Well, time to go then. He’ll find out if his bet was right in the taverns once it’s done. 

Wait. The boss is here, and probably cares about the legal stuff even if there’s no show. Ugh, he’ll stay and read pamphlets when it gets boring.

Fernando didn’t have those exact questions, but he was wondering if he understood the loyalty test correctly, and it appears he did!  And he isn’t wondering if Valia is guilty either, obviously she’s not.  So with his questions answered, to follow the Queen’s instructions, he should leave.  He arrived late, so he is in the standing section, and he starts awkwardly squeezing his way out of the crowd.  He wonders if the crowd is worse at following instructions, or too dumb to realize the obvious answers.  Or maybe they’re just slow and will be right behind him on his way out.

Jilia is fully aware that the Queen is in the small set of people who can lie to her face. Still, she is cheered. No one was hoping for this, except maybe Lastwall, and so it is a poor lie, unless it isn't a lie at all.

"Get that copied," she murmurs to a wizard aide, "And call the scouts outside to see if it's being published already."

From the lawyers' bench, Lluïsa is puzzled. The magistrate is... dominated? geassed? For the side having the true case, i.e. hers, this is good, as far as it's trustworthy. It's not that trustworthy because the Crown can just decline to prosecute. What is actually going on here?

From inside Lluïsa's cloak, it's heartened that the trial is meant to be fair!

What's going on is that the Queen lost her nerve, wants Wain innocent, and doesn't want the political liability of pardoning her, and so she's decided to just throw the trial and hope this annoys her political allies less. Xarra doesn't really think it will. Certainly he is more annoyed about it.

Nonetheless, his duty is to observe that Valia Wain is guilty (confessedly so! he's just not allowed to say it!) even if the Magistrate's duty is to manufacture some reason she isn't. 



He gets up to speak.


"Honored Magistrate. People of Westcrown.

Valia Wain spent about forty-eight hours in Westcrown before deciding it the proper moment to call upon its people to rise up and overthrow their Evil rulers. That the Evil rulers had already been overthrown was of no consequence to her. That wiser men warned her that her course of action would surely lead to countless, senseless deaths was of no consequence to her. 

She decided to tell the people of Westcrown that Evil still ruled them, that they were cowards if they did not take to the streets to defeat it, and that Evil would die 'by a thousand pitchforks and stones'. 

And because she is a priest of Iomedae - and because she is a very gifted speaker - the people of Westcrown believed her. They took up the pitchforks, they took up the stones, and they went out into the streets to find the men that Valia Wain named, and the men that Valia Wain named only obliquely by description, and also any other men who struck them as the evildoers that she warned of. They took her words and they spread them, expanded on them, added further diabolical and false extensions of them - but it was her words that they worked from, her exhortation to rise up and disobey the Law that started it all. 

Believing themselves in the service of Good they dealt our city and our country the greatest Evil since Liberation Day, fearless, as she exhorted them to be fearless, they flung themselves at their fellows and butchered each other in the streets; hundreds died, and it is only by the timely intervention of the archmages that the toll was not far higher still. For Valia Wain has a peculiar gift to stoke men to rebellion and madness, and without hesitation employed it against our Queen, our city, and our people. 

After a thorough investigation she has been charged with three hundred and six counts of wrongful death, for every person in the city whose death was a consequence of the denunciations she had distributed in violation of Her Majesty's law on denunciations. And she has been charged with incitement to murder, which carries the penalty for each of the murders that she urged, of which there are fifteen established beyond ambiguity - and many more, with no doubt, but justice could not go undone for these murders while we prepared proof her words were in the killer's minds for all of them.

She has not been charged with treason, which you may wonder at hearing the list of her deeds; but Her Majesty preferred that we prosecute Wain's crimes against the people of Cheliax, who suffered by them, and not her crimes against Her Majesty, who fought Hell itself and killed the Tarrasque in one blow and can duel any demigod and fears only for the safety of her subjects and not her person.

Valia Wain presents herself as a weak, confused, well-meaning little girl. She is in fact a murderer three hundred times over. It is the aim of Her Majesty's Prosecution to demonstrate her guilt, that Cheliax may be safe from her, that Iomedae's noble Church may be safe from association with her, and that the rule of Law may be upheld."

That all seems pretty fair, really.

With mounting horror she listens to the prosecution, apparently, stab its own case full of holes. This is wrong and she can't see why and it's going to get her client executed. What is she missing?

Well, it's time to speak. She stands, and speaks as loudly as she can.

Good People of Cheliax, behold Select of Iomedae Valia Wain. Beloved Daughter of Pezzack, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Hers is a Name which has been on many Lips, inked in many Pamphlets, and now she stands Charged with Incitement; with Deaths resulting from Riots.

Do I stand here as Friend to the Inciter? Assuredly not; I am an ardent Enemy of the Mob and Friend of Order. I was myself set upon by the Mob on that Day which is still Fresh in our Memories, and Hurled Bodily from the Pons Tralian, which Ordeal I fortunately Survived albeit with some Injury.

I am no Defender of Riots, no Help to their Inciters. I am the Friend of Justice and Ally of the Law, and it is by the Law I say to you, that Select Valia Wain is Innocent of those Crimes with which she has been Charged. She is No Inciter.

This Hero of Pezzack, her Time as a Perennial Thorn in the Side of the Vile Thrunes ended with their Downfall, came to Westcrown, to the Convention, to participate as the Queen desires, in the drafting of New Laws to be Good and Proper to the Liberated Empire. And Valia Wain did set herself Earnestly to the Task, and worked Diligently and Admirably; I myself am a Delegate and saw this Firsthand.

Though the Select owing to Weak Eyesight cannot Read Unaided—and such is, make no mistake, the Fault of the Vile Thrunes who have ever been her Justly Chosen Enemies, for the sole Optician practicing his Trade in Pezzack was put to death by those Tyrants—she was not at all Deterred or moved to Sloth but made yet Greater Efforts to Learn and Study that a Just Constitution might benefit from it.

And when she desired to give a Speech on the General Floor—not before the Public, but before her fellow Delegates of the Convention, whose chief Duty is to Speak and to Hear Speeches, and Debate them—when she desired to give that Speech, she Diligently Consulted the Decrees of the Queen that it be assuredly a Lawful Speech. I have of course read them and agree! For she made no Threats, called for no Violence, called at worst for the Removal of certain Delegates from the Convention, and exhorted those who do Evil to Repentance. Moreover it was not even a Public Speech, but before a Closed Hall intended for the Voicing of Free Debate! As a matter of Law she is indeed Innocent for these Reasons.

Now there are those who thought it a Foolish Speech, or who Disagreed. I indeed Disagreed myself, in a Collegial way, one Delegate to a Fellow Delegate. But none at all on the whole Convention Floor, even though they spoke in Opposition, called it Unlawful, for it was plainly not. In all that Crowded Hall, none imagined such a thing; not the President, not the Archduchess who first spoke in Opposition; none at all. For I am sure they would have Spoken on it if they had! Be assured that the General Floor of the Convention is not a Place where Men are known to Hold their Tongues; the Debate is most Lively.

But there were those afterward who brought to Select Wain their Concerns; not that her speech was Unlawful, for no one contemplated this Plainly False Idea, but that it should out of Prudence not be made Available to the Public. For Valia Wain is of Pezzack and was not Familiar with the Mood of Westcrown; her Experience with Violence was limited to Noble Rebellion against Ignoble Thrune Diabolists. And so a Wise and Experienced Paladin, her Senior in the Faith of Iomedae, counseled her thus, and she was Attentive, and did not Distribute or Cause to be Distributed her Speech outside the Convention Hall. Indeed she Plainly Refused any Request to do such made to her! This is hardly the Behavior of an Inciter—an Inciter must at some point perform Incitement, which Valia Wain did not even Approach!

Yet alas the work of Evil is not able to be Entirely Halted by the Efforts of a Lone Select, Heroic though she may be, and Evil was already at work unbeknownst to any of the Good People in that Hall, for her Words had been Smuggled out of the Convention Hall by Parties Unknown, to that Vile Enemy of the People, Bernat Vidal-Espinosa. By Deplorable Plagiarism he Mutilated the Select's Words, coupling them with an Exhortation to Violence and Riot quite Opposite her true Intent. And when I was myself Hurled Bodily into the River, it was surely as though Bernat Vidal-Espinosa's own Hands had done the Deed.

But his Hands reach out and do Wrongs still, though not against me but against Valia Wain, accused of his Crimes for which she is Blameless. In truth I have Researched Law by which this Wretch may be brought to Account for his Defamation of the Select. Though he is Justly Executed, I believe there may still be Means to reach this Justice; if nothing else his Ill-Gotten Gains from Pamphleteering should be Awarded to the Select so Grievously Harmed by his Calumnies.

But while he did his Evil Work, the Good Select stayed Late in the Convention Hall, for as I have mentioned she is Diligent and thought only of doing Good Work. When at last she left she found a City in Unrest, and as any Good Priest would she set about Healing, braving the Violence most Heroically to Save those who might be Saved. At length was she Relieved of this Duty by those fearing for her Safety on those Dangerous Streets, including that Experienced Paladin I have mentioned, who guarded her with that Integrity which is Characteristic of Paladins.

Yet for all this Good and Virtuous Conduct not Violating any Law, she yet stands Charged with the Crimes of Others; and I, Friend of Order and Ally of Justice, shall show the Aforesaid through Evidence and Testimony, that the Court may reach the Just Verdict that is the Acquittal of Valia Wain.

Oh, good, his name hasn't come up yet. It's not that it's embarrassing to coordinate a rescue mission, just that it is somewhat embarrassing to do it instead of arresting Valia Wain.

What a show! He (reclining, surrounded by aides, sipping an elaborate iced fruit drink through a straw so he can still wear his evil mask) is really enjoying this trial.

A better wizard, sitting here with arcane sight up, would be able to just look at the magistrate and figure out exactly what kind of enchantment was placed and what exactly it does. Lisandro squints but doesn’t see it. Maybe the overlapping wards are all too bright. 

Did they actually find an honest lawyer somewhere? Or just bribe her excessively?

A... trial that is actually concerned with the law and if it was broken.

This is a bit of a wild concept to Voshrelka, at least as it pertains to Cheliax. In her experience, laws are mostly there as things to leverage or ignore as necessary by those in power. But this is... mostly about actually following them. Huh. Weird.

She keeps liking this queen? It's deeply strange. She's tempted to put in effort to see that she reigns this country for eternity, between this and the paper of stupid people leaving her alone and how quickly it was sorted out. She'll think on it over the next decade, as she is probably going to be doing the damnable Plant Growth circuits the entire time. There will be a lot of time to think on her long, long flights.

The Queen's speech was the first time he had any sense that this matter was being adequately handled. He looks out at the crowd, trying to gauge whether or not they feel the same.

Then the prosecutor gives a specious argument against a treason charge, and he gets to thinking.

"Confused," Sofia mutters to Jilia, "Disappointed. Looking for the lawyer's trap, I think."

"Let them look. I have a good feeling about her, I think."

That speech does sound better recited than on paper!

This is where his life would be much easier if he had his confession, but matters are not hopeless without it. "The honorable attorney retained by Valia Wain identifies accurately many of the key matters in which the court must rule, but the facts on each of them are far less favorable to her client than she would hope. 

If it were truly so that Valia Wain had sought out legal counsel before giving her speech before a packed hall of nearly a thousand, this court would still need find her guilty: there is nowhere in Her Majesty's decrees where one is innocent of murder, or of wrongful death, if one commits those crimes ignorant of their illegality. And Wain's speech, we will establish, was illegal; had she obtained counsel to the effect that it was legal, that counsel would have been mistaken.

But in any event it is not so; Valia Wain did not seek out legal counsel before giving her speech. Valia Wain was in fact repeatedly warned that her course was reckless and would lead to the death of countless innocents, before giving her speech, and ignored this counsel. Valia Wain sought the advice of a young song-sorceress and a young Chaotic priestess of Calistria, in drafting her call for the men of Cheliax to murder all those she named as their enemies. 

This is not the behavior of a person sincerely trying to determine if their conduct is permitted by the law. Valia Wain was a priest of Iomedae, and among the other delegates were a more senior priest of Iomedae, a senior paladin of Iomedae, most of the assembled nobility of Cheliax, and more than two hundred scribes, secretaries, and advisors, many of them with legal training. In this distinguished crowd, Wain sought the 'legal advice' of her song-sorcerer and her Calistrian, not because they were qualified, but because they would confirm for her what she wanted to hear, and help her make the speech plausibly deniable as incitement to murder without, as anyone lawful would have counseled her, making it actually not constitute incitement to murder.

To testify to the circumstances under which Wain is purported to have sought legal counsel, and who she sought it from, and whether she was warned clearly and specifically that her course of action would lead to the deaths of many innocents, the prosecution calls the Archduke Alfonso Antoninus Iomedae Blanxart, Archduke of the Heartlands, Count of Longacre, &c. &c. &c."

He rises from the witnesses' gallery and walks to the stand, not looking at the crowd at all.

 "Do you swear before the gods of Good and Law, and before this court, and before your Queen, that every word of your testimony is true, and that your integrity as a man of the law may be verified by magic, should any call it into question?"

"I do so swear."

"On the first day of the convention, you joined the Committee on Excising Diabolism, which Valia Wain chaired, is that correct? Can you describe the proposals that Valia Wain made to the committee?"

Victòria is confused.

The Queen let her and Raimon go. She didn't have to do that. They had unambiguously broken the law. Just about no one would have faulted her for having Calistrian arsonists put to death, no matter how justified they were. The explanation that makes the most sense is that she really was Good all along, that Victòria was wrong to call her Evil.

But she didn't let Valia go, even though Valia is actually innocent. She gave a whole speech about how the whole goal here is to decide if she broke the law! She claimed she mind-controlled the judge into following it! And maybe that's a lie, maybe she's mind-controlling the judge into just declaring Valia innocent, but it seems like it would be a lot easier to just... declare her innocent. Everyone Victòria has talked to about it knows she's obviously innocent.

...Also, she's still defending the Evil nobles, for some reason. Maybe she's just... confused? Maybe she thinks the nobles who are left over have only done Evil things that aren't worth killing someone over, and doesn't realize how many of them are murderers or rapists or unrepentant diabolists?

(Maybe Archmage Cotonnet wants Valia dead and the Evil nobles alive, and she's not strong enough to fight him? But that doesn't really make sense either.)

She hates the prosecutor. The woman who asked her questions was so nice, and friendly, and even if that was really just mind control it's hard to imagine a woman like that standing up in front of the crowd and trying to convince everyone of those terrible lies. Valia didn't kill anyone, she wasn't trying to kill anyone, she didn't break the law — she might be Chaotic but she didn't lie to Valia about what the law was, that would be awful, Valia is her — person that she cares about and wants to be okay—

(and of course he's calling the Thrune noble to back him up, no decent person would just agree with what he was saying—)

(and Delegate Oriol i Cornellà is actually... fine? She's Evil, but — maybe she really hasn't done anything she deserves to die for. If Valia is Good and Victòria and Delegate Tallandria are Neutral maybe there's room for people to be Evil just for being normal Asmodeans. It — hurts to think about that, for some reason — but she's defending Valia—)

"She proposed," he answers the prosecutor, "that any Evil person who seeks power or persists in holding it ought to be put to death—under the law, or so I interpreted her words, not outside of it."

"But even if Wain's proposals at that time remained within the bounds of the law or ambiguously so, you advised Wain repeatedly that the courses of action she proposed would lead to the deaths of a great many innocent people, is that correct?"