Her home plane, and the seal on her thoughts had been placed in full.  Asmodia can't remember it well; she probably didn't originally experience it well, never mind memory.

When she'd woken - it apparently being possible to fall unconscious in Hell under sufficiently extreme circumstances - she'd known the rules.  How to put thoughts about the existence of the seal, but not the contents of the seal, temporarily outside of the seal and readable.  That if she needed to report defiance of the seal, she should go to the most senior outsider under Asmodeus, but not any archdevil or other being reporting directly to Him; and that she was forbidden, by Asmodeus's own Law, to pray to Asmodeus or turn her thoughts too much in His direction, while the seal lasted.

(No, she is not allowed to ask Aspexia Rugatonn what happened.  Not that she would, but it doesn't matter, it's not allowed.)

And she's been assigned her own room at the Palace, with a bed large enough to sleep four.  There was a Crown order on checking her for new or exotic special abilities, which has now been returned with a false answer that she has none.  There were way too many invisible people watching her when she came back.  Sevar was acting weird, asking weird questions that were almost like she knew the secret but didn't quite, and in other ways acting like she doesn't know what's going on around her any more than Asmodia does.

Around the only thing in the universe that still remains stable and true is that Abarco is a giant fucking asshole.

The main thing Asmodia is currently worried about is whether Abarco is right and her devil was destroyed to keep the Secret.  She found out that the devil was destroyed, before she found out there was a Secret, so all the explanations she thought up, had nothing to do with what happening to her being Secret.  But in retrospect maybe there was always going to be a Secret and she just found out about it later.  She shouldn't have mentioned the devil being destroyed.  Too late now.  Not that she'll ever tell Abarco he was right about anything, and he won't see it in her thoughts, either.

Asmodia knows what she has to do next, to figure things out, it's all too obvious, she just wanted to keep to her peace for as long as she could before...

Asmodia is sitting in her peaceful, lovely bedroom in the Imperial palace at Egorian.  It is not the gardens of Erecura, and the main thing that makes it different is not that the gardens are nicer-looking or the air is fresher, it is that the gardens are, so far as she can tell, safe, whereas the Imperial palace at Egorian is not safe.  It can have the quality of not hurting you right now; it cannot have the quality of being guaranteed to still not be hurting you a few minutes later.

But she knows where to find safety, for a time, if she needs it.  Maybe somebody would be nice to her again 100 years later, maybe not; but what comes after 100 years hardly feels like it would still be real, still be this Asmodia who makes the choice...

She keeps on reviewing what she knows.  Maybe if she knew all that Keltham knew, as well as her own knowledge, she'd be able to figure it out; but she can't.  The shadows got her, she was revived in the Imperial Palace, she's next to Pilar so the project is probably still active.

The gardens were peaceful except for two events.  First, the disorienting sensation that, she was informed, not by Erecura this time, had been the sensation of her contract devil being destroyed and her soul being passed to whoever inherited it from him.  She'd figured, at the time, that he'd either asked too many questions about the Keltham project, or it was the Carissa Sevar thing.

Later, she'd been called closer to the center of Erecura's gardens, closer to Erecura Herself in the fullest place of Her power within Her home plane, and the seal on her thoughts had been placed in full.  Asmodia can't remember it well; she probably didn't originally experience it well, never mind memory.

When she'd woken - it apparently being possible to fall unconscious in Hell under sufficiently extreme circumstances - she'd known the rules.  How to put thoughts about the existence of the seal, but not the contents of the seal, temporarily outside of the seal and readable.  That if she needed to report defiance of the seal, she should go to the most senior outsider under Asmodeus, but not any archdevil or other being reporting directly to Him; and that she was forbidden, by Asmodeus's own Law, to pray to Asmodeus or turn her thoughts too much in His direction, while the seal lasted.

(No, she is not allowed to ask Aspexia Rugatonn what happened.  Not that she would, but it doesn't matter, it's not allowed.)

And she's been assigned her own room at the Palace, with a bed large enough to sleep four.  There was a Crown order on checking her for new or exotic special abilities, which has now been returned with a false answer that she has none.  There were way too many invisible people watching her when she came back.  Sevar was acting weird, asking weird questions that were almost like she knew the secret but didn't quite, and in other ways acting like she doesn't know what's going on around her any more than Asmodia does.

Around the only thing in the universe that still remains stable and true is that Abarco is a giant fucking asshole.

The main thing Asmodia is currently worried about is whether Abarco is right and her devil was destroyed to keep the Secret.  She found out that the devil was destroyed, before she found out there was a Secret, so all the explanations she thought up, had nothing to do with what happened to her being Secret.  But in retrospect maybe there was always going to be a Secret and she just found out about it later.  She shouldn't have mentioned the devil being destroyed.  Too late now.  Not that she'll ever tell Abarco he was right about anything, and he won't see it in her thoughts, either.

Asmodia knows what she has to do next, to figure things out, it's all too obvious, she just wanted to keep to her peace for as long as she could before...