Well, time to go find out how much Valia gave up. She seems tough and is a priest but was also not in great spirits. Who knows what to expect? At least there's an opportunity to go read the thing.

What a client needs at a time like this is good disease-free well water from a law firm. After corking some up, she heads off to seek admittance once more.

Valia doesn't look too bad, all things considered. She can Create Water and that helped with the headache she woke up with. The miserable fog of doubt she's just used to. And there is actually the slightly cheering bit of the whole thing which is -

"Lluisa! Did you know that I have weak eyes?"

"Weak eyes? I suppose you must have lacked any Opportunity to consult with an Optician; have they any, in Pezzack? I have Clean Water, if you have need of it."

"I can make water, and have been endeavoring to drink until my head stops hurting, but thank you.

There was an optician in Pezzack. He was murdered by the Asmodeans, because he tried to flee the city when they decided to kill all the traitors. It had not occurred to me to consult with him and we wouldn't have had the money anyway."

A priest can make water without a holy symbol? Divine magic remains very strange. It's a good fact to remember.

"What is the extent of your Harms? Besides a Headache already mentioned." She looks Valia over. "And your Eyes I take as Long Preceding and not Damaged in Custody, if I follow your words correctly. Is this the cause of your Trouble with Letters?" It's a relief if so, the concept of Mysterious Inability To Read has been very unsettling to Lluïsa and she's had occasional flashes of nonsensical worry that her own ability to read might suddenly vanish.

"Yes. The interrogator wanted me to be able to read the confession, so she gave me a spell, and when that didn't work gave me glasses, and that did. I feel - I don't know. I mostly desperately wish I had known when it could have mattered. But it's still nice to know that it was an error in my eyes, and not just that I wasn't trying enough." 

She hands her lawyer the confession. 

Time to read it over. (And if her ability to read vanishes she'll go buy glasses, therefore her irrational mind should learn its place and be silent.)

"Bernat Vidal-Espinoza, author of 'Friend of the True People', is Convicted," she remarks while looking it over. "My thought was to Pursue him for Defamation; I am mulling over Alternative Methods."

This confession is very wordy; like everything wordy it's meant to entrap someone. 'not mistreated', that's false... ask Valia what they actually did... 'coconspirators' that's troubling, no such coconspirators exist... (Secret-Keeping Lluïsa silently ingests the phrasing.) 'intended to have distributed' arguable, and that's why one argues... 'was distributed' by conveniently unknown parties...

"Well if there's anyone who deserves it even more than me it'd be him, I think. I - wonder if there would even have been riots, if people'd only read what I actually said. Not that I am any less guilty, because my intent was still treason."

"Is there a School for Law, in Pezzack? Did you attend?" she says, not sharply, still reading. This isn't the worst it could be, it's mostly theatrically wordy... do they mean to make her read it, probably, she's gifted in oratory...

"You pronounce yourself Guilty with such Assurance, it causes me to be Curious."

"...no. I was beaten out of school on account of not being able to read, and my mother didn't mind because she had six younger for me to look after."

"How foolish that School. Though the Proceedings of the Committee on Education lead me to think it may have been to your Weal."

She looks up. "At any rate it is a Weak Confession; perhaps written chiefly for the Mass Audience. The outcome could have been worse for the Case. What Injuries did they do? List all that was done, be it Physical or Magical or Otherwise."

" - they didn't. I said in the confession that they didn't mistreat me; I wouldn't have said that, if they had."

"Describe the Events as they Occurred and permit me to Judge what I would call Mistreatment before the Court," she replies with her best reassuring voice, which is not objectively reassuring but probably gets across that she's at least attempting a reassuring voice. "Should you become my Apprentice at Law I will then ask for your Legal Conclusions, but not before."

"The guards came and took me out of this room. - I was frightened enough to contemplate fighting but I didn't and they just brought me to another room, and chained me there, and a woman was there, and explained that she was Her Majesty's interrogator, and what they were charging me with, and that they were charging my friends as co-conspirators. ...she didn't say if you gave them the names. I hope you didn't, but I suppose it's your right."

I'm actually still keeping your secret, there being no other thing to do with it, and how am I supposed to ask a clarifying question about your apparent giving up of that secret freely without revealing it, she doesn't say or even think, it's more of a wordless dissatisfaction that passes across her mind. Clients should have their memories wiped for Erastil's sake. A fully staffed defense team probably would have.

Well, she prepared this spell again for a reason. Shield speech, though any eavesdropper will have heard that last part but, it's fine, it's another spell slot reimbursement to claim, paltry as it is.

"Clarify while my spell runs; did you give up their names? What did you ascribe to them?"

"She knew of them already, by name. She said that they had conspired with me in treason. I wouldn't sign anything blaming them, because it was my fault not theirs, and she said that they would be treated more leniently if I admitted my responsibility, but - everyone keeps telling me the courts will be lenient, and I know they all mean well, but it's getting a bit ridiculous, you know -"

Sigh (entirely internally). "I am not experienced in this area of practice but were it I, I would first say 'we have captured your co-conspirators and they await charges' or similar, detect thoughts being already cast, and listen for your thought 'I fear for the well-being of my dear Victòria', and next say 'Victòria will surely hang', and thereby cause you to bargain for her life; it was thus, I trust? To foil this is the matter of years of difficulty and it is no shame." Still rapidly, just in case there are tatters of a secret remaining to keep.

Oh.

"Yes, I don't think she used their names until after I thought them." She feels betrayed, which is absurd. One cannot be betrayed by a government, for that would imply that any government might ever be presumed not to work like that just because they're Lawful Good.

"A common Ploy and yet not likely Mistreatment; it is I you should cast any Blame upon, for Ineffective Advice, which is Explained but not Excused by the Great Haste of all this Matter. Does any Secrecy at all remain? If it is Entirely Shattered the Secret shall collapse to merely that a Secret was Kept and I shall treat the original Information as Information learned at this Moment." Not speaking quite as fast since this part of the discussion won't last long either way.

"She spoke of both Victoria and Alicia and of their participation in helping me with the speech, so there is no further secret."

Nod. "What followed with the Interrogator?"

"She read me parts of my speech. We talked about what a person in Westcrown would think I wanted them to do. We talked about under what circumstances I thought that someone should try to overthrow evil nobles. I knew it was dangerous, obviously, to talk about that with Her Majesty's people, but - they already knew I believed it. I guess by reading my mind. She said that if I repented it would go better when I died. Which is true, I've heard that from other people. She said she would help me write a confession and gave me magic and the eyeglasses so I could see what we were writing. And then we argued for ages over - she wanted to make sure I'd admitted everything and I didn't want it phrased wrong and - but she didn't mistreat me. She was very kind, the whole time, and she was trying to get me hanged but I knew that, and she wasn't pretending otherwise, and she said that repentant criminals could go to Heaven but ones who insisted on dying proclaiming that none of this was really their fault surely wouldn't -"

"Yet you awaken Diminished, with Pains in your Head, no Eyeglasses, and a Confession drawn. And no more a Criminal than on the Previous Day though I gather she was Convincing and Splendid and perhaps you were charmed, though it is a Crude Instrument and mere Force of Personality may be enough. I too am Kind to you," smile, "though my Ability in that area is Limited as I lack any Impulse to Kindness and must Guess at it. You would do well to Trust not any Kindness but instead in your Retainer—ah, which I have been Remiss in not Reading to you, ordinarily I would leave it with various Documents—at any rate, I have taken on your Case under the Law just as your Prosecution has taken on the Case against you, and this is all that is Reliable. I am not a Theologian but Pharasma the Judge is most vexing to me and I would break down Her doors and demand Admittance to Her Bar were I able; your Prosecution is not even your Material Judge let alone your Planar, and seeks only your Conviction, just as I seek only your Acquittal."

"Oh, the headache's just from drinking, she had wine. And the eyeglasses were borrowed, so of course I had to give them back. I was expecting - well, I knew that the new laws bar torture, but there's a lot of things that aren't torture, right, all the way to just deciding to go take a break and tell the guards when you'll be back. I promise I am not confused about whether she's on my side, I just - would feel very ungrateful, calling that mistreatment, when I am sure that in these very cells better men have died in real anguish."

"Plied with Strong Drink, the innocent Select held out most Valiantly, fighting against Phrasings even more Abject than these, but at length that Poison sapped even her Prodigious Will, and she, for all her Valor still a girl of..." she looks Valia over again. "Nineteen? It is more Effective if you are under Twenty though I can hardly fault you for having whatsoever Age you may have. And should you have been left to the Attentions of any Guards I will endeavor to see them hang for it." Or tell her Calistrian lover, which is probably more effective for all the Erastil-damned mess it'd be.

"Eighteen. That's plenty old enough to only say things I mean and not get hundreds of people killed by them. A number of people have generously offered that should I come to harm in prison I can notify them, and I mean to if it comes up and leaves me in a state to notify anyone of anything afterwards. And I suppose if it's instead right before I'm put to death I don't actually properly have any grounds of complaint, unless Pharasma would hold it against me - would she?"

That takes a moment to parse.

"For all Calistria's Reputation for Concern with such Crimes it is hardly Chaotic to be the Victim of said Crimes; the Chaos is in Her Domain of Lawless Vengeance and is perhaps Understandable to me more so than Yesterday; I did speak to Victòria on various matters." Secretly. Erastil-damned prosecutors. She was going to put a sepia snake sigil on the notes and everything, she never gets to cast that. "At any rate you are Iomedae's."

"Yes." A bit defiantly. "But not because She supports treason, because She sees that I am repentant and am trying to make things right, as far as that's possible from here." 

It would be nice if there were a god of triage to pray to about sorting this mess into a sensible order of priorities but whoever it is, they're probably an archdevil, so forget it. Iomedae, she's yours, help please.

"Perhaps Iomedae is like me and does not wish to see Harm done to Law. I have heard that She is Lawful."

It would be so much easier to say things about what Iomedae wants if she were good enough to command the traditional binder's imp, except for how having the traditional binder's imp is a suicidal idea under the new regime, how Valia would absolutely react with hate and mistrust, and how Iomedae probably can't even take a commune from an imp, it would just dissolve. She could at least say 'the Prince of Hell wants you convicted' though Asmodeus might be dead and she'd have to bluff it.

"I in fact worked very hard to not confess to anything false. Because of what you said about harm done to law. It's just - what's true is bad enough."

"Perhaps you are Morose and Regretful over your Actions that Day. I am likewise, having failed to Protect my fellow Delegate when we came under Assault together. But I am an Attorney knowledgeable in Matters of Law and know it was no Crime but merely a Tragedy. That you were moved to put Pen to Faulty Legal Conclusions in your Ignorance of Law does not create Crime of Nothing" well, except for treason where you just get into a long, stupid argument about who loves the Queen more, what an abjectly idiotic charge, why can't they just force all subjects to swear a specific loyalty oath to the Queen so any of it makes sense "and the Elements of Incitement to Riot &c. are Absent no matter how much Grief an Unlettered Girl of Eighteen who is No Lawyer does sign—I do not mean to call you a Stupid Child though I am Older, it is merely Strategy that I might wish to Emphasize Ignorance. Pray do not Duel me for it."

Actually, it'd be fun to duel a priest, too bad she likes Valia.

"We are not allowed to duel, and I don't want to. If it is relevant to the court that I am eighteen, and cannot read, and don't understand anything at all about the Law though I have tried to follow it since it ceased to be the Law of Hell - I am and I see no sin in saying so, though if the people of Cheliax were to conclude that if they are eighteen they are too stupid to be responsible for their decisions that would grieve me. I should have made different decisions the day I gave the speech, and this is only meaningfully said because I could have done."

"To my mind you Discharged your Responsibility well, studying the Law and Complying with it, attending to Wise Counsellors, and so on. It would grieve me were the Subjects of the Queen led to Disbelieve that this is true. I am your Attorney, not your Friend, but I would not say to another 'that Valia Wain, she is a Great Fool', except perhaps if the Judge decree a Day of Acquittal of Great Fools in which case I would be Obliged to make the Disingenuous Argument."

"Is there more that you would have me do, awaiting trial? I will confess I am at this point sick in dread of it, and very tired."

"Sleep, if you are able. Pray to Iomedae that Justice be done; please as a Favor to your Diligent Attorney do not substitute 'that Justice be done to me', or else it shall Counterpray against my own Prayers and Iomedae shall hear a Great Silence. Hold while I copy this Document."

She casts the spell, somewhat awkwardly, to make a copy of the confession, returning it. It doesn't matter if she can't read, attorneys add paper to a situation, not remove it.

Sleep and pray. That sounds pretty doable. Valia smiles tiredly and waits for the document to be copied.

Iomedae please help somehow. Erastil please threaten to withhold grain from Iomedae's army, or whatever it is among Archons of Heaven, to elicit Her compliance.

"Here is your Document returned. Do not fret overmuch about its Contents. Iomedae be with you, Select Wain."

"If that's where She's needed most." And then she'll sleep - actually apparently Blai's here, to tell her how trials go. Then she'll sleep.