...

The sun is not shining here. The birds are not singing here. There are soldiers posted at the door and the floor is carpeted with sleeping civilians. There's smoke in the air and the pounding sound of rain on the roof. The rain doesn't indicate much on its own, but with everything else it's a giveaway.

The Duchess of Chelam is standing tensely at a shrine, not praying, and when she sees him she rushes over. “Count. I’m sorry, I’d have alerted you in advance, but no one in Westcrown has a Sending left for anything short of Geb. …there were riots last night. Much worse than anyone expected. The best guess is that a few hundred people are dead. And at least half a dozen delegates, so - no convention this morning.”

“Hundreds? What - how did they start, why didn’t the archmages stop them - are there still injured anywhere, I have my channels -”

“They’ve been advised to gather at the Church of Abadar, once the Iomedaens ran through their channels.” Carlota will start walking in that direction with him. It’s raining hard enough she puts up two air bubbles as they step outside. “Someone published an exaggerated account of Select Wain’s speech and the proceedings of her committee. It was very, very inflammatory, and only moderately ill-informed, I have a copy." Oh, right, he's a paladin, and those make a point of - "...technically I believe I’m forbidden to share it with you. I don’t believe that to be the Queen’s intent and that was good enough for me but -”

He shakes his head. “Don’t break the law on my behalf. I am sure I can get a copy from official sources if the details matter… Have you spoken to delegate Wain since?”

“I understand the Archduke of Sirmium to have made the decision late last night to take her into protective custody. Feliu’s with her.”

“A good call. I’ll go there after. Artigas?”

“Dead in the mob.” Which, in a way, probably makes things better. It lets the Queen say in her royal decree that the church took its losses fighting on the right side.

“Oh. Which other delegates? Or notable non-delegates?”

“Archduke Blanxart, the strix. The minor nobles who were staying on Gloria in the Rego Pena - Aspramunt, Castelblanc, Pedrafina, Solpont. Probably some more, it was much easier to determine who was killed among the nobles than among the other delegates, and the work of counting the dead and finding the missing isn’t finished. None of the non-delegate names I've heard were notable to me, though I don't know Westcrown's political scene all that well. Some slavers, some bankers...”

Temple of Abadar. They can in fact round up a full room for a channel if one’s on offer; a lot of people are limping in now that it’s light. Carlota drops some money - gold, not paper - in the clerk’s face when he starts making noises about charging the incoming patients - “for your facilities, as the healing’s not yours” - and they let everyone in. 

People are confused and scared and some of them are attempting to conceal injuries that were certainly got in the course of violence. They’re also all soaking wet, and some of them are worried about loved ones at home too injured to make it through the storm for a channel. 

Alex channels for the people here. "Perhaps I ought to go to the palace first, instead of talking to Valia right away, and see if they’ll let up on the weather at all."

“If you’re asking my advice I think you should go before the Queen and figure out with Her Majesty - an account of events that lets people expect to be safe if the rain lets up, and a way to get the word out about it, and then the two of you ought to call in everyone important and tell us what it is so we aren’t working at cross-purposes to it. …and probably keep the rain up at night, if the wizards have such finesse with it.

Though if you are planning to ask Her Majesty for mercy for Valia it might be worth talking to her first to make sure she isn't going to make that wildly messy somehow."

"...A good idea. Xavier's residence, or do you know if he took her somewhere else?"

"I think he took her to the palace." 

"Convenient. I'll head to the palace then, are you coming with, or should I find you after I've spoken to the queen?"

"With your leave I'll walk with you most of the way there, as my residence is nearby, and you can find me there afterwards." He's obviously not going to refuse to let her follow him to the palace in the rain but she does not want him to feel inconvenienced; the point is in fact to be the opposite of that. "Or perhaps I should come find you at the palace afterwards; my residence is packed to the point where I had to consult a more experienced wizard about whether Mansions have a population limit and I wouldn't guarantee the privacy of any conversation had there."

"Can you conjure horses?"

"I can conjure a horse." She didn't actually plan that but she's rather pleased with it, as an outcome.

Well, they can share.

Then they'll make it to the palace fairly promptly! 

The guards recognize ser Cansellarion. "What is your business here, sir?"

"I'd like to speak with Valia Wain."

He is on the list of people who get to speak with Valia Wain if they want to. It's not a very long list.

"Of course, sir. Just stand there -" in the antimagic field.

He still looks like himself in the antimagic field.

(Including to very perceptive people watching the gate guard through a scry.)

Heightened security today, hmmm? She'll dismiss the horse and be on her way.

After his conversation with Valia Wain, it's time to talk to the queen. Myrabelle, not Catherine, because as much as he'd rather talk to Catherine, Myrabelle's the one with the power to stop the rains and to pardon Valia.

The palace guards tell him he's expected and can have an audience immediately.

"Ser Cansellarion," she says, because he's probably here to coordinate on riot response, and he justifiably hates when she calls him 'Alex', "We're glad you could finally join us. How did your conversation with delegate Wain go?"

Be polite Alex. She's an evil murderess, but she's an evil murderess who abducted Arazni to heaven and helped kill multiple archdevils and drove Hell out of Cheliax and supposedly wants to abdicate.

"Your Majesty. Select Wain is - upset about what happened last night and in poor spirits. May I ask what your intentions are, with her?"

"I would prefer she live, but she incited a riot. I have the discretion to pardon her. The friends and family of those killed would object, and they would not be wrong to."

Would you really? "I see. By her report, her speech was legal to publish under your decree of the 28th, and of course she did not publish it. If she committed no crime, it would be unjust to execute her for it."

"Inciting murder and lawless action while technically remaining within the letter of the law? Perhaps she did, I have been too busy dealing with the aftermath to attend to the legal details and know if that's true. How very diabolical of her if so. Someone ought to make that argument at her trial, it may win her an acquittal. It won't win her a pardon from me."

Ah, of course, if clerics of Iomedae break the law they are traitors who should be put to death and if they follow the law while taking any actions the queen disapproves of they're as bad as devils.

"I doubt it will move you to pity but she regrets the deaths she caused and realizes that she made a terrible mistake." Oh oops he was trying to be polite.

Sigh.

"I am sure she does. If she were delighting in the bloodshed she would have been renounced... I do not know what we're going to do about Valia Wain. There will be a trial, a fair one, and if she's convicted I expect I will commute her sentence to exile, but I won't promise anything now, while we have more urgent things to attend to. Even if she's acquitted, Élie may want to remove her from the convention. I can't say. Was there anything else?"

"I would also ask for clemency for those who took more active part in the violence, at least those who had good if misguided intentions."

"I will keep your recommendation in mind."

Which means she'll ignore it. "...And to ask if the rains might be let up."

"The rains are keeping people at home instead of forming new mobs. If you're worried about the flooding, we have a potential solution and are working on a better one and intend to stop the rains before it gets to that point unless there are more signs of unrest."

"There are people trapped in their homes who cannot make it to the temples for needed healing. The markets are all closed and if that keeps up people are going to run out of food in their homes. I did not see any bodies in the streets since I got here but if anyone got trapped outside and is still alive they might not be tomorrow."

OK, yes, all good points - Élie, Third Alex thinks we should let up on the rains somewhat... I think we don't want to go back to clear skies but a light drizzle might keep further rioting at bay without affecting necessary city functions as badly.

"Do you have any Reclamation garrisons that you could pull off whatever they're doing now to help keep order in the city? If there are more patrols it would be risking less to ease up on the rain a bit more. I've already borrowed everyone Archduke Requena has on hand."

"None within a day's march. There aren't any regular army garrisons within reach?"

"Distance is no issue, remember? The army aren't here because they'd be counterproductive for keeping order."

I can have it let up for now. We'll probably want to bring back the heavy rains when it gets dark, though. 

....Are you talking to Alex? Please try not to deliberately antagonize him too much, I have to speak to the church later and I don't want it to be more awkward than it's inevitably going to be. 

So far we're being almost civil. I may have been a little bit rude when he told me that technically nothing in Valia Wain's speech was illegal. He came to plead for a pardon for her which - really seems like a matter for after her trial, not now.

OK, right, he's on the army committee, he knew the Chelish army was mostly unreformed and much eviler than most armies, which is itself a high bar for evil.

"Then I can get you a couple thousand, probably." And, since he's asking for favors and trying to be polite, "Is there any other way we may be of service?"

"If Valia Wain wants to give a big public speech about how she didn't expect or intend last night's violence...nearly everyone will believe it's coerced. It might be a good idea anyway. Probably not today. So - go, be a paladin, heal the injured, lecture people about how murder is wrong. And tell Jean Riudaure to bring my Archduke back."

What?

"As you say. I think you have more means to contact Riudaure than I do -"

"Use one of our wands, sure." She tosses him one. "Now, if you'll pardon me..."

He does not need to be told twice. Or, at least, not three times.

That... went better than he was fearing it might. The rain might let up and Valia will probably get exile instead of death, unless Myrabelle was lying and decides to execute her anyways to upset him. He heads back down to the palace entry hall to look for the duchess of Chelam.

"Count. Any news for us?"

"The queen would like some reclamation soldiers to join Xavier's in patrolling the streets, and the archmages can provide the teleportation circles to bring them here. I expect she is arranging that now."

"We will all be very grateful for their presence, I'm sure. I'm going to go invite the displaced Menadoran nobility to my mansion. You're of course welcome to come by if you'd like to speak with them."

"I will likely do that after I've done my part in arranging our reinforcements."

"News of Wain?" Probably not good, if he didn't mention it. 

"She'll get a trial. The queen says she expects to commute her sentence to exile, if she's convicted, but promises nothing."

Carlota grimaces. "I wonder if they should delay the trial until people have cooled off. It seems like very risky circumstances to have a real trial and I worry about the precedents that'd be set by having a lawless one." 

"Perhaps that's the intent. She did not seem to be in any hurry to hold the trial or discuss Wain's fate, given everything else that must be done."

"Let tempers cool and the dead be returned to life. It won't do the girl any lasting harm to have to think about her choices for a few weeks. Maybe we can get some nice laws passed like that people are entitled to speak under a truth spell in their own defense on capital charges where the state can afford it, or that nice law Lastwall has that there's no such thing as unintentional treason.

And she'll do fine in Axis, if it comes to that. I know the Goddess's priests are precious right now, and I know that most of the culpable errors here were by other people with far more opportunity to be less stupid than she ever had, but - there is by great fortune a place for people who in youthful foolishness fall short of Heaven where absolutely no one impedes us in growing up, and I can't say I get the sense that left to her own devices she won't grow up."