A somewhat tired-looking lawyer answers the door.

"Delegate! Please enter, my Offices are open to you. Do you need Water, or Reading Material?"

They're not especially upbeat offices; past the little entrance foyer are rows of desks, meant to impress the visitor with the presence of hardworking staff before they're ushered off to the reception room. Lluïsa has expanded across a good many of these desks.

A harbinger archon is also floating casually by a desk, its planets circling leisurely.

"No, I— what's that?" (She sounds surprised more than accusatory.)

"A consultant!" Its voice sounds like chimes.

"I can stay for a while more while you talk, I don't need to go back so urgently. It's nice to meet you, Delegate."

"It's, uh, nice to meet you too?" She's still not really sure what's up with the talking floating sphere thing. Do all lawyers have floating talking spheres?

She turns to Lluïsa. It suddenly feels very hard to make her voice work, which is kind of ridiculous given that it was working fine two seconds ago and the entire reason she came here was to talk to Lluïsa.

"I — I came here to — I came here to apologize. For denouncing you as Evil to the Judiciary Committee. I didn't know — we thought — I'm sorry." 

This is not something Lluïsa has any idea how to respond to!

"...you had employed Spells of Divination among the Various Delegates, is my Understanding?"

"—well, yes, and you are Evil, or at least you were when we checked. But — one of the Pharasmins had a spell to check Delegate Tallandria, even though she's not very powerful, and she wasn't Evil — I was assuming that you'd done something like — burning down houses full of kids, like Delegate Ibarra, or murdering a beggar, like Delegate Iroria, or being an Evil diabolist noble who hurts anyone weaker than them, like, uh, the Evil nobles. I didn't realize — I thought you'd... be doing things that were Evil... and not things like sticking up for Valia against Evil nobles trying to get her killed.

...and also it turns out I'm Chaotic Neutral, not Chaotic Good, and I haven't done anything worse than the sort of things everyone who grew up here did, so I think maybe... someone who hasn't done anything any worse than I have, but hasn't done much of anything really Good either, might be Evil? But I'm not positive." Oh, she should have told Valia she was Chaotic Neutral, that seems like something important for her to know, but she didn't think of it. She could put it in a letter but that seems much scarier than just telling her directly.

"...at any rate, I am hardly carrying a Lingering Grudge over the matter. Truthfully I had expected a great deal more Divinations and Summary Beheadings, or the like, of the Present Regime than have actually Occurred in Practice."

She's a bit flustered (stoically).

"I am not the most fond of your Evil aura myself though summary beheading seems far from the ideal answer to it."

"I definitely don't think you should be beheaded!! I can, uh, tell the Judiciary Committee that I was wrong to think you were going to try to corrupt all the laws to help Evil people? If that would be helpful?"

"I am not at all Convinced that any Divinations of Alignment were at any point Considered Seriously. To me and likely to others the Event seemed a Show of Power by Select Wain and yourself meant to at least Seize the Chairmanship which it of course Accomplished. I have since come to Consider it all an Earnestly Misguided Lay-Inquisition by Priests of a Young Age. Though certainly the Old may well be as Confused and I do not particularly mean to Disparage Youth by this."

"Hm. I am an archon, you know, and like many of my kind can see Evil auras naturally. It is a very coarse fact to know about a mortal. Quite a bit more useful to know of an outsider, of course."

"...I mean, I really wouldn't have wanted you to be the chair, but that's not why we said it. If you wanted to be the chair now I think that would be fine. —We're going to need a new chair, Valia went to Lastwall."

"Lastwall is Iomedae's own country, I've gathered? Her theocracy, or birthplace, or founded in her name? I haven't quite puzzled that out."

"It is Her Theocracy, founded by Her; Her Birthplace lies within this very Empire, as it happens."

"I do not particularly Covet the Chair though have my Thanks for what I take to be Support. I am not certain of what Vision of Laws either you or Select Wain had meant to Bring into Committee. Had you any?"

"...Kind of? We signed up because we were worried a bunch of nobles would just join and say 'obviously we should keep all the laws that say nobles get punished less than normal people for doing the same crimes,' which, like, I think it's hard to prevent that even if you don't put it in the laws but that doesn't mean you should put it in the laws. I, uh — I have some more thoughts now but I'm not sure how much you've heard about what happened yesterday—"

"I had been busy Rushing About and Drafting alternately and did not hear the Details of your Eventful Day though I have gathered it was indeed Eventful."

"Right. Okay. 

Yesterday — or at least, I think it was yesterday — the Watch arrested me for helping Valia with her speech. And — I thought I was going to die. Not because the speech was illegal, it wasn't, but because — I'd upset the Queen, and that's what queens do when you inconvenience them. I thought Valia might've been okay, because she's a priestess of Iomedae, but I'm not, if she'd had me executed no one would've blamed her, they'd've assumed I'd done something to deserve it. Or even if they thought I was completely innocent, most people don't care what happens to random Chaotic Calistrians."

Also there was the arson, but she thought she was going to die even before they found out about the arson, the arson just made it certain. In any case, she is definitely not telling Lluïsa about the arson.

"And I also thought they were going to torture me, and that the guards would try to take advantage of me — the woman who asked me questions told me it was important to the Queen that no one just go and hurt the prisoners and I thought she was being very stupid. But they didn't hurt me at all, and they let me talk to Valia and write letters, and eventually they let me go afterwards, and — that would've been beyond my wildest dreams for what could possibly happen, if you'd told me they were going to arrest me for helping Valia.

And they charmed me and read my mind, but that seems... good, I want them to do that, I wouldn't want someone to get away with murder or something just because they're a good liar. So — it seems like in Westcrown the judiciary is actually working incredibly well? So I think mostly I want to figure out how to make it work like that everywhere, and to make it so that it applies to everyone even if they're a noble or a powerful wizard or part of the Watch."

She absent-mindedly touches the place where her holy symbol usually rests. "Just about the only thing I can think of that I wish they'd done differently, that they could do differently without causing problems, is — they took my holy symbol when they arrested me, obviously, and I don't think they shouldn't have done that, but they didn't give it back when they let me out. But that's so, so small compared to everything else I thought would happen when the guards came to take me."

(And she spent hours and hours awake in a dark cell feeling absolutely certain she was going to die — but that seems pretty much impossible to fix, without setting people free who they really shouldn't. It's not like they hurt her, it was just unpleasant.)

Hm.

"Hm. I am glad to hear your Report though it raises some Questions. I would prefer the State not Arrantly Root Through the Minds of My Clients containing Secrets which are Mine. For Select Wain certainly did not give up your Name and I went to some Considerable Lengths to Conceal it, all Obviated by the Impossibility of teaching a Client the Useful Habits to Hide Thoughts in such a Short Span of Time."

With a small smile, "Likely it was the work of an Evil Wizard. Though it is not Entirely Impossible that there may be found Neutral Wizards to cast such Spells. At any rate I do wonder to what Degree these Cases had the Personal Eye of the Queen upon them; the Will of a Queen is not Evenly Felt. And the Queen came as well before the Court to give her Address... all but Endorsing the Questionable Philosophical Grounds of my own Case, for all the Manner of Impartiality that was Affected."

"I would hope that it's the opposite of questionable! I think this mindboggling 'entire country sold to Hell' incident has seriously harmed local ideas about how laws work! Not everywhere can be Heaven but usually mortal laws are not full of literal devilish tricks."

"I think — I mean, obviously I'd rather not have been arrested, I'm sure I'd have been better off if they hadn't read Valia's mind. But if someone got a gang of people together to murder someone, or something like that, I think it would be good if the investigators can catch the other people involved. And if they stopped doing it they might accidentally let someone go free who had hurt innocent people, or they might not believe an innocent person was really innocent."

The most desperate she felt during the whole experience — even worse than when she realized with certainty that she was going to die — was when she found out they had read Raimon's name out of her head. But the problem there wasn't that they read her mind, it was that they'd broken the law doing something that wasn't actually wrong — or rather, it was wrong because they accidentally let an Asmodean cult escape, not because of any of the normal reasons arson is usually wrong.

"It is not so difficult to Suppress Thoughts from Simple Divination."

"...for Me, an Evil Lawyer trained in Recondite Lawyerly Arts." This with a little smile.

"But for the Typical Criminal perhaps not so. At any rate like your Divination of Evil Auras it is a Crude Instrument. A False Confession was elicited from Select Wain, had you heard? I am Entirely Baffled that it was not entered into Evidence as I would have had a Steep Hill to surmount, claiming at once that it was the Confused Despair and Erroneous Legal Conclusions of a Young Girl Plied with Strong Drink and yet that the same Young Girl earlier Comprehended the Plain Meaning of the Queen's Law. I would Flatter myself that I could manage it but am Quite Gladdened that I did not have to. Nevertheless I am perturbed at the Cavalier Ease with which the Prosecution was able to Enrapture and Ensnare her. Innocent of any Crime! And My own Client besides. For my own part, I could like as not convince a Simple Pamphlet Urchin to confess to Larceny against my Person had I confined him in my Offices. After all my Coin did Enter his Hands and how sure is he that it was not Larcenous, when I read to him with Severe Manner from a Tome of Law? I do not mean to make the Empirical Test but it seems clearly true. For all these reasons I am Troubled."

(But mostly "My own Client".)

"The woman who asked me questions said she'd confessed to treason — which was really confusing, she was trying to follow the law, she wouldn't have secretly committed treason, but I guess if she falsely confessed I'm... still confused, actually, but for different reasons. I don't see why someone would confess to crimes they didn't actually do just because someone was reading their mind? ...Maybe the confessions should only say what you did, and not what specific crime it was? Like, if the pamphlet urchin confesses and says 'I gave the hat lawyer a pamphlet and she gave me two copper,' the magistrate could look at that and say it wasn't a crime, and if someone else confesses and says 'I smashed open the hat lawyer's office and took her books,' the magistrate would know that they'd done trespassing and theft and so on?"

"Treason is, I suppose, what the Queen wills be Treason, and if she for Unknown Reasons took My Side it is perhaps not surprising it was not among the Charges. I have here a copy; a Case can perhaps be made that it is not Factually False though I would make a Dispute, but it is not merely a Litany of Facts."

She goes to dig out a copy of the confession.

"I do still think the Queen wanted a fair trial. She gave a speech to that effect, and then a fair trial as far as I can tell followed. Is it so surprising?"

She had mostly calmed down from the trial, after Valia was found innocent, but reading through the confession it's like she's back in the stands, watching the prosecutor try to twist Valia's words to trick people into thinking she'd broken the law. She can just imagine him smirking as he forced Valia into signing to this — she can't read, did he even tell her what she was signing to? — feeling proud of how much Asmodean trickery and outright lies he'd somehow gotten her to agree to.

And it's full of that kind of trick. You can barely go a sentence without finding one. Through a speech which I intended to have distributed, and which was distributed, diabolist trickery meant to make it sound like she'd been the one to distribute it. Blaming Valia for the innocent people Delegate Ibarra murdered, when he was the one to kill them. I accused men falsely of being unrepentant evildoers, an outright lie, as if that devilspawn didn't try to murder Valia. All the crimes he tricked Valia into "admitting" to committing when she didn't, they checked, and the magistrate agreed. The trickery just goes on and on — surely the magistrate would have seen it for what it was, but maybe he wouldn't have—

"...There's a lot wrong with this but I don't think not reading people's minds would help."

"I am inclined to blame Strong Drink. However I am Generally Discomfited though perhaps I would not be were it my own Attacker in the Cell. That said your Goddess might Frown upon me for it but I do not feel especially Vengeful; I have heard Dead Delegates are being Raised and so I suppose in the end neither of us Permanently Died of it, and I would rather put it in the Past."

She digs out a gold piece from her person.

"On the subject of your Goddess I suppose you have just mentioned your Need of a new Holy Symbol and as Select Wain has left for Lastwall perhaps this portion of Funds I had meant to use to her Benefit can go to you; you may consider it Owed to Her. Though perhaps in the Longer Term you may be Taught to Write Letters of the sort that might Effect the Return of your Possessions. I would for instance write at first a Blandly Officious Letter saying 'the Possessions of Delegate Ferrer', here Enumerating the Possessions, 'held in Bailment, may be Delivered at your Earliest Convenience to the following Law Offices, or else Reply with Instructions for our Courier', and so on."

"Oh, they didn't get me drunk, I didn't know they did that to Valia." Victòria is not sure how she feels about that. If they get someone drunk enough that he admits to a bunch of crimes, that seems good, except they could just read his mind. If they get someone drunk and so he forgets about all the ways he's hurt people, that would probably be bad? She's still confused how it would be enough to get Valia to "confess" to all of this but maybe that was just the thing where she can't read.

"And, uh, I was just going to make myself a new one at the Temple of Shelyn, but... I mean, if you're offering me money I'm not going to turn it down? Thank you? —Uh, that reminds me, Feliu said I should ask you to teach me how to write petitions to the Queen in a way that makes it sound to her servants like I know a bunch of fancy nobles. But I'm not sure we have time for that tonight."

An archon is very suspicious about this gold piece, not that any humans present can tell the difference between whirring thoughtfully and whirring neutrally.

"It is perhaps one of the Greatest Lawyerly Secrets despite its Simplicity and Obviousness that a Well-Drafted Letter may have Great Effect. If you wish to make Useful Study of the Law then the Knack of Drafting is Assuredly Vital. My Offices are Open to you whenever I am Present, which is Frequently."

"—Oh, I'm not a lawyer, I'm Chaotic. But Feliu said that if there's a nobleman or a member of the Watch or someone like that who's going around hurting people, doing things that would be illegal for anyone else where the Watch wouldn't help, I should write a letter to the Queen about it, and that you'd know how to make it sound like something her servants wouldn't just ignore even if they were Evil or bad at their jobs."

"You must not Judge yourself Harshly on Foibles of Alignment, which is as my Colleague of Heaven says a Coarse Partitioning of the Multifarious Human Spirit. Far more important to the Lawyerly Art is Skill at Drafting which can indeed be taught; such Useful Factors as Officiousness, Narrowness, in petitioning the Queen or Nobility the Proper Sort of Deference, for while the Queen is Above, those who Write to Queens are not so Low, and the Fearful Commons will be Shown Out by their Timorous Phrasing. I will make a Lesson of it. Perhaps I shall search out Example Letters in my Files."

Nod. "When should I come back to learn how to do that?"

"I am most often to be Found Here when not at the Convention, though I have many Errands in the City and may be instead Dashing About. However I have the Wizard's Unfortunate Need for Sound Sleep and am therefore Abed at Night. But the Early Evening is quite Suitable on any Day."

"I'll probably come by tomorrow evening, then, if that works for you? Assuming nothing else comes up."

"That is Agreeable enough for Me."

"Ah, I look forward to seeing you again! Possibly. I do want to witness the proceedings of a Constitutional Convention. Sorry, a Constitutional Convention. Though I'm still negotiating that."

"It is a Great Many Spells, and not a Negligible Expense," she replies sullenly.

...She hasn't really been processing the fact that the archon is an archon. She kind of wants to spend the next hour asking it questions and kind of wants to do anything but that. For some reason.

"If you wanted to stick around that would be really helpful!" she says to the archon. "I bet you'd have all kinds of useful things to tell the Judiciary Committee."

"I appreciate it! Though I'm hardly qualified to opine on strange mortal politics. But I may have some thoughts now and then."

Invisible, inaudible grumbling.

"Well, have a good evening, both of you, and I'll see you tomorrow."

And she leaves.