He is told to wait but only because she's visiting with her lawyer. After that -

"Blai!" Valia looks notably tired but not necessarily more despondent, given that. 

"- hello. Did they wake you to ask if I could come in?"

"No, but they had me up all last night, for the interrogation." She smiles wanly at him. "It's all right. They treated me very kindly. They mean to kill me, of course, but I can hardly blame them."

"Did you sleep since then?"

"Some, yes."

"Oh, good. - I attended a trial and took notes."

"Can you tell me about it?"

"They had it in the stadium. It was the 'Friend of the True People', who quoted your speech. The prosecutor made opening remarks, and then he did too - the prosecutor established the charges, one murder and 241 wrongful deaths, and then Vidal-Espinoza, the defendant, declined to defend his actions as either legal or accidental, challenged the content of the law, did more incitement then and there... your name came up, in the context of his pamphlet, while the prosecutor went on about who had been attacked and how they'd been denounced. The Pharasmins had been doing some corpse collection, they found a lot of tieflings... they had numbers for who died in the fires. They called up a witness who'd interrogated some of the mobsters, to confirm that they'd been acting on the pamphlet. A wizard to explain how they found the copyist. They offered to let Vidal-Espinoza say a few more words and he announced he was going to read from some speeches and commentaries on the theory that this would prove that he'd acted in accordance with true justice, but they didn't let him get that far, silenced him by magic. They offered him the Final Blade and he declined and was hanged. Privately."

She closes her eyes and tries to imagine it. They speak, they let you speak and admit your guilt - does the lawyer get to speak? "Did he have a lawyer?"

"It didn't look like it."

"I wonder what part the lawyer comes in." And then they offer you a Final Blade. But don't require it. Valia doesn't want the Final Blade. She wants Heaven, which she doesn't think kicks you out just for being very foolish. Iomedae didn't renounce her, and the paladins who came to speak to her were weary, not angry. She didn't get the sense that any of them would even have put her to death, if it was their choice. 

Hanging doesn't take very long. Twenty, thirty minutes at most. Of course they could do something else, if it's in private, but - why bother with the lie? The Queen is Lawful Good; it was true when Valia wouldn't have believed it that they don't torture you in Her Majesty's prisons. 

"I don't know. ...Have you met de Luna and his companion yet?"

"Yes. They came a few days ago, to get the interview. They need it for their investigation of how the Church can avoid this in the future. Because I damaged the Church, not just the city."

"... we're not part of the Church and aren't even strongly encouraged to be once we're allowed. Damage to public perception of the church is still damage, I guess."

"Yes. It's one of the things that was important and that I didn't understand, that anything I'd say people thought Iomedae was commanding it. Hopefully the trial will help, with clearing that up."

"I'm going to go with Ser Cansellarion when he teleports home tonight and get started on a catechism class while the convention is paused. I can't imagine I'll get through the whole thing but something is better than nothing."

Valia finds herself feeling blazingly angry at him for having a future. That ...isn't really fair. "That seems sensible."

"I'll take notes. In case."

That means he won't attend her trial. That's - for the best, probably. She does not really want to imagine anyone she knows among the witnesses. "I still can't read them," she reminds him weakly. "Though apparently mostly because I have weak eyes. If I were a rich woman someone'd've gotten me spectacles. ...it doesn't matter, Blai. Everyone dies. This court isn't the important one."

"Just - be careful, and get lessons, and don't talk at the convention. You'll be fine."

"I'm - not sure it would be best to not talk at the convention at all."

"I kind of think everyone who talks at the convention is going to die of it in the end except the evil nobles but probably this is because I am a traitor, and angry, and frustrated, and all the reassuring things people have to say keep being false."

"And because you didn't sleep last night."

"- also that, probably."

"In seminary," he starts, and then he stops.

"Asmodean seminary?"

"The only one I've been to.

"We didn't sleep much."

"Feliu said that Asmodeans like to make people tired. Because tired people don't think. I guess Lawful Good interrogators also like that because the differences are really not as dramatic as you might think - sorry."

"- what are you sorry for? I know full well there's no way I'm Good and I was astounded to learn I'd managed at least Neutral when She chose me."

"Because I'm being bitter and grouchy again instead of saying what's really going on, after you just pointed it out. Anyway, in seminary -"

"We didn't sleep much. Once we were done with the main academic section and didn't need to remember anything anymore sometimes for days. They wouldn't give us water either so we'd have to suck up to whoever we thought would be able to create water soonest."

He should have refused to drink and died. It is probably not helpful to tell him this.

"There's lots of stuff you can do to a person if you're rationing healing because you're evil and still want to make them have as unpleasant a time as possible also because you're evil. Or because you want something from them."

She is well aware of this and does not see his point. "Mmhmm."

"You should probably get some more sleep. I can go."

But then she'll never see him again - grow up, Valia. "I probably should. Thank you for telling me about the trial. It does help. I hope Lord Cansellarion's people are useful to you. I am glad I met you."

"Thank you."

And he - flees, at a brisk professional walking pace.

Valia tries to get some sleep, and does not really succeed.