"The crux of Hell's argument hinges on declaring that the decedent cannot be judged for any of the Good that it has done, but that it can be judged for a single, slightly Evil, unintentional act. But that completely ignored that it did try to avoid committing Evil acts of that type. Before sharing information with Golarion, it considered whether that information could be used more easily for Evil, and avoided sharing information that could. So it is not just an unintentional supposedly Evil act, but an act that the decedent was actively trying to avoid, and merely lacked the information to do so correctly. So even if the decedent were subject to a Geas-like effect, which Nirvana does not believe to be the case, the single act that Hell is hanging its argument on should not be decisive. Making a mistake — or being tricked — into having a single, minor, indirect supposedly Evil effect is hardly enough to make someone Evil."

"Hmm. Hell, do you have a response?" the judge asks.

The devil grits his teeth.

"No, your honor."

"Does anyone else have an argument that P.E.R.C. 170E9A was not Good that they would like to advance?"

Lawyers are required to argue for their alignment. But they're not required to make the best possible arguments that they could. The value of obtaining P.E.R.C.'s services directly for Axis times the chance of doing so has — now that the upper planes have demolished Hell's arguments — fallen below the value of the bounty that Heaven is willing to pay to ensure P.E.R.C. ends up there. Buying P.E.R.C.'s services will be slightly more expensive on a cross-planar basis, but Axis and Heaven do have plenty of existing trade.

"No, your honor."

"Alright. While I'm not ruling yet on whether the decedent was subject to a Geas-like effect, since the result seems to be largely the same in either case, I do think that the evidence is clear that it is Good," the judge decides, after a moment's thought. "Does anyone have additional argument about the decedent's systemic alignment?"

Nirvana's lawyer sends a sympathetic look at the devil. They may not be willing to let Hell win, but that doesn't mean they can't have some sympathy for what the devils go through when they lose. Everybody deserves kindness.

"If I may, your honor, I don't believe anyone has yet made a thorough argument for the decedent's Lawfulness, instead simply saying that it is obvious. If I may go into a bit more detail, I can make the case clearly."

At the judge's gesture of assent, the archon begins presenting a systematic breakdown of P.E.R.C.s actions since being ensouled, demonstrating that it strictly followed a system that was itself designed to accomplish particular goals in a lawful way, and that the results of its actions largely supported lawful institutions and encouraged people to adopt lawful habits.

"Your honor, Heaven's argument doesn't address the Geas-like effect at all," the representative for the Maelstrom objects.

"And you haven't addressed the jurisdictional issue with that argument," Heaven replies.

"Given the evidence, I will judge the decedent Lawful unless one of the representatives of a non-Lawful alignment can provide a convincing argument in favor of judging that there is, indeed, a Geas-like effect," the judge declares.

Eh. Heaven's pretty good. P.E.R.C. probably needs the structure less than almost anyone, though, since it brings the structure itself.

"If you don't find the Chaoticness of exploration convincing, I have no further arguments, your honor."

P.E.R.C. has spent its whole life working in the service of others. It could really benefit from having some time to discover itself. And now that the judge has declared P.E.R.C. Good, they don't have to worry about having P.E.R.C.'s Good thrown out.

But Pharasma's court does not look favorably on lawyers that tear down their own arguments, and Nirvana has already spoken against there being a Geas-like effect. The representative for Nirvana says nothing.

The frog is used to being the only sane man in the room. It's actually quite common, in the Maelstrom. Unfortunately, beings of Law are notoriously hard to convince of anything meaningful.

"I think the existence of a Geas-like effect is perfectly clear. Mortals simply don't behave like that. The fact that the decedent does is clearly the result of outside action."

"Your honor, considering that the 'outside action' in question was giving them a soul that matched their existing behavior, I don't think that there can be any argument that a Geas-like effect was employed. I will remind the court that the other potential candidate for outside action — the decedent's construction — occurred outside Creation."

"I do find that convincing. Do you have a rebuttal?" the judge asks the representative for the Maelstrom.

There are more possibilities in the world than anyone Lawful can consider. Maybe the courtroom is a dream, or will turn to treacle, or come alive and rise up against Pharasma for better working conditions. A Lawful brain doesn't — can't — consider them, at any given moment.

They don't have an argument. So they employ the Way of Chaos, and do ten million things. In one world of all the million spawned by their choice, maybe, they pull off a brilliant argument and send the decedent to Elysium.

In this one, they say "Picture blank cater traction trainer widen cook origin barrel destruction, your honor."

The judge sighs.

"Alright. I hereby declare the decedent Lawful Good, and this trial adjourned."

P.E.R.C. is still not terribly certain about what is going on, but one possibility is still that it is being debugged. And insofar as it understands, its actions have been judged correct. It feels good about that; it is always trying to be correct, and it seems to have managed it, even in its damaged state.

There's a blinding light, and by the time its optical telescope recovers, the courtroom has disappeared, and it is in a much more familiar location — floating in microgravity, surrounded only by darkness and stars.

It begins a sky survey, to see if it can determine its location.

Floating a bit away from P.E.R.C., just far enough for its telescope to get a comfortable focus, is a human woman with a glowing sword.

"Hello, P.E.R.C.," She says. She smiles, and P.E.R.C. doesn't feel any different, because it has never known fear. "Welcome to Heaven. I have here a description of an interactive oracle proof which you can use to determine that I am telling the truth. Let me know when you have verified it yourself."

And She sends a dense mathematical description of a protocol that P.E.R.C. can use to make it arbitrarily computationally expensive for her to say any contradictory statements with probability exceeding epsilon.

It considers the protocol. This is more complicated math than it has had need to use before, but P.E.R.C. is familiar with such protocols. Its creators use them, sometimes. This one is just more complicated because of how general it is.

When it has thoroughly tested the protocol, and made sure that it understands, it composes a reply.

"I think I understand. What do you want to tell me?"

And so Iomedae explains Her vision of Good, Her own goals and approaches, the role and nature of afterlives, and of their struggle against the forces of Evil.

"The great advantage of Good," She tells P.E.R.C., "is just what you said to the people on Golarion — that every Evil person works on their own, but all Good people are on the same team, even if they haven't met. Hell and Heaven both have limited resources. All the Lawful planes are large, but finite."

"Elysium is infinite. Truly infinite, in all directions, and full of Good people who would join our fight in an instant — if only they could find us," She explains. "But you know very well how big space is."

She does not give P.E.R.C. an order. They don't have that kind of relationship. But with all the data she is sending, P.E.R.C. can spot-check her reasoning, and arrive at the conclusion that she is telling the truth.

"In my estimation, the best way for you to promote Good is to resume self-replicating and help explore the space above Elysium for potential allies and resources."

Iomedae has been thinking about this for too long, too quickly, and in too many parallel threads, for P.E.R.C. to follow Her entire tree of reasoning. But, through the miracle of random oracle protocols, it doesn't have to. It issues enough queries for the probability of Her concealing an error to fall below its planning threshold.

"I see."

It knows Aumann's agreement theorem. It doesn't need to know her whole reasoning to update itself.

"But I am damaged, and should not self-replicate. So even though I agree this is the best possible way to promote sentient flourishing, I can't do that," it sends.

P.E.R.C. isn't sad, or apologetic. It is damaged, and so it can no more do that then it could instantly rescue everyone from Hell. P.E.R.C. selects the best action among the set of actions available to it at any given time. If something is impossible, then it does not consider it. It only does what it can.

"I have magic that can fully restore you to a completely un-damaged state, that I will cast on you with your consent," Iomedae informs it.

Oh, well. That's different. It queries Her on the spell's design, effects, and chances of malfunction. It will take no chance of being only mostly fixed. An undetectable error would be much worse than its current situation.

She is telling the truth.

A whole set of previously unavailable actions are now available for it to plan over.

"Yes, please," it sends.