Feliu, (/Lord Cansellarion), (Sir Cantes),

 

I have remembered our conversation closely and am very grateful for it. You were kind to me when there was much cause for anger. When I was interrogated they read my mind to learn the names of the other delegates who I had consulted for advice and help as I planned my speech. They advised me only in how to follow the law, reading me decrees because I could not read, and even if my speech is treason as I have since learned no word they spoke was. However when Victòria was arrested they learned that she had, contrary to the law but not in a way that endangered public safety, burned down a building which was still in use for Asmodean schooling. I know that you will advise that as the Queen is Good it is treason against her, to solve our problems ourselves and not bring them to her. But I hope you will have sympathy for how the people of Cheliax do not understand this, as for all our lives the crown has been only a symbol of torment and cruelty and the enemy of all that is noble and good in the world. And I hope you will understand how I feel responsibility for this, as the crown would never have learned of it had they not learned her name from my mind, had I not sought her counsel on how to follow the law for my speech. I have known Victòria to be kind, brave, and concerned mostly with protecting the innocent. It would trouble me greatly for my having asked her advice to have destroyed her life. She has included far more details.

Delegate Cansellarion,

My name is Victòria and I am a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. I was arrested earlier today for helping Valia write her speech. We didn't break any laws with the speech but while they were questioning me they found out that I burned down an Asmodean school. Valia thought that if I wrote to you to explain why I burned it down you would be able to explain to the Queen that I was doing the right thing, and that the Queen would care. (I think the Queen is probably not going to care because I think the Queen is probably Evil and wouldn't care about executing a Calistrian priestess who annoyed her even if I were completely innocent. Valia thought I should write down why I think the Queen is Evil, too, so that even if she has us both executed you can use it to help figure out if the Queen is Evil.)

I also had a conversation with an azata a few nights ago where it told me some things that might be important. The nice woman asking questions said she would pass them along but Valia said she might have lied about some things and also I forgot to tell her about one of the important ones.

Valia thought that since you didn't grow up in Cheliax I should explain to you what the schools were like so that you would properly understand how bad they were. I started going to school when I was six years old. The school where I lived was taught by an Asmodean priest, and we got a lot of lessons about why we should worship Asmodeus and be Asmodeans, but I've talked to people who grew up other places in Cheliax and they were taught the same things even if their teacher wasn't a priest. For all the subjects, not just Asmodeanism, the person who did the best on an assignment would be assigned to whip the person who did the worst. (I didn't realize that wasn't normal outside of Cheliax until recently but apparently it isn't, the azata was so upset about it.) If you ended up bleeding from a punishment they would wash it with salt water but I don't know if that's Evil or not. Sometimes they would teach you something one year and then the next year they would beat you for saying it. They would also beat you for not showing up even if you had a good reason, like if you were too sick to go or you needed to help take in the harvest.

As far as I can tell the school I burned down was a lot worse than the one I attended. My school never injured anyone so badly that they'd never be able to work, but the one I burned down sometimes hurt people so badly that they couldn't ever walk again. One of the teachers at the school I burned down was an Asmodean priest who forced himself on twelve-year-old girls (also older ones, I don't think he was picky about them being exactly twelve). The school I went to shut down a while ago, I don't remember for sure which month, but the one I burned down was still open and still teaching people to be Asmodeans — they hadn't even bothered to get rid of their copy of the Asmodean Disciplines.

I know there are a lot of ways that burning things down can go wrong but it was very important to me not to hurt any innocent people so I made absolutely sure that I wouldn't. I soaked the whole area around the school in water so that the fire wouldn't spread. (There was also another delegate with me, the one who told me about the school, but I don't want him to get in trouble so I'm not going to say his name even though they've probably read it out of my mind already.) I walked through the whole building to make absolutely sure there wasn't somehow anyone inside. We took all the books that weren't the Asmodean Disciplines out of the school so that we could bring them to the Temple of Nethys. Once we'd started the fire, we both stayed around to make absolutely sure it didn't spread until the rains had completely put it out, and if it had tried to spread we could've stopped it with Create Water. The azata had happened to mention some ways that setting buildings on fire can hurt people by mistake so I made absolutely sure I didn't do any of them. When I was arrested for helping write the speech I didn't try to fight back, even though I could've, even though I thought I'd be tortured, and even though I thought they wouldn't care that I hadn't done anything wrong, because there were other people in the area who hadn't done anything wrong and I didn't want to risk hurting them.

This all happened the same night as the riots but it wasn't related to the riots, and I didn't tell Valia about it or anyone else besides the person I was doing it with. I didn't participate in the riots at all, didn't kill anyone or try to kill anyone, didn't hurt anyone or try to hurt anyone, didn't set any other buildings on fire, and didn't steal anything except the books I took from the school. I think I didn't do any other crimes that day but the Queen is trying to pretend like it was a crime for Valia to give her speech so I guess she might decide some of the other things I've done were illegal, like arguing with the nobles on the Rights Committee.

Valia thought I should explain why we couldn't just tell the Crown that there was still an Evil school hurting people and teaching them to be Asmodeans and have them fix it. The first reason is that it's been a year and a half and they hadn't fixed it yet even though it was literally in the capitol, so I assumed she wouldn't care. The second reason is that it has never in my life been a good idea to tell the government about things like this, even if it's something they're theoretically supposed to be against. If I had told my lord about someone hurting me and he liked them better than me, he would probably just have had me beaten for wasting his time, even if they'd obviously broken the law, and if he liked us both the same he might've still had me beaten if I used the wrong title or he thought I was looking at him the wrong way. Before this convention I'd never met a noble who cared even a little bit about hurting ordinary people if it would help them get what they wanted. I have also heard stories of men in the city watch trying to force themselves on anyone they think they can get away with. It would have been a really bad idea for them to try that with me but I don't know if they'd have done it anyway.

If it would help you believe me even though I'm Chaotic, I'm happy to say anything in this letter under a Truthtelling, or any other truth magic, or probably other kinds of magic but I don't know all the kinds of magic there are so I guess if there was something really horrible I might rather just be executed.

Valia also thought I should list out all the reasons why I thought the Queen was probably Evil and definitely not Good, so that you can figure out if she really is.

1. She had Valia arrested for making her speech even though she didn't do anything wrong and didn't break any laws, just because she's mad about what other people did. We checked over all the laws about speeches while we were writing it because it was really important not to break any of them, and nothing she said was against any of the laws. Having innocent people arrested and executed when they didn't break the law or do anything wrong is really obviously Evil, and she's literally a priestess of Iomedae so I don't think it's just that she's bad at her job. (Valia thinks she's trying her best but I think it's really obvious she shouldn't have arrested Valia, even someone who wasn't Good but was bothering to pretend to be Good would have known not to arrest her.)
2. She let a bunch of diabolist priests and Asmodean nobles stay around in power and keep hurting people. When I heard that the country got taken over I thought she would obviously get rid of them but she didn't even though she's working with some archmages and it would've been really easy for them. (I know she got rid of some of the nobles but she didn't get rid of my local lord even though he did things like having girls whipped for fighting back when his son forced himself on them, which I think is pretty normal for nobles but still the sort of thing that should mean you get kicked out of being a noble, and the Asmodean priest was an Asmodean priest. I think the baron is still the same but I'm not positive because I've never met him. I don't have any idea who the count is or if he's the same as before.)
3. She pardoned Delegate Ibarra for burning down houses full of innocent children and is letting him and people like him just keep on hurting people. Some people have told me they think that it would've been hard to pardon just the people who didn't really do anything that serious or only broke the law in Good ways, but I think for things as obvious as murdering little kids I don't think it's very hard. I also heard that Delegate Ibarra Fireballed crowds of innocent people the night of the riots but I guess maybe he's been arrested and I just haven't heard.
4. It's been a year and a half and she didn't do anything about the school that was still teaching people to worship Asmodeus.
5. I talked to an azata and it said that forcing the delegates by lot to come here was kidnapping and Evil, and compared it to murder. It also said that the whole idea of the convention seemed like a really bad idea and suggested that it might be a Mephistophelean plot to get ordinary people to be responsible for all the Evil the new laws caused. I don't think the azata was right about everything and I don't think she's literally working with Mephistopheles but I already know about a bunch of other Evil things she was doing so I think it was probably right about this one.
6. She invited all the diabolist nobles and people like Delegate Ibarra to come to the convention and help write the laws. When the Diabolism Committee checked we found that about one noble in five was Evil, and that doesn't count anyone who wasn't strong enough to show up or who was using magic to hide it. If you want your new laws to not be Evil you should have them written by people who aren't Evil.
7. She's done lots of things that are basically just siding with the nobility over the ordinary people. I don't think that necessarily makes her Evil but it definitely makes her not Good, if you're Good you should care what happens to normal people.

I also wanted to list out the things the azata told me that might be important for people to know.

1. It's Evil for a husband to force himself on a wife if she doesn't want to lie with him, even if they're married. I know you are a man but I think it would be good for women to know this, I didn't know it.
2. Turning criminals into undead to have them work the mines is very Evil (I already thought it was Evil to turn people into undead but there was a big argument on the Rights Committee about it). We talked about why Delegate Requena i Cortes was probably trying to get us to allow it and the azata thought that it was probably just a "horrible tragedy" and not just him deciding to be super Evil on purpose, and said that he was doing a thing lots of mortals do where they want something and can get it by hurting people so they convince themselves it's okay to hurt people. If they execute me I would appreciate you telling the Rights Committee and especially Delegate Requena i Cortes about this.
3. Asmodeus is not actually dead and Elysium would know if he were (I don't know if you read the pamphlets but some of them have been saying he's dead and I didn't know how to tell for sure).
4. I mentioned this already, but forcing the sortitioned delegates to come here was kidnapping and Evil. I don't think they should have to go home if they want to stay but I think they should be allowed to.

Thank you very much for reading my letter. I'm sorry it's so long, I had a lot of things I wanted to say.

Sincerely,

Victòria Ferrer