Victòria rises at dawn, prays for her spells in her room, and then steps out into the common area for breakfast. 

...The Evildoer from the Diabolism Committee is here. Why do Evildoers keep showing up at her inn. Does she need to find a new inn. Is the Evildoer mad that she never bothered to track her down after the committee meeting? That wasn't even on purpose, she was just busy.

Thea puts on her least intimidating smile.

"I hope I'm not too forward showing up directly!  I was hoping we could have that conversation about Calistria I asked for earlier.  I can meet for lunch or dinner at a place of your choosing if you don't want to talk now!"

Thea was also thinking about doing some probing to see if Victoria committed arson after seeing a pamphlet claim Valia did arson... but pamphlets are bullshit so she'll only probe in the most oblique and deniable way possible.

For some reason the prospect of explaining Calistria's teachings to her is stressful and scary even though she's done it plenty of times before. Probably because she's Evil and Evil people keep deciding to, like, edit Valia's speech to talk about why you should murder innocent people.

"Now's fine but I haven't eaten breakfast yet. There's a bakery down the block that also sells really good cheese croquettes, I can show you."

“That sounds great, I haven’t had a full breakfast yet either!”

Then she can show her to the bakery.

"So, what specifically did you want to know? I haven't been a priestess for that long so I don't know if I'll be able to answer your questions, but I'll do my best." (This is straightforwardly a lie. She is absolutely planning on giving bad answers if she thinks giving good ones will make Delegate Iroria decide to go murder innocent people.)

She's thought some about how to frame her questions less offensively than 'Why isn't Calistria Chaotic Evil'.

"So I guess a fundamental question that would help me put things together is, why is Calistria Chaotic Neutral, and what does, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, and Chaotic Evil mean to Calistria?  Or to yourself personally, if you still aren't sure about the orthodox teaching.  To contextualize this question... I've noticed a lot of confusing and contradictory things about alignment.  For instance, a common assumption is that Lawfulness means obeying mortal Law.  But the cult I was raised in was of a Lawful Evil hellish power, but explicitly disassociated society's rules and laws, even Asmodean ones, from their sense of Lawfulness.  And Irori's sense of lawfulness is more about personal discipline than anything related to society.  And Select Valia is a cleric of Iomedae but led a rebellion in Pezzack!  And I've been told Lawful is more disciplined and Evil is more ambitious, but one of the most determined and ambitious people I know is Delegate Nuria and she's a cleric of Desna!  And I've met a new Cayden cleric who was diligently trying to understand Cayden's will.  So I'm trying to understand alignment in general, and if you have your own conceptions that may help me."

Hopefully this framing will provoke an informative answer.  Thea has more examples of possibly confusing and contradictory things on the Good-Evil axis, but that may draw out Victoria's paranoia.

Wow. She really does not want to be having this conversation with Delegate Iroria of all people. She knows all the right things to say but when she tries to make them all line up together it makes her chest hurt.

"So, there's a few different things going on here. I don't know for sure what makes gods the alignments that they are, there's some I think are confusing, but if I had to guess — there's Good and Evil reasons to take vengeance, and Good and Evil ways to do it, and Calistria cares about both. Also about lust but I don't know as much about lust— anyways. So like, one of the gods you were telling us about during the committee meeting said people should 'avenge all insults' — if a nobleman gets mad that someone lower-ranking than him isn't being all deferential, and he has them tortured to death, that's an Evil reason to take vengeance, because they didn't actually do anything wrong. But then, on the other hand, if someone goes and murders a bunch of innocent people, it would be wrong to say 'well, they murdered a bunch of innocent people, but I think that's fine and I'm not going to do anything about it.'

But then there's also how you actually do it, that's important too. Like, Delegate Ibarra told us about how he burned down houses of innocent children because their parents were Asmodeans, and even though Asmodeus is Evil, and the people whose kids he killed were probably super Evil, it was still Evil for him to kill a bunch of kids who hadn't done anything wrong, even though he was doing it to take vengeance. Whereas—"

Her voice catches. Which is pathetic, really, there's no reason this should be hard to explain. It's just — it's nothing. She hasn't done anything wrong, not by the azata's standards and not by her own.

"—Whereas, going back to my earlier example of a guy that murdered a bunch of innocent people, if he were... an Asmodean priest," that's a safe example, right, it's not like nobility, the Crown didn't care enough to execute all the priests but that doesn't mean they support them "or something like that, and you were still living under Asmodeus, so reporting him wouldn't even work, it would obviously be Good to put a stop to him. You shouldn't let him get away with something like that and you shouldn't let him keep hurting people. But you should find a way to do that that doesn't hurt innocent people, like it would be Good to poison just his food but Evil to poison an entire banquet hall just to get him if most of the people there were innocent. I don't know where the exact line is between Good and Neutral, or Neutral and Evil, I think it probably depends a lot on the circumstances.

...I don't know as much about Law and Chaos, where I grew up the emphasis was on following the law, which is obvious, and on — accepting your 'rightful place' and letting anyone with more power than you do whatever they wanted, which I don't think is required to be Lawful if you're not an Asmodean. I honestly didn't realize a Chelish person could be Lawful and Good at the same time until I met Valia."

That's all very interesting.  And the show of emotion... is there someone Victoria chose to spare because it killing them wasn't Good and she feels upset about it?  Or someone she killed she now regrets killing?  Thea tries not to react to the emotional display. 

Victoria's emphasis on not harming bystanders does rule her out as  the author of the pamphlet that sent a mob Thea's way.  Or as a reckless arsonist.  Well, unless Victoria is a very skilled actress.

"That generally makes sense.  It seems like there are a lot of ways particular alignments can actually be expressed.  And I don't plan to personally seek vengeance anyway so I don't really need to know the exact line on killing.  As to Law and Chaos... well technically Valia could be Neutral Good.  Clerics can be one step from their Gods, and they only show their God's alignment at first circle.  Cleric don't show their own alignment also until they reach they equivalent of third circle in power... I say equivalent, I'm first circle, but I was already intensively trained for combat before Irori chose me, so that's why you could see my Evil, but my Law shows up much stronger because of Irori.  And actually, for a corner alignment like Lawful Good, I think that would mask Valia's own aura?  So I'm not sure how you could ever tell her alignment for sure?  Maybe with Protection from Law and Protection from Good cast in succession on a volunteer you could see if one of them or both of them deflected her punches?"

Speaking of Valia reminds Thea of the confusing response she initially got at the palace when she inquired about Valia.  Maybe Victoria knows what happened?  They apparently resurrected the dead delegates, so Valia should be okay by now?

She knew you didn't have to be exactly the same as your god. She's Chaotic Good, probably. But she'd heard Iomedae cared way more than Erastil about being Lawful — actually, maybe that was false, it was from a pamphlet.

"I guess that makes sense. Still, if Iomedae chose her, that means she has to be pretty close to what Iomedae wants, Iomedae wouldn't just pick a random Neutral Good person who didn't have anything in common with her. ...There's ways to check, the Diabolism Committee spent half the first day trying to figure out how, but I don't want to spread them around too much so that people don't figure out ways to fool them."

“Hmm… interesting.”

Ways to check… Thea wonders what they are?  Treating it like a riddle…  The diabolism committee had two cleric of Pharasma, a song sorcerer lay priest of Shelyn, and clerics of Calistria and Iomedae to work with.  Putting it like that, it brings to mind a spell unique to Pharasma Thea has read about, one that gives the touched target a vision of hell.  Perhaps it gives a different vision to non-hellbound people and the Asmodean author of the book she read didn’t know or care to mention that part?

“I think I’ve guessed one way of telling alignments you have, but you have my word I won’t spread it around the other delegates.  If the Pharasmins have spell slots to spare I’m curious whether Valia is Neutral or Lawful Good?  Speaking of Valia, did she get resurrected okay?  I saw a royal decree mentioning priests of Iomedae were killed in the rioting, and when I inquired about her at the palace when I reported in I got confused responses.  But I also heard the killed delegates were getting resurrected.”

Thea doesn’t actually know if the Pharasmin spell will distinguish between Lawful and Neutral Good, but maybe Victoria will correct her if she’s wrong.

"They arrested her. Even though she didn't do anything wrong, even though she didn't say anything illegal, just because they're mad about what happened."

(She's not ignoring the other question on purpose, she just got distracted, but the difference might not be obvious.)

“It seems… questionable in lawfulness to arrest her in response to the riots.  If her speech was genuinely illegal they should have said so or acted during the convention itself immediately after she gave it.  Instead, making the choice to arrest her based on the actions of other people seems… arbitrary.  I guess Asmodean lawfulness can do whatever, but I thought the new regime would be better than that.”

Thea isn’t actually a completely sure about her reasoning, but she wants to reassure Victoria.  And if they could arrest Valia like that…

“When the convention resumes we should pass a resolution protecting our ability to say what we need to on the floor and immunizing us from prosecution based on the actions of others.  And maybe something making it illegal to copy blatantly inaccurate accounts of the convention.”

After already saying her idea it occurs to Thea this could put the Queen and Archmage against each other, which seems like a really dangerous scenario, but being arrested because a noble didn’t like her floor speech seems more immediate as a danger.

"I'm worried that if you did that someone would try to take advantage of it to... tell us that we should all worship Asmodeus, or something horrible like that, probably not literally that since that would be really stupid. But if you have a way to make it so that people don't get prosecuted for saying things that aren't, like, incredibly Evil, I think that would be good. ...Do you know if the rule about not being able to do things retroactively applies to everything, or just to not being able to retroactively punish people for crimes?" (Not that that rule is stopping the Queen.)

"Maybe we could word the rule like: 'The President and agents appointed by him shall immediately inform delegates if their speech is crossing into illegality and they are immune to prosecution if they correct their speech in response at the warning?'  So if someone is proselytizing for an infernal power, he or maybe a representative he appoints from the Queen can stop that immediately.  And the Archmage already has de facto power over the convention, this is just formally recognizing the power he already has and using it to shield us delegates."

She doesn't want to remind Victoria that she has a strong incentive to vote against anything that gets around retroactive punishment.  Oh wait, Victoria is asking for a way to get Valia free.

"Are you asking about a way to retroactively protect Valia?  Maybe the resolution could emphasize it is a formalization of the existing arrangement.  So I don't know if a magistrate would accept it fully, but they could recognize it is indicative of the circumstances?  So the rule would be 'To formalize and recognize the role the President is has served and continues to serve in the Chelish Constitutional Convention, the President and agents appointed by him shall immediately inform delegates if their speech is crossing into illegality and they are immune to prosecution if they correct their speech in response at the warning?'.  So we get that passed as soon as possible, and then when Valia is on trial our resolution can be brought up as evidence, even if it isn't binding law per se?  Does Valia have a lawyer or advocate?  The Friend of the True People and most of the accused brought to trial didn't have lawyer or advocates, but a few accused have had one.  I hear it mostly doesn't help much, but the magistrates at least give acknowledgment to the role."

Dia has recently been attending as many trials as she can to try to form a picture of the new regime in practice.

She nods. "I can't think of any obvious issues with that." Though she'll certainly be paying close attention to the counterarguments, what with how Delegate Iroria is an Evil murderer. "I don't know when Valia's trial is, though. She does have a lawyer but I think I'm maybe not supposed to say who it is? I didn't totally understand that part, though, maybe it would be okay."

“I don’t actually need to know any details about the lawyer, I was just going to say you should run my idea by her lawyer before we propose it on the convention floor in case the lawyer has any ideas for making it better able to help Valia or sees any problems with it.”

She nods. "I'll try and do that if I get the chance."

Thea takes a moment to think carefully.  Given Victoria's level of paranoia, Thea can't propose they talk to Theopho (who comes to mind a 'politically adept person' that is at least somewhat trustworthy).  But someone else comes to mind.

"If we are serious about getting a proposal passed on the floor... do you know how to find Sortition Delegate Korva Tallandria?  Given both her propensity towards and skill with speeches, I think she would be a good person to run the proposal by, maybe she should even be the one to actually make it?  She has an obvious interest in keeping floor speech safe for non-nobles, she can deliver the proposal with an excellent speech, and I think she has at least some political instinct, more than myself anyway."

She takes another moment to think.

"Oh right, she is on the excising diabolism committee with you." 

And Korva was unusually quiet during it... maybe Thea should have taken that as warning sign given Delegate Tallandria's political instincts.  Thea makes a mental note to pay more attention and take cues from Korva and anyone else that stands out like her... well, Thea would have formally put Valia on the list of people to take cues from, so maybe that strategy isn't actually safe.

"Yeah, and Rights and Family, but I don't actually know where she lives. I guess we could try asking around once we're done here."

"I've figured out a few of the areas of Westcrown with relatively more sortition delegates staying at them-" Thea lists off a few streets and neighborhoods. "-but I don't have a better guess than that.  I suppose I will arrive early when the convention starts back to try to have time for any important conversations."

"I can't think of anyone quite as significant as Korva we would want to talk to."  Because Victoria won't want to talk to Theopho. "But I can think of at least one other person that should be aligned with us, even if she isn't quite as amazing an orator as Delegate Tallandria, Delegate Nuria Tosta is a cleric of Desna and is staying at my monastery for the convention.  I think Nuri would want to make sure Delegates are able to speak without fear." Whether from a mob coming after them or from being accused of triggering a mob.  "I should easily be able to find time to talk to her before the convention resumes.  Is there anything you want me to ask her or tell her?  Or I could try to arrange a meeting?"  Thea assumes Victoria doesn't want to come to her monastery given the concerns she expressed about meeting Thea in a public place.

(Yeah, good assumption. "Come visit me in my 'monastery' that used to be a crematorium and also the headquarters of a cult of diabolist assassins" is the sort of thing that goes beyond "obvious trick" into "not even subtle enough to be a trick.")

"Uh, I don't know her, and I can't think of any specific questions I have for a Desnan, but I guess probably it would be good to meet with her when we talk about whether there are problems with your idea."

"Okay, I'll talk with her tonight, and if the convention starts again soon, we can plan on arriving early before the open floor starts to have an informal meeting between anyone interested in protecting our ability to speak as delegates.  If it goes on longer before starting again... I can tell Nuria where your inn is so she can come meet you, maybe come with her if she wants more input from me."

"Sure, that's fine with me. Anything else you wanted to talk about?" For a conversation theoretically about Calistria they've spent awfully little of it talking about Calistria.

"Oh right, I've gotten distracted with all this political conversation instead of trying to learn like I originally meant to do.  You mentioned you didn't really know much about lust... what about hedonism more generally?  I've read that is a Calistria thing?"

Uh. Wow. She doesn't know very much about that either. Probably she should try to learn more, if people are going to want to know about hedonism as often as they want to know about sex it would be good to have any idea what they're talking about.

"Well... if I had some free time, that I wasn't using for the convention or anything, I'd generally use it for something fun, and not randomly go make myself miserable for no reason? Like, a week or so ago, I went to see a play, that was fun, I wouldn't have instead spent that time dancing since I'm not really into dancing. But I think probably most people are like that when they have the choice, I don't think that's just a Calistria thing."