...It is utterly unsurprising that the fairly competent prosecutors that she has retained went and extracted a confession from Wain. That is, after all, their job, and she did not tell them not to do it, nor to do it poorly in this particular case. The problem is that almost nothing in this confession is actually a crime, which wouldn't be a problem in a normal case - Magistrate Puigdemont is one of the ones under a geas to see justice done according only to the law, and is diligent and careful enough that he wouldn't mistakenly convict Wain of non-crimes - but is a problem when the trial is going to be witnessed by a crowd of thousands. Ugh.

(Also, there's the treason confession, which does fit an actual crime, if one that is very nebulous and poorly defined. For that reasons she's asked her prosecutors to be very sparing with the treason charges, and usually they are. That she can fix with a polite note that accidental incitement - not even against her own person - should not be prosecuted as treason, for now.)

She leaves a message for the next time Élie makes contact with the material plane, saying that Valia Wain has confessed to all her crimes and she'd like his input on how to respond to this.

Oh, dear. 

The first thing he says when he's back on the material: "Are you sure she really said this?"

"I am sure she did. None of the prosecutors remaining are stupid enough to lie about what someone confessed to, and it does not seem that unbelievable..."

"When I spoke to her yesterday" – at least he thinks it was yesterday sidereal – "she seemed very certain that she could not have known that anyone would interpret her speech as a call for rebellion against the Queen, and certainly should not have been expected to have figured it out." 

"I suspect her mind was changed... The prosecutors are I think trying to get confessions more than they are trying to find the truth, and they're very good at getting confessions. I was planning to instruct them to throw it out because I don't want them charging treason here, but they'll probably then try to get her to confess to all of this again, just without the 'treason' part."

"What is this, without the 'treason' part? I'm certain that Wain hoped  to incite your subjects to rise in rebellion against their appointed lords – if you wanted her on treason, you'd have her. But I don't believe she predicted or intended the riots in Westcrown. I suppose you could argue that any reasonable person would have seen them coming, but by that standard we're not of us reasonable people – which might be fair, but I'm not sure we want the precedent." 

"Yes, that was my observation too. It's not incitement, because she did not will any of the violence that occurred in the city. It doesn't fall under the first pen restriction, because she didn't write or publish it, and I am pretty sure wouldn't have been illegal under that decree even if she had published. And as you say, 'any reasonable person would have predicted the riots' is easily disproven by finding a reasonable person who didn't... I think those arguments are most productively made by Wain's attorney."

"What do you expect the attorney to do with the bit where she confesses to wrongful death?"

"If she knows her business, argue that Valia is not, in fact, guilty of wrongful death under any statute and that a confession by a young woman who was confused and ignorant of the law is insufficient to establish guilt according to that law... Actually, if she knows her business she will have counseled Valia against signing any confessions in sufficiently strong terms that the prosecutor can't get a second confession without the treason charge out of her, but failing that, the appeal to the law and Valia's ignorance."

"It's less embarrassing if you just try her for treason. I don't think there's a judge in Cheliax who'd listen to that argument when he has a signed confession in front of him, and maybe not one in the world." 

"I'm not sure of that. Some of our magistrates can get very hung up on the letter of the law. But if you think I - or Valia, or her lawyer - should do something different, I'm open to suggestions."

"If I were you, and I wanted to preserve the possibility that Wain might be acquited, I'd suppress this document. But then, if I were you, I think I'd know how I wanted the trial to turn out." 

"I am more concerned with the process than with the outcome... I think Wain is technically innocent of any crime, except treason, and half the country could be guilty of treason if I wanted them to be. I think the appearance of justice is best served - on the whole - by the prosecutor's office making its best case and the judge finding that case inadequate, without me particularly weighing in on either side. If that doesn't happen and she's convicted, I'll commute her sentence to exile and quietly pardon her in a year or two when things have calmed down and she's grown up a bit.

...I could also declare that convention delegates are immune from prosecution on the basis of their speech in the convention, which would be somewhat worse for everyone's expectations of the rule of law, and would be seen as weighing in vaguely in favor of the riots. It would be a good law to have, but I think after this week there will be a push for it from inside the convention and that will be good practice for them."

"After this week, I think we'll be lucky if anyone's willing to speak on the convention floor at all. If she's acquitted half the city and all the nobles will conclude you want them murdered in their beds, and if she's convicted we'll probably more riots. Do you have a plan for that? Is the magistrated geased? ...What does Catherine think?" 

"Yes, the magistrate is geased. Catherine thinks - actually, there's no need for me to relay here, just ask her."

"...Oh, Élie's here. Hello Élie."

"Élie wanted to know your opinions on the Wain trial."

"You've convinced me that what she did was legal, but I still think it shouldn't have been."

"Hello, Catherine. Have you seen the confession?"

"She confessed?"

"Read it."

She reads it. 

"What did they do to her?"

"Kept her up all night, gave her four cups of wine, charmed her, read her thoughts, and told her they were all on the same side and this was the only way to - I'm not sure what they said it was the only way to do. Something that would have moved her, prevent more senseless violence, maybe, or avoid discrediting Iomedae's church, or something like that."

"Why even have a trial, then?"

"Because most people, when tired and drunk, will not confess to their closest friends that they committed a crime which they in fact didn't. People who have made huge mistakes which led to hundreds of deaths that were not in fact criminal are rare. I am sure we can do better. I am not sure prosecutorial reform should be a high priority of ours right now, compared to everything else that needs fixing. Most people who are convicted are genuinely guilty, a handful of recent riot-related cases notwithstanding."

"I wish I shared your confidence in the courts. If you want a fair trial, you can't make her confess in advance." 

"If I want a - let's call it procedurally normal trial, one where I am not seen to be telling the judge or the prosecutor which outcome I want - I cannot tell the prosecutor not to use any confession, if she can get a second one."

"There has got to be a way that doesn't -"

"Élie could advise Wain not to confess again. Or Alex or her lawyer could. Or really nearly anyone else besides me."

"I suppose you're going to say that me doing it would be too close to you doing it even if nobody besides her sees me."

"I'm not sure procedural normality is the same thing as the rule of law, or for that matter that we have any such thing as a normal procedure to begin with. But I agree that you can't give the order – politically, if for no other reason. I – shouldn't speak to her attorney, that's almost as bad, but I can talk to Alex." 

"Normalcy is established in the doing... Unless there's anything else, I'll send this back to the prosecutors with instructions to drop the treason, and you can talk to Alex and tell him to warn Wain not to confess to anything again. And to tell her that her accomplices have already been released, having not done anything related to the speech which the prosecutors saw fit to pursue."

"I'll do that. And if it works, I'll have packs of rabid aristocrats  in my convention the next morning trying to make sure nobody else in this country ever dares open their mouth again. Tell me you have a plan for them, please – as a personal favor."

"You'll have the pack of rabid aristocrats either way, I fear. I didn't think you'd want me to exert my influence to steer the convention, but - I can put in a word with the nobles that strike me as more liberally-inclined. I doubt they'll support full freedom of pen and speech after this last week, but... I don't think the elected or sortitioned delegates would either."

"I'm frankly worried they'll rebel if she's acquitted. Or at least that we've failed to anticipate how willing these people are to escalate to senseless violence at every other stage of these proceedings."

"I've been preparing for that possibility, and the possibility of the people of Westcrown thinking an acquittal represents an endorsement of the mobs. I plan to speak before the trial, hopefully to avoid that confusion, the Reclamation are in the streets - I don't think the nobility we raised are going to rebel in any serious way. Some of them may attempt to murder Wain or her political allies. I am taking precautions against that possibility."

They're not going to rebel in any serious way, just make his life impossible. 

"I comfort myself with the hope that organized political activity is too much for these people. Is there anything else you need from me, while I'm out?"

"When you talk to Alex, ask him if there's somewhere we could borrow another five hundred reclamation men for a day or two. If so, I could use you for the teleportation circle."

There definitely aren't, but Alex is probably too polite to laugh in his face.