She looks exhausted; her eyes have dark circles, and her hair is just hanging loose instead of neatly combed and prestidigitation. She's also still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, though that seems to have merited a cleaning.

"There was a riot, of some sort, and then the nobles tried to slaughter everyone in the streets. There. There were a lot of dead and injured people, and I was an idiot and let myself run out of healing too quickly, I should have saved more of them if I was smarter. Some of them were throwing around fireballs - Ibarra too, it wasn't just the nobles - and some parts of the city almost burned down from that too. I'm glad they did the rainstorm so the whole city didn't go up but I wish they'd stopped it sooner, it made it way harder to find people's bodies before they died. Light doesn't go very far in a downpour."

Oh.

She suddenly feels very lucky that the lord back home didn't have anyone who could throw a Fireball. She's never seen one, but she's heard the stories — healthy men dropped dead in the street, forests set aflame, entire towns burned to a crisp by a single spell.

And of course Ibarra was throwing them around. He burned down houses full of children, he's not going to stop at adults. The Queen pardoned him, what was she thinking, there's not caring about ordinary people and then there's that—

"Gods. I — I knew they were Evil but I didn't realize they were just going to murder people in the streets— 

...do you want a hug?"

“If you don’t mind. I feel kind of disgusting right now but I can Prestidigitate it off you.”

Hug. She's not really bothered by the grime but she'll take a Prestidigitation afterwards if it's on offer.

Then Alicia will hug her back, and sing her clean afterwards.

"As for the other question, I haven't seen either of them and I'd think Luishna would be easy to notice. If she flew off during the riots she might have been out of the range of the spell, or maybe she just hasn't gotten back yet?"

Nod. "But if the nobles were throwing around Fireballs — they both fought in Pezzack — does being a bird help you not get killed by a Fireball, do you know—"

"I don't think so but - fireball is a spell that you use on a bunch of people, not on one person by themself. They might have tried to use other spells or arrows but I don't think they'd use a fireball on a lone target even if they're flying, if she got hit it'd be because she was - trying to get people out of the way of the fireball, or something."

Nod. "Do you know where she was staying? I assume Valia's at the temple — I guess we could check the temple — but I've got no idea about Liushna."

"I don't. I'd say we could ask about finding her with magic but anyone I'd trust is probably already using their spells for healing or tracking down the culprits or such. We could put out some pamphlets maybe?"

"Do you have the spell for copying them? I was going to ask Calistria for it so we could make a pamphlet of Valia's speech but then — well, I knew something'd happened, just not what. ...I had Calistria pick my spells today and I guess she didn't think I needed it."

"I don't, but I've got money and I know some printers - I think Raimon knows some too if mine are busy, he always seems to have copies to hand out at the cafe."

Oh, she totally forgot to look for Raimon! She was... kind of assuming he was safe, since she saw him last night, but maybe something happened after she left. She doesn't see him right this instant but she hasn't been looking very long.

"That's a good idea. ...Probably we should check the temple first, so we know if we need to make pamphlets for both of them or just one?"

"That makes sense. If Valia's not at the temple because she's out healing people who can't leave their house or something they'd probably at least know."

Nod nod. She starts walking towards the exit. "—Uh, I also had another question for you but it's not really related."

"What is it? Do we need to find somewhere private?"

"It's not secret or anything. Just — uh, did I tell you about the azata, I forget. A lot of things happened yesterday."

"I don't think so because I think I'd have remembered that but it's possibly you did and I just haven't gotten enough sleep yet."

"Okay. Uh, so yesterday I got into an argument with one of the nobles on the Rights Committee, and he decided to have one of his friends summon an azata for me to talk to. Or, technically he suggested it the first day but then he brought it up again yesterday... anyways. That part's not important. One of the things it said was that I should ask a priest of Shelyn or Sarenrae how to — be okay — even if there are Evil people going around hurting people and getting away with it. Except I heard Sarenrae thinks it's Good to just, pardon Delegate Ibarra of everything, so I don't really want to ask one of her priests, and I don't know any other Shelynites apart from you."

"Hmm. So it's kind of hard to answer this, but I'll try. There's an argument you might hear from the paladins, about how you need to take a day off every month to relax and have fun or else you won't be able to help people as well, and maybe that's true, but it's sort of missing the point? Maybe some people really would be just as good at fighting evil if they did it all day every day like Vildeis, but that doesn't mean they should do it. The message lady Shelyn has for us is - you matter too. Not just for how many people you can save from Hell, or how pretty artwork you can make, or any of that - you matter just because you're you, and every day that you're hurting and not okay is a tragedy. You might choose to ignore that for a bit anyway, just like I'm suffering now for not getting enough sleep, but I'm doing this because I'm trading  off one important thing for another and not because I'm pretending it's not a cost to bear. And if you spend all your days miserable because of what's happening in Nidal or Hell or the Abyss, and your misery isn't necessary to fix it, then you're letting them do evil by hurting you. So instead of spending all my time miserable about all the things I can't do, I sing, I listen to sermons, I pain artwork, I heal people, and so forth. I don't know if you enjoy the same things I do, but if you wanted to try out any of them I'd be happy to show you around, and maybe you'll find out you enjoy something totally different from whatever I thought of!"

Her smile tapers off a bit once she finishes the thought, though it doesn't quite edge into a frown.

"That doesn't really help with whatever you're confused about with Ibarra, though, and I'm not sure how to fix that. That doesn't sound like Sarenrae to me, but - I'd think an Azata would know her even better than I do, and I doubt they'd lie to you about it? Do you remember the words they said more closely, or what question you asked that they gave that answer to? I can try to reconstruct what I think they meant to get across, but I'd rather not put more words in their mouth than I have to."

There's the — she doesn't know what to call it. The Hell thing, the thing where some people don't want Evildoers to face what they deserve — she has never in her life met anyone who thinks like that before this week and now they're popping up everywhere. Probably she should ask Alicia about that once she's finished explaining the thing with Delegate Ibarra.

"—Oh, the person who said that wasn't the azata, it was — so I got into an argument with someone on the Rights Committee about the Queen's amnesty — apparently the Queen just pardoned everyone of all the things they did before the amnesty, not just the things almost everyone did like worshipping Asmodeus or the things that weren't actually bad like fighting Asmodeus but the things like Delegate Ibarra burning down houses full of innocent children. And I said I thought the Queen was supposed to be Good and the noble started telling me about how the Church of Sarenrae likes that sort of thing. Except — even if you don't want him to face justice for what he did before, he Fireballed a bunch of innocent people!! He couldn't have done that if he'd been executed!!"

They're outside now. The weather is still pretty miserable.

"Anyways, the thing the azata was saying was — I don't remember exactly, I left my notes at the inn, but — it told me it didn't think I was fully healed, and I said that of course I wasn't, there were still all kinds of people going around hurting each other and getting away with it, and it said I needed to figure out how to be happy anyways even if people like him are walking around, and it said some confusing things about dancing that I didn't totally understand. And then I told it that I had hobbies but — that didn't mean it wasn't upsetting, when, when Delegate Ibarra just — I keep remembering what he said and my chest twists up and I can't think about anything else and — and it feels like the most important thing in the world is — not letting him get away with it — and I said I'd still do that even if I were spending more time on dancing, and that I didn't want to just not be upset. And it told me I should talk to a Shelynite or a Sarenrite about how to be okay in a world where people are still doing awful things to each other."

"Hmm. So with regards to the amnesty, I think it did a lot of good with the bad because - you know how all the magistrates are, if it wasn't 'everything and I mean everything is forgiven,' then anyone they didn't like would be in one of the exceptions no matter how much they had to twist the truth to do it. There was still a lot of that anyway even with the decree and I think it would have been worse without it. And for all the people who aren't like Ibarra and regret the bad things they did, and are trying to make up for them, it's better for them to have a chance to do that instead of going to Hell. I'm not sure it was worth it, to let hundreds of innocent people escape execution in the provinces but let people like Ibarra kill hundreds of people in the city, but - if it's not, it's the kind of mistake I understand? Especially since, if you think about it, most of the evil people in power aren't like Ibarra - they're nobles who know how to make sure the law is always technically on their side, even if they have to twist it into knots to do it, and even without the amnesty they'd know how to make sure a judge was in their favor."

"I think — that was one of the things the azata was talking about, not wanting people to go to Hell no matter how much they deserve it, and — it tried to explain it to me but I think I'm still confused? I'd never even heard anyone say anything like that before this week. If someone is a murderer or a rapist, and then they feel bad about it afterwards, it doesn't make them not a murderer. I — I wouldn't want Delegate Ibarra to go to Elysium, not if he felt bad about murdering a crowd full of innocent people and especially not if he didn't."

"Of course it doesn't make them not a murderer, but -"

Okay, now she has to somehow explain redemption, and not just how Lady Shelyn sees it but also for all of good and she's only sort of qualified for this. No pressure!

"The evil afterlives are really awful. That's not only the reason redemption is good, Lady Shelyn would ask us to help people atone for their sins even once Iomedae finally slays Asmodeus for good and sets free all the captives of Hell, but that's a reason you might get if you ask a cleric of Ragathiel why they're in favor of redemption. If Ibarra came to a temple of His tomorrow and said he'd realized the errors of his ways and wanted to try and make up for it, they wouldn't just trust him out the gate, but if they could confirm he was telling the truth they'd put him to work on the spot, because even if he used to do evil things that doesn't mean the people he could save from a devil today are any less real. They'd say it's not right to evil hold on to their power because you turned down his help, driving them out of Nidal and Cheliax even a few days sooner just more important than whether or not the person who saved them did evil things. They're fighting to win, not to pat themself on the back for trying. And a cleric of Cayden might say - 'the diabolists of the world didn't just suddenly become evil. They grow up like that because Asmodeus wanted them that way - because he lies to them, every day, tells them that they were born damned, that doing good is impossible and love isn't real and they're pathetic for caring about anyone other than themself, and he keeps doing that until they're twisted in a knot and they believe he was right all along and do evil. But fuck letting Asmodeus be right about it, and if it takes them ten years to realize the truth about his lies I'd still help them prove him wrong after.'

"And what Lady Shelyn tells us is - everyone is born with goodness inside of them. Not just the sympathetic cases, the ones where they joined the Asmodean army because otherwise their family would starve and were beaten for years whenever they thought of making the world better until they were a broken husk of cruelty, but even the merchant who grew up in free Absalom and decided to go work for the Chelish government to make more money in the slave trade or the people who sold out their armies in the civil war to help put the Thrunes in power or Abrogail II herself. When they do evil, it's because they grew up in a broken world where Good hasn't won yet, and even if they don't feel a single smidgen of regret in their black hearts over all the people they'd hurt, when she looks at them, what she sees are scarred and broken children that she just wants to help be okay. Sometimes it takes millennia, for the evil people they snatch from Abbadon and the Abyss to grow into their best selves, but she's not going to quit because the job is hard. One day we'll win, and she'll do the same for all the devils and demons, too, and - the Melodies of Inner Beauty tells us that she will do it for Zon Kuthon too, because even the god of torture is not beyond redemption."

"I think — if someone really is a child, and they hurt someone because they don't know any better, then I wouldn't want them to go to Hell for it. But — even if someone started out Good, even if they'd have been Good if they'd grown up somewhere else — if they decide to murder innocent people or rape people or torture innocents for fun, they still decided to do that. And they still hurt people who didn't deserve it, and — it feels wrong, for them to just go to Elysium or Nirvana or something and be happy and free and get to be treated just the same as everyone else. 

The azata thought a lot of people were kind of like children who didn't know any better. But I don't really think that's true? I'm seventeen and I grew up in Cheliax and I still know murdering innocent people is wrong. And if I decided to just, do it anyways, that would be my fault, not Asmodeus's.

...I know the Evil afterlives are bad, that's — someone on the Rights Committee asked me if I thought Delegate Ibarra deserved to go to Hell and be tortured for a thousand years, and I said a thousand might be too long. But I — I don't think — I don't want him to just get away with everything forever. Even if he realizes he was wrong to burn down houses full of children."

"I think... as the gods see us, we're all children, in a way. Certainly if I was - if I had all the virtue I aspired to, if I didn't still have something of the scared child that lay awake in terror of the Asmodean priests inside of me, I would have risen up like Valia did before the Archmages came instead of waiting until they were already being routed to make my move. And before that - I have an older brother who joined the army. We're not really close, anymore, but we were closer when we were younger. And while this means we would have good times, sometimes we would also fight, and when we did I would often - lash out, in ways I knew would hurt him. It wasn't that he deserved it - he was just a kid, and I was the one in the wrong half the time regardless - but I wasn't doing it because of that anyway. I was hurting him because I was hurt, and I wanted him to feel that, and I knew he would do it to me too. But now that I'm older I'm not proud of this, even though he grew up into the kind of person I would probably have to stop from hurting people if I ran into him in a town - because I wasn't trying to keep people safe from him or teach him a lesson or convince other people not to be like him. All I did was make there be two more miserable and suffering kids in the world; me, because I was wallowing in all of my anger and hatred for him, and him, because he was being hurt as much as I could. What good does that do anyone? So I'd stop Ibarra if I could, and kill him if I had to, but if I could put him in a final blade until we win instead of sending him to the abyss I would."

She pauses for breath.

"Well, that and every soul that goes to Hell is another soldier in Asmodeus' army. I don't think that's as philosophically important but he has too many devils already."