That makes sense. In rights, she seemed halfway from evil to good. Good ideas for rights, but needed to be convinced that torture and hell are bad. 

“I heard that, in some places, they have paladins go from village to village to be the law. That works for people knowing they’re safe, since paladins can’t hurt anyone innocent. Doesn’t matter much what I think, though. They took judiciary. But at least they gave it to the paladin archduke.”

”About you being chaotic neutral, I think I found out something like that too. I’m a radical now. Not a chaotic neutral one, radical but on the side of heaven.”

Enric wasn’t sure if someone could be radical and also for heaven, but he realized Valia was. So Enric can try that, except instead of giving speeches and denouncing people, he can be on committees and try to get more rights for everyone.

The paladins idea sounds really good, way better than what was happening under Asmodeus. Maybe they can just keep doing that forever. (Is there a way to get that through the Rights Committee? "People have a right to have their trials decided by people who definitely aren't Evil Asmodeans?" The Evil nobles will obviously be against it, but if they have to explain why surely all the normal people will realize the nobles just want to get away with hurting them.)

"I'm honestly still not totally sure what they mean by 'radical,' like as far as I can tell they're basically just using it to mean anyone who thinks nobles shouldn't be allowed to just hurt anyone weaker than them as much as they want and get away with it because they're nobles."

“It means that, you got it right. But it’s also drinking coffee and calling people Citizen and drinking coffee and reading old constitutions. It’s something to do with Galt, that’s why everyone is so scared of it.”

"On the diabolism committee Delegate Thrune — uh, I don't know if you heard, one of the noblemen is a Thrune from hundreds of years ago — kept telling us that not letting Evil nobles stay in power was basically the same as what they did in Galt. But I don't really think that makes sense if you aren't an Evil noble, the problem with Galt was that they killed a bunch of innocent people and none of us — none of us want to — none of us wanted — I guess a bunch of people in Westcrown did decide to go murder innocent people. But I don't think anyone here wants to kill innocent people except the Evil nobles, and I guess also Delegate Ibarra, and I think — when the nobles try to compare not wanting people to be ruled by Asmodeans who keep hurting them and getting away with it to wanting things to go like they did in Galt, the only people that comparison makes sense for is Evil nobles? And wanting that or drinking coffee or reading constitutions or calling people 'Citizen' aren't going to randomly make anyone decide to murder innocent people. —I call almost everyone here Delegate but it's not mostly about being a radical, I just don't know all the titles I'm supposed to use."

A thrune from a hundred years ago… Enric was pretty sure that story was made up. Archdukes usually get old like normal people do, but maybe this one’s an elf. Or brought back by the gods and wizards.

“It makes sense because—“ He pauses for a moment, trying to figure out how to say something.

“We weren’t trying to kill innocent people. We were trying to get to heaven.”

”Sometimes a noble or a priest of asmodeus or a bandit will hurt and kill innocent people, just for fun. But normal people don’t do that. Most people in Westcrown are— not good, it’s a city, but more neutral than evil. Didn’t think they were killing innocent people, thought we were doing what Valia told us to, killing evildoers to get to heaven.”

”I was with the men who threw Lluisa in the river. Tried to stop them. They weren’t asmodeans or bandits or nobles. We all lived together in lodging house. One man worked at a butcher, sometimes brought back some leftover bits of bird or pig. One knew how to read, we all listened when he read a novel or pamphlet. Common people. Not evil— or a little bit evil but not evil enough to murder innocents for no reason.”

”They threw Lluisa in the river because they thought she was evil. Lawyers are evil, make their money from tricking people and stealing souls to sell to hell. They didn’t know that she’s a good lawyer for heaven now. It’s hard to tell when someone changed from evil to good. They just saw that she was a lawyer. That’s as bad as an evil noble, so they grabbed her and threw her in.”

”I heard of some people who tried to burn down the house where the mayor lived. Because he was an evil noble, one of the worst. Burning down a house with an evil noble, sometimes we have to do that. Can’t win a fight against a noble and guards. But the mayor was already gone. An innocent family was living there, people say. Tried to kill an evil noble but they ended up burning an innocent family.”

”Galt was like that too, I think. Everyone trying to fight evil. They didn’t want to kill everyone, but they kept thinking innocent people were evil. There’s still good reasons to be radical but— that’s why they are scared.  Galt killed good nobles and good commoners, thinking they were all evil.”

Victòria really doesn't think it's as hard to not murder innocent people as everyone keeps saying. She's never killed an innocent person. Sure, maybe if you don't even bother to check that you're killing the right person you'll mess it up, but it's not usually that hard to tell — or, well, at first she did think Lluïsa was Evil, but she wouldn't have murdered her over it. 

"I think — so, one of the things I was talking about with the azata was that people need to be careful about killing Evildoers, you've got to make sure you've got the right person, you've got to make sure you don't accidentally kill a bunch of innocent people to get at the Evildoer, that sort of thing. You shouldn't just go out and murder someone because of something you read in the pamphlets, or assume that anyone who's a lawyer, or even a nobleman, definitely deserves to die. 

But I think you can be careful, if you're trying to be. When they arrested me they didn't just assume I'd done something wrong, they asked me a lot of questions and read my mind so they could know for sure. And one of the things they told me, during the interrogation, is that there was a group of people on the third who only killed Evil nobles, and didn't kill anyone innocent at all, and I think if everyone just did it like that things would be fine. —not that I'm, uh, inciting you to do that." She can't see anyone else in the room, but it's not safe to assume that the guards who are presumably watching her can't hear. Now that she thinks about it she should've warned Enric, but it would probably put him in more danger to warn him now.

"I don't know why that didn't work in Galt. I — it would be good if we could tell people that we don't want to hurt anyone innocent, but — that's what Valia was trying to do and people twisted it to make it sound like she'd said to murder innocent people and all the Evil nobles are trying to use it as an excuse to have her killed—"

“Don’t worry, I’m not incited. I really don’t want to have to fight.”

“You’re right that it’s better to be careful, ask lots of questions and don’t start trouble with strangers, all that. Like you say they did with—“

He still feels sick and angry about Victoria being arrested. She said they didn’t hurt her, but that just doesn’t feel true to Enric. ‘They drag you away and don’t hurt you’ isn’t a thing that happens.

Takes him a moment to catch his train of thought again. 

“I think the reason it didn’t work in Galt or in Westcrown is that getting rid of nobles is a fight, and you can’t really be careful in a fight. Everything happens fast, everyone is scared and angry, if you wait too long to ask questions then the other guy hits you in the face. Valia only wanted to fight the evil nobles, but once she started the fight she lost control. No one was in control, and innocent people got hurt. That wasn’t just evil people twisting her words to make it worse. When I first heard her give the speech, it was scary. I was ready to fight but I knew that, if a fight started right there, lots of people would have died. Evil and good.”

“Sometimes starting a fight is worth it, because stopping the evil is more important even if innocent people get hurt.” That part is true in the way that something’s true because it has to be. “Sometimes but not always. I think, right now, it’s better to not say things that would start a fight, especially if there’s another way to stop evil.”

”That’s part of what the convention is for. If the nobles all agree to the constitution, and it says they have to stop all the evil things they do, then we don’t have to get rid of them. Unless they don’t follow the constitution and the queen ends our help to stop them. But if they agree and follow it, there doesn’t have to be a fight.”

That last part was from one of those speeches Aroden gave, about what a constitution is for. It sounded better when he said it. 

She hears his voice catch, but she doesn't quite pick up on what it means, and it's not the sort of thing you can just point out and ask about.

"I'm worried that all the Evil nobles are going to make it hard to write a good constitution. I thought when they stood up and started talking about how they wanted to kill innocent people all the normal people would realize they were obviously Evil but that's not how the votes went.

I think... after what they did to Judiciary... I trust Delegate Cansellarion to be Good, but he's not from Cheliax, people from other places are surprised by all kinds of things that are just normal here, I don't think he really understands just how bad the nobles can get. So we're probably going to have to do most of it through Rights, saying people have a right not to be ruled by nobles who do all the awful things we can think of, and a right not to have those things done to them, and a right to justice if their nobles try anyway, and a right to travel without a pass so they can tell the Queen, and a right to have trials heard by a paladin rather than an Asmodean, and that sort of thing. And probably it still won't be enough but maybe it'll be closer."

"That was scary too. Not just the speeches, how close the votes were. I don't like what some of those nobles are going to do with the constitution. We're not going to get everything, but I think we can get a lot if we do this right."

"You've got the right idea with rights. We don't have judiciary anymore, so that committee is our castle. Last week we were all friendly and agreed not to talk about some rights, because it might overlap with judiciary. This time, we make sure everything is in there. Right to justice by good cleric or a paladin, rights that help more people get a good lawyer like Lluisa, if she's not the only one. Right to a new noble if your noble repented but is still doing evil things. We hold onto rights committee, it's something we can use to get a lot done."

"We also have more friends than it might look like. When we were up there trying to save judiciary, or at least keep Lluisa, some off them were attacking Lluisa and Valia and all of us. Other nobles gave speeches disagreeing. The angry nobles were going to just take the judiciary, but they gave it to the paladin instead. Some of the nobles aren't as bad, enough we can work with them at least. Jilia might even secretly be one of us."

"Secretly, uh — sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by that—"

"I'm putting together everything I know about her and it turns out she's not an archduke in the way all the others archdukes are. She's an elected, not a nobility. Born a normal person, chosen by the people of her city. When the good queen took over from the evil queen, she turned Jilia into an archduke. But on the inside, she still cares about normal people not getting crushed, like a radical. Though sometimes she has to hide it, so the other archdukes don't all turn on her."

"Huh. I guess that makes sense. Before the convention I'd've thought anyone who got turned into a noble would just take advantage of that to hurt people but I don't think that's true anymore. ...I'm still confused about why she was saying Pezzack should've just stayed Asmodean last week, though. I don't think she'd need to say that just to fool the other archdukes?"

“I didn’t track most of that conversation that well, don’t remember exactly what she said. But I think the reason why was warning people about the cost of starting a fight. Like I was trying to say before. Not sure. We should just ask her what she was trying to do. After rights is done, or before if we can show up early.”

Nod. Maybe when ordinary people get turned into nobles they end up forgetting just how bad it is to be ruled by Evil Asmodean nobles who can do whatever they want to you?

"I should be able to show up early, half my committees got shut down."

“I only have two, I should be able to, too.” 

Enric is a bit worried about how it might go if he isn’t there. Though Jilia already helped Victoria with the pamphlet situation, so hopefully things aren’t that bad between them. 

“For now, think we have time to find Lluisa before the floor starts again?”

"I think so, yeah. Do you have any idea where she is?"

“No idea. My plan is to just look for the hat.”

She giggles. "Fair enough."

And they can set off to look for Lluïsa!

Lluïsa is taking a brief walk to stretch her legs in the vicinity of the hall and if you think you noticed her muttering into her cloak you must be mistaken, that would be an utterly deranged thing to do.

That’s the hat he’s looking for. Enric rushes to greet her. “Lluisa!”

There’s been a mix of regrets and nervousness around  everything that happened, but right now he’s just happy they’re both alive and can talk.

"Delegate Porras."

Lluïsa shivers with something for a moment, then occupies herself pulling out a gold piece.

"As you have brought yourself to me the Gold is rightly yours, I suppose. Were you then Raised?"

Enric knows what to do if a lawyer offers a coin. Enric knows what to do if a friend gives a gift. No idea what to do if a lawyer— of heaven— who is also a friend offers a gold piece unprompted. He just looks at it for a moment, concerned. 

“Wasn’t raised, wasn’t dead just hiding outside the city. Didn’t mean to worry you, and also I thought you were dead. What’s the coin for?”

"...that is good. I was likewise Not Killed, being at least Mildly Inconvenient to Slay."

"Having offered Gold for your Whereabouts and having Learned them from you just now, the Right to the Reward of Gold is yours. However I did not specify an Amount and in truth intended to be Quite Miserly for the sake of my Finances. So it is therefore a Single Gold Piece." Hand forward.