"That would be a more reasonable question if we weren't inside a story.  The first arc just concluded with the country I tried to help, betraying me.  I thought at first that the second arc would play that out in a subtler way, but I now think - that the story I'm in - won't repeat itself that way.  More likely is that it will rhyme."

"So my current plan is that I do not charge non-Evil attendees, students, for anything.  Osirion is welcome to rope me off and charge admissions, just like I was a fruit tree somebody else planted, but I'm not accepting any of that money from anybody who isn't Evil and who is not trading with me on the basis of my being an Asmodean trade partner rather than an Abadaran one, because that way, you see, I cannot be forced to betray those trade partners."

There was a version of this, interaction, that Keltham considered, where he screamed at the Osirians about Abadar trading with Asmodeus, and told them that he wasn't trading with anyone who traded with Asmodeus, that Keltham was giving up his own right to be treated as an agent in protest, that Osirion could treat Keltham as a resource and sell his teachings without recompense, the same way that Abadar's trading partner Asmodeus treated the mortal souls being used as paving stones in Hell - but - Keltham cannot bring himself to say that, not now.  Not after Abadar asked him to help explain being human.

"That would be a more reasonable question if we weren't inside a story.  The first arc just concluded with the country I tried to help, betraying me.  I thought at first that the second arc would play that out in a subtler way, but I now think - that the story I'm in - won't repeat itself that way.  More likely is that it will rhyme."

"So my current plan is that I do not charge non-Evil attendees, students, for anything.  Osirion is welcome to rope me off and charge admissions, just like I was a fruit tree somebody else planted, but I'm not accepting any of that money from anybody who isn't Evil and who is not trading with me on the basis of my being an Asmodean trade partner rather than an Abadaran one, because that way, you see, I cannot be forced to betray those trade partners.  You need to - carry out the implied bargain Abadar made originally, where he bought just enough good treatment from Asmodeus that I could come to Osirion and explain things, you need to support my finishing out that bargain but not otherwise try to be friends with me."

There was a version of this, interaction, that Keltham considered, where he screamed at the Osirians about Abadar trading with Asmodeus, and told them that he wasn't trading with anyone who traded with Asmodeus, that Keltham was giving up his own right to be treated as an agent in protest, that Osirion could treat Keltham as a resource and sell his teachings without recompense, the same way that Abadar's trading partner Asmodeus treated the mortal souls being used as paving stones in Hell - but - Keltham cannot bring himself to say that, not now.  Not after Abadar asked him to help explain being human.

"That would be a more reasonable question if we weren't inside a story.  The first arc just concluded with the country I tried to help, betraying me.  I thought at first that the second arc would play that out in a subtler way, but I now think - that the story I'm in - won't repeat itself that way.  More likely is that it will rhyme."

"So my current plan is that I do not charge non-Evil attendees, students, for anything.  Osirion is welcome to rope me off and charge admissions, just like I was a fruit tree somebody else planted, but I'm not accepting any of that money from anybody who isn't Evil and who is not trading with me on the basis of my being an Asmodean trade partner rather than an Abadaran one, because that way, you see, I cannot be forced to betray those trade partners.  You need to - carry out the implied bargain Abadar made originally, where he bought just enough good treatment from Asmodeus that I could come to Osirion and explain things, you need to support my finishing out that bargain but not otherwise try to be friends with me."

There was a version of this, interaction, that Keltham considered, where he screamed at the Osirians about Abadar trading with Asmodeus, and told them that he wasn't trading with anyone who traded with Asmodeus, that Keltham was giving up his own right to be treated as an agent in protest, that Osirion could treat Keltham as a resource and sell his teachings without recompense, the same way that Abadar's trading partner Asmodeus treated the mortal souls being used as paving stones in Hell - but - Keltham cannot bring himself to say that, not now.  Not after Abadar asked him to help explain being human.

Also, that story wouldn't get them to stop trying to be friends with him, now that Keltham thinks about it.  Like, that wouldn't work on him.