She beams at him. "If it would help Count Cansellarion I can say that since the night of the 3rd my seniors in the Church have explained to me where I erred, and I trust them, and trust him, because I do." And she smiles triumphantly at Lluisa. "I promise I will not confess to any crimes, or even come close."

"I don't know if that would help him much because people are going to wonder if you're under compulsion spells whatever you say, but it might be better than nothing?"

She smiles proudly at him. "Oh, I have a plan for that."

Steps. Speech, while the crowds are still present and haven't yet gone off to murder anyone else... Feliu's probably right, especially because of how Wain has a gift for speaking, and in particular a gift for speaking to Chelish people. And because her speech probably isn't a messy compromise between his principles and Chelam's pragmatism.

"Go ahead," he says to her, softly.

"Goddess be with you," he says.

(She rushed down the stairs as fast as she could under the circumstances, which is not as fast as she would have liked, but she really wants to hear Valia's speech, even though she was there when Valia wrote it. Ideally she would also like for Valia to know that she's alive and free and not executed. She has just barely made it close enough that she could theoretically hear Valia's speech when she starts to deliver it.)

Probably nothing will happen now, but he's going to peel off of Narikopolus and towards Valia and the paladins anyway, just because if something does happen he'll want to be where he can possibly do something about it. Not remotely close enough for conversation. Just close enough that it'll take less time to sprint, in the unlikely event that there's call to.

Iomedae please become the Goddess of Shutting Up immediately.

Failing divine intervention she'll just stand nearby and fret stoically.

He's there, listening to the speech intently, glad that Valia is back.

Why are they letting her talk. Does no one remember what happened last time she talked.

These people's general opinion on giving speeches seems fantastically unclear! For its own part, it likes hearing the speeches.

Right. Voice to command the attention of everyone for a long way around, then. 

"People of Westcrown. I was not afraid, facing my death, but I am afraid now, because you have a spark of freedom in you, and I am afraid that you have no idea at all what you are supposed to do with it. And that is my failure, and my responsibility, because I blindly and foolishly counselled you that the thing to do with that spark was to go kill Evil people. It isn't, not in Westcrown. It absolutely isn't, certainly including Delegate Ibarra who was an enemy of Hell, certainly including the Menadoran nobility, who I slandered, who had repented of their crimes and sought the Church's forgiveness.

It is an enormous evil and a great betrayal, to say of people that they should repent while in error about whether they have. What does it leave them, who are told to be sorry and then condemned just as vehemently if they are? Anyone who condemns the repentant is in the end an agent of Hell, whatever their intentions, because it is Hell that is served if the Evil see no way out, and nothing to be gained by changing their ways. It is Hell that is served when people believe that doing the right thing will not protect them, or that there is no right thing left to those such as them. It is Hell that I served when I spoke, though unknowingly. 

My speech wasn't illegal. But it was wrong, and it led you wrongly, and it led many right to Hell, and while I cannot imagine Iomedae can forgive this She has commanded me to go on and live with it. 

The trial - you found it confusing, because you could not guess what the Queen wanted you to see, what you were supposed to take away. I am afraid that some people imagine that the Queen wanted you to think it's all right to call for peoples' deaths in the streets. It is not. It is monstrous. But I saw more than you, of the Law as it is being fitfully assembled here in Westcrown, and I want to try to explain what I believe the Queen wanted you to see. 

They took my friends into custody, when they learned their names from my mind. I was greatly afraid for them. Because I was a priest of Iomedae, and it did not defy explanation that the guards did not hurt me; but the guards did not hurt them either, and they were not tortured, and when it was determined that they had not committed any crime they were released. None of you were born yesterday. You have enough grounds for comparison to appreciate that for the miracle that it is. They wanted to figure out whether or not I had broken the law. They were not sure. It was a confusing performance because it wasn't one; because it was a man making up his mind, and not to the question "what do my superiors want" but "what really and actually happened?" It was Law, not the Asmodean parody of it. 

I believe that our Queen is Good, and that our Queen is trying, to weave together out of the wreckage left by Hell something we can live by, and grow strong by, and be safe and happy and free by. I am not always sure she is doing a very good job, though I am in a charitable mood tonight. But I beg you, with all of my heart, help her build it. Or complain about what flaws you see in it. Or go to the Worldwound, if you just want to stab Evildoers. But don't do what I did. Don't wade into the construction-site of something greater than any temple and try to destroy it because the roof doesn't keep out the rain yet.

You are not stupid, people of Westcrown, and you are capable of noticing that I have spent some time in the dungeons of the Queen, and that I emerge speaking words convenient for her. You doubt them, and you are right to, because I am sure the Queen could by magic have any words she wanted, of me. But there is no torture that can touch Iomedae, or make Her countenance lies being spread in Her name or proved by Her powers. And I am still a priest of Iomedae." Light. She didn't lose the cantrips just because she didn't prepare spells. "And I swear to you, I am telling you the truth, as best as I understand it. 

We are at the beginning of a great project. It will need your bravery, and your wisdom, and probably a lot of other things besides. It is a project of building, not of burning. Please - please - go forth and live, and if you hear of any great Evil deeds try telling Her Majesty's courts. I think they're pretty good, really. And if they need to be better - we'll do that, too."

Yeah that's going to work better than Carlota's speech would, he thinks.

Yes, it is definitely Hell condemning the repentant, and Hell that is served when people see no way out, and Hell that is served when people know that doing the right thing will not protect them, and absolutely nothing she says is helping with any of - he needs to go write a letter to his sister. There is nothing useful to him here but the knowledge that Wain's been acquitted and that Xavi's death is officially not her doing and that this is the story Xavi's mama had best have in mind should the Crown come knocking.

Valia please don't say you've slandered people, Napaciza is right there even, do I need to give you A Young Girl's Unabridged Thesaurus of Imperial Chelish Taldane filled with my annotations on which words sound the least crime-like. Wait I have to pay an optician first.

(Lluïsa has not considered the possibility that maybe Valia doesn't magically know how to read the instant she puts on glasses.)

Victòria is not at all convinced that it is wrong to denounce Evildoers just because those Evildoers are claiming to have repented. Especially when they're people like Delegate Ibarra, or like the Hellspawn that tried to get Valia killed, where anyone with ears can tell that they haven't repented — but even if they had repented, there's no amount of feeling bad that can overturn a life of murder or torture or tyranny, let alone a life of burning down houses full of innocent little children.

But there are a lot of Evildoers in the world, and you've got to have some way to decide who goes first. If someone's repented — really, truly, repented, not just claiming they serve Iomedae while trying to get innocent people killed — it's not like she's in danger of running out of unrepentant Evildoers.

...also, as a practical matter, there are almost certainly watchmen spying on her to see if she commits any more crimes. There are lots of things worth dying for, but maybe not yet.

And Valia is safe, and free, and going to be okay. And she knows Victòria and Alicia are free. It hadn't occurred to Victòria that anyone would bother to tell her. (Victòria is pretty confused about the part where Valia said she hadn't done any crimes. Victòria is pretty sure arson is a crime, even if it's very justified. But that's not really very important, not compared to everything else.)

And — she thinks she can almost see what Valia means, when she talks about building instead of burning. Victòria doesn't think they're all the way there yet. There are still Asmodean schools secretly indoctrinating children; there are still Asmodean prosecutors openly trying to make innocent people seem guilty.

But — there won't be forever.

Great, fantastic, that should also be a pamphlet, and hopefully Alexaera has not forgotten that he needs to get Wain out of the country, in some manner plainly not defiant of the Crown's will, tonight, so that in the morning when the convention begins in its enthusiastic recriminations it can only propose retrying Wain on a host of new and better charges in absentia.

That isn't going to stop the adventuring party, Valia. He's still going to have to kill another half-dozen Good people in self-defense.

The Queen's enchanted magistrate gives the verdict of Law, and Valia Wain gives a speech misattributing it to Good.

The people of Cheliax have a very long way to go, but at least they're each of them trying.

"Get that copied. And... read in taverns, that's more important than anything we can do to build support today."

"That was very well said. I think at this point it would be wise for you to leave the city for Lastwall - before tomorrow certainly, but if there are things you want to do in the city first I think that should be fine." No mobs appear to be forming, neither to murder Valia nor to murder anyone else.

Valia feels lightheaded and dizzy and like she's clinging to her body by her broken fingernails. "I - want to talk to Alicia and Victòria, if I may. And then - I think I am allowed to leave, Elie said it's only the sortitions who are kidnapped -"

One of Jilia's people had approached close enough to overhear Ser Cansellarion and has specific instructions for this.

"Pardon me, Lord Marshal, but the Archduchess messaged me to warn you against doing that immediately. She suggests Pezzack before Lastwall."

"Oh." Tiredly. "- that's a good idea. Pezzack will - if they get the wrong parts of the story in the wrong order they won't trust the Queen or the Convention for all the reasons I didn't."

"...Yes, that's important. Pezzack first, after you speak to your friends... I will need to borrow a teleporter who's been to Pezzack, or a picture of it, and - a map, I don't know if the boots can do Pezzack to Vellumis in one step... Feliu, could you ask Joan-Pau if he's free this afternoon and can do me a favor?"