There's a very short list. The Archduchess isn't actually on it, but she's an archduchess, so someone can run to ask someone to ask someone if she ought to be allowed in. 

It takes a while but is determined that, yes, she'll probably neither run off with Wain nor smuggle out incendiary correspondence nor otherwise make this disaster even more of one.

Valia tried reading until she gave herself a headache, gave up for now, and is pacing. She used to amuse herself playing with Iomedae's most minor blessings but that was before she understood that the goddess's resources were scarce and it was wrong to make casual use of them.

"Evening, Select," Jilia says quietly as she enters the room, "I assume they're treating you well?"

The guards still haven't entered the room, though Valia made inferences from the lack of her lawyer's assurances she would be allowed to defend herself if they did. "Archduchess," she says, and bows. "I have not been troubled. ...I intended to apologize to you even before the evening's catastrophe. I spoke foolishly, ignorantly, and in anger." She can't bring herself to say 'falsely' but hopefully there's a sufficient apology without it.

Jilia bows back, not deeply but much more than she needs to by custom.

"The only thing you said to me that I consider worthy of an apology was calling me a coward. I have things to say, if you don't turn me away, but first I owe you an apology."

Valia really can't think who she'd turn away. Ibarra, maybe, except for the thing where he wouldn't care if she wanted to talk to him or not. "I don't think you owe me anything, Archduchess," she says.

"I was harsh to you on purpose, yesterday. To the point of outright cruelty. I was attacking your personal confidence on purpose, knowingly, to undermine you. I wish I hadn't, and I am sorry I did. I had my reasons, but they weren't good enough, and I, of all people, should have known that, so that is no excuse."

"There is no criticism you can make of me that would strike me as unjust or excessive, Archduchess. But the people of Pezzack were not wrong to oppose Hell, even if they were wrong to trust me with it."

"I never believed it was wrong to oppose Hell, for you or anyone else, Valia. Tactics, strategy, when to rise in rebellion and when to wait and stockpile supporters and weapons, yes. Philosophy about overriding people's desire to live in peace even if they might be damned doing it, maybe. Goals, no. I had that argument with Jackdaw several times, and she never had enough support I thought the time was right to defy the crown and stop slowing her down. But there would have been a time."

"I don't know if it was the right moment in Ravounel. Obviously you want to - prepare, if you can. ....I know it fixes nothing but I didn't expect the riots last night. If I'd heard a speech like that I'd have...I would admittedly have started planning revolution against the evil nobles. But - if you don't have a plan you probably won't get anything you care about."

"I know you didn't, Select. Neither did I, when I heard the speech. It would have encouraged riots, eventually, but it would have been days more, and not as bad. You're not blameless, you know that perfectly well, but you meant well, and made a mistake, and that matters. 'True Friend of the People', on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing."

"But what was he doing? This didn't help anything! Even if the Evil nobles were as bad as I first thought, this hasn't removed any of them, and it angered the Queen."

"At a guess? To create a new Chelish Terror to match the Galtan one. To start hunting and killing everyone who collaborated a little bit with the old regime and sending them to the lamp-posts and final blades until nothing was left, no matter how many innocent targets went down with them. To punish everyone who ever engaged in petty tyranny and entirely purge everything Asmodean in any way, no matter how much the people responsible try to reform or how many innocents got denounced with them along the way."

"Or to die trying as a martyr, since I can't imagine it's escaped the man that the archmages disapproved."

"You can't do anything at all if you haven't accepted that powerful people will kill you for it but that's not a reason to do things that don't work instead of things that do...I don't know, maybe this worked great as far as he's concerned and he got exactly what he wanted. I feel very angry with him."

"I imagine he's in another cell by now. They'll want to be very public about executing him, since that case, and trial, is simple and straightforward. He'll probably get his martyrdom and feel much less pain than he caused, and, if we angry are lucky, find that is not as satisfying as he expected."

And probably go to Baphomet's maze. There's no right to the final blade, yet.

"Do you know how they intend to conduct the executions?" asks Valia calmly. "Will there be a crowd?"

"I imagine so. The Queen's too good a woman to permit torture, and she'll want trials - real trials, as much as we can under the circumstances - first. The final blade for anyone who wants it, and probably a quick death in a noose if not. If she decides to convict you for something capital, I expect she'll offer exile to Lastwall, and it will be a genuine offer. I can ask her personally, if you like."

Everyone keeps insisting that actually this will be fine and Valia is sick of it and also knows she should listen to them and not her own untrustworthy instincts and also doesn't want to. "The Queen should do as she wills," she says.

"The Queen should do what is right and Good. And she is far from perfect, I'm not sure any monarch can even get close, but I think she tries. You don't deserve death for this, Valia. People with power make mistakes, and their mistakes are larger. You think I haven't gotten people killed like this?"

Valia thinks that all nobles kill people capriciously all the time for fun and the law doesn't care about that because the law is almost entirely about protecting the nobles from everyone else. She was aware even yesterday that this was an unwise opinion to express to an Archduchess's face and it hardly seems to have gotten wiser. Or if there's a way to say it - "In recognition of the noble blood and great importance and achievements of the titled lords of Cheliax their errors are sometimes forgiven," she says blandly, "but common murderers rarely are. The Crown in this as in all things is just and good."

"That does happen, but we can expect, and I think ought to, much less of it from our Queen than the last one. I certainly don't intend to tolerate it from my new vassals in Ravounel. ...It's sensible of you to be careful, but I don't believe it is illegal to criticize Her Majesty. She's made mistakes, and will make more. I wouldn't trust her to rule Chelish people wisely if she hadn't."

...Valia's being awful to someone who is trying to help her for no reason, isn't she. She did it to the Archmage Cotonnet too but at least he is the one responsible for dragging them all here and then lecturing them about how easy it is (if you're a literate wizard) to figure out how to contribute productively and nondangerously to his passion project and how childish and contemptible it is not to try. 

"Forgive me, Archduchess, but I don't want to talk about the trials. I suppose we will all see."

"Feel free to call me Jilia. Frankly, I still feel strange every time I'm called Archduchess."

"The thing I wanted to give you advice on is... what to do, when you've made mistakes and survived. I'm sure you've spoken to Lastwall, but their philosophy seems to be 'be raised Lawful Good and follow procedure and you will simply not make any', which I don't think helps very much."

"I don't know that that's the sense I got from them. ...I could use the advice, though." Or at least it would be very rude to insist I won't.

"The thing is... getting good people killed, or damned, hurts. And it ought to. It never goes away, in my experience. But you can't go your whole life haunted by your mistakes, unless you want to stop doing things; you have to learn lessons and move on."

Does it seem like Valia is with her that far?