Valia is late to her committee on excising diabolism because the paladin wanted to talk with her but that was probably more important. She does not, after all, want to offend the Queen and all the non-evil powerful nobles in Cheliax and she doesn't want people assuming that the Church agrees with everything she says, much less that the Church agrees with a bunch of things she didn't say but kind of implied.
None of that means they don't need to do plenty of excising diabolists.
"I don't know of a spell that specifically conceals Evil but there's one demons sometimes have, Undetectable Alignment, I know what it looks like."
She beams at him. "Thank you. Also if you have any advice on what we should do if she is Evil - she's very young, or appears to be -"
"- sortition or noble or, uh, precocious? I haven't seen a lot of sortitioned children so I was assuming they were excluded..."
"She's a noblewoman." Valia starts guiding him back towards her committee-room. "Or she appears to be! Maybe she's a hag in disguise!"
"Well, if she's a noblewoman I'd talk to her liege about it, probably, before doing anything else. If she's a hag... I guess it depends whether the archmages intended on inviting a hag or if that's a surprise to them."
"I think Elie Cotonnet is insane," says Valia to Blai. She got her first close look at him during her speech and he reminded her more than anything of a man who hadn't been quite right in the head ever since he came home to all ten of his children put to death by the Asmodeans on the front lawn of his home.
And now they're back at the committee!
Blai nods politely to everyone, even the possibly evil thirteen year old, and Detects Magic.
After a few rounds of concentration, he confirms: "That's Undetectable Alignment."
Someone powerful enough to read (and thus need an Undetectable Alignment) at the age of 13 must be extremely capable. Dia would like to be friends, except the person is probably dangerous.
…Or they might be someone or something else entirely different in disguise. She eyes the door in case they are about to go down fighting.
Or she could genuinely not know what it does? Has anyone considered that?
... She's going to run away crying now, that seems like an appropriate strategic decision.
Valia is vindicated in her never listening to people who are making convincing sounding arguments but are Evil policy. "Select, does this spell protect against anything other than people noticing you're Evil?"
"It prevents you from reading as any alignment at all, so it would also hide Chaos, Law, or Good." They were mostly looking for Chaos, at the fort.
"Okay. But it doesn't also protect against anything else? So if you're just a thirteen year old there's no reason at all to have it up?"
"I'd want to talk to her liege, it's not impossible she's hiding Chaos from someone known to be zealously Lawful. But it's strange for a thirteen-year-old to read at all. It usually took more than a year of combat service at the Wound for people to begin to be legible."
"Thank you. Do you want to go talk to her liege or should this committee follow up on that?"
"All right. We should do that...later, then, since this committee started late. All right. Next order of business is, I guess, Delegate Iroria?" Who is also Evil. Why do Evil people even want to be on Valia's committee.
“I have information to share with this committee on 4 Lawful Evil Hellish Demigods collectively known as the Queens of Night.”
She begins to hand out sheets of paper with information written on them.
“I can read it.”
And Thea reads off information about Ardad Lili, Doloras, Eiseth, and Mahathallah, including titles, epithets, anathemas, edicts, common worshippers, domains, and areas of concern.
(Possibly notably to Victoria, Eiseth (and to a lesser extend Ardad Lili) is noted for helping woman claim their desires and brutally avenge all insults. But Thea doesn't place any special emphasis on this.)
"I can elaborate more on Eiseth. She formerly operated a cult in Cheliax, likely centered in Westcrown dating back to before Aroden's death. I don't actually know her cult to have left Cheliax as opposed to abandoning Westcrown."
Hopefully it isn't a faux paus to accidentally draw attention to illiteracy? Select of Iomedae should be too humble to be bothered by it. Although it seems like with almost a year since things calmed down after the Four Day War she should have started to try to learn?
"If all of this is true, I definitely think it's worth avenging the wrongs done by these some cults. Apart from, like, 'aiding women who have been unfairly maligned,' that seems fine, but if this isn't a trick I assume they're not just doing that, that's not Evil." 'Avenging all insults' sounds like an Asmodean euphemism for hurting people lower-rank than you, not like getting revenge on people who deserve it. "...Is there someone who can confirm that that isn't Evil? Or would you be willing to tell us under an Abadar's Truthtelling that none of this is a trick?"
"I can promise this isn't a trick under Abadar's Truthtelling yes. Will the committee members split the cost with me? I can answer other questions if we can agree to them in advance!"
Friends and allies. Lawful Good is supposed to be capable of that.
"And yes, I would like if you had some time later after the committee to help me understand Calitria's teachings, understanding the distinctions seems important to me."
Even Evil people ought to be able to tell the government about Evil cults! "I can pay some money towards an Abadar's Truthtelling. I don't know how much it'll be. Abadarans change their prices, and I only have the money they give delegates."
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