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."

"I hadn't really thought about the part about giving Asmodeus more soldiers, that does sound bad."

Maybe you could work something out where you try and give them what they deserve before they die, and then execute them by Final Blade. Only if you don't declare people have the right not to be tortured during their execution, though. And it seems hard to get it right without killing some of them by accident. And sometimes you won't have a Final Blade. And it doesn't really feel satisfying — but maybe that's less important than not giving Asmodeus the tools to hurt innocent people? ...That wasn't really Alicia's main point, she doesn't think.

"I never had a brother or anything, but — most of the people who hurt me when I was a kid were other kids punishing me when I did badly on an assignment? And I don't want to hurt them about it."

(...Should she? She just thought of it as a normal thing everyone does, barely even the kind of thing that needs avenging, but maybe that was wrong? But it's not like she hasn't repaid them for it, not out of vengeance but just because she was also a student.)

"And that seems kind of similar to what was going on with your brother? But—" Okay, apparently she doesn't trust Alicia enough to outright confess to murder, no matter how justified and no matter how pardoned. "—but the person who hurt me the worst anyone's ever hurt me, I wanted him to hurt for it, and every time I saw him I was angry at him, and when he died I was happy about it. And I don't wish I hadn't wanted that, and I don't wish I hadn't been angry. And I think Delegate Ibarra is the same way, unless — unless I were saying his victims counted less because they aren't me, and that sounds awful. You're — you're angry at him, aren't you—"

"Yes! And it's not like I wouldn't - I mean, it's not like if we were at an entirely different constitutional convention I wouldn't kill him to stop him, if it weren't for the fact that I'd fail horribly and die and that even if I succeeded he'd get brought back. I'd do it even if I didn't have a final blade available. You don't need to just - let someone go around murdering people, because they might regret it later. But if he gave himself up to the church of Iomedae, if he promised he'd give them every teleport and every other spell he could prepare every day for the rest of his life, if he stopped hurting people and was trying to make up for whatever evils he could - I'd do my best to convince people that he should be left alive, no matter how angry I was, even though it would probably be really hard."

"Even if — even if he gave himself up, it wouldn't feel right for him to just get away with killing innocent people. And if the other man I just mentioned had given himself up — I mean, he couldn't have, because we were still being ruled by Asmodeus — but if, I wouldn't have wanted people to just — act like, since he was working for Iomedae now, it didn't matter what he'd done."

"It does still matter what they did? A lot of people start trying to repent when they get old and realize they're going to face the judge, but unless they weren't very evil to begin with or they die killing a pit fiend or something, they often don't even make it back to neutral. And you don't have to trust them either. If Lord Cansellarion told me a bill that looked good was secretly evil, I'd vote against it and tell everyone I knew to do the same, but I wouldn't do that for Ibarra even if he repented. It's just that the good they're doing also matters."

"So it's like, you think it's worth waiting on letting them get what they deserve, because in the meantime they'll be helping people?" That doesn't really sound like what she was saying earlier but it makes some amount of sense.

“Not exactly? That’s - there might be some god I haven’t heard of that says that, but it’s not what I meant, I think it’s a sad thing when someone is trying to do better but doesn’t succeed in time because repenting is hard. I just mean that you don’t have to ignore everything bad they did before. Like if a schoolteacher beats a kid to death, even if they’re sorry and trying to make up for it you shouldn’t put them in charge of another class of kids.”

"Are there people who think you should put them in charge of another class of kids??"

“Not in Westcrown, that I’ve heard? Unless you count the evil nobles. After the war, though, when I started telling people about redemption that was one of the more common kinds of misunderstandings people had.”

Evil nobles want to put schoolteachers who beat children to death in charge of schools?? No wait, probably she meant the thing where there are still a bunch of Evil nobles in charge even when they served Abrogail Thrune and Fireballed streets full of innocent people. Although she wouldn't really be surprised by an Evil noble wanting to put a teacher like that back in charge, either.

"Well, I definitely agree that you shouldn't do that. I think what's still confusing me is — obviously I'd rather Delegate Ibarra stop hurting innocent people. But that's not something I want for his sake, it's something I want for the sake of the people he'd be hurting. And I don't see why you'd want him to end up in Elysium or wherever at the end of it, apart from I guess the fact that if he ended up serving an Abyssal power that could be really bad."

"I do want it for his sake, or at least I try to listen to Lady Shelyn when she tells me that doings things for the sake of bad people is still important. Given the choice I would send him to Nirvana instead of Elysium, since they're... more prepared for getting people who are currently evil, and for helping them grow out of it, but I don't see why the Maelstrom wouldn't be fine if you couldn't get them somewhere good that was ready for them. Or, maybe not the Maelstrom since they could hurt other people there, but I think it's impossible to break the laws in Axis so it might be safe? I'm sorry, I don't know as much about the afterlives besides Nirvana and Hell as I'd like."

"Is that — something you want for him because you want it, or something you want for him because you want to listen to your goddess? ...Not that there's anything wrong with listening to your goddess, just, I'm not a Shelynite." Nor, for that matter, would she listen to Calistria if she wanted her to do something wrong, but that's not really the point.

"I like to think that I had an instinct to it all along, but I don't think it'd be as salient, if something had happened to delay the archmages and I hadn't gotten a chance to read her holy books or talk with her priests. It's definitely not always easy. But if something bad happened to her, and she got all twisted up like her brother did and didn't believe in it anymore, I wouldn't stop caring."

"—Wait, uh, I apologize for my ignorance but what happened with Shelyn's brother??"

"He's Zon-Kuthon now."

"...Zon-Kuthon hasn't always been like that???"

"No. It was long enough ago that we don't have any real records of it, just myths and legends, but the Windsong Testaments say that he used to be named Dou-Bral, and was a god of beauty, love, and art like his sister. But then he went wandering near the ends of creation - some people call it the Dark Tapestry, but I don't think it's like a literal tapestry - and came back changed somehow, into a twisted mockery of everything he used to be and tried to ruin everything good he could lay his hands on. So Lady Shelyn fought him, took his glaive, and drove him out of Nirvana, but she wasn't able to defeat him for good before he escaped."

"Wow. I didn't know that could happen."

She frowns. "I think if someone did that to me, I would want people to try to fix it if they could. But if they couldn't fix it in time, and I started murdering innocent people or something, and their families wanted revenge — I mean, just because I didn't used to be like that doesn't mean they shouldn't get to hold me responsible for it?"

“If someone… dominated you and forced you to do diabolism, and nobody could just capture you or dispel it, it’d make sense to kill you and hope the judge was merciful. But it wouldn’t make me mad at you instead of whoever was mind controlling you - I think maybe I’ve lost the thread of the conversation, what I was trying to say when I brought it up was that I think Lady Shelyn helped me come to believe in redemption but I have my own reasons now too.”

Maybe it's like how Valia wanted to be really sure her speech didn't break any laws even if they were stupid laws, and not just because she didn't want to get in trouble. Or how she never really gave more than a passing thought to whores until she was chosen by Calistria, except that if she thought Calistria was saying "don't break the law" or "you should want good things to happen to people like Delegate Ibarra" she'd just ignore her.

"That makes sense," she says. It's still a kind of confusing thing to care about but at this point Victòria doesn't really expect that part to get less confusing. 

"...I was still wondering about — the thing the azata told me to ask a Shelynite about. About how to be okay, when the world is still full of — people hurting innocent people and just, getting away with it. It doesn't really sound like the sort of thing where wanting them to be redeemed would really help, because a lot of them... aren't even trying to be."

"The thing that works for me when things are so horrible I can't stand to think about them is singing, but you already said that didn't work for you. I think what we want to find is something complicated enough it takes most of your attention to do it properly, interesting or important enough that you actually want to do it, and then whenever it feels like the world will never be okay as long as there are evil people in it you do it until you can think straight again. How do you usually minister to people, is that something you might enjoy doing more often? Is it like, delivering safe food and water to poor women and making sure they have somewhere safe to sleep?"

She's not really sure what Chaotic Good Calistrian ministry looks like, so maybe this will be a disaster because she just suggested Victoria have sex with more people and she's not comfortable with that or something, but it's worth a try. Tetula seemed to spend her time hanging out at a tavern, and Nuria had her book deliveries, but that doesn't suggest a general pattern for Chaotic Good people.

That's a great question that sounds really hard to answer without admitting to crimes. Honestly, it sounds pretty hard to answer even with admitting to crimes. She hasn't done that many crimes.

"—I'm still figuring that out. Back home I taught girls how to defend themselves, and gave sermons, and made sure everyone there knew they couldn't get away with taking advantage of people just because they were weaker than them. But I've only been in Westcrown about a week, so I don't totally know what I should be doing here yet, I've been pretty focused on the convention."

Oh, self defense classes! She probably should have guessed that, it's like the good version of helping people get revenge because it stops the thing you need to get revenge for in the first place and reminds evil people not to try it in the first place.

"Self defense training sounds like it might work, if it's enough work to keep you occupied - some Shelynites teach glaive fighting for that but I'm not very good at it. After the riots last night I bet a lot of people would want to know how to make sure they stay safe. Since it's a couple of days before the convention starts up again, maybe you could do the setup work now and then you only need to make sure you spend an hour a day on it going forwards? Though I guess maybe make sure it helps before committing too much, it's a good thing to anyway but you're already busy."

"That's a good idea! ...I don't know if it would work for dealing with things being awful, since it's not like I could just go teach people how to defend themselves whenever I'm feeling that way, but it seems like a good idea either way."

"Maybe I should ask some of the other chaotic good clerics what they do for ministry that doesn't require scheduling, requiring scheduling doesn't seem like a very chaotic thing. Does Calistria have any things you can do alone whenever like Shelyn has art and music?"

For some reason Victòria looks incredibly embarrassed about this question!

It takes a few moments for Alicia to put things together. It's not what's on her mind right now, but it's not like she doesn't know what Calistria is famous for. Now she's embarrassed too.

"Oh - I, er. Nevermind. Not that there's anything wrong with - I should stop talking."

"It's, uh. Don't worry about it, it's fine."

"Ahem. Anyway, I'll see if I can get back to you on what other chaotic good clerics do for that, and maybe in the mean time you can see if practicing your own self defense skills work? Is there anything else you wanted to ask about or that I can help with?"

"Not that I can think of."

By now the two of them are almost to the temple.

Then they can go in and ask about Valia!

...Valia isn't at the temple, and wasn't there this morning before setting off either. Nobody at the temple has seen her since she left for the convention that morning.

"I think she'd've come back at some point, if she's — alive."

"I'd say she might just have been injured, but - surely she'd be taken to a temple if that was it. And she told everyone in her speech that evil people could cut her down with a single blow-"

"—and you said they were throwing Fireballs, too—"

"If they had killed her in the open with fireballs, I think I would have heard of it, and you would hardly use them for a killing in secret. But if they were willing to set the city ablaze I doubt they would have blanched at the thought of murdering a priest. And I have no idea how I'd find her body even if they were careless about it, this isn't Halmyris... Let's see, you obviously can't go to the city watch on something like this an expect them to help, not unless you're bribing them and not even then against a noble, and the archmage is hardly of any help unless you're a noble trying to maintain your power. I have no idea how to track down lord Cansellarion until the convention opens up again - I don't suppose you know a wizard or cleric strong enough to scry?"

"Delegate Ardiaca was the one who summoned the azata but I don't know if he knows how to scry. Also he's a nobleman and I think mostly noblemen don't care about, like, ordinary people getting killed fighting Evil nobles. Also I don't know if he's going to be at his house. We could check anyways if you think it's a good idea? I'm pretty sure I remember where it is."

She wracks her brains. Ardiaca, Ardiaca... he was the one with the war proposal, the one that Sir Cansellarion voted against. That's not a good sign, but - practically every noble was voting for war, it's not really an extra realization about him. And he wasn't one of the evil ones on the list, and he couldn't have been hiding it or the inquisitor would have seen through him. 

"Do you know why he summoned the Azata? It's an expensive spell if you want them to stick around for more than a minute or so, so that's at least - not nothing, if he was spending it trying to help you, but it doesn't mean we should be foolish about it."

"Well, it was his friend's idea, Delegate Requena i Cortes, one of the archdukes. I guess it's probably a good sign that Delegate Ardiaca has friends at all but they're both powerful nobles so I don't know if it really counts the same way. Uh, the reason Delegate Requena i Cortes wanted the azata summoned was because we kept getting into arguments on the Rights Committee and I think he was hoping it would take his side."

"Well, if he thought an Azata would take his side he probably at least thinks he's good. I think it's worth a try, especially since we don't have any better ideas."

"He said on the Rights Committee that he's Lawful Neutral, and he didn't show up as Evil, but I don't know if he was hiding it. He also said Delegate Ardiaca was Chaotic Good but I don't really know how you could be Chaotic Good and a count. ...I don't have any better ideas either, though, so we might as well."

"I doubt he could hide it from the inquisitor."

She's pretty sure a lot of the things pamphlets claim about him are lies or exaggerations but the truth is still extremely impressive. She'll follow Victoria to Ardiaca's house.

He is not at his house.

"...well, I don't know where else we'd find him, do you have any ideas?"

"He's a Molthuni noble so maybe he's with the other Molthuni - that doesn't help, I don't know where they are either. We could ask at the palace if he's checked in but I don't really expect them to be helpful."

"The one I talked to wouldn't even tell me if Valia had checked in. ...Also the Judiciary Committee is having an emergency meeting, I should probably head over if I don't want to be late. She was on it too, maybe she'll be there." The way she says it it's clear that she really doesn't expect her to be there.

"Stay safe."

For lack of anything better to do, she heads back towards the Cafe Isarn. Hopefully Valia will be alright.