"...but then wouldn't that rule mean that if someone ran away to avoid being brought to justice you couldn't put them on trial at all?"

Lluïsa, with visible effort, refrains from responding!

"Who could run away from the archmages? I agree this might not be a sensible standard to hold all of our trials to, even if we want it for these ones."

"Apprehending a Fugitive is hardly a Judicial Proceeding. Certainly the Dogs of Thrune from time to time wished to perform a Spectacle and call it a Trial; one might as well Propose to Try an Exotic Citron imported from Tian Xia in place of the Defendant, for all the Justice that such would effect." This is actually mostly a personal gripe; she'd been so excited to actually attend a trial, only to be crushingly disappointed.

"Are we actually allowed to write instructions for the archmages in like that they have to chase fugitives? It's not like they're going to be scared if we threaten to try an exotic citron in their place and then convict them of dereliction of duty."

"That's why I've been suggesting recommendations, instead of commands. I think an earnest plea is more likely to move their hearts, and hope this convention does not become a Spectacle, as she puts it."

"So, we want justice for last night, not mere vengeance. We want trials, not simple judgments. But how will we make clear to them what counts as a trial, in our eyes?"

Remei taps her chin. "Well, there's Abadarans around in quantity now, so you could probably try 'in absentia' as long as you had an eyewitness?"

"Can you, uh, clarify what you're counting as justice versus what you're counting as 'mere vengeance'?"

"I wish I had the words to tell it to you clearly, but instead I will share with you a story, hopefully brief."

He draw himself up, adopting a more open pose; his voice takes on a more pleasant quality.

"I grew up in the Heartlands, in a pleasant farming village. One day, a woman with fire in her heart came to the village, killing and burning. Only some of us survived; those who did were not unmarked." He gestures towards his glass eye. "She died in the ruins of our village, killed by Hellknights on her trail."

He deflates a bit. "You could call it vengeance. But for me, it was justice because we knew she had it coming; that everyone could expect that she would meet a bad end for having done bad things. And hopefully any girls with fire their hearts would, hearing the tale, decide to be charcoal burners in the woods, and not have to meet the blades of justice."

"I think from the story I would say that's justice and vengeance? Killing people who don't have it coming isn't vengeance or justice, it's just... murder."

"Not Justice in the Narrow Sense of Process the Judiciary is Concerned with," says Lluïsa with her head still down writing something, "but not Unjust; a Just Court would not find Wrongdoing by the Hellknights, if all be as Recounted."

"It doesn't sound like in that situation anyone would even ask a court to find whether the Hellknights did wrong."

He is surprised at Lluïsa's claim.

"Indeed, the judiciary mostly deals with situations that are less clear-cut, where uncertainties must be carefully weighed. I was not there for their battle, of course, but if their account is to be believed, they gave her what little benefit of Law she deserved."

He turns back to Victòria. "Sure, something can be both vengeance and justice. A trial involves a judgment at the end, after all. If the trial did anything useful, it is because it helped shape that judgment. A show trial is such because the steps of the trial are 'just for show', the judgment having already been settled."

After a brief pause, "Actually, I don't know if she had ever wronged those Hellknights chasing her. I don't know if society as a whole can take vengeance, or if it is justice because the whole society did it." Most of his thoughts about this episode were of the painful instead of philosophical variety.

"Indeed it is Unlikely to reach Trial; no Dispute would Likely Arise. The Uncontroversial will oft Pass without Rousing a Judge. The Hellknight that swung the Blade no doubt made Accounting of such to his Superior, however; but no Villager, say, would have Protested to the Lord or Crown that the Mad Arsonist should have Lived."

"I'm still confused but I'm not sure how to get less confused."

"I am not accepting Apprentices in the Law at this time; certainly not one who is so Entirely Chaotic that an Azata of Elysium was, to hear you tell it, compelled to set down its Ornamental Vudran Smoking-Pipe to keep your Fire Damage contained."

(Does Delegate Oriol i Cornellà know about the school?? They were careful, they looked to see if anyone was watching, she shouldn't know, but maybe she does anyway somehow? But that sentence doesn't even make sense, even if she does know...)

"The entire reason Valia said you could stay on the committee was that you might know things that are useful but that doesn't work if you're not going to explain them. If you're going to just make up lies about me because — I don't know, because you're mad at me for pointing out that you were Evil? — then you're not helping anything. Just because Valia isn't here doesn't mean we're going to fall for diabolist trickery." Victòria is not at all sure that she can avoid falling for this woman's diabolist trickery but maybe if she says she won't she'll be less likely to try it?

"Certainly you have Resolved all Confusions on your own; if you do not Comprehend its Meaning, why, it is assuredly Diabolism."

Lluïsa really, really wants to stop being mean sometime a few exchanges ago, and for some reason isn't. The best she can do right now is leave 'Dretch-in-Waiting' out of that sentence, which was pretty difficult!

"I will Endeavour to use Words suitable for the Young Girl's First Primer On Chelish Taldane Grammar."

"This is a Courtroom. This is a Judge. The Judge listens to Cases. The Judge rules on Cases. There are Civil and Criminal Cases. Select of Iomedae Valia Wain is charged with Incitement to Riot! This is a Criminal Case."

"Here we must End the Recitation, for the Form of the Courts is entirely Unclear, and make our Recommendation as to a Just Form. I shall be finished drafting my Proposal shortly, do Puzzle Over these Concepts while I Write."

"Delegate Oriol, do you maybe want to go take a walk or something and come back later?"

Eyeroll and determined scribbling.

"Okay. I don't know why you couldn't have just said that to start with but that's helpful. I'm still confused about some of the other things people were saying but I'm not sure they're important here. ...She didn't incite anyone to riot, though, nothing she said was against the Queen's decree last month."

Alonso is surprised, again. "Why would Wain be charged with incitement to riot? It's not like the delegates who heard her speech rioted; that was mobs who were incited by infernal agents who we can only hope are swiftly apprehended by the crown. It is because we don't know who they are that we need to figure out what sort of report from the Queen we would trust." 

"I agree with you on this Matter, Delegate Ferrer. She at least acted Within the Law."

That wasn't mean at all, really.

"Delegate Alonso, you would do well to obtain a Copy of every Pamphlet that Circulates in Westcrown, as I do at some Effort and Expense; I know as well where to Listen for Rumors about the City. A Tawdry Plagiarist, the Self-Named 'Friend of the True People', called Quite Directly for the Burning and Rioting in the name of Select Wain; the Riots were certainly her Riots, as little as she desired them! It is Unlawful to Copy or Distribute and I have not yet received Special Permission to do so here, though I have sought it out. Had I such Permission I would share it now."

"...I think I'm still confused about what exactly happened last night. And I think probably it's going to be harder to make good rules if I don't totally know what happened." Also she really needs to get around to reading the pamphlets, apparently.

She's not looking at Delegate Oriol i Cornellà but she's not not looking at her either.

"...I shall Eagerly Await such Permission. Perhaps it is not Distribution if I Read its Vile Words aloud from my Copy, though I skirt the Spirit of the most Recent Decree in so doing; the Giving of Speeches is likewise Proscribed, but one has Hope that the Law respect the Distinction between Giving and Quoting."

Reluctantly, she reads it, in an absolutely flat tone, stuffing it away at the end.