"Bara?" remarked Greta "Who's Bara?"
Senora da Costa* answered. "As far as we know, she's one of the higher ranking demonesses on Astara's world. But an artist, not someone involved in administration."
"So what's happened to Astara?" Jean interjected.
"Good question." answered the Sorceress Supreme. "That world has been giving off massive energy flunctuations. There's something big going on there, and of course Astara has her enemies in the Demon Realms."
"If something happened to Astara, wouldn't Dana be the regent? She's always appeared as Astara's main underling." said Greta.
"You'd think so. Maybe that's the crisis, that Dana has turned on her--and with Lisa's aid, why else would they be involving us?" said Carmen.
"I think we can agree that we're not going to put any faith in the promises of this demoness." said Greta. "If what she's saying has any relation to reality, it looks like an excellent opportunity to rid ourselves of the Astara menace once and for all."
"But maybe Dana or whoever will be even worse?" Jean remarked.
"If it's Dana, she always seemed a little more reasonable than Astara, and it might take her some time to consolidate her new authority anyway." replied Carmen, blushing a bit as she recalled her and Dana's brief but highly enjoyable fling during the negotiations that ended the Astara war.
"Very well" said Greta. "Let's let this play out. No response to Bara's offer, let Lisa continue fighting Astara, then depending on how intense the struggle is, we may be able to move in and free that world from the demons entirely."
"That sounds good." answered Jean.
The goddesses had spoken, and the discussion was over.