"Yup. It's worse than we thought. I think I know what we need to do but first I want to check - the sortitioned members of this committee, if that's possible, with the good Pharasmin spell. I believe that the ordinary people of Cheliax are mostly not Evil and the ones in power nearly all are and I want to be able to prove it."

Ibarra is evil? That's bad, she'd been reassured by the fact that they had a 5th circle consulting on their plans but if he was evil the whole time then him not pointing out problems was a lot less reassuring. She might know more about magic than anyone else on the committee and that's a lot of pressure - hopefully the inquisitor was able to help out Valia enough to make up for it.

"Isn't that just Delegate Tallandria? I think everyone else here is nobility, elected, or religious, and I think almost all of us can detect normally?"

Yes but she hadn't wanted to single anyone out. "Are you all right with that, Delegate Tallandria? You are accused of no crime, I just want to know - whether it's that everybody's Evil or whether it's that all the nobles and electeds are Evil - those are different problems for us to be solving -"

She wanted to drop this committee. Told the count she wouldn't, though, and that she would do her best to keep it sane. So.

"I genuinely have no idea whether I am evil. If I am evil, you will consider it evidence about the sortition delegates as a whole, and not just about me, and assess your plans for the convention accordingly?"

"Yes, exactly. If most of the sortition delegates are Evil then you're probably right that we can't use it for all we might hope to. If it's mostly the nobles that are Evil, then I am optimistic that we can do something about that."

She breathes.

"Yeah, okay. I'll do it."

"Mind you, this spell will only show delegate Tallandria where she's headed. If you want more than her word, you'll have to put her under a truth spell after."

That said, since Abadarans shouldn't be hard to find, she goes ahead and casts the spell.

Yes, she already asked an Abadaran if they'll do the truth spell after. It was expensive but the delegates are paid well.

Korva audibly gasps.

Children. Everywhere. Emaciated, starving, medium ones and little ones and tiny ones and infants so small they could not possibly live outside a mother, but they do, rolling on the ground of a massive plain of twilight and dust, begging the older ones for attention, wandering on tiny, underdeveloped legs that cannot possibly hold them. A single older woman stands in the middle, rocking three screaming infants at once, while half a dozen more pull at her skirts, begging for their turn. Black birds swoop through the sky, ignoring them.

Korva trembles in her seat and swipes at her eyes, once, trying not to cry, until the scene melts away.

" - I have to be an orphanage worker forever?"

Xénia snorts. She's seen that one. "No. Only until you pick something."

Oh excellent! If Delegate Tallandria is neutral, then Valia is probably right. She smiles at the girl reassuringly.

...which afterlife is an orphanage? The Boneyard, where dead children go, probably. Valia beams at her. "Well congratulations on not being Evil. Do you mind if I get the Abadaran to confirm -"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Maybe everyone's not evil and this won't go terribly.

Maybe.

She feels — betrayed, which is probably stupid. A poisonous snake isn't betraying you if it bites you and you die, and fifth-circle wizards aren't not like poisonous snakes. But she trusted him, trusted that he cared about the same things she did, and apparently that was all a lie.  

"Are we allowed to kick them off the committee?" she says, not even slightly trying to hide how she's feeling. "If there were some other constitutional convention run by Chelish people for ourselves instead of by Galtan archmages — I forget the rest of the words — I'd say we should to more than just kick them off one committee, but I think the archmages will stop us if we try. At least during the convention."

(The Abadaran is easily fetched and consulted and paid and magical and sent on his way.)

"I'm not sure if we're allowed to kick him off but I'm also not sure we aren't. We can at least try and force Cotonnet to admit that he's forcing us to work with random Evil wizards just because they bribed or cheated their way into 'winning' an election somewhere. My bigger concern is - he's a powerful wizard. If we confront him he might just kill us all, or - enslave us all -"

"The Archmage Cotonnet is a far more powerful wizard than he, and has guaranteed the safety of us all." Not that, as of last night's discussion which reportedly went well, he wants 'Ibarra' kicked off the committee, but it will be fun to see them try.

"The Archmage Cotonnet is not in this committee room. If Ibarra Fireballs us all, what happens?"

"Archduke Blanxart, powerful enough to survive a single Fireball and with protective gear, screams," says Alexandre, rapping his knuckles against the doorframe to break invisibility as he sweeps in, "his bodyguard drops invisibility, the guards come running, and I die." This is his polite way of protecting Jean's identity as 'not someone powerful enough to effortlessly kill Alexandre in a single Quickened Flesh to Stone.'

He'll nod to Valia. "Your fears are extremely sensible when dealing with evil fifth-circle enchanters you expect are plotting against you, especially since they might be lying about being more than fifth. Your group's size - there's no Mass Dominate Person available to mortals - and the number of wizards and clerics are both sensible precautions, though, as is the presence of Archduke Blanxart. Even if I wished to test the Cotonnets' power, which I most assuredly do not considering the level of my debt to them, neither murdering nor enslaving you would be a remotely sensible idea."

(He's standing in the doorframe, in the way that people who have just entered a room last in the group stand in the doorway, and not particularly in the manner of someone blocking the door.)

After what he hopes is a moment of stunned silence, but waiting no more than a moment -

"I see the Committee is assembled without me. Conducting your first internal purge, I see."

"You lied to us," she says, realizing a second too late that this is probably a stupid thing to shout at an Evil fifth-circle enchanter.

"I don't believe I ever said I wasn't evil," he said. "Really, with the mask -" he taps it "- I would have thought you could guess. What I said was that I wanted to assist the committee in excising diabolism from Cheliax, which I most assuredly do."

"And when we assembled today with the Pharasmin spell to check everyone, you were planning to tell us the truth?"

"Oh, I expect I'd have to. There's ways to get past Abadar's Truthtelling, but I'd rather not feud with the Church of Abadar. They might cancel my resurrection insurance."

He raises an eyebrow. "Really, Valia - there's a dozen people in this city here from Absalom who could tell you I am a worshipper of Norgorber, Neutral Evil god of crime, and probably some who could quote my 'slavery is pointless and inefficient, but just because I'm not an Asmodean doesn't mean I'm Good' speech word for word, gods know I've made it enough. Background checks won't get you everything, but they're still worth trying. Some people don't even really try to hide it."