"Yea. But probably once we've voted we should say some more specific things about what that means, I don't want nobles saying 'well, we're nobles, it wouldn't be fair to prosecute us for hurting normal people.'"

"I think Cheliax is too large to have one comprehensive law, much as it would have simplified my work over the last year. The Hellcoast is not Sirmium, Ravounel is not Menador. When nobles make the law, they injure some and benefit others; there will likely be many a normal person in Cheliax who would rather be whipped by his baron than have his slaves freed by the Queen. Shall we let him prosecute the queen, or this convention for recommending abolition?"

"I didn't mean — I don't think nobles should be prosecuted for voting for abolition. But if a noble murders an innocent person or rapes someone or has an innocent person tortured for fun or Fireballs a crowd of people for no good reason, I don't want them saying that fairness means letting them do what they want, no matter where in Cheliax it happened."

"For the law to be real, it must be enforced. And unless Heaven sends us angels to rule us, that means enforced by the strong against the weak. If you want a baron to not murder for fun, you need their count to make a law against it, and believe credible reports of it happening when they appear. Our topic is less what the law should be, and more what a credible report is."

He grimaces. "Like, to use recent events as an example, a cleric of Iomedae was murdered during the riots. Someone killed him. The judge's job is not to find out who, or even to decide whether or not it was wrong to do. It is to look at a case brought before them that a particular person did it, and say of the case 'I believe this' or 'I don't believe this', and then society accepts that judgment."

"...Isn't the entire point of this committee to figure out what the law should be?"

Through a failed heroic act of will, Lluïsa fails to refrain from remarking snidely.

"I would find the Avenger's Report to be Credible indeed. Would she care to make such a Report now?"

"I don't know why you apparently think Calistria is the goddess of murdering innocent people for no reason, but I did not randomly decide to string up a priest of Iomedae from a lamppost. I didn't kill anyone last night, I didn't even try to, I didn't even hurt anyone, and I'll say that under a fucking Truthtelling if you pay for it. I spent most of last night talking to an azata." Also burning down a school but bringing it up would not help her case and would probably get her arrested. "And what were you doing last night? You're the Evil one, did you decide to — help Delegate Ibarra set crowds of innocent people on fire? Maybe you know what happened to Valia?"

Alonso holds up his hands in a placating gesture, but doesn't quite trust his ability to defuse this. "Can we stay on topic? Or do we have to sort this out first?"

"I did not chance to see Select Wain at the Bottom of the River," she snaps. "And I am content to wait for the truthtelling of the Court to hear of all your Peaceable Deeds last night. Delegate Alonso, I apologize for my Great Ire; it is an Unbecomingly Calistrian Sentiment I would do well to Suppress."

"The... river? Why were you looking there?" He understands wanting to find Valia, but that seems a little extreme.

"I'm perfectly happy to stay on topic as long as Delegate Oriol i Cornellà stops accusing me of murdering innocent people. —What were you doing at the bottom of a river??" 

"Have the Reports not yet reached your Ears? I was Hurled Bodily into it; such were the Entertainments of my Evening. And good Delegate Porras, a Farmer from the Countryside without my Hardiness, may likewise have been Hurled alongside. I certainly hope he yet Lives; should I require the Services of an Avenger over him, there may be a Conflict of Interest."

Alonso is aghast. "That's... horrible. I'm glad you survived, and hope Porras did as well."

Slightly mollified, "I have had Bulletins put up requesting any Information on his Whereabouts, offering a Reward; of course should any here have such Information the Reward would rightly be yours."

"Oh. I didn't — what I heard was that a bunch of nobles started Fireballing innocent people, and — I mean, I saw there were bodies in the streets, but — I don't really see how the river fits into things. And I think I'm probably missing something." Valia definitely didn't say to throw random lawyers into rivers even if they were Evil.

"Are you so Astonished that the Mob, bent on Violence, did Violence to me? Is there no Spell of the Tenth Circle that can Explain such Perplexing Syllogisms?"

"I don't see why they would just... randomly decide to hurt you in particular? It's not like I went and told them you were Evil, and I don't think Valia did either, and you're not a noble or a soldier or anything like that?"

"Some are eager to do violence," he says with a grimace, "and will jump at opportunities to do so, even with flimsy excuses."

He valiantly tries to get the committee back on track. "So! You asked about the point of this committee. I think there's no way for us to write the whole law and hope to be done by dinner. Thankfully, the judiciary doesn't write the law, it simply applies the laws that others write. The convention hopefully will produce the deepest law, but then the queen will make more laws, and the dukes yet more laws, all the way down to mayors and city councils. Some of those laws will be about how the judiciary should do their jobs and that's what I hope this committee focuses on. When there need to be trials, what rules those trials have to follow, what records need to be kept."

He scratches his beard. "Given the circumstances, maybe we should also advise the Queen on how we think she should handle last night's events? But I take our Barrister's earlier comments to heart, and think that should be a matter for the general floor. The few of us might manage to determine what trials should look like and be heard, but I doubt we could sway the Queen's judgment on how to maintain order in the city without the whole convention."

"There are as yet no true Courts Reestablished. Yet there is a Pressing Need for Trials; unless the Crown mean to proceed by Summary Justice, which I should Dislike to see, even in a Time of such Unrest."

"There is a Queen, who is surely capable of hearing cases herself, when she does not have a judiciary to delegate to. Should we perhaps decide on a recommendation of which cases she should hear, and which should be a matter for whatever Westcrown courts exist now, or for once better ones are re-established?"

"I don't really know what sort of things would be a good idea there? I think... innocent people who've done nothing wrong, like Valia, shouldn't be convicted of crimes? And people who have, like whoever killed Valia, or like the nobles throwing around Fireballs at innocent people, should be? But I don't know who you'd want hearing what cases to make sure nobles can't just get away with that, and that the courts don't say anything like 'sure, Valia didn't do anything wrong, but we're going to execute her anyway,' but also don't say 'sure, you killed a house full of innocent children for no good reason, but you came up with some Asmodean argument for why it doesn't count so we're letting you off.' And I'm not really sure you can make that happen just by saying who hears which cases."

"You and I can but hope that the judgments are wise and true," he says sadly. "Rules cannot make it so; they merely separate summary judgment from the more formal variety. For example, we might wish to request no trials in absentia, or that anyone accused of a crime be able to speak in their own defense."

"I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but I don't know what 'in absentia' means."

Through a successful heroic act of will, Lluïsa refrains from remarking snidely!

"In the Absence of the Accused."

"For example, I hear from you that some nobles have Fireballed the innocent; if so I hope they swing from the gallows before the next dawn." His fist is clenched as he says it. "But they are not here to defend themselves, and it would perhaps be hasty to conclude the matter without hearing what they have to say about it."

"And, of course, I have read reports from some courts where the defendant was present but forbidden from speaking, one way or another. It's not the body being in the room that truly matters."