She's now alone in a quiet patch of trimmed grass by a manor house with a tiny garden. Similar houses stand oddly close by, separated by fences and hedges.

It's daytime and warm.

Well this sucks. If the Marran parish gets scattered or destroyed, that's a lot of Meicona's work lost and experiments that she'll have to start over again. And, more importantly, souls who might not get to Marra, and might even get claimed by Asmodeus instead.

Marra does not abandon anyone, is the doctrine, but She is not the most powerful god (yet) and sometimes the unthinkable happens.

On that topic, where is Meicona? Not Hell or Nirvana, the most likely places to take a Marran you're trying to corrupt... The ordered, luxurious surroundings look like Heaven, but that doesn't make sense either. Marra works well with Iomedae, a fellow Lawful god with a similar style despite their divergent values, and why would Iomedae kidnap a Marran, at the cost of an expensive Plane Shift, rather than just threatening to? Why would anyone kidnap a cleric?

New theory: the paladin and the Asmodeans were not working together, but had separate plans that happened to collide. And now she's in Heaven by accident.

Marra will get her back eventually, but she might be here for a while.

So what now?

A lot of Marra's outsiders used to be angels, according to scries of Marra's Infernal domain. They had to get the idea somehow, so maybe Meicona is supposed to recruit some more angels? That might actually be a deliberate plan by Marra!

Okay then, she should find a public place to set up - with a sign - wait no, Heaven is more Lawful than that; she just needs to find a celestial and ask for instruction.

This is going to be fun. She brainstorms ideas for talking to angels.

There are no people around. The houses continue in curving rows, with a wide road separating pairs of rows. The road feels like stone, but looks softly puddled, like it was made with precisely controlled lava.

A dog barks continuously in the distance.

There are dogs in Heaven? It doesn't sound happy, which is odd for either Heaven or Nirvana... She follows the sound.

Apparently so. This one is large with black and white patches. It runs up to the window and barks at her, wagging.

Hmmmm. "Hello. I found myself in Heaven unexpectedly, possibly for the purpose of being an ambassador from my god, Marra. Direct me." she says in Celestial, then belatedly adds "please".

Enhanced Diplomacy. She should have done that first. She'll take time during her prayers to consider how to avoid that mistake in the future. Speaking of prayers, it's midday now, so it's going to be a while before she can get more spells... How does that even work? Lawful planes are supposed to have consistent time.

Woof.

"She's a new Lawful Evil god, you might not have heard of Her? I will act as She commands, according to all relevant agreements with your gods, and I intend no harm to anyone here."

Woof woof. Wag.

That's not the behavior of a Lawful celestial. Is she in Elysium? There are buildings in Elysium, and since it's infinite it makes sense that people might just leave them behind, empty.

She leaves the dog or whatever entity it is behind without another word.

Woof. Woof woof woof woof. Whine.

Nice try, whatever you are, but she's resistant to the manipulations of Good.

Meanwhile, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has picked up a huge signal. It's just a single sharp pulse, not at all like the chirp-burst-ringing-decay of colliding black holes.

At first, they think it's a seismic event on Earth, but no other data corroborates. Perhaps something from the sun? But it's daytime in the United States, with both detectors facing the sun, and the signal came sideways at them. The direction is different at the two detectors, and the timing is off. Theorists ponder a cataclysmic "universe quake", while other theorists follow the numbers, odd as they seem, and propose that the signal was in fact a tiny tiny gravitational event very close by, somewhere just south of the great lakes. Perhaps an extremely energetic cosmic ray. They sketch out a paper with their idea.

The data is consistent with a person-sized mass suddenly appearing, but of course that's just a coincidence.

One scientist with a guilty love of UFOs thinks that, while this is of course a coincidence, it's an awesome coincidence, and tells her buddy in the military.

The next day, two very polite men in suits collect the data and instruct everyone to remain silent for purposes of - with grave voices and fatherly nods - national security.

Fuck national security what about science for the benefit of all humanity yes sir.

Meanwhile...

A middle-aged woman drives past Meicona in a gorgeous white magical carriage, stops, and leans out. "You need directions?"

Yes, a person! Hm, she didn't recognize that language. Enhanced Diplomacy. "Celestial? Infernal? Taldane? Halfling?"

The woman frowns. "Are you okay?"

She uses her Enhanced Diplomacy benefit, and repeats carefully, "Do you speak Celestial? Do you speak Infernal? Do you speak Taldane? Do you speak Halfling?"

So she's somewhere they don't speak Celestial or Infernal. A very weird part of the Abyss? It doesn't look like an elemental plane and she's not dead, hm.

Demons aren't Lawful. They might kill her out of a random destructive impulse, especially if she can't communicate.

The woman looks thoughtful. Pulls out a small beige card with rounded corners and points at it, raising her eyebrows at Meicona.

As long as the demon keeps trying to communicate, she won't run and hide quite yet, but she's feeling pretty nervous about having so few spells.

She studies the card as best she can without stepping any closer.

It's kind of shiny, from some angles. It has writing in a variety of hands and sizes, and a picture of a face.

Ohh it's money! She wants money to transport her to someone who can translate. How refreshingly civilized!

So she's not in the Abyss. Where could she possibly be?

And the immediate question: should she go with the first person she meets, still short on spells, or risk angering her (and the other locals) by leaving and hiding somewhere until next morning? In favor of staying: a few spells probably won't make the difference, especially if she's taken by surprise. In favor of staying: she probably would be trespassing if she hid, and these people are rich. Which means they're a personal danger to her, but also means they're more likely to be interesting and capable and vain and worth protecting.

She has no idea how much money to offer, but she has plenty and can sell spells to get more. She holds out five gold pieces.

The woman looks baffled, then stern. She puts away the card, hops out, and opens the rear door of the carriage.

Not enough money? She doesn't trust coins minted in Andoran? Or anything other than this country's plates of ...ivory? ...If this place is very far away, maybe she doesn't even recognize gold at all.

She gets in.

It's just as luxurious inside, with padded seats, a cool breeze, and illusory music. The woman sits in the front and manipulates a complicated artifice. 

Wow. Yeah there's no way she would have been able to take her in a fight, with or without a full set of spells.

Enhanced Diplomacy.

"Hey Windows, call Jenny." The music is replaced with a soft chiming, then another voice:

    "Hey Claire! What's up?"

"I found a girl wandering around, doesn't speak English. I think she's undocumented... She tried to buy a fake ID off me for like five bucks. She looks about your size, can you bring over some clothes for her?"

    "Wow. Uh sure. See you soon!"

"Thanks. Hey Windows, end call."

A few minutes later, they arrive at a familiar manor house. Inside is the dog from before!

Ah, of course. She uses her Enhanced Diplomacy benefit (she's been recasting it every minute) to politely greet the master of the house... by holding still to allow it to smell her and then petting it on the head, which is not at all what she would have done unaided, the Enhanced Diplomacy really paid off on that one.

Wag wag wag!

Over the next hour, introductions are made (Claire has a husband and a young-but-marriageable daughter), clothes are presented (flimsy but soft and colorful), and vocabulary is taught.

Claire's dog, Cabbage, continues to behave like an extremely friendly dog.

This house is amazing! Meicona feels very vain about her ability to perceive pretty things, feel softness, learn languages, and be interesting to her hosts.

The next morning, Meicona prays for understanding of these strange people, so that she can improve them according to Marra's will. She requests the following spells:

0: No new orisons. She'll keep her usual set of Guidance, Resistance, Enhanced Diplomacy, and Stabilize.

1: She keeps her Marra's Inquisition, and requests 2x Detect Law and, for her domain spell, Charm Person. (Marra's Inquisition is a limited version of Detect Thoughts that Marra grants to Her clerics.)

2: Share Language, Owl's Wisdom, and she keeps her mostly-useless Enthrall.

As usual, she does not get any divine visions.

Also, she does not get any new spells.

Is she - not a cleric anymore?

She spends an unacceptable three rounds agonizing, and then thinks of ways to test it:

As an Evil cleric, she can channel negative energy. If she somehow traveled very far away from Marra, it might not work even if she's still a cleric.

As a cleric with the Nobility (Leadership) domain, she can make nearby allies concentrate on their tasks. She doesn't currently have any allies.

As a cleric with the Law (Slavery) domain, she can perform a Touch of Law. It's a subtle effect that makes difficult tasks consistent. Not always successful, but always about how you would expect them to usually go, or maybe a little better. She can do it five times a day. If she picks tasks of just the right difficulty, and succeeds at all of them, that's some evidence that her Touch of Law still works.

She should try the tasks without the Touch of Law first to compare. She'll need a bunch of similar tasks... how about identifying the wildlife outside the window?

Outside there is: fescue grass, a robin, an oak tree, a garden snail, another oak tree, a plant of some sort?, a tomato plant, another robin no wait that's the same one, a green bean plant, a grey squirrel...

She turns away from the window and thinks.

That was easier than she was expecting, for someone panicking. Which in any other situation would be great - praise Marra's training! - but she needs a task that she fails at about half the time.

What are the objects in this room made of?

The floor is made of thin strips of wood. The ornament (?) by the bed is made of brass on the base, wood for the stem, and paper (?) around the skirt. The table it's on is made of wood. The glowing divinatory item on it is a total mystery. The bed has a steel frame covered with some sort of varnish. The walls are plaster. The brush on the table is unknown. The wand by the stack of paper sheets is wood and copper. The curl of wire by it is steel.

Too easy again.

How about recalling religious trivia? Demigods of each alignment are: Neshen (an angel who demands obedience and struggle, Marra probably has Her eye on recruiting Him), Jaidz (an agathion who inspires courage), can't think of any Chaotic Good ones, Valmallos (like Nethys but more responsible), can't think of any for true Neutral or Chaotic Neutral, Dispater, Arazni (NE, enduring abuse and undeath), Shax (demon lord of cruelty and murder).

Okay, she got 6 out of 9, that's good enough. Now she needs 5 more questions of this difficulty to try while using Touch of Law.

What are some other agathions?

Touch of Law. Shei, worshiped by caretakers of the elderly. Pathetic.

Touch of Law. Irez, empyreal lord of calligraphy and runes. Marrans who follow the Lissalan heresy probably want to recruit Her.

Touch of Law. Ondisso. Empyreal lord of incorruptibility. Somehow not Lawful?

Touch of Law. Walks with Golden Stars. One of those agathions who looks like a dragon, which are considered to be nobility. Hm, does that mean they are closer to Sarenrae, or that they took power by force? Or that they are more capable than most, and so the masses submit to be ruled by their betters?

Touch of Law. Bharnarol, who confiscates inventions He dislikes. Not great for the inventors' vanity.

It wasn't easy to remember the agathions' domains, but the difficulty was consistent, and the thoughts crept along at a snail's march.

Whew.

So she's still a cleric, just very far away from Golarion. Whether or not Marra intended for this to happen, she needs to figure out how to best serve Her. Normally that would mean gathering followers, training their faith and discipline, guiding a new cleric or two, and sending the followers' souls to Marra. But it's going to be hard to train followers without Marra's Inquisition, and presumably Marra won't be able to ordain any new clerics here -

- and where will their souls go? If she's beyond the reach of Marra, but still within Pharasma's Creation, they'll go to Asmodeus.

Maybe there's a local god Who Marra would approve of, Who she can make contact with?